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LOCALShetrawski

holds event to announce run

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SPORTSDek hockey

season underway

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WEEKLY QUOTE

“Well done is better than well said.”

Benjamin Franklin

ATHOL — Bruce Winn from the Berkshire Environmental Action Team will give a public informa-tion talk on Wednesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at the Athol Town Hall. This talk is free and open to the public. Winn will talk about the proposed gas pipeline that could run through Berkshire, Franklin, Worcester and Merrimack coun-ties. Tennessee Gas Pipeline owned by Kinder-Morgan started contacting towns and landowners in this area about surveying land this winter.

Winn is the president of the board of directors of Berkshire Environmental Action Team and teaches environmental science at Berkshire Community College. He will give a slide presentation and

talk about the natural gas pipeline proposed by Kinder Morgan. He will address environmental and health issues as well as economic and regulatory issues. According to Winn, “The Tennessee Gas Pipeline Expansion project is being pursued despite the fact that fracked gas that would travel through the pipeline is not clean, cheap, reliable or needed.”

Fracking, or hydraulic fractur-ing, involves drilling until reach-ing shale then using water, sand and chemicals to blast through the shale horizontally to release gas and oil. The gas that would travel through this proposed 30 inch diameter pipe is from frack-ing operations in Pennsylvania. Many people believe getting nat-

ural gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing is not good for the environment, and the gov-ernment and people need to focus on energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy.

Citizens in the North Quabbin region and in other parts of west-ern Massachusetts are coming together to oppose the proposed pipeline. People are concerned about conservation land and the effects construction of a pipeline could have on land and homes.

The presentation by Bruce Winn is sponsored by North Quabbin Energy, Millers River Watershed Council and Mt. Grace Land Conservation Trust. Athol Town Hall is located at 584 Main St.in Athol.

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

GARDNER — Several hundred guests jammed a Colonial Hotel ballroom March 27 to take part in a mental health awareness con-ference and sat enraptured as the featured speaker opened up about his life-long struggles.

Sponsored by Mount Wachusett Community College, Heywood Healthcare and the Leominster-based Shine Initiative, the sec-ond annual event featured author Kevin Hines as its keynote speak-

er. Hines graphically describing his personal battle with bipolar ill-ness, which led to a suicide attempt when he jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in September 2000 at the age of 19.

“It rocked our family to the core,” Hines said of his illness. He recalled going to the college registrar that morning and drop-ping almost all his classes, then shoplifting Skittles at a Walgreens before continuing on to the bridge.

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

BOSTON — A dozen Murdock High School students recently made the trip to the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston to participate in a fed-eral budget simulation project also attended by some 140 other youngsters from across the state.

“They had to research and specify which pro-grams would be enhanced or reduced and explain why they felt the way they did,” said Assistant Principal Josh Romano who was joined by histo-ry teacher Steve Forte for a day that included a tour of the library memorializing the assassinat-ed 35th President (the most recent chief executive from Massachusetts) as well as lunch at Quincy

Market.Getting involved was no one day event, either.

Prior to the NSTAR sponsored trip, event orga-nizers urged students to read up on the federal budget.

Participants were given a package which detailed exactly what the federal budget consists of and, using President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 proposal, highlighted discretionary and mandato-ry spending rules, explained the budget creation process, and put forth arguments regarding defi-cit and debt issues.

Murdock students joined small groups from five other schools in groups of 15-20 and were

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — You know that consistent drumbeat about Murdock High School students — the one insisting they are, collec-tively, disinterested and apathet-ic?

That’s a stereotype that irks kids who are in fact involved and motivates them not merely to stay active, but to continue to work at changing attitudes inside the building.

Need an example? Look at junior Myranda Bishop. She’s a member of the National Honor Society. She’s involved with stu-dent council. She helped prepare a grant for a fence around the softball field. She recently testified in front of the School Committee during budget discussions. And just for good measure, she plays softball and is captain of the girls’ varsity soccer team.

“In the beginning, my goal was just to make Honor Society,” Bishop reflected, “but then I decided there was so much more and I kept getting more and more

involved in different projects.”About that grant? Bishop teamed

up with fellow students Chelsea Bussiere and Vicky Marshall, who are also her teammates, to write the proposal requesting a $1,000 grant from the United Way/Youth Venture for that fence. The last couple weeks before the deadline

BY GREG VINECOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — According to New York-based Deletebloodcancer.org, blood can-cers kill more people under the age of 20 than any other disease in the US. Sheila Beane, of Winchendon, is hoping to put at least a small dent in the number of deaths resulting from diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and as many as 70 others.

Beane is president of the Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology Club at Mount Wachusett Community College. Each year the group is supposed to perform a service to the community, and this year it will hold a bone mar-

row/stem cell donor registra-tion drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9 in The Commons at the Mount.

Anyone between the ages of 18 and 55 is urged to stop by and donate an oral swab to see if they might be a match for anyone wait-ing for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. According to Beane, the process only takes about 15 minutes.

Each year, some 10,000 patients need marrow or cell transplants but only half will get them. Anyone in need of a transplant must find a genetically compatible donor. About 30 percent of patients are able to find a matching donor from within their family, but 70 per-

cent find themselves turning to the national registry to locate one.

An oral swab helps health pro-fessionals determine a person’s HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen), a protein marker used to match donors with patients. Patients often find a match among donors from the same ethnic background.

In addition to age restrictions, donors must be in general good health, be willing to donate to any patient, live permanently in the United States, be at least 4’10” tall and weigh 110 pounds, and not be on active duty in any branch of the U.S. military. Anyone in the armed services must register with the Department of Defense.

Peripheral blood stem cell col-

lection is used in more than 75 per-cent of cases. In that instance, cells are collected via the bloodstream in a procedure similar to donat-ing plasma or platelets. Before cells are collected, donors receive injections of a synthetic protein to increase their number of blood stem cells.

Used in fewer than 25 percent of cases, bone marrow is collected from the back of the hipbone via an outpatient surgical procedure performed under general anesthe-sia.

Anyone with an autoimmune disorder, HIV, hepatitis B or C, kidney or liver disease, diabetes requiring medication, chronic or severe neck or back problems,

sleep apnea or breathing prob-lems, or who has had an epileptic or other seizure within the past year are ineligible to donate.

Potential donors will stop at four tables during their visit. First, they will provide informa-tion to determine their eligibility; next, a volunteer will fill out a reg-istration form completely for the donor to ensure no information is missing (name, age, emergen-cy contact, etc.); at the swabbing station, the donor will be instruct-ed how to do a cheek swab test, and; lastly, all information will be re-checked and the donor will be given a donor ID card.

Turn To BISHOP page A10

Turn To CONFERENCE page A11

Turn To DONORS page A10

Turn To BUDGET page A9

Event to seek donors organized locally

Student activist wears many hats

Myranda Bishop

Josh Romano photo

The Murdock students who took part in the budgeting seminar learned a bit about compromise and debate as well as economics.

It’s bigger than all of us: students take on federal budget

Greg Vine photo

From left, Bryan Doe, Dr. Heather Brenhouse and Dr. Stephanie Rodrigues listen as Paul Richard, executive director of the Shine Initiative, reads questions submitted to the panel.

Conference highlights mental health issues

Informational meeting on proposed pipeline set

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Shetrawski holds event to announce runGARDNER — With an

array of friends and fami-ly to support him, Garrett Shetrawski of Winchendon announced his inten-tion to run for the seat of Representative for the Second District at an event earlier in March.

At Williams Restaurant in Gardner, some 100 people gathered to wish Shetrawski well, and special guests included: US Senate candi-date Brian Herr, Gardner City Councilors Paul Tassone and Jim Johnson; Gardner School Committee members Melody Phelps and Jim Abare; Winchendon Selectmen Jack Blair and Beth Hunt; state Senate can-didate James Earhard; and former political office hold-ers Christine Wilson and Gerry St. Hilaire.

Sheriff Lew Evangelidis gave a formal endorsement of Shetrawski during the evening.

Shetrawski outlined some of his plans during his kick off speech as follows:

...Your support truly heartens me and serves as a reminder of the dedica-tion you all have to improv-ing this community. If you asked me two years ago where I thought I would be on March 6, 2014, standing here in front of you--in this fine establishment would not have been my first answer—or my second—or my third. But over the course of the last few years, I’ve grown tired of sitting on the sidelines and watching as serious issues continue to be neglected.

I come from a family of service, a family proud of

their service. This service dates back to the military careers of two great-grand-fathers and a grandfather, all who proudly serviced their country in the second World War. A great grand-mother, a grandmother, and numerous aunts who have taken care of many, many people as nurses for decades in our local hospital. And now my mother is proudly following in their footsteps. A grandfather, who dedicat-ed his life to coaching, and ended up providing just as many life skills to his play-ers off the court as he did on the court. My father a veter-an of the Marine Corps, and has spent the last 23 years working for the Department of Corrections. My family has been providing this service right here in our district for numerous gen-erations. They have raised families here, attended our schools, started business-es, been active members in our local parishes, and have never hesitated to lend a helping hand to any neighbor in need. Service has been instilled in me my entire life. Not as an option, but as a duty as a citizen, and as a member of my com-munity. That is why I have worked on numerous cam-paigns, in this district, and across the state. I revived the Winchendon Republican Town Committee after being dormant for over five years. I see firsthand what hard working individuals we have in our district, many of them right here in this room tonight! I firmly believe in this community, and I want to go to Beacon

Hill and work just as hard on your behalf! That is why tonight I formally announce my candidacy for State Representative for the 2nd Worcester District!

President John F. Kennedy once said, “Let us not seek the Republican answer, or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix blame for the past, but let us accept our own responsi-bility for the future.”

This notion of bi-partisan-ship, and the idea of finding answers for the common good of the people has been nonexistent on Beacon Hill. There has been as a seri-ous lack of oversight due to the one party rule we cur-rently have. A democratic machine that only answers to the speaker, and the gov-ernor, not the taxpayer, and citizen of Massachusetts!

Year after year we see bud-gets increase, taxes go up—all the while the concerns of middle class families and small business owners fall on deaf ears. Right now there are no checks and balances in our state gov-ernment. That’s why this November, starting right here, and across the com-monwealth, we are going to bring a balanced approach back to Beacon Hill!

As your state representa-

tive I will be a fiscal watch-dog for the taxpayers of Massachusetts. I will work to fight the Democratic machine that has encum-bered local businesses with bothersome red tape. I will strongly support rolling back the sales tax to the pre-Patrick administration rate of 5%. I would have never voted for the job kill-ing tech tax, and the gaso-line tax passed by a legis-lature where most of them get their gas paid for to go to work! These tax increases are not because of a lack of revenue, but rather because Beacon Hill has a spending problem, and it has to stop!

I have had the chance to speak to many veterans for the book I’m working on, along the campaign trail, and just in general. Veterans’ affairs will be a top priority of mine. Their endearing sacrifice for this country should never be for-gotten. It should not be too much to ask that returning veterans have the chance to attend school, obtain ade-quate employment, and not have to wait months to reg-ister or receive their disabil-ity benefits.

Mental health is an area that as state Representative,

I will fight tooth and nail to provide the necessary treatment that is deserved. Our area is home to unset-tling suicide rates, they are among the highest in the state and are the highest in north central Massachusetts. Access to child psychiatry is virtual-ly non-existent in this area. Suicide is the third leading cause of death for adoles-cents age 11-18. Education and outreach needs to be provided starting at a young age so we can combat this issue by picking up signs early on, and stopping it before they make a terrible mistake. This can happen in our schools, a school system that I am proud to be a prod-uct of. Our area schools, are home to great students, and teachers, and I believe in them!

I’m proud to be a candi-date for the 2nd Worcester District. I look forward to meeting as many people as I can throughout the cam-paign. I’m thankful, and humbled by the support tonight, and I welcome your continued support as I make my case clear to the people of our community, that I am the best candidate to repre-sent their interests.

Courtesy photo

From left to right: Gardner Councilor Scott Graves, Selectwomen Beth Hunt, Gardner School Committee members Jim Abare, and Melody Phelps, Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, Garrett Shetrawski, Councilor Paul Tassone, former City Councilor Christine Wilson, Councilor Nate Boudreau, and Councilor Jim Johnson (kneeling).

Zlotnik seeks second termGARDNER —

State Representative Jonathan D. Zlotnik (D-Gardner) has announced he will seek re-election to the Second Worcester District House seat.In a press release issued last weekend, Zlotnik proclaims since being elected in 2012, he has been a fervent and indepen-

dent advocate for the interests of the people of Ashburnham, Gardner, Winchendon, and Precinct 1 of Westminster.

Representing a district with diverse needs, Zlotnik emphasized an independent voting record as testament to achieving a balance between the distinctive needs of the District’s urban and rural communi-ties and the overall demands of the greater Commonwealth.

“I am pleased to say that my voting record reflects the balanced and moder-ate views of the people in the Second Worcester District, a voting record that I believe, is indicative of a lawmaker not beholden to the leadership of either polit-ical party. I have endeavored to invoke reason and objectivity in my decisions, always with the interests of my constitu-ents in the forefront,” he stated.

“In my first 15 months in office, I have made it a top priority to keep my con-stituents informed of legislative initia-tives affecting the District’s communities through personal outreach, news releases,

social media, and regular appearances on WGAW 1340 radio,” he stated.

In addition, Zlotnik noted a vital ele-ment to his outreach efforts is his District office in Gardner City Hall; open week-days for residents seeking assistance. The Representative also routinely hosts week-day and weekend constituent office hours in the towns of Ashburnham, Winchendon, and Westminster.

While constituent service and communi-ty outreach have been paramount during his brief tenure, Zlotnik also cited a seri-ous effort to address the needs of area small businesses and economic development in the area. Through a series of listening and fact-finding tours of area small busi-nesses, Zlotnik collected critical testimony from business owners and managers that resulted in pursuing legislation tailored to address the specific needs of these small businesses. Zlotnik stated, “The business community is the lifeblood of the economy, through job creation, job retention, and economic opportunity. Thus, it is essential that we as lawmakers pursue a legislative course that enables our businesses, our economy, and our people to thrive.”

Concluding his announcement,. Zlotnik stated, “For the past 15 months, I have truly been privileged to serve the people of the Second Worcester District. It is my sincere hope that as I continue to reach out to the voters over these next few months, that the clear goals I have charted and the steady and balanced manner in which I have pursued them, will resonate with the voters and thus permit me to continue to serve them for another two years.”

Bastien has own take on announcementsGARDNER — Former State

Representative Rich Bastien responded in a press release to the news that Rep Jon Zlotnik (D-Gardner) is seeking reelection.

Quoting Zlotnik’s announcement, Bastien took exception to Zlotnik stating, “I am pleased to say that my voting record reflects the balanced and moderate views of the people in the Second Worcester District.”

“When I first read both those statements, I thought Rep Zlotnik was playing a practi-cal joke on us,” stated Bastien. “He prom-ised to not support any tax hikes, then voted to raise taxes $800 million. Since he took office, over 160 people in our district have lost their jobs. Instead of fighting for lower taxes and growing jobs, he raised them and more people have lost them.

People are tired of seeing their money go to Boston, and their jobs to New Hampshire. I guess he didn’t take Economics 101 at UMass Lowell.”

Bastien announced in December he is a candidate for the seat in 2014.

“It’s tough out there, and it’s gotten worse since Rep Zlotnik took office. Every day more people are losing their jobs. I work two jobs and 65 hours per week myself. Jon Zlotnik has never had a real job a day in his life and his statement today proves just how out of touch he is with his record and how his votes affect the people in our district. I’m looking forward to con-tinuing to listen to the voters as I knock on doors, and look forward to debating him in several debates this fall.”

Rep. Jonathon Zlotnik

WORCESTER — New England is known for much more than just clam chowder and lobster. The area has a rich heritage in sup-porting blues music. From Paul’s Mall in Boston to Sir Morgan’s Cove in Worcester, the Bay State has been home to the blues.

That great tradition returns to Worcester on Friday, April 25 at Mechanics Hall with the Bay State Blues Summit produced by Symply Fargone Productions. The sum-mit features John Hammond, Johnny A, Jeff Pitchell and Texas Flood and Charlie Farren.

Blues legend John Hammond will open the event. Hammond is a Grammy-winning blues original. Hammond has performed or recorded with Jimi Hendrix (discov-ered while playing in John’s band), Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Duane Allman, Mike Bloomfield, JJ Cale, Tom Waits, The Band, John Lee Hooker, Dr. John and many more.

According to Tom Waits, “John’s sound is so compelling, complete, symmetrical and soulful with just his voice, guitar and har-monica, it is at first impossible to imagine improving it... He’s a great force of nature. John sounds like a big train coming. He chops them all down.”

Bay State blues great Johnny A is recog-nized as one of the nation’s most innovative players. According to Guitar International,

“The Malden born and bred performer is one of very few, contemporary solo guitar-ists in particular, who can get away with a no frills, candid performance. With that said, it’s because of the amazing melodies and tones he conjures from his Gibson sig-nature Johnny A. electric guitar (as well as a couple of others). The stylish player flaunts an amazing array of techniques, each of which are used to execute a partic-ular arrangement. And even though he’s very much the architect of his own sound, his potpourri can be compared to the likes of Danny Gatton and Dick Dale at one end of the spectrum, and Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix at the other. He executes all of this with a down-to-earth persona and stage presence sensibility.”

Jeff Pitchell and Texas Flood are regu-lars on the blues circuit in Massachusetts. Pitchell is an internationally acclaimed dynamic singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Jeff achieved national recognition when his last CD, Heavy Hitter (Pyramid Records/EMI) reached #7 on the Billboard charts, selling more CDs than Delbert McClinton, Robert Cray, Etta James, Johnny Lee Hooker & Muddy Waters. Jeff has recorded with such greats as Rick Derringer, Dave Mason, James Cotton and Clarence Clemons. Jeff received internation-al recognition when he toured Europe and

then was asked to join The Commitments as a special guest. Texas Flood consists of Jimmie Biggins on sax (formerly with James Taylor and The Temptations), Marty Richards on drums (drummer for J Geils Band, Joe Perry’s Band, and Peter Wolf’s Band), Dave Natale on bass, Dan Fontanella B3 Organ. These seasoned musicians unite to bring a high energy mix of rhythm and blues, rock soul, pop and funky Texas blues.

The Bay State’s own Charlie Farren rounds out the night. Charlie has long been known for great songs, great singing, and for outstanding live solo acoustic performanc-es. Alone onstage with acoustic guitar in hand, Charlie captures an audience with his unique delivery, insightful lyrics, memora-ble songs, soaring vocal, and subtle yet inno-vative guitar style. It wasn’t always quite so subtle, as Charlie formed this original self-taught style with a history of success-ful, hard-crunching rock bands throughout the 1980s.Charlie Farren emerged onto the national scene in the early ‘80s as lead sing-er and guitarist with The Joe Perry Project.

Tickets are currently on sale at www.sym-plyfargone.com.

Symply Fargone Productions is based in Worcester and is committed to bringing quality blues, folk, classic rock and jazz to Mechanics Hall in Worcester.

NEW FUNDS FOR TRAININGOn March 13 the United States Senate passed an amendment

introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as part of its approval of a bill to reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. Senator Warren’s amendment will strength-en CCDBG by ensuring child care workers can get access to federal and state resources that help to pay for postsecondary training.

“Child care workers with better training are able to give our kids the quality care they deserve - but specialized education can be pro-hibitively expensive for these workers who earn, on average, about $21,000 per year. I was glad to work with my colleagues to push this across the finish line and I am pleased that the Senate has adopted my amendment to help connect these workers with financial aid programs that can get them the training they need without break-ing the bank,” said Senator Warren. “Child care staff and educators help our kids grow and learn. We should make sure they have the tools they need to succeed.”

The Child Care and Development Block Grant program helps states provide access to child care for low-income families and families receiving public assistance. Senator Warren’s amendment allows states to use funds to connect workers seeking additional training with federal and state financial aid programs that can lower the cost of that education.

NO CREDIT FOR GAMBLINGSaying that it would unnecessarily increase the spiral of debt for

many Massachusetts families, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley voiced opposition to a proposal that would allow the use of credit cards to purchase state lottery tickets.

The legislation, currently pending on Beacon Hill, would estab-lish online gambling under the state lottery and allow for the use of credit cards to purchase those tickets from home. A hearing on the bill was held in January by the Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure. The use of credit cards to purchase lottery tickets has long been prohibited in Massachusetts due to fears it would force problem gamblers into insurmountable credit card debt.

“Opening the door to credit card gambling will certainly help the big banks, but not Massachusetts families nor local businesses,” said AG Coakley. “The convenience of gaming online combined with the use of credit cards to finance playing is a recipe for disas-ter. The potential to run up credit card debt gambling online will further weigh down many of those already struggling to keep their heads above water.

Recently, Coakley voiced concerns to the State Gaming Commission about the debt collection practices of Connecticut casinos in which they are allowed to place liens on homes of con-sumers. She urged the Gaming Commission to ban such a practice in Massachusetts.

ATTENDANCE RECORDLINCOLN — The Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference

at Worcester Technical High School drew more than 540 environ-mental advocates, the largest turnout in the conference’s 24-year history.

Representatives of community land trusts, nonprofit organiza-

tions, and government agencies participated in 35 workshops at the all-day gathering, which in past years had been edging toward the 500-attendee mark. Presentation topics ranged from partnering to achieve large-scale land protection and revitalizing urban rivers to supporting green communities and promoting farms and agricul-tural landscapes.

The keynote speaker at the conference, titled “Healthy Land – Healthy Communities,” was Dr. Eric Chivian, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and founder of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The event was again convened by the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition, which has been a chief organizer since both it and the conference were founded in 1990. Today the MLTC rep-resents more than 130 community-based, regional, and statewide land trusts.

The 2014 conference drew the support of more than 20 organizations and funders, including benefactor-level underwrit-ers Mass Audubon and The Trustees of Reservations.

“MLTC’s annual land conservation con-ference plays such an important role in enabling more land conservation to take place; the unprecedented turnout is no sur-prise,” said Bob Wilber, Mass Audubon director of land conservation and a for-mer Coalition president. “Year after year, attendees learn new tools and techniques, meet future public and private conserva-tion partners, experience a powerful sense of community, and come away inspired to do more.”

Winchendon courier 3 Friday, April 4, 2014

Courier CapsulesFREE BOOKOn Saturday, April 5,

between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m., the Beals Memorial Library will host a visit from the Winchendon Pre-K/CFCE grant team, who will be kick-ing off Brain Building Week. To celebrate, they will present a free book to children, ages 6 and younger.

INFO MEETINGOn Saturday April 5: For all

citizens, parents, staff, and stu-dents.... Please join the Friends of Winchendon Public Schools for an informal meeting, at 10:00

a.m. in the high school audi-torium. Everyone is welcome! We will have representation from the School Committee to share information regarding the FY15 Budget, proposed articles, the “process” of town meeting, etc... Please bring your questions, concerns and your friends!

ELECTRONICS RECYCLEWINCHENDON — Boy Scout

Troop 193 will once again host an electronics recycling day on Saturday, April 121 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The truck will be parked in the lot in front of Rite

Aid Pharmacy again. Cost is $7 per item. Proceeds will benefit the Troop and its activities.

HOPE CLASS IN WINCHENDON

HOPE for Women Class in Winchendon Dates: April 14th to June 6th

HOPE for Women serves low income women through indi-vidualized computer instruc-tion, job readiness skills & internship to re-enter the workforce. If interested or want more information please call Diana Boudreau at (978) 632-0400 ext 4 or email at dbou-

dreau@hopegardner.org.K I N D E R G A R T E N

REGISTRATION NEXT WEEK

Attention Winchendon Parents: If your child will be five years of age by Aug. 31 he/she is eligible for Kindergarten in the fall of 2014. Memorial School Kindergarten is an all-day NAEYC accredited program.

You may register your child through April 11 Monday through Friday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. at

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 edi-tor at the following email: rdeami-cis@stonebridgepress.com.

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Sweeten Up Spring’s Arrival with Easter Knot Cookies

Sharing Hometown Recipes, Cooking Tips and Coupons

Easter is only a few weeks away. Looking to serve a new dessert to family and

friends this year? Try baking up Lisa Cancilla’s Easter Knot Cookies. With a light, sweet anise flavor, these cookies are delicious and perfect for Spring.

See step-by-step photos of Lisa’s recipe plus thousands more from home cooks nationwide at:

www.justapinch.com/easterknotYou’ll also find a meal planner, coupons and

chances to win! Enjoy and remember, use “just a pinch”...

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What You Need1/2 lb butter, softened1 1/2 c sugar6 eggs2 tbsp milk1 tsp anise extract1 tsp pure vanilla extract8 c sifted flour6 tsp baking powder1 tsp salt

Butter Icing Recipe3/4 box confectioners’ sugar1 stick butter1 tsp anise extractFood coloringMilk

Easter Knot Cookies

Directions• Cream butter and sugar. • Add eggs, milk, anise and vanilla.• Combine the sifted flour, baking

powder and salt. Add slowly to the wet mixture.

• Grease cookie sheets. Roll dough into 1/2” logs and form into knots.

• Bake at 400 F for 8 minutes. • Dunk in icing and let dry.• To make butter icing, combine

confectioners sugar and butter. Add anise. Slowly add milk to desired consistency. Add food coloring of your choice.

“We make these

delicious cookies

every Easter!”

By Janet Tharpe

- Janet

Brought to you by American Hometown Media

Lisa CancillaParlin, NJ

(Pop. 95,832)

Submitted by: Lisa Cancilla, Parlin, NJ (Pop. 95,832)

Candidates turn in paperworkBY GREG VINE

COURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — A three-person race for two seats on the Winchendon Board of Health will be the featured contest on the May 6 annual election ballot. Jason Gauthier, Jason Moury, and Diane Cosentino all returned nomination papers by Tuesday’s deadline.

Three people had taken out nomination papers to run for a single seat on the Board of Selectmen, but only incumbent Elizabeth Hunt returned her signatures to the town clerk.

Ray Rader, also obtained nomination papers but recently said he will likely run a write-in campaign. Ed Bond took out papers but reportedly has decided not to oppose Hunt in her bid for re-election.

Three years ago, Hunt defeated former selectmen Burton Gould J.r by a margin of 926-709. Gould was attempting to return to the board after being removed in a recall election in December 2010.

Rader currently serves as an alternate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Incumbents Michael Niles and Michael Barbaro, who are running unopposed, will each be returned to the seat they now hold on the School Committee.

David Johnson is the only candidate for an open seat on the Winchendon Housing Authority.

Polls at the Murdock Senior Center on Grove Ave. will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6. Balloting takes place five days before the annual town meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. in the Murdock Middle High School auditorium on Monday, May 12.

Blues Summit rolls into Worcester

Political Priorities

Turn To CAPSULES page A9

Winchendon courier 4 Friday, April 4, 2014

VIEWSOpinion and commentary from Winchendon and beyond

Editorial lEttErs to thE Editor

Activities abound

WinchEndon couriErPresident/Publisher: Frank Chilinski

editor: ruth deamiCis

To the Editor:The article in Friday’s Winchendon

Courier stated that few people have object-ed to the proposed pipeline. My guess is that many people who object to this pipeline have no idea who they can register their objection with. This whole project has been presented to us as a done deal. We will not benefit from this pipeline and stand to bare the brunt of any accident that happens within our township. The only people who will benefit are the countries that this oil is being exported to, and Kinder Morgan. Not one person in Winchendon will receive any real benefit whatsoever.

The town government has openly said that it’s practically a done deal. What ever happened to the rights of citizens? Ashburnham seems to have developed more backbone than Winchendon. Are you prepared to lay down and let this project roll over you?

I am also appalled that some of the prop-erty owners who have signed so far have been unsure of what they have actually signed. My questions is, did anyone make them aware that they didn’t have to sign in the first place?

Writing the fine print so small it’s diffi-cult for some people to read, or use legalese so that Joe public cannot understand half of it, is the oldest trick in the book. Bernie Madoff used it, as did Enron. I hope Kinder Morgan didn’t follow in their footsteps

I have read that Kinder Morgan does not

have the greatest reputation for the con-struction of pipelines. I would like to hear how that reputation was gained. What they did to correct the problems and how they stood behind their work.

This is our town. Please don’t think that if your property isn’t effected, that it doesn’t matter to you. Please understand that this is a large, high pressure, pipeline we are talking about. We receive no benefit from it and if something goes wrong, such as an an explosion; and, if destruction of property happens, we are the ones who will have to fight for compensation.

After all, please remember that to Kinder Morgan, Winchendon is just a small blip on their radar. So far, they do not seem to be very concerned with our best interest. They rejected a perfectly reasonable suggestion of using the already existing rail and utility easements. Of course, if they had gone with that option they would probably have had to deal with the legal representatives of the utility and rail companies.

Are you going to give up your rights so that natural gas can benefit other communi-ties? Or are you going to stand up for your families rights and safety and register your objection to this pipeline?

I can’t guarantee that objecting will change anything, but sitting silently won’t either.

rosemary GaskellWinChendon

Gaskell: silence won’t help

Higgins: Thank you for her careTo the Editor:I want to give special thanks to Dr. John

Harrington, the nurses and the hospital for the care of my cousin Shirley Pelto, born Jan. 27, 1946 and passed away March 26, 2014.

Special thanks also to Pat Casey and Sis for being there.

May she rest in peace.This is from Liz, her mother and father,

her brothers Dickie, Butch and David and her daughter Sharon.

Thank you.

sandra hiGGinsWinChendon

As is usual at this time of year, as the world seems to wake up so do the humans and the calendar is beginning to fill quickly.

Once, we at the Courier kept a running calendar by date and filled in on the proper dates the activities for the community. It was quite large doing it that way, and instead we now use a paragraph in our “CAPSULES” to announce the upcoming events, as well as other noteworthy information.

Is that the best way to do this?We want to be sure the community sees the events in plenty of time to plan

to attend; which is why you will often see something a week or two in a row. But since we now come out on Friday, we want to be sure to highlight week-end things each time so those doing the fundraising or just the fun stuff gets the attention it deserves.

After all, people work very hard on their events; some are charitable, some are annual and looked forward to with anticipation.

Some, we don’t hear about at all, which is too bad, because we are still the ‘go-to’ place for this sort of information. Journalism is NOT dead in small towns; we certainly are thriving. We often have a backlog of information that we just don’t have room for in the pages!

And some we hear about too late to get it in on time; so we now have a Facebook® page: thewinchendoncourier (don’t forget the ‘the’) where we hope to post the calendar events as quickly as we receive them.

So we need those organizing events to remember to send them early to our email: ruth@stonebridgepress.com or call and leave a voice message at (978) 297-0050 x 100. Or on the Facebook® page; we do check the messages there as well.

It’s a service we need to do a much better job of doing; people depend on getting the word out for their events...so we need to be diligent in getting it to you.

In that vein, yes, there will be an Earth Day cleanup on April 26 and no, we haven’t yet heard if the Easter Bunny will be at Old Centre next weekend. Would someone let us know?

April 26 should be a fascinating day, as those who care for Winchendon may be out in muck during the day cleaning the mean streets, then head home to doll up for the Gala Ball that same evening. We should be checking the manicures for hard labor perhaps.

So the evening will be well earned by many, who find their love of this town extends in many directions; from cleaning the litter to literally dancing the night away.

We can hardly wait!

Imperial Presidencies

Too much safety?

For a long time American pres-idents modeled themselves on George Washington. One of the first things George did was tell the Founders he did not want to be a king. From that point on every-thing he did helped define what a president was supposed to do.

In more recent history pres-idents have favored acting like kings. We have all the pomp and circumstance in entertaining at the White House. The costs of entertaining often seem like the exceed the basic costs of govern-ing.

Barack Obama did not start this trend but he has happily partici-pated in extending it. And if the numbers are to believed he has extended the imperial presidency considerably.

We do not need this kind of stuff. Hopefully, one day we will have a President that reverses this trend.

DARN!President Obama went to

Brussels, and he did not take me.I have been to Brussels, but I

think doing Brussels with the Prez would probably beat the experi-ence of traveling there on my own. I held out hope until the last min-ute when he ordered “wheels up” on Air Force One, and I wasn’t among the passengers.

It seemed to me that since he was taking 900 people with him,

in light of all those emails and letters I received during his pres-idential cam-paign, surely I would be on the list.

Well, I have comforted myself in the knowledge that his travel group, at 900 per-sons, would probably have not given the two of us much personal time. So, what the heck!

It was pretty decent of him to also take 45 vehicles and three planes. He doesn’t come up short when he is planning a trip. Still, my math shows that each of the 45 cars is going to need to carry 20 people. Well, in fairness, I don’t think the Prez is gonna have 20 in his car. He will ride with a driv-er and an agent. So actually, the other 44 cars are gonna be pretty full.

Those Belgians will think the cir-cus has come to town. I shouldn’t go there, but with that lead-in, I have to mention that packing clowns into small cars has always been a show-stopper at the circus.

Let’s see how it plays in Europe.Now the three plane thing will

probably work out pretty well. The Prez will get about one-third of Air Force One for himself. His

nearest and dearest will take up the other two-thirds. Now my readers are a pretty smart group and are probably thinking the other two planes will handle the remaining 800 or so people.

Wrong!Got you there!

You forgot that the 45 cars have to be transported on one of the planes. So unless people are going to sit in car seats in the plane car-rying the cars, the second plane is going to be filled to the overhead luggage bins.

I suppose in some dark and dank room in the budget office, there is a guy in a green eyeshade who could tell us what this trip is going to cost the American taxpayer. But unless he is being recorded by the NSA, we will never know.

I don’t think even Edward Snowden knows.

What we do know is that the Belgians are putting up 10 million Euros to help protect our guy and his cast of 900. With the current exchange rate. that means our Belgian friends are coughing up millions of US dollars.

Now with the cost to the US, which clearly will be larger than the Belgian millions added to the cost to the cost of the trip, I expect

that total could keep a small coun-try fed for some time.

But in the big picture, it is important for 900 of our guys to meet up with some similar num-ber of other guys so we can size up the enemy. Whoops, that is so we can size up our friends. Whoops, why do we need to do that?

The answer to that is way above my pay grade as a U.S. citizen and voter.

But if I were the Prez, here is what I would do:

I would get up in my White House quarters and ring for the steward at and ask for a plate of eggs Benedict. Since I would soon be talking to my counterpart in Belgium, I might say hold the home fries and bring me some pommes frites with a dollop of mayo. Put the pommes frites in a paper cone when you serve them. They serve those things all over Brussels. It could help get me in the mood for the chat.

After my valet laid out my suit and I was dressed and ready, I would walk over to the West Wing, down the stairs to the Situation Room, and give the signal.

The head of Belgium would be on the screen. I would be on the screen. Other world leaders would be on the screen.

The sound system would be per-fect.

The NSA would be spying on us so we wouldn’t need a secretary to take minutes.

And we could just chat as long as we wanted. We would probably each have a Cabinet Officer or two in the room and maybe a general or two depending on what we were discussing.

End result: • millions of tax dollars saved• acknowledgement that since

Al Gore invented the internet we actually don’t need to travel.

• 889 people who got to stay home with their families

• 44 cars that don’t need to be gassed up

• thousands of Belgians whose regular day will not be screwed up by presidential motorcades of 44 cars.

• not a chance of anyone getting assassinated

• the meeting would be over in time to work in a round of golf because the wife is over in China with the kids and the mother-in-law

• Boys Night Out!Game-Set-Match!You have to admit, this idea has

potential.

If you would care to read my BLOG, access it at blair-notes.blog-spot.com

I read a column in the Atlantic magazine last week (thanks to pal Kathy Gressieux for linking) that suggested America’s play-grounds are not as safe as we might wish. The problem isn’t outdated, rusting , bor-ing equipment nor potential predators who might be hanging around.

No, the problem, on our playground, in our yards and, well, everywhere, seems to be hovering, lurking parents who refuse to let kids be kids, who have scheduled and structured every minute of their kid’s life. We all know parents like that, right? What’s so ironic, of course, is that the parents who are doing this are the same people who, as children themselves, enjoyed almost com-plete freedom to roam their neighborhoods from dawn until dark, and often in the sum-mer, well past dark.

We are often told that can’t happen any-more because “things are different” and “times have changed. Maybe, but the article cites crime statistics suggesting, for exam-ple, the rate of non-family child abduction basically hasn’t moved at all in 50 years.

Obviously it’s smart to be prudent, but there’s a significant difference between being prudent and being paranoid.

I suspect many of you had a childhood similar to mine. During the sum-mers especially, we were out of the house almost at first light, probably popped in for lunch and were out again until dinner and then back out again until it was completely dark and frequently beyond that. A lot of us had moms who were at home, but they weren’t following our every move. We didn’t play in structured travel leagues — we played whif-fle ball in the street of our cul-de-sac. We fished for crayfish in a small stream behind someone’s house. We walked to a strip shop-ping center a mile or so away, passing a gen-eral store near the railroad tracks. There weren’t malls yet, not in the early to mid 1960s—- at least not where I lived. A couple

other guys and I would often get dropped off at the golf course and we’d call when we were done. We weren’t shadowed by parents every second of every day. We learned some things about inde-pendence and responsi-bility and getting along with others.

Idyllic? Pretty much, or at least it seems that way in retrospect through the haze of nearly a half-century, and yet my generation, despite the often care-free childhoods we had, is the one which has all too often raised our own chil-dren very differently. Ours is the generation that makes sure we have this after school activity three days a week, another one two nights a week and fill weekends the same way.

I have no idea how so many of us got that way. Maybe we bought into the propaganda that the world is far too dangerous a place

to let kids roam unattended and unsuper-vised, even in safe neighborhoods. Maybe in some cases we felt the desperate need to live vicariously through our kids’ accomplish-ments in way our parents didn’t. As I said, I have no idea, but we’re not doing them any favors. Kids need to be able to explore and have a measure of independence as they grow. Are we stealing that because of our own agendas?

Here’s what else we do wrong. Everybody doesn’t have to win. For example, in too many youth sports, everyone gets a trophy just for showing up. Maybe it’s like that as well in dance or whatever — I don’t know, but it irks me beyond belief when I hear coaches tell players the score is tied even when every kid knows otherwise. Are we so intimidated by the thought of even slight-ly bruising youthful self-esteem that we’re afraid to have them live in the real world where one team wins and the other doesn’t?

When Courtney and her teammates were little, they were fortunate. Even though the

JACK BLAIR

notEs of concErn

JERRY CARTON

JournEy of thE hEart

Turn To JOURNEY page A12

GARDNER — Motivated teens interested in paring two years of time and expenses off their college edu-cation should check out the Pathways Early College Innovation School at Mount Wachusett Community College. Praised by state education officials, parents and participating students, the two-year, dual enrollment program allows high school juniors to simultaneously earn their high school diploma and a transferable asso-ciate degree in the academic program of their choice.

Twenty new students will be accepted into the pro-gram for the fall semester, beginning Sept. 3. A series of required, two-day information sessions have been scheduled throughout the spring.

One of the first two innovation schools created in Massachusetts in 2010 under Governor Deval Patrick’s education reform bill and the state’s first early col-lege innovation school, Pathways provides high school juniors and home schooled students the opportunity to accelerate the pace of their academic careers using school choice funds to cover tuition and fees.

The Pathways innovation school is a partnership between MWCC and the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District. Students are enrolled in college courses and integrated into campus life, and receive person-alized advising from MWCC’s Division of Access & Transition throughout their studies. Massachusetts

Secretary of Education Matthew Malone, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell D. Chester and Higher Education Commissioner Richard Freeland have been among the officials to visit the Pathways school and praise it as an innovative, suc-cessful model.

“Pathways has given me a support net that I will use for the rest of my life,” said Townsend resident Jillian Johnson, a liberal arts and sciences major who serves as student trustee on MWCC’s Board of Trustees. “I have grown as a person and would not be who I am today without it. This program has shown me to not just meet expectations, but to surpass them. It taught me to go above and beyond. I recommend this program for any student who is willing to put in the work and wants something more than just average,” said Johnson, who will transfer her credits this fall toward a bachelor’s degree at a four-year institution, and then enroll in dental school.

“It was great for Jillian to have an alternative to high school,” said the teen’s mother, Julie Johnson. “She needed to be challenged and put in an environment that supports and encourages personal and academic growth. Pathways allowed Jillian to finish her high school requirements while tackling new subjects to work toward her associate degree. The flexibility of the Pathways program allowed Jillian to become her own person and have the indepen-dence and responsibility that a young person needs. I have nothing but good things to say about the program. It was the perfect match for her.”

To be eligible, students must live in Massachusetts, possess a minimum high school grade point average of 3.0, be at least 16 years old and entering grade 11 by the start of the fall semes-ter, and be recommended by the sending school.

“Pathways students are motivated and mature,” said Pathways Director Natalie Mercier. “They are not just passing classes at MWCC, they are thriving,” she said.

Upcoming information ses-sions will take place April 8 & 10; May 6 & 8; June 10 & 12; June 24 & 26; July 8 & 10; July 22 & 24. The first day of each session is the information portion and will be held in room W11 from 6-7 p.m. On the second day of each sessions, students are required to take the Accuplacer test. This will take place at noon in the Testing Center, room 129.

Appointments and informa-tion also may be arranged by contacting Natalie Mercier at nmercier@mwcc.mass.edu or (978) 630-9248.

Scammers have found anoth-er opportunity to steal personal information from consumers. A new phishing scam has surfaced targeting Netflix subscribers.

Users that are targeted will be led to a phony webpage that may resemble the real Netflix login page. The Netflix user will enter their account information and the fake website will claim that the user’s account has been sus-pended. A fake customer service number is provided and a “repre-sentative” recommends the user download the “Netflix support software,” which is remote login software that gives the fake repre-sentative full access to the user’s

computer.“Netflix has a good reputation

and scammers are taking full advantage of that,” says Paula Fleming, vice president for the local BBB. “Anyone using their video-streaming service could fall for this scam.”

There are three key indica-tors consumers should look for that show the email involved in this scam is not actually from Netflix: First, the phone number is not Netflix. Instead, the number belongs to a call center in India. Second, the webpage is a pop up. And third, the “representative” wants to log into your computer via remote software.

Here are some tips on how to avoid this scam and others like it:

• Never let someone log into your computer remotely. When someone logs in, they can do any-thing you can do on your com-puter. They can access anything including personal and financial information.

• Do not click links in emails. It is better to type the address in the search bar manually.

• If the URL seems odd, do not continue to go to the site. If it is a scam, it will most likely have an unusual URL. It will likely contain a common name but be accompa-nied by jumbled letters or num-bers.

• Always look up the business’ phone number on their website. If you need to call a business, look it up on their official website. This will ensure that you are calling a legitimate number.

For more information you can trust, visit bbb.org/boston.

For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been help-ing consumers find businesses and brands they can trust. In 2013, consumers turned to BBB 131 mil-

lion times for Business Reviews on more than 6.5 million businesses, all available for free at bbb.org. The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organi-zation for 113 local, independent BBBs across the United States, Mexico and Canada, as well as home to its national programs on dispute resolution and industry self-regulation.

Winchendon courier 5 Friday, April 4, 2014

Resist the urge to tap retirement plans earlyI have yet to meet anyone who thinks

they’re saving too much money for retire-ment. On the contrary, most people admit they’re probably setting aside too little. Retirement accounts must compete with daily expenses, saving up for a home, col-lege and unexpected emergencies for every precious dollar.

If taking money out of your IRA, 401(k) or other tax-sheltered plan is your best or only option, you should be aware of the possible impacts on your taxes and long-term sav-ings objectives before raiding your nest egg:

401(k) loans: Many 401(k) plans allow par-ticipants to borrow from their account to buy a home, pay for education, medical expenses or other special circumstances. Generally, you may be allowed to borrow up to half your vested balance up to a maxi-mum of $50,000 – or a reduced amount if you have other outstanding plan loans. Loans usually must be repaid within five years, although you may have longer if you’re using the loan to purchase your primary residence.

Potential drawbacks to 401(k) loans include:

If you leave your job, even involuntarily, you must pay off the loan immediately (usually within 30 to 90 days) or you’ll owe income tax on the remainder, as well as a 10 percent early distri-bution penalty if you’re under age 59.5.

Loans cannot be rolled over into a new account.

Some plans don’t allow new contributions until outstanding loans are repaid.

Many people, faced with a monthly loan payment, reduce their 401(k) contributions, thereby significantly reducing their poten-tial long-term account balance and earn-ings.

Your account value will be lower while repaying your loan, which means you’ll miss out on market upswings.

401(k) and IRA withdrawals: Many 401(k) plans allow hardship withdrawals to pay for certain medical or higher education expens-es, funerals, buying or repairing your home or to prevent eviction or foreclosure. You’ll

owe income tax on the withdrawal – plus an addi-tional 10 percent penalty if you’re younger than 59 ½, in most cases.

Traditional IRAs allow withdrawals at any time for any reason. However, you’ll pay income tax on the withdrawal, plus the 10 percent penalty as

well, with certain exceptions. With Roth IRAs, you can withdraw contributions at any time, since they’ve already been taxed. However, to withdraw earnings without penalty you must be at least 59.5 and the funds must have been in the account for at least five years.

To learn more about how the IRS treats 401(k) and IRA loans and withdrawals, visit www.irs.gov.

Further financial implication:. With 401(k) and traditional IRA withdrawals, the money is added to your taxable income, which could bump you into a higher tax bracket or even jeopardize certain tax cred-its, deductions and exemptions that are tied

to your adjusted gross income. All told, you could end up paying half or more of your withdrawal in taxes, penalties and lost or reduced tax benefits.

Losing compound earnings. Finally, if you borrow or withdraw your retirement savings, you’ll sacrifice the power of com-pounding, where interest earned on your savings is reinvested and in turn gener-ates more earnings. You’ll forfeit any gains those funds would have earned for you, which over a couple of decades could add up to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income.

Bottom line: Carefully consider the poten-tial downsides before tapping your retire-ment savings for anything other than retire-ment itself. If that’s your only recourse, consult a financial professional about the tax implications.

Jason Alderman directs Visa’s financial education programs. To participate in a free, online Financial Literacy and Education Summit on April 2, go to www.practicalmo-neyskills.com/summit2014.

Real Estate Brokerage & Consulting

Earning the public’s Trustone consumer at a time

for over 30 Years

www.morinrealestate.com978-297-0961

JASONALDERMAN

Practical Money SkillS

Newest phishing scam involves Netflix®

Pathways at MWCC accepting applications for fall

Ruth DeAmicis photo

HOW MANY CAN I SELL YA?Scott Gauthier tries his best to talk Lisa Gauthier

into buying his whole string of raffle tickets at the recent American Legion meat raffle.

“Every

Town

Deser

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Good

Local

News

paper”

TheH

eartO

fMass

achuse

tts.com

Across

1. Explode6. Harassed10. ___ lamp14. Sharp, rugged

mountain ridge15. Bone-dry16. “Our Time in ___”

(10,000 Maniacs album)

17. Puts away18. Wrong20. Dead to the world21. Monopoly pur-

chase22. “Your majesty”23. Burrow24. Start of a refrain

(hyphenated)29. Referred to previ-

ously32. “___ we having

fun yet?”33. Makes insane34. Extra37. Facilitates38. Avoiding capture40. His “4” was retired41. Ratio of one coun-

try’s currency to another’s (3 wds)

46. Essential oil from flowers

47. Information unit48. Foot50. Throat dangler52. Latin dance53. Cantaloupe, e.g.57. Arctic ___58. ___ Minor59. Level, in London60. Deed61. A bunch of62. “Iliad” warrior63. Foe

Down

1. Foundation2. Astronomy Muse3. Studio effect

4. Dorm room staple5. Makeup, e.g.6. Make clear by em-

phasis and try to convince (2 wds)

7. Brooks Robinson, e.g.

8. Expand from inter-nal pressure

9. Halftime lead, e.g.10. “Fantasy Island”

prop11. Make sense, with

“up”12. Certain intersec-

tion13. “Go on ...”19. Final, uncompro-

mising demands23. Concerning this25. Some deer26. “Green Gables”

girl27. “___ go!”

28. Infomercials, e.g.30. Concerning this

(law)31. Cut baby incisors34. Bed board35. Short shot36. Fishing, perhaps38. Victorian, for one39. Relating to a mass

of interstellar dust40. Gasoline additive

(pl.)42. Wood sugar43. Pellagra preventer44. Reproductive cell45. Preserve a dead

body49. Very thin (var.

spelling)51. Actress Miles52. Bit of dust53. Arts adminis-

tration degree (abbrev.)

54. “___ Today”55. Anger, e.g.56. Mary ___ cos-

metics

This Week’s Answers

Weekly CrosswordApril 4, 2014

Local aid agreements reached

BOSTON — Senator Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) announced a local aid agreement between legislative leaders for Fiscal Year 2015. The plan, which covers both unrestrict-

ed general government aid and Chapter 70 education aid, guarantees approximately $125 million in funding increases for these two accounts. In addition, this early agree-ment provides cities and towns with budget certainty regarding their largest sources of state aid.

The joint local aid resolution ensures that FY 2015 will mark the third consecutive year in which both unrestricted local aid and Chapter 70 have been increased, the first time this has occurred since the Great Recession.

“As a former selectman, I know it’s crit-ically important for cities and towns to get

these numbers early in their budgeting processes, whether the numbers are good, bad or indifferent,” said Brewer. “However, I am pleased to say that these numbers are good. They represent our continued increase in support for our local govern-ments and schools.”

The agreement calls for $4.4 billion in the Chapter 70 fund, the largest appropriation in the program’s history, and a $99 million increase over the FY 2014 funding level. This funding level will not only ensure all school districts reach their foundation bud-get, but also provides additional state aid to communities who receive less state aid than called for by the formula. Under the joint agreement, every school district will receive a state aid increase of at least $25 per pupil.

“It is essential that we fund our schools with robust aid, in order to ensure a strong Fiscal Year 2015,” said Brewer. “Currently, school systems are creating their budgets for the upcoming year, and need to know how much state aid they will receive. This joint resolution allows them to make informed projections. In addition, they will be happy to learn that this funding is more than in previous years. When our cities and towns have well-funded schools, our

children thrive.”The Joint Agreement also includes $945.75

million in unrestricted general government aid, an increase of more than $25 million over the FY 2014 appropriation. This is the largest amount of unrestricted local aid since lottery aid and additional assistance were consolidated in FY 2009.

“The unrestricted general government aid increase will lead to more municipal services that are critical to our cities and towns, including police and fire services,” said Brewer. “I am committed to ensuring that our cities and towns are able to meet their financial needs in the upcoming fiscal year.”

Brewer also noted this agreement covers only the two largest sources of state aid to municipalities, and there are many other forms of aid to cities and towns still to be resolved by the Legislature throughout the budget process.

“Whether it is special education reim-bursements, regional school transportation costs, funding for our local libraries, or any of the other local aid accounts that I have championed over the years, I look forward to debating these causes with my colleagues and delivering the resources that my com-munities need,” said Brewer.

Winchendon courier 6 Friday, April 4, 2014

Editor’s Note: The information contained in this police log was obtained through pub-lic 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, MARCH 241:57-3:15 a.m.: 17 building checks, secure;

7 a.m.: general info (School Street) refer to DPW; 7 a.m.: traffic hazard (Spring Street) refer to DPW; 8:25 a.m.: general info (Chestnut Street) spoken to; 9:30 a.m.: 911 non-emergency call (Central Street) acci-dental; 9:42 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) spoken to; 9:44 a.m.: assist citizen (Northern Heights Drive) spoken to; 10:21 a.m.: suspi-cious person (Main Street) gone on arrival; 10:54 a.m.: summons service (Crosby Road) served; 11 a.m.: summons service (Crosby Road) unable to serve; 11:03 a.m.: summons service (Willoughby Avenue) served; 11:08 a.m.: summons service (Linden Street) unable to serve; 11:11 a.m.: MV stop (School Street) spoken to; 11:17 a.m.: assist citizen (Court Street) assisted; 11:32 a.m.: summons service (Royalston Road North) unable to serve; 12:12 p.m.: ambulance (Ipswich Drive) transport; 1:30 p.m.: investigation (Memorial Drive) report taken; 2:29 p.m.: ambulance (Goodrich Drive) transport; 2:36 p.m.: van-dalism (Lincoln Avenue Extension) spoken to; 3:05 p.m.: MV stop (Front Street) traffic citation; 3:15 p.m.: recovered property (Mill Street) returned to owner; 3:19 p.m.: fire alarm (Eli Drive) no FD service required; 3:27 p.m.: summons service (Royalston Road North) served; 3:30 p.m.: MV stop (Academy Street) verbal warning; 3:42 p.m.: MV stop (Central Street) traffic citation; 3:53 p.m.: harassment (North Ashburnham Road) spo-ken to; 4:52 p.m.: summons service (Linden Street) served; 5 p.m.: summons service (Crosby Road) unable to serve; 6:08 p.m.: 911 hang up (Royalston Road South) spoken to; 7:48 p.m.: ambulance (Central Street) transport; 8:26 p.m.: larceny (Front Street) report taken; 8:56 p.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) verbal warning; 10:05 p.m.: fire alarm (Spring Street) false alarm; 10:56 p.m.: fight (Mill Street) report taken.

TUESDAY, MARCH 2512:40 a.m.: lift assist (Ready Drive) assist-

ed; 12:59-3:56 a.m.: 15 building checks, secure; 1:05 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) verbal warning; 4:35 a.m.: ambulance (Russell Farm Road) transport; 5:30 a.m.: suicide threats (Baldwinville Road) report taken; 7:36 a.m.: threats (Ash Street) spoken to; 8:43 a.m.: trespass notice (East Street) info taken; 9:24 a.m.: disabled MV (West Street) assisted; 10:49 a.m.: investigation (Central Street) spoken to; 10:59 a.m.: MV stop (Forristall Road) traffic citation; 11:38 a.m.: ambulance (Ready Drive) transport; 11:48 a.m.: ambulance (Spring Street) assisted; 12 p.m.: illegal dumping (Maple Street) report taken; 12:03 p.m.: warrant of apprehension (Lincoln Avenue) arrest,

no further information provided by PD; 2:48 p.m.: ambulance (Hyde Street) trans-port; 3:15 p.m.: MV stop (Ash Street) traffic citation; 3:25 p.m.: MV stop (West Street) verbal warning; 3:39 p.m.: larceny (Maple Street) report taken; 3:40 p.m.: assist other PD (Hale Street) assisted; 4:36 p.m.: MV stop (Central Street) verbal warning; 4:41 p.m.: MV stop (Front Street) verbal warn-ing; 5:17 p.m.: MV stop (Front Street) ver-bal warning; 5:31 p.m.: suspicious other (Lakeview Drive) no PD service required; 5:35 p.m.: ambulance (Hospital Drive) trans-port; 5:43 p.m.: fire alarm (Hyde Park Drive) services rendered; 5:59 p.m.: investigation (Glenallan Street) info taken; 6:18 p.m.: MV stop (Central Street) verbal warning; 6:23 p.m.: MV stop (Elmwood Road) traffic cita-tion; 6:31 p.m.: fire alarm (Memorial Drive) services rendered; 7:55 p.m.: burglar alarm (Grove Street) secured building; 10:18 p.m.: accident (Hitchcock Road) removed to hos-pital.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2612:23-3:42 a.m.: 14 building checks, secure;

12:24 a.m.: fire alarm (Academy Street) assisted; 6:10 a.m.: MV stop (Glenallan Street) spoken to; 7:59 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) traffic citation; 8:27 a.m.: vandalism (Commercial Drive) report taken; 10:23 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) summons: Phetsamone Vannavong, age 60, of 385 Main St. #3, Gardner: operat-ing MV with license suspended subsequent offense and speeding; 10:47 a.m.: MV stop (Baldwinville State Road) traffic citation; 10:57 a.m.: burglar alarm (Ash Street) call canceled; 11:14 a.m.: ambulance (Ready Drive) transport; 11:43 a.m.: general info (Lakeview Drive) info taken; 12:31 p.m.: ambulance (River Street) transport; 12:59 p.m.: MV stop (Spring Street) traffic cita-tion; 1:13 p.m.: MV stop (Spring Street) traf-fic citation; 2:27 p.m.: investigation (Hale Street) info taken; 3:01 p.m.: suspicious MV (Main Street) spoken to; 3:10 p.m.: general info (Regan Street) advised officer; 3:45 p.m.: officer wanted (Central Street) dispersed gathering; 6:55 p.m.: burglar alarm (School Square) checked, secure; 7:38 p.m.: MV stop (North Street) verbal warning; 7:40 p.m.: ambulance (Central Street) report taken; 7:49 p.m.: ambulance (Craven Drive) assist-ed; 8:37 p.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) writ-ten warning; 8:47 p.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) traffic citation; 10:55 p.m.: burglar alarm (East Grove Street) checked, secure; 11:49-11:59 p.m.: three building checks, secure.

THURSDAY, MARCH 2712:05-4:14 a.m.: 15 building checks, secure;

12:08 a.m.: animal complaint (Glenallan Street) returned to home or family; 4:59 a.m.: suspicious MV (Gardner Road) MV towed; 6:03 a.m.: ambulance (Front Street) transport; 7:02 a.m.: burglar alarm (West Street) checked, secure; 8:08 a.m.: suspi-cious MV (Beech Street) info taken; 8:26

a.m.: animal complaint (Eagle Road) refer to ACO; 9 a.m.: ambulance (Central Street) transport; 9:05 a.m.: fraud (Sibley Road) report taken; 10:16 a.m.: investigation (Central Street) info taken; 10:40 a.m.: illegal dumping (Central Street) report taken; 11:15 a.m.: investigation (Commercial Drive) info taken; 11:18 a.m.: traffic hazard (Otter River Road) spoken to; 1:01 p.m.: general info (Teel Road) info taken; 1:22 p.m.: summons service (Krantz Road) unable to serve; 3:17 p.m.: ambulance (Lakeview Drive) trans-port; 3:24 p.m.: mental health issue (Cedar Street) removed to hospital; 3:36 p.m.: ambu-lance (Ipswich Drive) assisted; 4:05 p.m.: assist other PD (Carriage Lane) message delivered; 5:23 p.m.: traffic hazard (River Street) gone on arrival; 5:44 p.m.: ambu-lance (Lincoln Avenue) transport; 6:24 p.m.: traffic hazard (School Street) assisted; 7:03 p.m.: assist other PD (Benjamin Street) mes-sage delivered; 7:12 p.m.: warrant check (Central Street) info given; 7:28 p.m.: suspi-cious other (Glenallan Street) refer to DPW; 7:31 p.m.: assist motorist (Mill Glen Road) assisted; 8:16 p.m.: suspicious MV (Central Street) spoken to; 8:18 p.m.: summons ser-vice (Maple Street) unable to serve; 8:19 p.m.: suspicious person (Pond Street) spo-ken to; 8:32 p.m.: officer wanted (Ash Street) spoken to; 8:35 p.m.: MV stop (Old Gardner Road) spoken to; 8:40 p.m.: officer wanted (Ash Street) report taken; 8:42 p.m.: MV stop (Spring Street) arrest: Rama Gorski, age 36 of 103 Wellington Road, Rindge: OUI-liquor, negligent operation of MV and war-rant arrest; 11:19-11:39 p.m.: three building checks, secure.

FRIDAY, MARCH 2812:21-1:27 a.m.: seven building checks,

secure; 1:46 a.m.: ambulance (Central Street) transport; 2:02 a.m.: unwanted party (Front Street) assisted; 2:25 a.m.: officer wanted (Central Street) arrest: Jonathan T. Dancause, age 24 of 346 Central St., Winchendon: A&B and assault with dan-gerous weapon; 5:18 a.m.: MV stop (River Street) verbal warning; 5:26 a.m.: MV stop (River Street) written warning; 5:45 a.m.: MV stop (River Street) written warning; 5:48 a.m.: officer wanted (Alger Street) spo-ken to; 6:55 a.m.: fire unknown type (School Street) unfounded; 9:01 a.m.: investigation (Glenallan Street) spoken to; 9:17 a.m.: inves-tigation (School Square) info taken; 10:11 a.m.: general info (Fitchburg Road) spoken to; 10:21 a.m.: suspicious other (Lakeview Drive) assisted; 11:27 a.m.: investigation (Hospital Drive) spoken to; 11:44 a.m.: MV stop (Front Street) traffic citation; 12:23 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Central Street) advised officer; 1:20 p.m.: summons service (Central Street) unable to serve; 1:42 p.m.: vandalism (Ash Street) summons: Amir N. Khan, age 18 of 31 Ash St., Winchendon: breaking glass in building; 2:50 p.m.: men-tal health issue (High Street) removed to hospital; 3:28 p.m.: burglar alarm (Elmwood

Road) checked, secure; 3:29 p.m.: transport (Winchendon Court); 4:05 p.m.: threats (Pond Street) report taken; 6:11 p.m.: 209A service (Spring Street) spoken to; 6:15 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Baldwinville State Road) unable to locate; 8:39 p.m.: house checks (Mill Glen Road) checked, secure; 9:03 p.m.: building check (Ipswich Drive) secure; 9:15 p.m.: assist other PD (West Street) info taken; 10:17 p.m.: general info (walk in) assisted; 10:57 p.m.: fire alarm (Old Centre) refer to FD.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2912:08-2:24 a.m.: 11 building checks, secure;

2:20 a.m.: suspicious MV (Baldwinville State Road) checked, secure; 3:39 a.m.: bur-glar alarm (Russell Farm Road) checked, secure; 7:05 a.m.: ambulance (Alger Street) transport; 10:06 a.m.: general info (Grant Street) assisted; 10:39 a.m.: harassment (Pearl Drive) spoken to; 11:56 a.m.: MV stop (Spring Street) verbal warning; 12:09 p.m.: disabled MV (River Street) assisted; 1:29 p.m.: disturbance (Central Street) unfound-ed; 1:40 p.m.: MV stop (Maple Street) traffic citation; 1:58 p.m.: DPW call (Front Street) refer to DPW; 2:10 p.m.: disabled MV (School Street) assisted; 3:15 p.m.: accident (Gardner Road) removed to hospital; 3:52 p.m.: suspi-cious person (Juniper Street) spoken to; 6:59 p.m.: assist citizen (Crosby Road) assisted; 7:32 p.m.: officer wanted (High Street) spo-ken to; 7:50 p.m.: MV operating erratically (River Street) checked, secure; 9:08-11:53 p.m.: two building checks, secure; 9:37 p.m.: burglary, B&E (River Street) report taken; 10 p.m.: unwanted party (Brown Street) spoken to; 10:04 p.m.: burglar alarm (Grove Street) checked, secure.

SUNDAY, MARCH 3012:09-2:09 a.m.: 17 building checks, secure;

7:49 a.m.: traffic hazard (Brooks Road) refer to DPW; 9:16 a.m.: ambulance (Sibley Road) transport; 9:29 a.m.: burglary, B&E (Beachview Drive) report taken; 12:31 p.m.: general info (Maynard Street) info taken; 1:47 p.m.: building check, secure; 4:20 p.m.: fire unknown type (Old Gardner Road) refer to other agency; 6:22 p.m.: 209A service (Ash Street) unable to serve; 6:24 p.m.: loi-tering (Spruce Street) gone on arrival; 6:51 p.m.: animal complaint (High Street) refer to ACO; 7:32 p.m.: summons service (Krantz Road) served; 7:45 p.m.: summons service (West Street) unable to serve; 7:52 p.m.: war-rant arrest (Court Street) unable to locate; 7:56 p.m.: warrant arrest (Maple Street) unable to locate; 8:31 p.m.: MV stop (Pleasant Street) summons: Donna M. Arsenault, age 38 of 430 School St., Winchendon: unlicensed operation of MV and license not in posses-sion; 9:43 p.m.: disabled MV (Baldwinville Road) assisted; 10:14 p.m.: suspicious other (Central Street) secured building; 11:26 p.m.: suspicious other (River Street) checked, secure; 11:49 p.m.: general info (Teel Road) advised officer.

Police log

YEARS OFSATISFIEDSERVICE

Obama expands Federal monuments with his penOn March 11 President Barack

Obama, designated the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands a national monument, setting aside 1,665 acres of a pristine north-ern California coastline for future generations, thereby keeping a promise made in his 2014 Cabinet meeting and Inaugural Address.

“We are not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re provid-ing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone. And I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward….” Some have dubbed this his nullification of Congress speech.

But where in the Constitution is authority for him to take land from a state and claim it for a national monument or park? A look at Article II, wherein his pow-ers are listed, identifies no such power. He has but 11 powers: 1) “Commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States” including the militia when called into actual service of the United States; 2) supervise departments (cabinet), each presumably estab-

lished by the Congress (George Washington had but four); 3) grant reprieves and pardons; 4) make treaties with the help of the Senate; 5) with Senate help appoint posi-tions established by law such as ambassadors, ministers and judg-es; 6) fill vacancies “during recess of the Senate;” 7) make recom-mendations to Congress on the state of the union; 8) convene both houses on special occasions and handle disputes with respect to convening; 9) receive ambas-sadors and other public minis-ters; 10) make certain that “laws be faithfully executed;” and, 11) “commission all the officers of the United States.”

Simply stated the president has two supervisory powers over exist-ing organizations and two shared powers with the Senate, other-

wise he pardons, recommends, appoints and entertains. That is it! Notice the absence of the words executive order, or anything like unto it. He has no law-making or land acquisition powers.

Constitutionally land acquisi-tion is left only to Congress as per Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 that leaves the federal government propertyless with but two excep-tions, 1) ten miles square for a cap-ital, and 2) for common defense. Clause 17 is the last of eight qual-ifiers defining common defense and allows the federal government additional land acquisition pro-vided three stipulations are met. Those are: such land had to be pur-chased by the federal government (not just confiscated), receive the consent of the state legisla-ture where located, and had to be for military purposes. President Theodore Roosevelt, who first vio-lated this part of the Constitution by creating Yosemite National Park, should have been impeached for four reasons. The power to acquire land did not belong to the executive branch, the federal gov-ernment did not purchase it, the California State Legislature did not give consent, and it was not

for military purposes. Likewise President Barack Obama had no authority to acquire land, did not purchase the pristine California coastline, did not obtain the con-sent of the California Legislature and it was not acquired for mil-itary purposes. That presidents have followed Roosevelt’s clearly unconstitutional practice does not make it constitutional.

This is not an argument that governments should not set aside our most pristine portions for the enjoyment of those not yet born, but only that they do so constitutionally. One departure from the Constitution invites yet another until the document is not “sacredly obligatory on all” as warned George Washington in his famous Farewell Address. At any time a state, county, or city may create a park or monument or, we could have properly amended the Constitution through Article V to enlarge the land acquisition powers of the federal government but, my point, we did not. The Constitution is designed to har-ness the federal government from doing whatever it pleases, in this case, confiscation of property.

Presidents, in law-making

through executive orders, have empowered themselves to the point of “kingship” with their worshipful, unchallenging, party followers (whether Democrat or Republican) quite willing to look the other way as this office grows beyond its ability to be efficient. At any time a president could remind the people of his real con-stitutional powers but he will not as that would drastically reduce his power that is beginning to look limitless. We must return to the constitutional powers of the President as outlined in Article II, only adding to them by way of amendment as described in Article V—no exceptions! In the case of land acquisition there is no place for his pen.

Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on

the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to study-ing the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowl-edge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for more than 25 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.

HAROLD PEASE, Ph.D

liberty under Fire

Elaine Hoiska, 70NEW IPSWICH, NH —

After a courageous fight, with her family at her side, Elaine Hoiska suc-cumbed to illness during the evening of March 27 at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua. She was 70 years old and had been a resident of New Ipswich for over 20 years. She was born Elaine

Joan Klinker and grew up in South Deerfield. After graduating from Frontier Regional High School, she attended UMass Amherst. In 1965 she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology and also was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Her graduate school education included a Master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University in 1971 and a Master’s degree in accounting from UMass Amherst in 1973. She passed her CPA examination on her first sitting while still attending graduate school and became a CPA in 1976 after satisfying the work experience requirement. After working in public accounting and real estate account-ing for eight years, the Governor of Vermont appointed her tax commissioner for the state of Vermont in 1981. Over the next four years, Elaine worked hard to improve the opera-tional performance of the tax department, and she derived great satisfaction from the fact that her efforts had been successful. Her consulting career began in 1985 when she left government service to become director of the state and local tax prac-tice for New England at Arthur Young in B o s t o n . E l a i n e ’ s career culminat-ed in 1988 when she founded her own tax consulting firm, the State and Local Tax Institute. Here she provided tax con-sulting services over the next 25 years to a variety of large cor-porations as well as to many small busi-

nesses. She worked tirelessly and was a very dedicated and passionate advocate for her clients. In conjunction with her consulting work, she was a very active member of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, teaching numerous seminars and regularly speaking at conferences. Elaine’s personal interests were varied, and she often pursued them with equal passion. She was a dedicated runner in her thirties and successfully finished over a dozen marathons, including several near three-hour times at the Boston and New York City marathons. For relaxation she enjoyed recreational hiking, skiing, golfing, tennis and wind surfing. In addition, she was a per-ceptive and insightful reader of both fiction and nonfiction, a critical student of current political and public policy issues, and a classic movie buff. Elaine was devoted to her family and loyal to her friends. She was especially proud of the achievements of her two children. She valued her friendships at the Souhegan Country Club and greatly enjoyed the Club’s summertime gatherings. We all will miss her generous heart, inquisitive mind, playful wit and irrepressible spirit. She is survived by her husband Bentti Hoiska, son Tjalling Hoiska, daughter Tuula Fai, brothers Ronald and Brian Klinker, grandson Trevor Fai, and her beloved aunt Gladys Shattuck. Cournoyer Funeral Home of Jaffrey-Rindge is entrusted with arrangements.CANYON LAKE, TX —– Jean Ruth

(Kolodinski) Coté, age 80, of 1974 Canyon Bend, Canyon Lake, TX, died peacefully after a short illness Monday, Dec. 9, 2013 at her home, with her family at her side.

She was born in Winchendon on Dec. 16, 1932, daughter of the late Stanley and Cyrena Ruth (Shaler) Kolodinski and grad-uated from Murdock High School in 1950.

Jean worked in the inventory department and as a receptionist at the former Hedstrom-Union Co. Fitchburg many years ago. She is a former member of Bethany Baptist Church, Gardner and she and her husband were founding members of Bethany Bible Chapel, Winchendon. She was a member of Hillside Fellowship Church in Spring Branch, TX. She was an avid reader and her hobbies included painting and writing. She loved entertaining friends, but her great-est enjoyment was spending time with her family.

She leaves her husband of 59 years,

James E. Coté Sr; five children: John A. Coté of Mexico, Jeffrey A. Coté and his wife Jeanne of San Antonio, TX, Judith E. Havens and her husband William, of Moscow Russia, Joel R. Coté of Canyon Lake, TX and Jayna M. Gibbs and her hus-band Jason of Canyon Lake, TX; two sisters, Pauline Brown of Rochester, NY, Charlotte Adkins of Brooklyn, NY, a brother, William Kolodinski of Alomagordo, NM; 19 grand-children, two great granddaughters and sev-eral nephews and nieces; a granddaughter, Jessica L. Coté, and a son, James E. Coté, Jr. predeceased her.

A memorial service was held Friday, Dec. 20, 2013 at Hillside Fellowship Church, Spring Branch, TX.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, July 10, 2014 at Bethany Bible Chapel 727 Spring St., Winchendon.

Memorial donations may be made to Bethany Bible Chapel 727 Spring St. Winchendon, MA 01475.

Winchendon courier 7 Friday, April 4, 2014

OBITUARIES

Charlotte V. Hildreth1922- 2014

American Legion (upstairs) Sunday, April 6, 2014

1:00pm-4:00pm

Memorial Service for

Clifford B. ‘Honey’ Chalke, 71JAFFREY — Clifford B

“Honey” Chalke, age 71, of River Street, Jaffrey, died peacefully Sunday morn-ing, March 23, 2014 at the Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, with family by his side. He was born on Dec. 13, 1942 in Goffstown, NH, son of

the late Richard S. and Martha A. (Maki) Chalke. He had attended schools in New Ipswich. “Honey” had been a resident in Jaffrey for over 40 years. He had previously lived in the towns of Hancock and Dublin. Formerly he was a self-employed roofer which he established in 1962. Later he and his son Ricky (Vinnious) Chalke started Chalke’s Roofing, Chimney, and Concrete in Jaffrey. He started logging is his teen years. Later he went to WW Cross in Jaffrey

and then to Vanguard’s Manufacturing in New Ipswich. He also assisted in the development of Tru Forms Foundation in New Ipswich. Clifford was a member of New Ipswich Athletics Association in New Ipswich where he won many trophies in horseshoe pitching tournaments. He enjoyed fishing and spending time with family and friends. Survivors include Tiny Marrotte, Ricky (Vinnious) Chalke, Belinda L. Chalke, Tracy L. Chalke, Honey Beth Chalke, and Louis Chamberlain along with 17 grandchildren, nine great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. He is also survived by his brother Albert Chalke and his sister Beverly Taylor.

A celebration of Clifford’s life was held at the American Legion Post 11, on Webster Street in Jaffrey. Pastor David Tralongo performed the services.

Jean W. (Walker) LeRay, 90ROYALSTON — Jean

W. (Walker) LeRay, age 90 of Royalston, died peace-fully Friday March 28, 2014 in Baldwinville Nursing Home, surrounded by her loving family.

Jean was born in Jefferson, NH, daughter of the late Chester and Edna (Woodward) Walker, and

has lived in Royalston for many years. Jean married her beloved husband George C. LeRay Jr. Jan. 26, 1946 and together they shared more than 51 years of marriage. George died July 4, 1997.

Jean attended Winchendon schools, and graduated from Murdock High School. After high school she graduated from the David Hale Fanning Trade School for Girls in Worcester. In September of 1943 Jean joined the United States Navy Waves. She proudly served her country as a Store Keeper First Class, with the Navy until her discharge in March of 1946.

Jean was very gifted with her hands. She always grew large floral and vegetable gardens. She would can the vegetables and made the most delicious jams and jellies. She was known for her balsam wreaths that she made for many years. She enjoyed ten pin bowling and traveling by train with her

husband. Jean was a member of the Eugene M. Connor, Post 193 American Legion of Winchendon and the Ladies Auxiliary. She was also a member of the Jessamine Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Jean will be sadly missed by her six chil-dren: Martha E. Page and her husband Michael of Winchendon, Catherine LeRay-Brand and her husband Paul of Rindge, Sue A. Langlais and her husband Robert of Newport Richie FL, Nancy J. Bailey-Bice and her husband Rolland of Zephyrhills FL, Thomas W. LeRay and his wife Debra of Royalston, and George C. LeRay III and his wife Patricia of Winchendon; one brother, John Walker and his wife Barbara of Winchendon, many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and nieces and neph-ews. Jean was predeceased by one daughter Mary L. LeRay in 1984.

Relatives and friends were planning to honor and celebrate Jean’s life by gather-ing for a funeral service Thursday, April 3 in Fletcher-Hebert Funeral Home (fletcher-cares.com), 70 Pleasant St. Winchendon

Donations in Jean’s memory may be made to the Baldwinville Nursing Home, Resident’s Activities Fund, 51 Hospital Road, Baldwinville, MA 01436 or to the Gardner Visiting Nurses Association, 34 Pearly Lane, Gardner, MA 01440.

Maurice J. ‘Mickey’ Paul, 83WINCHENDON —

Maurice J. “Mickey” Paul, age 83, of 36 Summer St., Winchendon, died peace-fully Friday morning, March 28 in Heywood Hospital, Gardner, with his family at his side.

He was born in Lancaster on Nov. 1, 1930, son of the

late Alfred and Mary Ann (Drauleau) Paul, and had lived in Winchendon for most of his life.

Mickey worked for 30 years as a construc-tion laborer for Local Union #39, Fitchburg. He enjoyed jigsaw puzzles and working on projects around his home. His greatest enjoyment was spending time with his fam-ily. Mickey was a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.

His wife of 50 years, Shirley G. (Beckwith) Paul, died in 2006. He leaves a son, Jody J. Paul and his wife Denise of Winchendon; two stepsons, Dennis D. Caouette of Winchendon and William H. Caouette of Winchendon; his brothers and sisters, Harold Paul of Winchendon, George Paul of Templeton, Dennis Paul of Winchendon, Leo Paul of Winchendon, Mary Lawrence of Townsend and Dorothy Norris of Gardner; five grand-children, great grandchildren, and many nephews and nieces. A stepson, Stephen H. Caouette, predeceased him.

Funeral services were held Tuesday, April 1 in Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home (stone-ladeau.com), 343 Central St., Winchendon.

Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery.Memorial donations may be made to

Gardner VNA Healthcare, 34 Pearly Lane, Gardner, MA 01440.

Richard A. Diotalevi, 71GARDNER — Richard

A. Diotalevi, age 71, of Gardner, died unexpect-edly Saturday, March 22, 2014, in UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, after being stricken ill at home.

Born in Winchendon on Dec. 14, 1942, he was the son of Alphonso and Dorothy (Mellen) Diotalevi.

Richard graduated from Murdock High School, Winchendon with the Class of 1961. He was later inducted into the Murdock High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

He was employed by the former Victory Supermarkets of Leominster as the director of operations for many years, retiring in 2003.

He was a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church of Winchendon. Richard was also a member and past Post Commander of the Sons of the American Legion, Eugene M. Connor Post 193 of Winchendon.

Richard’s greatest joy came from spending time with his family and grandchildren. He enjoyed playing golf, cards, pitch and crib-bage. He also enjoyed watching sports on television and was an avid fan of the New

York Yankees. Richard loved to travel, espe-cially to Wells, ME. He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.

Besides his mother, Dorothy Diotalevi of Gardner, he leaves his wife of 20 years, Joyce E. (Leamy) Diotalevi of Gardner; one son, Lance Levesque of Harrisville, NH; two daughters, Heather L. Pomerleau and her husband, Fred of Phoenix, AZ, and Heidi S. Hardy and her husband, Steve of Gardner; one sister, Sally Kesting of Fitchburg; five grandchildren, Stephen, Kaitlynn Abigail, Tanner and Alyssa Hardy; two nieces, three nephews, and several cousins. He also leaves his princess, his dog Molly.

A Memorial Service will be held Wednesday, April 2 at 11 a.m. in Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, 166 Cross St., Gardner. There are no calling hours.

Memorial contributions may be made to GVNA Healthcare, Inc., 34 Pearly Lane, Gardner, MA 01440 or to the Gardner Animal Control Facility, with checks made payable to City of Gardner Shelter Fund, c/o Board of Health, 95 Pleasant Street, Rm. 29, Gardner, MA 01440.

Boucher Funeral Home (boucherfuneral.com), Inc., 110 Nichols St., Gardner is han-dling the arrangements.

Shirley A. Pelto Patch, 67WINCHENDON – Shirley A. Pelto Patch,

67, of 399 West St. Winchendon, died peace-fully Wednesday afternoon, March 26 in Heywood Hospital, Gardner.

A lifelong resident of Winchendon, she was born on Dec. 27, 1946, daughter of the late Arvo and Rita (Gauthier) Pelto.

Shirley worked at the former Collier Keyworth Co in Gardner and had tended bar at the former Curve Inn, Winchendon Rod and Gun Club and 202 Lounge. She enjoyed playing bingo and going to Foxwoods and

Mohegan Sun.She leaves her husband, Howard R. Patch

and several nieces and nephews. Three brothers, Richard Pelto, David Pelto and Kenneth Pelto all preceded her in death.

Funeral services are private and at the convenience of the family. There are no calling hours.

Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home (stone-ladeau.com), 343 Central St., Winchendon is directing arrangements.

John ‘Jack’ Pepper, 77PRINCETON — John

“Jack” Pepper, age 77, of Coal Kiln Road, died peacefully with his lov-ing family by his side on Sunday, March 30, 2014, after an illness. Born in Worcester, John was the son of Charles J. and Catherine M. (Moriarty) Pepper and lived 48 years in Princeton.

John graduated from Sacred Heart Academy and Worcester Junior College both in Worcester. He began his 35-year banking career in 1961 at Worcester County Trust and later

worked for Worcester County National, Shawmut and Fleet banks, retiring as vice president of cash manage-ment at Bank of America in 1996. He proudly served his country in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1957.

He was a member of the First Congregational Church of Princeton and a Past Master of Rufus Putnam Lodge of Masons in Rutland. John thoroughly enjoyed his banking career and was fondly known as Jack throughout the banking community. He will be remembered by his peers for his dedication, tenacity and integrity. However, John’s true joy came from spending time with his family, particularly at their get-away home in Westmore, VT where he felt most at home. He was proud of his four sons and their many accomplishments and was comforted in his last days knowing his boys would continue the Pepper legacy of family

commitment and love. John is survived by his wife of 14 years,

Janice M. (LaClair) Pepper; four sons: John “Jay” H. Pepper Jr. of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Sean M. Pepper and his wife, Lisa of Winchendon, David S. Pepper and his wife, Heather of Winchendon, and U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Scott P. Pepper; three step-children, Linda A. and Thomas Stokes of Hubbardston, Helen J. and David Turcotte of Princeton, and Anne J. and Todd Smith of Winter Park, FL; one brother, William Pepper and his wife, Gerry of Worcester; two sisters, Mary Bedard and her husband, Bob of Pittsburgh, PA and Rita Pepper and her companion, Paul of Connecticut; six grand-children, Nicholas, Shane, David, Benjamin, Kiely, and Penny; three great-grandchil-dren, Jack, Samantha and Damion; and his nephews and nieces. John’s first wife of 32 years, Helen “Chickie” S. (Turner) Pepper died in 1993. He is also predeceased by a brother, Charles J. Pepper Jr., and four sis-ters: Marilyn Brown, Betty Ann Carguilo, Margaret Gay and Catherine McDonald and one stepson, Ronald C. Mongeon of Maine.

A funeral service honoring John’s life was held Thursday, April 3, at the First Congregational Church of Princeton, 14 Mountain Road, Princeton. The Rev. Linda Michel officiated. A graveside service with military honors will be held privately at a later date in Woodlawn Cemetery, Princeton.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made St. Labre Indian School, 1000 Tongue River Road, Ashland, MT 59003 (www.stlabre.org).

Miles Funeral Home (milesfuneralhome.com) 1158 Main St., Holden is entrusted with arrangements.

Emilio G. Rossignol, 85WINCHENDON –

Emilio G. Rossignol, age 85, of 53 Hyde Park Drive, Winchendon died peace-fully Monday morning, March 31st in Baldwinville Nursing Home.

He was born in Stockholm, ME on Aug.10, 1928, son of the late Fabian and Fabienne (Michaud) Rossignol, and had lived in Clinton for 20 years before moving to Winchendon in 1982.

Emilio was a fork lift driver at ITT Wire and Cable Co in Clinton for many years until his

retirement. As a member of the United States Army, he proudly served his country in both World War II and the Korean War. He was a member and former adjutant of Eugene M. Connor Post #193 American Legion and was a former member of Artisan

Lodge of Masons, Scottish Rite Bodies of Worcester and Springfield and Melha Temple Shrine in Springfield. Word finding and ball room dancing were two of Emilio’s favorite hobbies.

He leaves his wife of 63 years, Lorraine M. (Morgan) Rossignol; two children, Carey Rossignol and his wife Mary Ellen of Rindge and Bonita Robinson and her hus-band Harry of Pace FL; four grandchildren, Amanda Kania, Adam Rossignol, Brian Robinson and David Robinson; five great grandchildren, Logan LeBlanc, Allison Kania, Abigail Robinson, Althea Robinson and Lisa Robinson; a sister, Bertha King of Middlebury, a half sister, Odette Carr and many nephews and nieces.

Military funeral services will be held Friday, April 4 at 10 a.m. in Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery. The Rev. Francis A. Roberge will officiate. There are no calling hours.

Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home (stone-ladeau.com), 343 Central St., Winchendon is directing arrangements.

Jean-Ruth (Kolodinski) Cote`, 80

Winchendon courier 8 Friday, April 4, 2014

SPORTSSPORTSLady Devils on the hunt for seventh District trip

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — Will 2014 be a lucky seven? That’s the question surrounding Murdock High School’s varsity softball pro-gram as the Lady Devils will be gunning for a seventh straight trip to the post-season, and despite having lost nine seniors to grad-uation, Coach Randy Tenney is pretty confi-dent about where his team will be in June.

“We’ll be in Districts,” Tenney said flatly earlier this week as his virtually all-new roster worked out in the school gym, add-ing, “we’re going to go all-out and we’re going to be fine.”

It was back in 2007 that Murdock last failed to qualify for Districts and though there have been three straight post-sea-son disappointments since the Lady Devils reached the state title game in 2010, includ-ing last spring’s narrow loss to eventual state champion Assabet, the program’s sta-bility and overall success can’t be ques-tioned. Murdock has gone 98-28 since start-ing the post-season string in 2008 and 33-8 in Tenney’s first two seasons at the helm.

That’s all well and good, but the coach wasn’t looking back. “We have some real talent here, even though a lot of them are just coming up to varsity,” he remarked.

It all starts in the circle and that’s where senior Emma Page comes in. Page will be Murdock’s lead starting pitcher, “and she has plenty of experience, which will help us a lot,” Tenney noted. Page spent the off-sea-son as usual working with pitching coach Phil Lefevre and appears ready to go as soon as the weather permits, possibly sometime

next week.Deanna Polcari, who pitched nearly every

inning of the 2013 junior varsity campaign, will be the Lady Devils other hurler. “She’s ready for varsity,” Tenney assured.

Haley Jandris, who caught for Polcari a year ago on the JV team, will settle in behind the plate for varsity this spring. “Everyone knows what a great athlete Haley is. She’ll be fine,” said Tenney. Polcari and Jandris did get some varsity experience last year and Jandris, in fact, scored Murdock’s only run in that 2-1 playoff loss.

Two other seniors return in addition to Page. Brianna Dellechiaie gives Murdock lots of speed, which the coach intends to utilize constantly.

“We’re going to be manufacturing a lot of runs, bunting a lot, moving people around and Bri will have to be a big part of that,” Tenney noted. Brittany Eliason is the third senior, and “she’ll be at first. Her experience will be important to us because of all the new players we have coming up and she’ll be our clean-up hitter,” Tenney reflected.

“All the seniors are solid,” he said.Among those newcomers to varsity is

Brittany’s sister Nicole. “She’s holding her own,” said Tenney. Sydnie St. Pierre and Myranda Bishop will likely anchor the mid-dle infield with St. Pierre also seeing action in the outfield. Also moving up is Vicky Marshall. “We’re looking for good things from her, said Tenney.

Expected to see significant playing time is Chandler Torres Pagan. “She’s coming along well,” the coach said.

“They’re both ready to make big con-

tributions,” Tenney predicted. The coach is pleased, too, with the progress of Haley Lemieux. “She’s doing well,” he remarked. Caitie Thayer comes over from cheering. “You can see she’s an athlete,” Tenney noted.

Although the roster has virtually been turned over completely, with just the three seniors remaining from last year’s team which posted an unbeaten league record, Tenney pointed out, “it’s not like these girls haven’t played before. They have a lot of JV and Little League experience. They’re stepping up, but it’s not like they’re new to softball,” he said.

The test, of course, will come on the field and Tenney is anxious to get outside. “We could really use four or five days on the field before we have a game,” especially since a contest is set for a week from today against arch-rival Narragansett, who swept the season series from the Lady Devils in 2013, one of those wins a nine-inning epic. But it remains to be seen if the coach will get his wish for outside practice time before the season starts. “It’s up in the air,” he acknowledged.

As usual, Tenney sees West Boylston standing in Murdock’s path and “Tahanto will be good too,” he said.

“We won’t go undefeated in the league again, but when it comes to Districts, we’ll make it again this year,” he pledged.

Tammy St. Pierre photo

Haley Jandris will take her place behind home plate for the Lady Devils again.

Blue Devils look forward to improving performance

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — A year ago there were high expec-tations for Murdock High School’s varsity baseball team including a not-insig-nificant amount of specu-lation regarding the Blue Devils chances to advance to the District playoffs.

The games, though, are played on the field and while coach Chris LeBlanc acknowledged, “we under-achieved” (7-13), that hasn’t dampened his hopes for 2014 one bit.

“We always set high expectations, but I am real-ly excited about this year,” LeBlanc said earlier this week.

“We have four seniors who are not only great play-ers, they’re great leaders as well and I’m expecting big things from them,” he noted.

Three members of that quartet are penciled in as Murdock’s pitching rotation and the coach expects big things from hurlers Larry Agnelli, Tyler Perry, and Kevin Suchocki.

“They’re looking good in the gym, although you real-ly don’t know anything until you get out on the field,” acknowledged LeBlanc. “But Tyler and Kevin espe-cially have been work-ing real hard and they’re primed for big years.” Perry, Suchocki, and Agnelli will

all see infield action when they aren’t pitching. The staff is rounded out by John Phelan.

A fourth senior, Justin Smith, has been playing with the aforementioned trio, “since they were in middle school,” LeBlanc pointed out. “They started on JV as eighth graders and the four of them are setting the tone for this team. They were the best players we had last year and they’ll just be even better this year.

“I’ve never seen anything like the chemistry I’ve seen so far. It’s unreal. Everyone on this team holds each other accountable and that hasn’t always been the case. Chemistry matters and this team has great chemistry,” he said.

Also on the roster are senior Shane Girard, juniors Evan Drake and Dom Allard, sophomores Phelan and Xavier Cepeda and freshmen Will Iannacone and Tyler Cota.

“Dom and Xavier have plenty of speed which will help us a lot and both are likely to be in the outfield.

“It’s hard to tell how kids are tracking the ball until we get outside.” conceded LaBlanc, “but I like what I’ve seen from them so far and you can never have too much speed anywhere, espe-cially in the outfield. Dom’s developing his game skills

and he’s a good athlete so we’re glad to have him play-ing baseball, that’s for sure.”

Drake will likely catch and see action in the infield, which is also where Iannacone will set up shop. Cota will play infield and outfield.

“Evan and Will are ball-players for sure,” LeBlanc said.

“I have a lot of confidence in these boys. The way they coach each other is really impressive. We need that because the schedule isn’t exactly kind,” LeBlanc said ruefully.

Murdock is slated to open with four road contests start-ing Monday at Tahanto, fol-lowed by visits to Gardner, Narragansett and Bromfield before the scheduled April 16 home opener against Littleton.

“I like playing the neigh-bor schools like Gardner and ‘Gansett but starting with everything away is a real challenge. Our field isn’t in the best shape yet, so we’ll get to see how we match up against those neighboring schools at their place right away,” he noted.

LeBlanc had high praise for assistant coach Derek Martin and new JV coach Tom Paine. “Derek’s great. He’s reliable and loves the game and knows the game. He’s able to communicate with them well, especially the pitchers, and that means a lot to us. I’m really glad to have him back,” said LeBlanc.

“Tom’s been a coach for a long time around Leominster and it’s good to have someone with that kind of experience come to our program,” LeBlanc said of Paine, who works as an adjustment counselor for the district’s elementary schools.

“I really think we are going to be okay,” LeBlanc predicted.

“You can only do so much in the gym but just about everyone is in the same boat. As long as we stay healthy and eligible, and we seem to be fine with eligibil-ity, we should have a good year,” he forecast.

Tammy St. Pierre photo

Members of the Blue Devils JV team huddle for a conference during indoor practice last week.

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — Clear skies and season-able temperatures greeted early arrivals last Saturday at the National Dek Hockey Center at Mylec, Inc. on Route 140 as the 2014 season got underway and director Andrew Hildreth was enthused about the new campaign.

“Opening Day is a fantastic event where everyone can get their first game jitters out and have fun,” Hildreth said.

Some 250 or so youngsters are signed up

and distributed among 23 teams in the four year to 16 year-old categories.

“They come from all over the region,” Hildreth noted with the bulk of the play-ers hailing from Winchendon, Gardner, Ashburnham, and Westminster, “and we have a few from Jaffrey-Rindge.”

Hildreth worked hard to secure spon-sorship for the youth teams. The Beavers’ teams are sponsored by Aspen Transmission Service, Boucher Funeral, Brideau Oil, Brooks Automotive, Lorden Oil, and Southbridge Savings Bank.

Cadets teams are sponsored by Cruisers Malt Shoppe, Enterprise Bank, Salvadore Chrysler-Dodge, Sorrento’s Pizza, and Z-Boys Heating.

The Chipmunks division has the American Legion Post 193, Belletetes, Huhtala Oil, John’s Sport Shop, and Sharp Image as sponsors. The Penguins are spon-sored through D’Ambrosio Eye Care, DW Designs, GFA Federal Credit Union, Greg’s Barber Shop, Harbour Sports Bar and Grill, and Performance Press.

“We’re appreciative of all the sponsors,” said Hildreth who added that as the season gets fully underway this week, standings won’t be the focus.

“We’re going to want to spotlight the kids who are trying hard and doing well,” he remarked.

Tammy St. Pierre photos

At the face-off for the first game: Brooks Automotive in green vs. Lorden Oil in blue.

Dek hockey season underway

Two players, one from Lorden Oil and one from Brooks Automotive, race to the endzone as a goal is scored...but for which team?

Sue Polcari photo

POP WARNER SCHOLARS HONOREDSeveral Winchendon Pop Warner National All-American scholars attended an award cer-

emony at Gillette Stadium on March 14th. Pictured are (left to right): Jack Polcari (2nd team New England region and 2nd team National All-American), Maria Polcari (1st team region-al, 2nd team national), Cassie Wightman (1st team regional, 2nd team national), Mackenzi Drouin (1st team regional, 2nd team national) & Shawn Healey (2nd team regional & 2nd team national). Other All-American scholars from WPW are Antonio Stakely, Logan Huff, Cameron Feyrer, and Julio Rodriguez. To qualify as an All-American scholar, students must have earned a 96.0 or above GPA on the previous years’ report card. Additionally, community service and other non-sport related activity involvement are included in the application process. The student athletes who achieve this criteria represent the top two percent of all Pop Warner participants nationally.

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Winchendon courier 9 Friday, April 4, 2014

Freshmen...and more...

Trio headline spring track

21 years ago this weekend, a spectacu-lar group of freshmen basketball players, inevitably known, even today, as the “Fab Five,” invaded the Final Four poised to take the title back to Michigan. Chris Webber, Jaylen Rose, Juwan Howard and the rest were a sight college hoops had never seen before. After all, during UCLA’s glory days, freshmen weren’t allowed to play varsity, so this team was going to write a historic chapter in the game’s annals.

Except for one thing: freshmen being freshmen, counting to three was apparently overly difficult and late in their semi-fi-nal game, Webber called a time out the Wolverines didn’t have left and so much for the Fab Five’s coronation.

Fast forward to now. When this season began, there were all sorts of premature columns about how Kentucky’s freshmen were certain to go 40-0 and win every game by 20. Easier said than done. The Wildcats didn’t even win the regular season or SEC tournament titles. Three weeks ago, when the NCAA tournament got underway, it was Florida getting the overall top seed.

The Gators are good. They just might win their third national championship since 2006, but the Wildcats and their five

starting freshmen have, you might have noticed, grown up. These kids are freshmen only in name, not in reality. Eighth seeded Kentucky would surprise no one if they give the school a second title in three years. Not to diss UConn or Wisconsin, but just as is generally the case in football, it’s the SEC teams who look like the powerhous-es this weekend.

This is not what I antici-pated. I thought the Big Ten was the toughest, deepest and most physical conference, and certainly the one most likely to send multiple teams to Jerry Jones’ playground this weekend. But both Michigan and Michigan State fell by the wayside last week at the hands of the ‘Cats and Huskies and so here we are. My bracket, like most, is far beyond busted (even though I had Florida and Wisconsin making the Final Four) but for what it’s worth, I’m just about convinced Kentucky will win it all Monday night.

Then what? Do those kids stay or go? In the old days, that wouldn’t have been an issue, of course. They’d be staying at least another couple seasons but that’s not how

things work these days. So be it.Speaking of going, DeSean Jackson is

going somewhere, too. The Eagles cut him last week amid vague insinuations about

gangs and work ethics, though my guess is that it’s really about money and the cap. Philadelphia is hiding behind i’s lawyers so who knows what’s really going on but if I’m a general man-ager in the NFC East, unless there’s pretty substantive evidence that Jackson has some alleged Aaron

Hernandez like tendencies, I’m happy to scoop him up. You think Tony Romo or Eli Manning or RG3 wouldn’t like to have him in their offense? You bet they would. I haven’t seen anything that significantly ties Jackson to some of the really bad elements that hang around some NFL players so I wouldn’t mind seeing him a Raven. Not one bit. Are you listening Ozzie Newsome?

I’ve been listening to coaches as they wait to get the baseball, softball, and track sea-sons started since winter lingered into early this week. A year ago, Murdock baseball coach Chris LeBlanc thought his kids had a

legitimate shot at making Districts but that never panned out. This spring, with more hope than expectation, the Blue Devils get to fly under the radar and maybe that will help. One thing for sure — the pitching had better be sharp because the weather is going to guarantee an awfully condensed schedule.

The Lady Devils are gunning for a sev-enth straight post-season appearance, but coach Randy Tenney’s program graduated nine seniors a year ago. That noted, it’s reasonable to assume until proven other-wise that there’s enough talent coming up to keep the streak alive this year. The Lady Devils almost certainly won’t go undefeated in league play like they did in 2013, but that isn’t the goal anyway. It’ll be interesting to watch and see if this unit jells by June and makes some noise in Districts. Stay tuned.

Track is more about personal bests than team records, though no one will turn down league titles and the emphasis will be on a bunch of younger runners as a quartet of senior girls wrap up their star studded careers. It’d be nice to have some of the meets played out in sunshine, wouldn’t it? One can only hope.

BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — As the weath-er improves, so does the likeli-hood of a sooner-rather-than-later start to the outdoor track season and when it does, there’s no doubt who will be highlighting Murdock High School’s spring team.

“They’re our workhorses,” Coach Anthony Findley said of Alyssa LaBrack, Rachel Durgin, and Drew Pelkey.

“We have some good athletes, but those three are going to do a lot for us,” he added.

Pelkey is coming off a solid win-ter campaign and is expected to compete in the 100 and 200 as well as the triple jump. “I think he

should make it to New Englands,” Findley predicted.

Durgin is entering her final sea-son of competition and the coach was lavish in his praise of her work ethic. “She’s come back from more than one injury and we’re expecting big things from her in javelin, hopefully all the way to States,” Findley said.

As for freshman LaBrack, who is a threat to shatter her own school shot put record every time she steps in the circle: “my long term goal is for her to pay as little as possible for college. She’s that good. Nationals a year from now isn’t out of the question, but this year we’re going for All-States for her,” he noted.

“We have a lot of seniors on the

girls side. It’s good to have the sis-ters (Amber and Autumn Brown) back from basketball. They’re real-ly good athletes. We have Kathryn Richtarscik back this year. We haven’t decided yet exactly where she’ll fit in, but where-ever she is, she’ll be giving us points. She’s another top athlete.

“Felicia Ingman should have a good last senior season like she has other years. We’ll see how it goes with ‘KB.’ (Katie Burns) and Abby Amenta should give us points in a bunch of events,” Findley remarked.

“The girls team should be strong,” he added.

Pelkey won’t be alone on the boys team racking up points. Dan Fournier will be wrapping up a

solid career and underclassmen Austin Landress and Jordan Manuel have good shots at qualify-ing for Districts and maybe more.

But it’s even younger kids that have caught the coach’s eye. “There’s great potential from kids like Logan Huff and Emily Roberts and Maddy Bishop and Josh Ramsey and Chris Michaud to name a few.

“We have that big gap in the middle. We have declining num-bers like other sports so it’s hard to fill everything in. That makes it tough against bigger schools. I’ve seen the ebb and flow before, and we can’t control who comes out,” Findley reflected. “All we can do is go with who we have, and the kids who are here want to

be here and you can’t ask for more than that. We do what we can with who’s here. If I were working inside the school system, maybe I could recruit more, but you can’t worry about the outside factors. I like the group we have and we’ll just go from here.”

“We’re just going to focus on personal bests and let everything else take care of itself,” he con-tinued. “We probably can’t beat Littleton — they might have 100 on their team, but we’ve never been about championships as much as we have about personal bests and that’s what we’re going to do this year,” said Findley.

JERRY CARTON

Talking SporTS

allowed 90 minutes to come up with their proposed national budget. Chips were used during the game to represent dif-ferent amounts of money.

Students were told to evaluate how money had been allo-cated in the FY14 proposed budget, reach a consensus on the country’s needs for next year, debate programs and issues important to them, argue the pros and cons of deficit reduc-tion, design their FY15 budget and explain their reasoning to the overall group.

“The debates got pretty heated as students with very

different backgrounds and beliefs had to compromise and reach agreements,” Romano noted.

Murdock students who participated included Larry Agnelli, Abby Amenta, Dean Brazawskis, Amber and Autumn Brown, Tristan Cutting, Brianna Dellechiaie, Alex Emerson, Maryanne Kotoch, Danielle Martin, Tyler Perry, and Ariele Whittaker.

This was Murdock’s second year taking part in the simu-lation. “It was definitely worthwhile,” said Romano.

Murdock’s student participants were impressed. “It was really eye-opening,” said Ariele Whittaker. “We

learned things we really didn’t know much about”, she said. Amber Brown agreed. “It was very educational. The

process made you think a lot”, she noted. “It was a really interesting experience”, reflected Tyler

Perry. “It showed you how complex the national budget is, and how hard the decisions are. It’s a complicated process”, said Perry.

Tristan Cutting pointed out, “It was fun to work with other students from across the state and see how people think differently about different issues”.

That was the idea , said Romano. “They found out how hard compromise can be, but they got some hands-on expe-rience dealing with real-life issues”.

BUDGETcontinued from page A1

Memorial School. For those parents who are unable to register your child during the day, an evening registration event will be held at Memorial School on: Wednesday, April 2 between the hours of 5-7 p.m.

...AND PRESCHOOLWinchendon Public Schools Preschool

Screening will take place on May 7 & 14. Children must be age 3 or 4 by Aug.31, 2014 to be eligible. Screening looks at a child’s development in the areas of language, fine and gross motor skills, cognition and social emotional skills. If you have any concerns about your child, suspect your child may have a disability, or if you did not receive an information packet by mail please call Winchendon Pre-K Program (978) 297-3436.

SPAGHETTI AND A SONGOn Friday, April 4 the United Parish will

host a spaghetti supper beginning at 6 p.m. for any donation you choose to give followed by a concert at 7:30 p.m. by the Needham’s. Come enjoy great Gospel music and a bit of pasta with friends and family.

MEAT RAFFLEOn Friday, April 4 beginning at 7 p.m. the

American Legion Auxiliary will host a meat raffle at the Legion on School Street.

ANIMAL ADVENTURESOn Wednesday, April 23, the Beals

Memorial Library will be presenting Animal Adventures at Town Hall, begin-ning at 10 a.m. This free program is present-ed in collaboration with the Winchendon Pre-K, CFCE grant, and is funded, in part, by the Winchendon Cultural Council, a local agency which administers funds from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The target audience is ages 3-4, but all are welcome to visit with live animals, including reptiles, rodents, birds, mammals, and probably an amphibian. Experienced naturalists will explain about the visiting animals’ behav-iors, adaptations, food, habitat, and how to safely pat them.

BIKE RODEO & GIVEAWAYOn Saturday, April 12 the annual

spring bike giveaway by the Kiwanis of Winchendon will be held at Old Murdock Senior Center beginning at 9 a.m. In addi-tion, the Murdock Key Club is planning a bike rodeo at the same time.

AUCTIONIpswich Drive Tenants’ Council has

scheduled an auction at the Community Room on Saturday, April 12 at 1 p.m. Lots of interesting items, come make a bid!

MEAT RAFFLEThe spring edition of the Hawg Haulers

annual meat raffle is scheduled Saturday, April 12 at 7 p.m. at the American Legion, School Street. One of the most popular ones, come early.

CAKE AUCTION

The annual Old Murdock Senior Center cake auction, postponed due to bad weather earlier this year, is now scheduled at noon, April 17 at the Center on Murdock Avenue. Best of the best homebaked goodies are up for the highest bid: open to the public. Come on down and get your dessert just like Mom used to bake!

PET PHOTOSAhimsa Haven hopes you’ll join us on

April 12 from 1-5 p.m. for a photo opportuni-ty with the Easter Bunny! Bring your favor-ite device and a furry friend or two to snap a photo! Requested donation is $5. Children are welcome, and can also take part in our coloring contest, with a $20 Toys R Us gift certificate prize! (Chosen at random.) Light refreshments will be available, and of course you’ll be able to meet all the animals waiting for adoption at our shelter, located at 381 Baldwinville Road in Templeton. All proceeds will benefit our no-kill, non-profit rescue. For more info, please call 978-297-2673 or email info@ahimsahaven.org

AUDITIONSGARDNER — Theatre at the Mount

announces auditions for its upcoming pro-duction of Ken Ludwig’s The Fox on the Fairway. A tribute to the great English farces of the 1920s and 1940s, The Fox on the Fairway takes audiences on a hilarious romp which pulls the rug out from under-neath the stuffy denizens of a private coun-try club. Filled with mistaken identities, slamming doors and over-the-top romantic shenanigans, it’s a furiously paced comedy that recalls the Marx Brothers classics. A charmingly madcap adventure about life, love, and man’s eternal love affair with...golf.

Director Rob Houle is looking for a cast of three men and three women. For detailed character descriptions visit the TAM web site at www.mwcc.edu/tam

Auditions will be held in room 182 at Mount Wachusett Community College on Tuesday, April 8 and Thursday, April 10 at 7 p.m. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script.

The Fox on the Fairway runs June 13, 14, 20, 21 at 8 p.m. and June 22 at 2 p.m.

For information contact Professor Gail Steele at (978) 630-9162 or g_steele@mwcc.mass.edu

UPCOMING PROGRAMWINCHENDON — Edible Perennial

Gardening and Landscaping, a 90 minute power point presentation featuring the variety of trees, shrubs, vines, canes, and herbaceous perennials that can be grown to produce fruits, nuts, and vegetables in New England, will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30 at the Winchendon Town Hall, 109 Front St. by naturalist and landscaper John Root (www.johnroot.net). Plants will be available for sale, and admis-sion is free. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Winchendon

Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTSPRINGFIELD — Alexandra J. Rocheleau

of Winchendon, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Western New England University on Feb. 14, 2014. Rocheleau graduated Cum Laude. This honor signi-fies scholastic excellence and is awarded at graduation to students who have achieved a grade point average between 3.30 and 3.60.

Western New England University is a private, independent, coeducational insti-tution founded in 1919. Located on an attractive 215-acre suburban campus in Springfield, Massachusetts, Western New England serves 3,800 students, including 2,500 full-time undergraduate students. Undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs are offered through Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, Pharmacy, and the School of Law.

MANCHESTER, NH — Mark W. Cronin, Interim Dean of the College, announces the following students that were named to the Dean’s List for the Fall 2013 semes-ter at Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH. Amanda LeClair of Winchendon and Victoria Roach of Rindge.

ELMIRA, NY — Julia Dillon of Templeton, currently studying chemistry and psycholo-gy at Elmira College, was named to the dean’s list for the fall 2013 term.

Elmira College is a private, coeduca-tional, liberal arts college founded in 1855, located in Elmira, NY. The College has an undergraduate enrollment of approximate-ly 1,200 full-time students, of which twelve percent are valedictorians or salutatorians of their high schools or preparatory schools. Currently, there are 184 part-time under-graduate students and 136 graduate stu-dents at the College. Students come from 35 states and more than 20 countries.

CAPSULEScontinued from page A3

Tammy St. Pierre photo

COMEDY AND AN AUCTIONLocal auctioneer extraordinare Bob Betourney did his usual good work at the Comedy

Night sponsored by the Sons of the American Legion March 22; drumming up some extra funds at the well attended (and fun-filled) evening.

Winchendon courier 10 Friday, April 4, 2014

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HELP WANTEDFULL/PART TIME

LICENSED NURSING ASSISTANTSSeeking Licensed Nursing Assistants to be part of a multi talented nursing management team; working with a very warm, caring team of individuals, you will help create and maintain a professional, homelike environment for our residents. As we continue our journey into Resident Centered Care, you will have the opportunity to be an integral part of the journey. Recent clinical experience, long-term care experience preferredPlease apply in person to: Diana Wilson, DNS, Good Shepherd Rehab & Nursing Center, 20 Plantation Drive, Jaffrey, NH 03452LABORORSHiring commercial roofers. Valid drivers license and your own transportation to shop. Must be available 6 days a week. Pay based on experience. DEG Roofing Office (978) 252-1928. 5.9MANAGER: GRILL & SANDWICH EATERYFull time, seasonal position: approx. eight months per year with benefits. Shop offers breakfast, lunch & early dinner. Full bar serving sandwiches, salads, grilled & fried foods. Restaurant experience required, must have strong customer service skills. Responsibilities include: preparing all food, scheduling & training employees, using POS system, reporting, cash handling, cleaning & safety management. Respond to COURIER Box 1: 44 Central St., Winchendon MA 01475

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

Seasonal employment at Camp Collier, Gardner: trains, supervises and mentors counselors in training and junior counselors; conducts formal workforce training curriculum for junior counselors. Must be 23+ years old, Red Cross or equivalent certification, CPR & first aid certified or able to receive certification prior to June 1; supervisory experience with teens; excellent communication skills; schedule: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.; start date June 24, end date Aug. 12. Contact Fran Longton at flongton@hopegardner.org for information or to apply for this position.

EXPERIENCED LIFEGUARDSeasonal employment at Camp Collier, Gardner: must be 18+ years old, Red Cross or equivalent certification; CPR & first aid certified; minimum one year camp lifeguard experience, two years preferred; schedule Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Start date June 30, end date Aug. 8. Contact Fran Longton at flongton@hopegardner.org for information or to apply for this position.

EMPLOYERSThese help wanted ads are FREE! Contact the Courier to find out how to get help for your business by calling (978) 297-0050 x 100 or email ruth@stonebridgepress.com.

FOR RENTROOMS FOR RENT

Downtown Winchendon, immediate occupancy: located on second floor in secured, peaceful, friendly, well maintained, quiet & drug free building. Independent group of older gentlemen to co-habitat, hallway & bath facilities are shared. 1 parking space, dumpster use, heat/HW included, electric included (except AC in summer).

$450 per month. References, income verification, first & last to move in. Applications available: Dick’s Place Barbershop, 298 Central St. (978) 297-0005. 2.28

TWO BEDROOM APT.First floor apt. roughly 800 sq. ft. living space. Fresh paint, flooring, fixtures. Nice entry way/coat room, great three season porch, two large bedrooms, big living room, gally/eat in kitchen w/appliances, washer/dryer hookups, fresh new bathroom, huge basement space for secure storage or guest room, small yard space to grill or garden. Separate private entrance, one car parking, dumpster available!! NO PETS, sorry. Well maintained, drug free building centrally located Winchendon. Definitely worth a look!! ONLY $1,000 month: HEAT INCLUDED !! (Tally your heat bills from winter add to your current rent). WOW this is a steal with heat included!! First and last to move in once approved. For application stop in or call: R&G Trust Co. (978) 297-2281 or Dick’s Place Barber Shop (978) 297-0005.

STUDIO APT.FOR RENT: Winchendon, Immediate Occupancy. Located on second floor (exterior stairs) in secured, friendly, well maintained building. 1 Parking Space, Dumpster useHEAT/HOT WATER INCLUDED!! $650 per month. References, proof of income, first and last to move in. (978) 297-0005, Dick’s Place Barber Shop for application.

GOODRICH APARTMENTSNow taking applications. Call for guidelines. (978) 297-0231. TFN

WINCHENDON1 bedroom, heat H/W and electric: $189 weekly or $700 month. First & last. Clean, parking, laundry room, storage. Call (978) 943-6208 or 978 297-3149. ALSO: 3 bedroom apartment with heat/ HW.

COMMERCIALSTORE FRONT RENTAL

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FOR SALECHEVY MALIBU

For sale 05 Chevy Malibu 85,000 miles, 1 owner, excellent condition. 28 mpg, no accidents, car in Rindge, $3,000, (978) 868-6027.

WANTEDWANTED

Craft and artisan vendors. Winchendon Kiwanis 30th annual family fun day and Massachusetts state Chili Cook off Saturday, Aug. 2 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Cost is $35 for 10x10 space. Contact Brenda at themom1960@yahoo.com or (978) 895-8752.

WE BUY GOLDPattie’s Jewelry, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: best prices. Behind Dunkin’ Donuts. (978) 297-3536.

WANTEDMotorcycles, ATVs, scooters. Cash paid for good deals. (978) 297-1800. 5.1.14

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSDrum teacher Leon LaPlante seeks used instruments and drum stands to help out high school students. (978) 297-1250.

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Brewer honored by Greater Gardner leadersGARDNER — Managing to fill a college

cafeteria to capacity at 7:30 in the morning is no mean feat; but if it is with the intention of honoring a long tenured statesman like state Sen. Steve Brewer, a breakfast meet-ing brought them out.

Last week’s gathering of politicians, edu-cators, and townspeople who just wanted to say “thanks” for his attention over the years, said volumes about the man, and his tenure.

Brewer did say the area holds special meaning for him, as relies on Mount Wachusett Community College to be a fore-runner in education; and described how the Winchendon Veterans’ Cemetery holds particular meaning for him.

“My maiden speech on the floor of the

state Senate was to persuade them to fund the initial $25,000 to set the process in motion for that cemetery. At the time, con-sensus was a ‘no’ vote for the project. But I guess, after my speech, they changed their minds,” Brewer explained.

So, indeed, with the donation of property by the town and an infusion of several mil-lion dollars garnered by then US Rep. John Olver, the cemetery is now a cornerstone of north central Massachusetts.

“It speaks to me, and to my dedication to veterans, that we managed to include this here. I am honored I could be instrumental in its founding. It’s something I include as part of what I am proud of in my career,” Brewer said.

Speakers, including Gardner Mayor

Mark Hawke and Worcester County Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, were all enthused with Brewer’s continued support and histo-ry with the region. State Rep. Anne Gobi spoke on behalf of fellow legislators, saying Brewer’s guidance and mentorship will be missed.

Gobi has announced a run for Brewer’s vacated seat this fall.

Hawke mentioned advice he had been given early in his own political career, which repeatedly told him to listen to Brewer, respect Brewer and watch Brewer for great insight into doing the job well and with grace.

“I couldn’t keep up with it, but I have followed that sage advice and never been steered wrong. If Steve cannot find an

answer, he knows where to go; he sur-rounds himself with knowledgable people and he uses them. I could only hope to do as well,” Hawke said.

Gobi said it was easy to find projects with “Steve’s fingerprints all over them; includ-ing veterans affairs, the firefighters support legislation and more.”

But, she pointed out, what people often forgot was the many times he “serves as a goalie, stopping things that shouldn’t go through. We don’t always hear about those, but we can be grateful he was there, dili-gent, and stopped them.”

Brewer was presented with a chair made by local manufacturer Standard Chair emblazoned with his years of service in the state legislature.

“There’s no need to sign up,” said Beane. “Just walk in at your convenience and go through the process. It’s pretty simple.”

Beane said another college in Massachusetts recently held an event that attracted 400 people.

“We’d like to beat that number,” she said.“We’re getting help from multiple clubs

around the Mount,” Beane added. “We have to have a minimum of 12 volunteers on-site at all times during the event.”

Beane, who has been president of the Anatomy, Physiology and Human Biology Club for two years, is majoring in comple-mentary health care. That includes classes in naturopathic and alternative medicines. She is also a Reiki level III master.

Beane noted that, in addition to blood cancers, Deletebloodcancer.org also assists patients with certain autoimmune disor-ders such as aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia, and other rare genetic disorders.

DONORScontinued from page A1

were hectic and stressful. “We were working in Mr.

(Steve) Haddad’s room a lot, but it was worth it in the end,” said Bishop.

She and since-graduat-ed Mariah Tenney then went over to Mount Wachusett Community College to deliver their pitch, one that included a power-point presentation and subsequently waited an anx-ious, nerve-wracking 45 min-utes before getting the good news the panel had green-light-ed the project.

“I really felt assertive and ambitious about it,” Bishop recalled. “I think it proved that kids can do more than people think.”

But the proposal wasn’t just

a simple request for a check. Pretty much anyone can do that. It included a skill-building provision in the form of soft-ball clinics (“a way to keep the upcoming youth involved and interested,” she noted) and an agreement that students rather than coaches take the lead in raking the field and keeping it in tip-top playing condition.

What originally inspired Myranda to get so involved in the first place? “We were in Mr. (Mark) Nardini’s class and we saw the Summer Solstice parade from years ago. I was really impressed by the floats and the excitement. I want to see that kind of local pride again.

“We can always make things better. I can work with anyone who wants to help. I guess I can ‘infiltrate’ any kind of group if that’s going to mean I can help

create more student activism. It just bugs me I can’t reach even more students because the things we’re doing are import-ant. They matter,” Bishop insisted.

“I like to think there’s a domi-no effect,” she continued. “If one person gets involved and then another and another, we make that difference.”

To that end, Myranda sees herself “kind of taking over” from senior Seth Signa, who earlier this year tried to orga-nize a student bus to the final basketball games of the season at Narragansett and was instru-mental in working to convince more students to show up at home games. “School pride can equal community pride,” remarked Bishop who plans to study sports medicine and psy-chology after graduating in 2015.

It’s not solely at Murdock where Myranda is working to instill that sense of pride. Every Tuesday night, she joins Signa and Justin Smith in coach-ing youth soccer at the Clark Memorial YMCA. “I’m just giv-ing back,” she shrugged, adding, “besides, I’m trying to recruit kids into soccer.”

“I think I get about four hours sleep a night, but that’s okay. I’m going all the time,” Myranda said. “I set high standards for myself and I’m not giving up try-ing to talk to kids about getting involved both in school and in town. I’m going to keep up with all of this. This is our school and our town, all of ours.

“I want to be remembered as someone who made a positive difference. I want to leave my handprint on the school,” she concluded.

BISHOPcontinued from page A1

BY GREG VINECOURIER CORRESPONDENT

Winchendon’s annual spring cleanup will take place on Saturday, April 26, which also happens to be Earth Day. While the event was dormant for several years, the Board of Health decided three years ago to oversee the cleanup. BOH Chairman Lionel Cloutier has been working with others in the community to get things organized.

Volunteers will meet at 8 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park, across the street from the police station. Cleanup runs until 3 p.m.

“I’m also hoping we can get Parks and Recreation to participate,” said Cloutier. “They started this event several years ago.

A couple of people from the town’s ‘Green Team’ then said they’d take it over but things never happened. There was an ad hoc committee led by Guy Corbosiero that cleaned up Central Street and the bike path for a while, but it’s a lot of work.”

We’re also working on getting Boy Scout Troop #193 to participate, along with mem-bers of the Key Club at Murdock. They helped out last year. And sometimes volun-teers we hadn’t expected just show up and pitch in. Anybody’s welcome. Last year we had 89 people help out. It was great.”

Maps of Winchendon are marked and handed out to volunteers to let them know where they should be working.

“We don’t want people going over streets or neighborhoods that have already been cleaned up,” Cloutier said. “The maps defi-nitely make it less confusing.”

Cloutier says the Department of Public Works has donated a large dumpster for eventual transport of the waste to the town’s transfer station.

“Last year we collected seven and a-half tons of trash,” Cloutier said.

He also noted that Belletete’s Hardware has donated large plastic trash bags and latex gloves for the volunteers. The com-

pany has made similar donations to past events.

Cumberland Farms is also doing its part to support the effort. Cloutier said volun-teers will be given vouchers, which they can take to the store on Front Street in return for a soft drink.

Cloutier said he’s also working on getting donations of doughnuts and sandwiches from local businesses.

According to Cloutier, Bob Betourney and Rick McAllister are donating the use of their pickup trucks – as is Cloutier – to transport larger items directly to the trans-fer station.

“That way we don’t have big items taking up a lot of space in the dumpster,” he said.

Cloutier also said residents could pick up their own neighborhood, then leave full bags outside where they can picked up. Anyone interested in doing so can call (508) 353-2064 or (978) 297-3537, ext. 5 to let orga-nizers know where bags are waiting.

“Not only is this a great way to clean up our community,” says Cloutier, “it’s a great way for neighbors to get to know one anoth-er. I’m also hoping that members of the var-ious town boards and committees will find time to help out for at least part of the day.”

Winchendon courier 11 Friday, April 4, 2014

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John A MizhirAttorney at Law

11 Central St.Winchendon, MA 01475

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BRUCE’S BURNER SERVICEBruce W. Cloutier

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YEARS OFSATISFIEDSERVICE

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MORTGAGEE’S NOTICE OF SALE OF REAL ESTATE

By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain Mortgage given by Jeffrey J. Currie and Cathleen I. Currie to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for, Lendia, Inc., its suc-cessors and assigns, dated March 17, 2006 and recorded with the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds at Book 38604, Page 61, subsequently as-signed to GMAC Mortgage, LLC by Mort-gage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for, Lendia, Inc., its successors and assigns, by assignment recorded in said Registry of Deeds in Book 49444, Page 269, subsequently assigned to Ocwen Loan Ser-vicing, LLC by GMAC Mortgage, LLC, by as-signment recorded in said Registry of Deeds in Book 51420, Page 148, of which the Mort-gage the undersigned is the present holder, for breach of the conditions of said Mortgage and for the purpose of foreclosing the same will be sold at Public Auction at 02:00 PM on April 11, 2014 at 178 Holly Drive, Winchen-don, partly in Gardner, MA, all and singular the premises described in said Mortgage, to wit:Closing Date: March 17, 2006 Borrower(s): Jeffrey J. Currie and Cathleen I. Currie Property: 178 Holly Drive Winchendon, MA 01475 A certain parcel of land together with all buildings and structures thereon situated on Holly Drive, partly in Winchendon and partly in Gardner, Worcester County, Mas-sachusetts, and being shown as Lot 30 on a plan entitled “Plan of Lots Prepared for West End Development Corp., Gardner & Winchendon, MA.”, dated March 5,1984, by Michael S. Szoc, recorded with said Deeds in Plan Book 517, Plan 27, to which plan ref-erence is hereby made for a more particular description of said lot. For Title, see deed in B. 22271 P 257The premises are to be sold subject to and with the benefit of all easements, restric-tions, building and zoning laws, unpaid tax-es, tax titles, water bills, municipal liens and assessments, rights of tenants and parties in possession.TERMS OF SALE:A deposit of FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS AND 00 CENTS ($5,000.00) in the form of a certified check or bank treasurer’s check will be required to be delivered at or before the time the bid is offered. The successful bid-der will be required to execute a Foreclosure Sale Agreement immediately after the close of the bidding. The balance of the purchase price shall be paid within thirty (30) days from the sale date in the form of a certified check, bank treasurer’s check or other check satis-factory to Mortgagee’s attorney. The Mort-gagee reserves the right to bid at the sale, to reject any and all bids, to continue the sale and to amend the terms of the sale by written or oral announcement made before or during the foreclosure sale. If the sale is set aside for any reason, the Purchaser at the sale shall be entitled only to a return of the deposit paid. The purchaser shall have no further recourse against the Mortgagor, the Mortgagee or the Mortgagee’s attorney. The description of the premises contained in said mortgage shall control in the event of an error in this publication. TIME WILL BE OF THE ESSENCE.Other terms if any, to be announced at the sale. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC Present Holder of said Mortgage, By Its Attorneys, ORLANS MORAN PLLC P.O. Box 540540 Waltham, MA 02454 Phone: 781-790-7800March 21, 2014March 28, 2014April 4, 2014

Commonwealth of MassachusettsThe Trial Court

Probate and Family CourtWorcester Division

Worcester Probate and Family Court225 Main Street

Worcester, MA 01608(508) 831-2000

Docket No. WO14P0823EAEstate of: Conrad E. RoyDate of Death: 2/14/2014INFORMAL PROBATEPUBLICATION NOTICE

To all persons interested in the above cap-tioned estate, by Petition ofPetitioner Gail L Smith of Winchendon MAa Will has been admitted to informal probate.Gail L Smith of Winchendon MA has been informally appointed as the Personal Repre-sentative of the estate to serve without sure-ty on the bond.The estate is being administered under infor-mal procedure by the Personal Representa-tive under the Massachusetts Uniform Pro-bate Code without supervision by the Court. Inventory and accounts are not required to be filed with the Court, but interested parties are entitled to notice regarding the admin-istration from the Personal Representative and can petition the Court in any matter relating to the estate, including distribution of assets and expenses of administration. Interested parties are entitled to petition the Court to institute formal proceedings and to obtain orders terminating or restricting the powers of Personal Representatives ap-pointed under informal procedure. A copy of the Petition and Will, if any, can be obtained from the Petitioner.April 4, 2014

LEGALS

Greg Vine photo

Dust rises as yet another form of spring cleanup gets underway down Central Street. The annual sand drifts are definitely back.

Annual spring Earth Day cleanup in the works

The day before, Hines recounted, he wrote a suicide note. “I asked for forgiveness for what I was about to do,” he remembered. “The voices in my head were telling me I had to die.”

And so the next day, Hines made the attempt. “I was shocked back into reality,” he recalled. “All I wanted to do was survive.”

Rescued by the Coast Guard but suffering severe injuries to multiple vertebrae, Hines, who has appeared on Larry King Live, 20/20, Anderson Cooper 360, and Good Morning America, subsequently, “promised myself that I will fight tooth and nail to never be like that again. Today I am honest to the ‘t’ about my mental health. That’s what saved me.”

Hines’ speech capped a day that began with remarks from MWCC President Dan Asquino and included a panel of mental health experts: Dr. Stephanie Rodriguez of UMass, Dr. Heather Brenhouse of Northeastern University and Bryan Doe from the Department of Veterans Affairs Outreach.

Doe discussed his issues with post-trau-matic stress disorder since his army dis-charge in 2010 after serving in Iraq. But he promoted a larger point. “When it comes down to community, it’s all of our responsi-bility to get involved,” he said, adding, “just because you’re not a mental health physi-cian doesn’t mean you can’t do something.”

“We need,” Dr. Rodriguez told the audi-ence, “to work to change the stigma associ-ated with mental health and mental illness. Education is a huge factor in change.”

Dr. Brenhouse observed, “there is a direct link between childhood trauma and being diagnosed with a mental illness later.”

While Heywood Hospital distributed pam-phlets describing its well-known psychiat-ric service options including both a mental health and geriatric psych unit, as well as the Monday-Friday outpatient partial hos-pitalization program, Shine Initiative was essentially introducing itself to the local community, pointing out the organization works with the Greater Gardner Suicide Prevention Task Force as well as the Mount and the Central Mass Suicide Prevention Coalition.

It was left to Hines to wrap up the day-long event when he reminded the crowd, “If you see someone potentially in mental distress, ask them if they’re okay. Asking can save a life,” he stressed.

CONFERENCEcontinued from page A1

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Tournament of Plays a big hit...again!

Advisor Mark Nardini has been a fixture with the tournament longer than he has been teaching.

BY GREG VINECOURIER CORRESPONDENT

WINCHENDON — The Morton E. Converse Tournament of Plays was held last weekend – March 27, 28 and 29 – in the auditorium at Murdock Middle High School and, as always, the event attract-ed large crowds. This marked the 22nd consecutive year that Mark Nardini, who teaches American literature and mass media, has served as the Tournament of Plays coordinator. It’s also nearly 90 years since the first tournament was held.

Awards announced following Saturday night’s performances: Best Play, Seniors: “That’s Not How I Remember It”; Best Lead Actor, Senior Justin Harris; Best Lead Actress, Freshman Victoria Swanson; Best Supporting Actor, Sophomore Zachary Stadtfeld; Best Supporting Actress, Junior Chelsea Bitter; Most Entertaining Male, Senior Daniel Fournier; Most Entertaining Female, Freshman Alyssa LaBrack; Best Ensemble Performance: Freshmen; Best Production Design: Seniors; Best Costumes: Seniors.

Class of 2014 Particpants – “That’s Not How I Remember It”: Mom: Ariella Whitaker; Dad: Dakota Wood; Lola: Emma Page; Barry: Justin Harris; Lola’s Mom: Jacqueline Skawski; Lola’s Dad: Seth Signa; Karl: Alex Emerson; Yann: Dan Fournier; Yann 2: Wil

Burdsall; Thugs: Mariah Boisvert, Felicia Ingman, Katrina Williams, and Katie Burns; Nurse #1: Amber Brown; Nurse #2: Autumn Brown; Jim: Alisha Tobin; Lights: Zachary Martins; Music: Rachel Durgin; Directors: Kelly Fitzpatrick and Peter Birney; Special Thanks to Liz Spady.

Class of 2015 Participants – “Happily Never After”: Counselor: Victoria Marshall; Scribe: Rachel Woodman; Stepsister #1: Bethany Desilets; Stepsister #2: Rachel Dickens; Cinderella: Olivia Helm; Stepmother: Caitie Thayer; Charming: Dan Huff; Chicken Little: Jocelyn Cormier; Ling: Robert Pesce; Frog Princess: Chelsea Bitter; Beauty: Nicole Eliason; Frog: Austin Landress; Tree: Jordan Provencial; Special Thanks to Mrs. Bridget Marinelli and all Murdock custodians.

Class of 2016 Participants – “Paper or Plastic?”: Sarah: Chandler Torres Pagan; Carl: Zachary Stadtfeld; Regina: Lily Christensen; Kenny: Corey Desgroseilliers; Little Sam: Evan Dupuis; Cart Hunter #1: Haley Jandris; Cart Hunter #2: Lacey Winnings; Angus: Caleb Landry; In-Store Announcer: Mark Lawrence; Social Woman: Phylicia Shippy; Greenie #1: Christian Whitaker; Greenie #2: Jacob Maxfield; Cracked Egg Woman: Deanna Polcari; Cowboy: Sean Sutton; Tabloid Woman: Lindsey Paul.

Class of 2017 Participants – “15 Reasons Not To Be In A Play”: Geek #1, Old Man #1, Chris, Mark: Alden Provost; Jake, Travis, Reed, Butch: Jared Nelson; Miss Griswald, Cecily, Mom, Gina: Alyssa LaBrack; Misty, Megan, Television Reporter, Nora: Colby Sinclair; Pete, Geek #3, Old Man #3, Baby: Bryan Lafrennie; Sharon, Weathergirl: Victoria Lemire; Emily, Mandy, Bella, Mavis, Becca: Victoria Swanson; Geek #2, Old Man #2, Boy, Norm :Eric Desgroseilliers; Jane, Weathergirl: Brooke Harris; Steward, Rob, Geek #4, Old Man #4, Director: Andrew Burns; Alan, Weatherman, Zach, Censor: John Pereira; Directed by: Kristi Iannacone and Marcus Provost; Special Thanks: Maureen Provost and Kelly Desgroseilliers.

Lights and Sound: Frances Castro

Programs designed in Mr. Mike Fontaine’s computer graphic design class.

Greg Vine photos

Top: The freshmen who participated this year.Center: Sophomores found fun in fairy tales.Bottom: And the best play was by the seniors, class of 2014

The class of 2015 found shopping a...chore?

games at that early age didn’t really mean anything, they were told from the get-go, “we keep score for a reason.” Indeed. They didn’t like losing very much, (and they lost a lot in the very beginning), but that’s also how they figured out they had to get better if they wanted to win. They didn’t get serenaded just because they participated. I have long believed that this early immersion into reality not only was a factor in their winning multiple state softball championships, but proved beneficial in the classroom as well. That group wasn’t coddled, they weren’t protected from getting beaten on the field — and that toughened them and helped better prepare them for the adulthood they’ve now entered.

Look, no one in their right mind ever suggested parenting was easy. We’ve all made our share of mistakes but it says here that babying kids, over-scheduling and overprotecting them, even though intentions may be noble, does more harm than good. No responsible parent is going to give any teenager or adolescent the complete freedom to which they think they’re entitled, but there’s a reasonable balance between helping a kid broaden their horizons and cramming a million activities into each 24-hour period and feel-ing the absolute need as well to be there watching every movement. That’s not parenting — that’s suffocating, and that’s in no way fair to any youngster. Any.

Happy April. Finally. See you next week.

JOURNEYcontinued from page A4