The rock group Chicago’s hit from their debut album may have asked the famous philosophical question about time as a hook for a hit song, but whether anyone actually knows the precise time might be debatable. Yes, people do care.
They care enough that there are at least 40 calendar systems in use around the world today – two in the Christian world alone – and the small nation of Kiribati spread out over 1,800 miles of islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean began a process in 1994 to successfully petition to have the International Dateline moved by 2000. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Retired Plymouth teacher Nancy A. Franks, who has built an enthusiastic audience for her monthly lecture visits to Whitman Council on Aging’s senior center, appeared there Monday, Jan. 6 with Moon Pies, gummy bears, New Year’s greetings and a talk on New Year’s celebrations and traditions around the world and closer to home, including ball drops – and twists on that theme.
Whitman briefly joined in the latter category with a Toll House cookie drop in 2015 and 2016, but a trend of frigid temperatures both years cut the tradition off before it could take root and the larger-than-life cookie – crafted by SST students for the town is now in storage.
So, why the hoopla over Jan. 1 anyway?
“I really do two different kinds of presentations,” Frank said, “I do the historical ones, or I pick a topic like this and just jump around to anything that comes to mind.”
Julius Ceasar introduced the months of January (for Janus, the god of beginnings, endings and time) and February (for Februus, the god of purification), creating a 12-month calendar in 45 BC. Pope Gregory VIII then introduced in 1582, the calendar we still use today, replacing the Julian calendar.
The difference?
The Julian calendar was not entirely accurate, but Franks argued it was close enough. His inaccuracy is about 11 minutes short of the 365 ¼ days per year in the Gregorian calendar.
“I think it’s amazing that anyone was even thinking or figuring that out that long ago as a reform of the Roman calendar,” Franks said, putting words in Julius Caesar’s thought bubble.
“Eleven minutes? What’s the big deal?” Franks said. “Well, it’s because we would have gained eight days every 1,000 years. Does that really matter? I’m not sure it does.”
But the Julian calendar is still used in astronomy.
“When they started the Julian calendar on Jan. 1, 45 BC, and they recorded events in the stars and the planets, they began counting on that day … and they still use it,” she said. “They didn’t bother to change it over to a new calendar.”
It’s also used and as a religious calendar by the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches and by the Amazigh people of North Africa.
Ball droppage –
and other things
New York began its ball drop at midnight tradition in 1908 and it was last updated in 2008.
The ball is 12 feet in diameter and is now made of 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles imported from Ireland and 32,256 LED lights. It weighs 11,875 pounds – mostly electronic hardware.
The ball is able to create 16 million vibrant colors in billions of patterns, the theme of which changes each year.
Around the United States, New Year’s celebrations include the midnight drop of, among others:
The Mobile, Ala., 12-foot in diameter electrified Moon Pie; The Cherry T. Ball in the “Cherry Capital of the U.S.,” Traverse City, Mich., saluting the charitable fundraising purpose in the name; Mt. Olive, N.C.’s three-foot long pickle drops into a giant pickle jar; the Boise, Idaho potato drop; Port Clinton, and Ohio’s Walleye drop on the Lake Erie shoreline. Miami raises an orange in homage to the state’s big cash crop as well as the Orange Bowl Festival parade and football game.
Points of pride
Kiribati, in the central Pacific Ocean, includes a largely uninhabited Caroline Island, renamed Millenium Island thanks to the nation’s effort to move the International Dateline so the island sits with the rest of the island and atolls on the same side of the line.
It was, you guessed it, a publicity stunt to draw tourists to be the first nation on earth to celebrate the new millennium in 2000.
“It would [also] eliminate the confusion caused by having a part of the country on a different day,” she said.
The United Arab Emirates also spared no expense this year in its annual quest to keep their record for the largest drone display this New Year’s Eve,
Traditions
underneath it all
Countries around the world have some interesting – and a few strange – New Year’s traditions. Here are a few:
Philippines – Round objects mean good luck so Filipinos wear polka dots, carry coins in their pockets and eat 12 to 13 round fruits, which also symbolize a sweet and happy new year.
Romania – where brown bears are revered symbols which their mythology indicates the animals have the power to protect and heal, the people don bear costumes – often real full bear skins – to dance the death and rebirth of the bear’s spirit. While some of the costumes are now made of faux fur, and many of the real bearskin costumes have been carefully preserved and handed down in families, the brown bear is now endangered in Romania.
Brazil – revelers jump seven waves head on, while making a wish at the beach, often while wearing white, the color of good luck. The color of underwear one puts on for the occasion also symbolizes your hope for the new year – White is for peace and harmony; blue is for tranquility and friendship; red is for passion; yellow is for money and luck; pink is for love; green is for health; orange is for professional success and purple is for inspiration. Brazilians also carry a bay leaf, also called a priest’s leaf, in their pocket as a spiritual token that sharpens intuition and extra good luck.
Denmark – Danes throw plates and glasses on their neighbor’s door to leave all the ill will from the previous year behind. When one awakens in the morning, lots of smashed dishes outside your door mean you will have better luck in the new year – not that it’s a stellar commentary on your previous year. Germany and the Netherlands also practice this tradition.
Famous birthdays
Dec. 31
Anthony Hopkins, 1937, John Denver, 1943, Donna Summer, 1948
Jan.1
Paul Revere, 1735; J. Edgar Hoover, 1895, J.D. Salinger, 1919.
Franks returns to Whitman Senior Center on Feb. 3 to speak about Valentine’s Day.
Closer look at the Green Book
WHITMAN – If not for the controversies and the 2018 Academy Award for Best Picture, won by “Green Book,” many white Americans might not have heard of the annual guide (1936 to 1967) by that name, offering travel advice, lists of safe and welcoming hotels for African-American travelers across the United States and ads for businesses – especially car sales.
Dr. Gloria Greis, the executive director of the Needham History Center and Museum, spoke at the Whitman Public Library on Saturday, Dec. 14 to add some informational meat on that skeletal knowledge in her talk, “Driving While Black.”
And area towns like Hanson and Kingston have earned listings in the guide over the years – for South Hanson, 1948, to be precise. More on that in a bit.
The Green Book got its name, in part, from the color featured in its cover designs, but also for its founder, Victor Hugo Green, who founded the guide in 1936, aided by his wife Alma, who took over briefly after his 1960 death.
A postal employee and travel agent in Harlem, Green was perfectly situated to make his guidebook the one people immediately thought of – despite the existence of at least six others – he could depend on a national network of postal employees to bolster the word-of-mouth campaign and, more importantly advertising, by his fellow postal employees.
While she admitted her presentation is “a little Needham-centric,” Greis, said that a few years ago, a local resident sent her a note asking if she knew Needham had an entry in the Green Book, sending her on a search for information on several other South Shore communities, as well.
But, initially, Greis, herself, hadn’t known what the Green Book was.
“I daresay, I was not alone in my ignorance and I daresay that my ignorance says something about the way we approach local history,” she told her audience at Whitman Public Library. “Despite general sense that modern history is comprehensive and everything is known, the historical record is surprisingly incomplete. Records get lost, or not recorded in the first place.”
She added that even towns like Needham, where today an ABC-affiliate television network is located, and has a well-regarded educational system, was in Colonial times, considered literate, but not literary.
People could read and write, “but they didn’t spend a lot of time putting their thoughts down on paper.”
Therefore, recorded history is usually found in official documents – tax rolls, town clerks’ records, church registers, town reports and the like.
“This is the history of the town’s leaders,” she said. “While this information is incredibly important, it’s very incomplete as a town history. It leaves out large segments of community experience.”
That is largely the experience of the working class, Greis said – “the routine rhythms of work and leisure, the accommodations of neighborhood, the attitudes, opinions and relationships that governed everybody’s everyday life.”
Often who gets to tell that history adds another layer of controversy, which is why the dramatic film “Green Book,” ran into trouble by literally putting a white character in the driver’s seat, not only of a car, but also of a Black character’s story.
“Piecing together historical information about the non-establishment groups in a town takes a number of different strategies,” Greis said. The Green Book is one of those.
Hanson, for example was among the 36 communities in Massachusetts with a listing – a small house at 26 Reed St., once owned by a woman named Mary Pina, was listed in the 1948 Green Book as an accommodation for African-American travelers and tourists both in a guest room in her home, and for campers in her spacious back yard.
“The [accommodations] tend to follow the highways and areas we still think of as vacation spots,” Greis said. “But not all. Some of them are on byways, like Needham.” And Hanson.
Hanson Health Board Chair Arlene Dias was amazed at that bit of historical news.
“There were a lot of Pinas on South Street, but I don’t remember somebody living that far up on Reed Street,” Dias said in a phone interview Friday, Dec. 20. “I’ve never heard of [the Green Book listing]. It is interesting.”
She said she would be calling family members who were more knowledgeable of the Cape Verdean population’s history in Hanson for more information.
“I had relatives that were Pinas, but they were on Pleasant Street,” Dias said.
Greis said that, as much as the Green Book offered guidance for the safety of travelers, it also offered economic safety for small businesses.
“It is a compendium of some of the most important people, successful businesses and important political milestones of the 20th Century,” she said. “It’s a who’s who of a rising class of African-American middle-class entrepreneurs.”
Before the advent of the Green Book and similar travel guide, Black travelers had to prepare ahead, packing food and enough gasoline for the journey, because there was no certainty that they’d find a safe place to eat, lodge, fuel their cars or even use the bathrooms, Greis said.
Green had written in the forward to the Green Book that it served as a way to ensure safety and dignity in travel until African-Americans were afforded equal opportunities and privileges in the United States.
“It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication,” he wrote.
The Jim Crow South was not the only area where travel problems might be encountered.
“These limits were imposed on African-Americans all over the country – even in the North,” Greis said. “We might not have had the actual signs, but we certainly had the signals.”
Even in Harlem during it’s “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s and ’30s, the more famous nightclubs like The Cotton Club, did not allow Black customers in the audience for performances of the biggest African-American entertainers of the day.
As Black workers found job opportunities in the North, especially in Detroit, their economic condition improved, but that was only one reason car ownership by Black Americans grew.
“Sometimes, it was the only way of getting easily from place to place,” she said. The Green Book and other guides also advised Black people to buy a car as soon as they were able to for that reason. “The Green Book guided them to services where they were welcome, reducing what Green kindly called ‘aggravation.’”
That aggravation could range from out-and-out violence to Sundown Towns, where the threat was thinly veiled.
Getting one’s kicks on Route 66, was evidently meant for whites only as there were no welcoming business along the route musically extolled from Chicago as one “motors West.”
The first Green Book in 1936 covered only New York and Westchester County in 16 pages, but shortly grew to more than 9,500 businesses in 100 pages covering the entire United States, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean.
“Esso Oil, which was notable for its progressive hiring, including African-American executives, scientists and franchisees, distributed the book throughout its station network,” Greis said.
It was also aimed at the African-American Middle Class and was relatively unknown among people of color in lower economic strata.
The Interstate Highway system helped spell the end of the Green Book, both by presenting a more homogeneous appearance for travel – and bypassing many of the businesses that advertised in it.
Local man’s film makes Netflix debut
Who was the Virgin Mary before she became the mother of Christ, revered in the Catholic Church? What was her life like as a girl and young woman? How well do we know her and, after the passage of millennia, is it possible to know her now?
“There’s not a lot in the Scriptures on Mary,” screenwriter and Whitman native Timothy Michael Hayes said in an interview Friday, Nov. 26 about the film, “Mary,” making its debut on Netflix tomorrow – Friday, Dec. 6. “When I was asked to do it – my producer approached me and asked me, ‘Would you be interested in writing an original telling of Mary’s story?’ I just saw all the obstacles in that. [But] I said, ‘That’s a challenge. That’s something different, I haven’t heard of that [being done before],’” he recalled. “That idea of that challenge, was like, ‘Yeah, let me take it on. Let me try it. Let me do it.”
One challenge was that they wanted the film to appeal to all denominations and all dogmas. It is also a different kind of genre, which Hayes calls a Biblical thriller, one that’s theologically solid, if that’s what one is looking for – and the film is an attempt to appeal across borders. IMDb cross references the film on its site as a political thriller, an action film and just plain thriller.
A bipartisan approach, if you will.
The call to write this script came in 2018, with the changes that often happen in pre-production.
“It’s a journey, and you go on to other things,” he said. That the film world stutter-start was not unusual and when it was on again, he had rewrites and revisions to do with changing visions of new directors. Hayes pointed to his next project on the life of Milton Hershey is going though that because a new director just came on board.
Lead Producer Mary Aloe of Aloe Entertainment, with whom Hayes has worked before, was the first person to ask him to write the screenplay.
“Mary,” like most films these days, it seems, has generated a bit of controversy, too, mainly centering on the casting of mostly unknown Israeli and Arab actors from the Middle East, especially Israeli actress Noa Cohen, who had been wrongfully identified as a Palestinian. Only Sir Anthony Hopkins, who portrays King Herod, is a “big name” Hollywood actor.
“If we’re honest about that, to a certain point, controversy is a good thing,” Hayes said. “It generates interest. Netflix’s interest in acquiring it also brought the idea that a lot of people will watch this.”
The production schedule was a rushed one, as filming in Ouarzazate, Morocco only wrapped up in March. “But we knew all along that the goal was holiday 2024.”
If it missed that deadline, it wouldn’t debut until February 2025, with no guarantee it would get the same audience numbers.
The original “Miracle on 34th Street,” hit theaters on June 4, 1947, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” came close, opening on Jan. 7, 1947, and “The Bishop’s Wife,” didn’t hit theaters until Feb. 14, 1948.
“Spoiler alert,” he said. “At the end, the baby Jesus is born, so it’s kind of a Christmas thing. [The Dec. 6 Netflix debut] kind of gives it a three-week run up to Christmas.”
Hayes said he and the producers had always wanted a theatrical release for “Mary.”
“It would have been riskier,” he said. “With Netflix, you have a lot locked in, and the biggest global audience in the world. The key there is global. … Mary’s story appeals across the globe.”
At core, Hayes and his producers set out to explore the notion of doubt in the film, an intention at the root of some of the online “controversy.”
“Certain factions of religion, or religious mindsets, say Mary never doubted,” he said. “That’s just not interesting, nor is it very human. I feel that the more human someone is, the stronger they are in the end – to acknowledge the humanity, what it means to be alive, and come out on the other side, only makes them stronger.”
Confirmed as a Roman Catholic, Hayes said he grew up with a foundational understanding of the “religious” aspects of Mary’s story, including the non-biblical doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
“But because so little of Mary’s early life is found in the canonical Scriptures — beyond key mentions of her in Matthew and Luke — more was needed to tell her fuller human story,” he said, stressing that he has many conversations with faith leaders of all stripes, discussing nuances of belief, interpretation and language.
Hayes, who is the father of four daughters among his five children, said his script emphasizes that Mary was a human being, after all.
“The idea that she’s a pregnant teenager, unwed and didn’t understand why … and she wasn’t scared? That just doesn’t speak to any kind of reality that you or I would know,” he said. “Of course you’re going to be terrified. Of course you’re going to have doubts to work through. It’s a larger metaphor for what we all go through. Doubt is inherent … every day we wake up doubting ourselves.”
He maintains it does not step away from the Devine – it reinforces it.
Hayes said he has also instilled some subtle humor in the film. The early buzz about the film has been great, despite the controversies.
“My job is to write something that other artists will read, actors, directors – keep going, costume designers, set builders, and they will see an opening for their own creativity,” he said. “There’s a way to do it that that script is an open door to other artists. To see all of us come together from across the globe …”
He hints there just might be a sequel if the film is a big enough hit and there is a theme that they see as a good one to explore.
MEET THE
SCREENWRITER
So, one might ask, who is Timothy Michael Hayes?
Valedictorian at W-H in 1988, Hayes then went on to New York University’s film school, where he graduated in 1992. He’s raised his five children in Scituate.
“I could have probably gone anywhere, but I didn’t apply anywhere else,” he said of NYU. “I applied early admission. I was always interested in everything. I love to write. I love music and grew to love photography – and where can you do all three of those things in one place?”
An early influence was the Cohen brothers, [“Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona”] whose editor was the elder brother of Hayes’ roommate and filmmaking partner. Thatconnection helped bring theCohen Brothers to his senior thesis bay to view their senior film and offer comments.
His “big, happy detour” was meeting someone from the Massachusetts South Shore and returning to get married. His wife was a dancer, and the couple opened a dance studio in Scituate.
He also goes into Scituate High each year to help teach a Literature to Film class.
“I kind of stopped doing film for a little bit,” he says as he kept the books and did customer service for the studio. “Life has these interesting journeys.”
His writing process, now that he’s back in film, is different for each film, Hayes said, but most are historically based.
“I’m a lover of history,” he said. “At W-H, that was my passion.”
He is typically hired to either adapt a book or historical incidents that have no specific book for reference, and you do your own reference work. Films like “Mary.”
When adapting a book, he thoroughly notates it with three pens – black, red and blue. The black ink tracks reflections of the original idea; blue notes if there is a running theme at work and red is for the “big highlight” moments.
“I notate everything I read,” he said. That includes performance programs.
Everyone’s life is a story, Hayes believes.
“To me, stories are the essence of what it means to be human,” he said. “We do it every day. … and you’ve got to hook them, which is so prevalent now, in the streaming age on TV.”
He said it has always been true in cinema, especially in the past 20 to 30 years, when scripts outlining the first act of the film has to be done in 22 pages instead of 25, as action has been key.
His main professional goal right now is moving more into controlling his own properties.
“I’ve been a gun-for-hire since I got back into this,” he said. “It’s more than a full-time job. It’s really seven days a week, 24 hours a day, because I love it. I always have pages [to revise].”
His college roommate has helped with that – he wrote a little film called “Elf.”
And, what’s next after “Mary?”
Hayes is also in the midst of an adaptation of Norman Rockwell’s autobiography into a five-season series.
“For me, his story is the story of the 20th century,” he said of Rockwell’s work. “When you’re living it, which is why I love what I do, I’m living it. You’re balancing so many things at one time.”
He’s also working on a “fantastical biopic” on the life of chocolate king Milton Hershey for Dandelion Media, and most recently began work on “Box of Light,” a feature adaptation of Evan I. Schwartz’s biography of Philo T. Farnsworth, the true inventor of television.
Take a break – a coffee break
Sometimes, it seems, one makes the best decisions when there’s not much time to think about it.
That was certainly true for Matt Wood, who found himself losing an automotive job about seven years ago – one that he held for 16 years.
“My wife’s like, ‘do something else,’” he recalls, “I said, OK, I want to open a coffee shop, so I just started that.”
It’s a people-centered business, whose founder used to love working behind the counter and hearing customers greet him by name.
That is reflected in the people he hires – happy people – because those are the people skills he feels can’t be taught and is just as welcoming to people who like to work or hold meetings in his shops. So far, the business is making fixtures of some of his regulars.
“We have a lot of people who come in every single day,” Wood said. “We have a guy who’s writing a book who comes in every day and just sits at the counter and does his research and writing. That’s what [the shop] is here for.”
It’s a can-do attitude that is in synch with how this small business chain was born and was among those few businesses that enjoyed expansion during the COVID pandemic.
“We opened two shops during the pandemic, in Whitman and Bridgewater,” he said. Some of that was luck of location as the Better Bean in Bridgewater center had closed, during COVID and never reopened. Since Wood had already rented space for his photography studio from the same landlord, on the third floor of the same building, he called as soon as he heard the Bean was not reopening.
“I told him we need to take the space,” Wood said. The place needed a lot of work, but he got it done and finds the shop is something of a magnet for the Bridgewater State University community, especially.
He opened his first Restoration Coffee business as a corner counter in the Bostonian Barbershop in Whitman in 2017 and recently opened his latest shop in a new mixed-use apartments and commercial property at 999 Main St., in Hanson. He left the Bostonian during COVID when occupancy regulations would not allow the coffee counter to stay and Hanson embodies the most recent growth.
“I’ve been waiting for a while for this, but I’m glad it’s all done,” he said of the property investment. “Once we got the OK to start putting stuff in here, we were open about two weeks later.” He had already been accumulating the equipment he needed. “My whole basement was full of everything,” he said.
The Steve Egan development replaced the burned-out remains of a former dress shop torched during a string of South Shore arson cases about a decade ago, an abandoned, building where a construction firm used to be and the vacant house where “The Whole Scoop” ice cream parlor had also been located at 965 Main St.
The coffee shop business is not Wood’s first career change. He had also been a wedding photographer for six years at one point.
“I was always meeting with customers in coffee shops,” he said. “I always liked that whole vibe. It’s kind of like that ‘Cheers’ thing with ‘everybody knows your name,’ and they come in every day.”
Wood still has locations in East Bridgewater, the Bridgewater common area and Whitman center.
It took a little while to get the Whitman location, he said.
“The owner of that, who also owns this, would come into the East Bridgewater shop during COVID, telling me ‘I’ve got a spot for you, I’ve got a spot for you.’” Wood recalled. But at the time, he wasn’t ready for that leap and he had been trying to get a spot in Hanson in the plaza where Shaw’s is located. A non-competition clause in the plaza owner’s agreement with Shaw’s, which also sells baked goods, ended that quest.
“I called Steve and said, ‘Let’s just do it,’” he said.
It was the first location he’s moved into that didn’t require work on an older building, such as straightening walls, and the apartments on the upper floors were already rented out. Egan is building another similar business at 965 Main St.
“I’m glad that Steve built this,” Wood said. “The place looks beautiful and he did such a good job.”
Wood said there were Hanson residents who were upset about losing the house where The Whole Scoop had been, but noted there were no takers even after Egan offered the house free of cost to anyone who wanted to move it.
“The people that owned the house were going to do something like this,” he added. “They were going to knock it down.”
Egan has built a similar project in Whitman center, where Supreme Pizza, Whitman Wellness Center and John Russell Studio have moved.
When Wood started his business, it was just coffee, and finding a name was the first order of business.
“It’s wild, trying to figure out business names,” he said. “Every single name’s been taken. He hit on Restoration Coffee because it’s a beverage that restores you.
“Coffee brings you back to life, but also both the Whitman and Bridgewater shops both needed full rehabs before you could do anything – like a full restoration.”
When they added a menu, they started out easy with toasts and simple fare, and chicken salad sandwiches adding what they’ve wanted to the menu as they go along.
Much of that took place during the pandemic when business was slow.
“We were all very tight and [at times] were just hanging around for hours, waiting for people to come in,” Wood said. “It was so slow, so that was when we ended up kind of experimenting with things, going with cravings and stuff like that.”
One of those sandwiches, the Marley, leads some customers to wonder if there’s “something different” in it, he said with a laugh.
“It’s got [tomato] jam,” he said. “We have a food team now, that makes all the sauces, the tomato jam and things like that.” Most of that, as well as the bean roasting is done out of the Whitman shop at the corner of Washington and Temple streets and distributed to the other locations. The muffins are baked on-premises in each shop.
They buy green coffee beans from Colombia, Ethiopia and Guatemala through a supplier in Rhode Island who, in turn, deals directly with the farmers. Then Restoration roasts their own beans.
At the very beginning he used another roasting company, but before long Wood started roasting his own coffee.“I watched every YouTube video [on coffee roasting] I could possibly find and read every book I could on roasting,” he said.
The décor is practically identical in each shop, bowing only to differences in the lay of the floor plan. The tables and chairs are something of a logo and he builds all the main counter tops and even paints the sign affixed to the front counter in each shop.
“I’d like to have 10, but that makes it that much more of a headache,” he said of his ultimate goal for the business, he said, adding it is “just a number at this point.
Stay tuned.
Cutler will not seek re-election
HANSON – State Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, is leaving his seat in the General Court to take a position with the Healey Administration as undersecretary for apprenticeship, work-based learning and policy in the Executive Office of Labor and Workplace Development.
The move clears the way for a race to fill the open seat, and area candidates are already expressing interest in, or intention to, run.
“It’s been the honor of my career to serve the residents of the 6th Plymouth District in the Mass. Legislature for the past 11 years,” Cutler wrote in a statement posted on his Facebook page and circulated to supporters last week. “This is a job that I have truly loved! So it is with mixed emotions, but a grateful heart that I write to share that I will be stepping down as a state representative.” The 6th Plymouth District includes Duxbury, Pembroke and portions of Hanson and Halifax.
Cutler described the new position as a “great opportunity to advance the workforce issues I’ve championed in the Legislature as House chairman of the Labor Committee these past two terms.
“Rep. Culter has been a tremendous partner in advancing workforce development, and we are excited that he will continue his leadership in our administration as we work to grow important programs like registered apprenticeship,” said Gov. Maura Healey in a statement on the appointment. “I’m confident that Rep. Cutler will continue to support Massachusetts residents and businesses in this role and add great value to the team.”
As part of his responsibilities, Cutler will oversee the Division of Apprentice Standards including the expansion of Registered Apprenticeship, the growth of work-based learning career pathways in partnership with the Executive Office of Education, and the Department of Economic Research and other policy efforts for the secretariat such as future of work, caregiving in the workplace, and more.
“Josh Cutler has been and will continue to be an advocate of workforce development initiatives. He has been very supportive of South Shore Tech’s efforts to modernize our school through MSBA,” said the school’s Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey. “Furthermore, Josh understands that South Shore Tech is a key player in workforce training after hours and I know he will continue to be a strong partner on the Career Technical Initiative and other programs that strengthen our local economy.”
Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green expressed both disappointment about hearing about Cutler’s decision, as well as hope for a good relationship with a new representative.
“I am excited to join the Healey-Driscoll Administration and look forward to working with Secretary Jones as we implement policies and programs to help support our workers and enable our businesses to thrive,” said Cutler who is the Chairman of the House Labor and Workforce Development Committee. “I am grateful to the Sixth Plymouth District for giving me the honor to represent them in the House for the past decade and look forward to supporting them and communities across the state in this new role.”
“Of course, he’s going on to an important position and it’s a loss in a legislative partner for the town of Hanson,” Green said. “But we look forward to who his successor will be and establishing a great new relationship with that legislative partner when they come on board. We wish Josh Cutler all the best of luck.”
According to Hanson Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, both Ken Sweezey – the Republican who ran against Cutler in the last election – and Becky Colletta, Cutler’s friend and law partner, have individually informed her they are running for the seat.
“From the moment that Josh declared his candidacy [in his first campaign for the State House] I have supported him, and I’ve never regretted it,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I’ve been nothing but grateful for his partnership and his support of our community all these years. He’s gotten us all kinds of grants, he understands Hanson, he advocates for us and I just hope the next person that we get does half as much as Josh – he’s been amazing. I’ve got nothing but positive things to say about him.”
Sweezey has already submitted a candidate’s announcement to the Whitman-Hanson Express [See page 2].
“Becky Colletta is running, and I texted Ken Sweezy yesterday and he confirmed to me that he is running,” she said Monday.
“I want to thank Rep. Cutler for his years of service – but I truly believe the residents of this district are looking for a new vision and fresh leadership that more accurately reflects the values of our neighbors on the South Shore,” Sweezey stated in his announcement. “I promised a common-sense conservative approach during the campaign in 2022 and I reaffirm that commitment now. I will be a representative for everyone – which includes many of us who feel they have not been represented on Beacon Hill for far too long.”
“I’m excited about the opportunity to serve the people of Duxbury, Pembroke, Hanson, Halifax, and Marshfield,” Sweezey continued. “Let’s get started!”
Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan, however, said she had been unaware that Cutler would not be running again and that no nomination papers had yet been pulled for the race.
Cutler’s friend and supporter Joe Pelligra said that, as he understands it, the office change will be a slow transition.
“I think it will be over the next five months,” he said. “He’s just not going to run again, which leaves the door open to a lot of competitors.”
Pelligra said Cutler felt that being offered the position in the Healey administration was something he couldn’t pass up.
“He’s been in the Ways and Means for labor and workforce development in his job duties as state Rep., so this ties right into what he’s doing.”
Cutler was under the weather last weekend and unable to return calls for comment, referring press inquiries to his statement.
“I leave with warm feelings for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” Cutler said. “I know that our delegation will continue to work together in a bipartisan way. It’s never been about party affiliation for me, but always about working together to help people and solve problems. … Thank you for your trust, friendship and the honor of allowing me to serve!”
President of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable J.D. Chesloff and the President of the Massachusetts Building Trades Union Frank Callahan have both supported Cutler’s appointment, as has President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Chrissy Lynch.
“During his time in the legislature, Chair Cutler has been a great leader, partner, and advocate for our workforce and has championed efforts to grow and expand opportunities for residents across the state,” Lynch said. “While we will miss his leadership and presence on the Labor and Workforce Development Committee, I know he will work just as ferociously for our workers in his new role within the Healey-Driscoll Administration.”
Cutler is a six-term state representative and House Chair of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee. He is a member of the Mass. STEM Advisory Council and recently served as co-chair of the Future of Work Commission and the WorkAbility Subcommittee on disability employment. He also co-chairs the Coastal Caucus.
In the House, Cutler has been a champion for workforce development, vocational education, and career center funding. He is lead sponsor of the wage transparency act, disability hiring tax credit, and apprenticeship standards and re-entry works legislation.
Cutler was a recipient of the Thomas M. Menino Public Service Award for his work on disability employment policy. He has also been recognized as Legislator of the Year by the Mass. Developmental Disabilities Council, the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers, the Mass. Mental Health Counselors Association, and the Plymouth-Bristol Central Labor Council.
Cutler holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and a juris doctor degree from Suffolk Law School. He is also an attorney and the author of two books on local history.
Local woman is finalist in Food Network Holiday Baking show
WHITMAN – Somewhere, Ruth Wakefield has been watching the Food Network this holiday season.
That might be because one contestant, Justine Rota, is a home baker from Whitman, hoping to bake her way past keen competition – and a lot of truly bad puns – as the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship 2023 rolls along. She’s also educating the world about the home of the chocolate chip cookie.
During the Monday, Dec. 4 block of broadcasts, she had survived a smash cake contest in which the baked item had to look impressive from all directions, including underneath through a window the cake was set on. She also dodged a problem with white chocolate that wasn’t setting well in a baked goods mosaic contest, in which she and a partner were supposed to create mini desserts that came together to form that design.
The Season 10 Week 5 challenge, aired Monday, Dec. 4, saw her baking close to her New England roots with a Sweet Potato Tartlet with maple creme in a Hanukkah latke-inspired dessert.
Through it all her South Shore accent stood out for fun by fellow contestants and judges alike.
“Your textures are spot-on and beautiful,” Judge Carla Hall said of the tartlet.
“Justine keep it up, you are on fire,” Nancy Fuller agreed.
Baker Duff Goldman was under the weather and unable to participate in the two episodes.
Representing Whitman’s status as the home of the chocolate chip cookie, Rota she is the proud owner of Sweet Standards, a home-based bakery.
The Episode 5 final bake called on them to turn a bar cookie into a letterboard.
“I’m making a raspberry oat bar with a white chocolate ganache,” she told host Jesse Palmer, deciding to switch it up to a white chocolate eggnog ganache with the challenge ingredient. “I’m making bars all the time for my family,” she said. But she had never made eggnog before.
That was key since Josh Juarez of Austin, Texas, winner of the latke prebake, was given the choice of eggnog or mulled wine, with his choice the surprise ingredient the contestants then had to incorporate in their bars.
“This bar is going to lift the judge’s spirits,” she said.
But, just before going to commercial, her raspberry filling ran over onto the bottom of the oven where it began to burn.
“It’s OK, you can do this,” competitor Thoa Nguyen of Englewood, Colo., reassured her after lending a helping hand as the timer ran down.
Then it was time for the judges to weigh in.
“I think that I like your little decorations around it,” Hall said. “I love your colors, that said, I don’t think it looks so much like a sign.”
Rota said during a contestant interview, spiced into the judging comments that she felt her bar looked “a little sad” but hoped the judges liked her flavors.
They did.
“You ‘shu-ah’ did this good,” Fuller quipped with her version of a Massachusetts accent after her eyes lit up on tasting Rota’s dessert. “I’ve got the crunch, I’ve got the brightness of the raspberries, I got the eggnog. You have the most special tasting holiday bar today.”
“This sign didn’t look good, but this is delicious,” Hall agreed.
Rota finished among the top two in the episode, bested for the top spot by Javier Trujillo of Chicago, but finished in second place, to continue in the competition’s semifinal. Juarez, unfortunately, was sent home.
Rota, a Johnson & Wales graduate, says her favorite part of the holidays is baking cookies with her family and then driving around together in search of the best Christmas lights, according to her contestant bio. She’s also a self-proclaimed shopaholic and lover of all that is pink and sparkly.
One more week of competition remains before the final three bakers compete in the year’s finale – “Gifts of Greatness.”
The semifinal airs on the Food Network at 8 p.m., Monday, Dec. 11 and the final is being broadcast at 8 p.m., Monday, Dec. 18.
Plymouth County Comfort Dogs
NORWELL – Though it’s been a program that had a slow start, the Plymouth County Comfort Dog Program has quicky gained advocates as one by one, police departments have gone to the dogs.
District Attorney Timothy Cruz developed the program to offer additional services to county communities, providing emotional support for the well-being of drug endangered children, students with adverse childhood experiences, and others in need of emotional support in the county community.
“The schools, to me are really [important] now, as our kids are facing challenges that they’ve never faced before, whether it be from COVID issues, mental health issues,” Cruz said in his opening remarks at the event. “The kids were locked out for a while. Now they’re coming back, and a lot of schools are dealing with a lot of issues with the kids. The dogs have been a tremendous asset.”
Hingham was the first town to adopt the program, seeing some initial reluctance from the School Committee, but was quickly warmed to by educators who have seen its value in action. Now there are 14 departments employing the program.
Cruz credited the success of Hingham Chief David P. Jones and resource officer Tom Ford in really getting the program going a little over one year ago with that department’s first dog – Opry.
To celebrate that success, and provide more information about it, Cruz’ office held a meet and greet Wednesday, Nov. 8, featuring the dogs and their handling officers at JBS Dog Park at 106 Longwater Drive in Norwell. There was pizza, soda and cake for the humans and all-natural specialty dog biscuits provided by Polkadog Bakery in Boston.
But first, there was some mingling on the part of both officers and canines.
As Hanson therapy dog Ziva rolled over for belly rubs from handler and school resource officer Derek Harrington and Chief Michael Miksch, Hingham’s Opry, a mix-breed rescued from a Southern kill shelter, showed off her skateboard skills a bit with Ford. But, as more dogs arrived, Opry gave the skateboard a dismissive kick, sending it rolling back to bounce off a wall. The arrival of the aptly named Star, a harlequin Great Dane from the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, grabbed all their attention as she sauntered in with Dennis Desroches.
Miksch said he had some hesitation about the comfort dog program, but that Ford, in fact, was a huge help to Hanson’s adoption of it.
Concerns about funding and the union’s willingness to take on the project were soon discovered to be unfounded. As soon as he mentioned interest in the program, Hanson provided funding mid-year even though there was no budget for it.
“The next thing, somebody’s calling me saying, ‘Hey, can I deposit $1,000 to the town for the dog?’” Miksch said, adding that Deputy Chief Michael Casey raised the initial funding on top of Hanson’s grant money. The union also bought right in and overcame a rough start when their dog, Lucy, had to be euthanized due to a kidney ailment.
“We unfortunately lost our first dog, but the support from the community kind of brought back the impact that she had. There were a lot of messages, a lot of support. … Lucy was worth her weight in gold to us to start off and Ziva’s showing the same [qualities].”
The handlers are the ones who make the program successful, however, Miksch said.
“The dog, in a lot of ways is the easy part, but you need the right handler,” he said.
Harrington advised to those averse to dog hair, this program is not for you.
“But, they make lint rollers; it’s all good,” he said. “We all have stories about how this affects our school, our community, our kids.”
Ziva helps with kids who don’t want to go to school by walking with them to class, he said.
When a W-H student took their life last May, Harrington said he was able to call on several other officer/dog teams in the program to help.
“That happened late at night,” he said. “The school, and the kids – her friends – didn’t find out until they showed up at school the next day and it was a disaster, however we were prepared because we have this network of community resource dogs.
It helped a lot of kids get through the day and open up and talk and have those conversations that they didn’t want to have.”
Jones said Ford’s work with Opry at Hingham High School, too, has impressed just about everyone.
“Opry’s not only the most-recognized ‘person’ in the school, but also in my department,” Jones said. “The connection that’s been made with students at the high school has been incredible.”
She’s got a weird personality, Ford said, but that seems to appeal to students. He said if there is a negative to Opry it’s that he can’t go anywhere without her.
“If you show up someplace without the dog – leave and come back with the dog,” he said.
While the Hingham School Committee had some reluctance to agree to the program, results are speaking for themselves.
“It was a long road, but we’re having fun,” he said. Opry’s trainer makes time to go to the school the next day if there are any issues with the dog, Ford said. “The path is so much clearer [now] if you want to do this,” he advised departments considering the program.
In Halifax, Officer Paul Campbell is one of the newest participants in the program, having just completed the two weeks of training officers undergo with his dog, Roxie. They now transition to once-a-month in-service training.
“I participated in DARE Camp, and I saw the impact [the dogs had] on the children,” he said. “They loved the dogs. So that just attracted me to the program and how much it has a positive impact on children.”
He said Roxie, at six months, is an awesome dog.
“She has so much energy, a really good dog,” Campbell said. “I look forward to working in the community, getting in the schools and we’ve already had a big fundraiser.”
Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr. spoke of the impact the dogs have on people’s lives – something, he said, anyone who grew up with dogs in their lives could understand, comparing it to the old expression, with negative connotations “going to the dogs.”
“Looking around here, I can say this – I think we’ve all gone to the dogs, but I want to thank you all for making that something positive,” he said.
Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office provides a mini grant to Plymouth County Police Departments to assist with costs associated with acquiring, training and caring for their comfort dog.
“The funding that we get – we’re able to utilize drug forfeit money, to put it back into our community – I think that makes a difference,” Cruz said.
Among the dog trainers on hand to speak about the program was Michael MacCurtain, owner of Hanson’s Five Rings training and day care business.
“The need [for the program] over the last several years has increased tremendously,” said MacCurtain, who worked on Whitman Fire for 20 years and had been asked to work with UMass Boston, Abington and Hanover in training their dogs. Working both on an ambulance crew and alongside law enforcement, he said the mental health of officers can also benefit from the dogs.
“We’d love to get them in all of our schools and also in our Boys’ and Girls’ Club,” Cruz said. “These dogs are making a difference.”
Hornstra buys Peaceful Meadows
WHITMAN – Sometimes wishes do come true.
And wishes came true Tuesday, Aug. 29 for John Hornstra, winning bidder on the Peaceful Meadows ice cream stand, barns, home offices, equipment and more than 55 acres of land. But the wishes of town officials, N.E. Wildlands Trust and loyal Peaceful Meadows customers hoping to keep the Whitman tradition going came true, too.
The town had the opportunity to right of first refusal on the sale should it have gone to a non-argricultural use, under the state’s 61A regulations on farming land. Whitman Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter was happy that it won’t be necessary.
“I’m thrilled that John Hornstra won the bids,” she said. “I think it’s going to be great for Whitman.”
Select Board member Justin Evans agreed it was a great turn of events for the town.
“It’ll be great to get cows back in the barn and really bring this place back,” he said.
“Everybody in town is … they’ll be ecstatic when the word gets out that we got it,” new owner John Hornstra said. “I honestly can say it’s a passion of mine. I’m the luckiest person in the world that I enjoy my business every day that I work, and I get to have my son work with me [who’s] 23, so it’ll be a great project.”
It’ll be known by a different name – Hornstra Farms – but Hornstra thinks people will see enough familiar about the future he has in mind for the iconic Whitman property.
“I’m glad to have it, and I hope I can continue what they did here and maybe have some cows, eventually here, and bring back a working dairy farm to Whitman,” Hornstra said of his winning bid. “Eventually, they’ll be back,” he said of the bovine bevy that had always been a popular attraction at Peaceful Meadows.
“The gentleman who built this in 1961 was a big inspirational person in my life,” Hornstra said. “I saw how successful this was, and that’s why I wanted to do it in Norwell.”
The immediate plan is to do some work on the barns, but he may try to keep the dairy store open during the holiday season in keeping with tradition before that renovation work is done and it reopens in the spring. There’s a lot of structural work to do in the barns, and one of them may come down, to be replaced by an all-automated, robotic barn where people can have their ice cream and see the cows being milked.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” he said of plans for a reopening date. “We’ve got a lot of fixing up and stuff like that – upgrading and stuff like that – but hopefully before Thanksgiving, but we’ll see.”
Soon some of the trademark red Holstien cows of the Hornstra Farms herd will also return a bucolic touch to the property, the fourth-generation farmer said after making the winning $1.75 million bid for the entirety of two property lots at 94 Bedford St.
Since Hornstra has no immediate plans to negotiate for Peaceful Meadows ice cream stand recipes (his Prospect Street, Norwell farm already makes their own old-fashioned ice cream, so we don’t know what to tell the person who reached out to auctioneer Justin Manning about the fate of Peaceful Meadows’ peanut butter sauce.
He said that, when the first information was posted about the pending auction, the JJ Manning website received more than 500,000 views, 175,000 clicks, 27,000 emotions and about 4,000 shares.
“I think that it’s a day that is going to bring conclusion to what is the final chapter for the family,” Manning said before the auction Tuesday morning. “I think they’ve gotten to the point where they’re more than ready to pass it on, to end it. They need that closure. I think that maybe it’s a little sad for them, maybe a little sad for the town, and the people who came to get ice cream, but who knows what is going to be the next chapter here at the property.”
Hornstra said his plan was to purchase the two lots in their entirety, which is why he did not enter a bid for them separately.
“We work with John Hornstra so we’re very supportive of his bid,” said Scott McFaden of the Wildlands Trust, on the non-profit land conservation trust’s presence to support Honstra. “We’d like to see it stay in permanent farming, because we’re about land preservation.”
McFaden said the Hornstras ran a big risk on the day.
“There were people here who, most likely would have tried to convert it to something else,” he said. “I’ve talked to some town officials informally and they were very supportive of seeing it preserved.”
Hornstra agreed that he had support “everywhere.”
“Part of the reason I went to $1.75 [million], was I didn’t want to disappoint everyone on the South Shore,” he said. “It was a lot of hyped media stuff and Facebook stuff, and I couldn’t bear the thought of somebody else getting it. I’m one of those people who always wants to do the right thing.”
After placing his winning bid, Hornstra first spoke to members of the family selling the property, before speaking with the press.
He said he came prepared to pay $1.5 million – having to go $225,000 over that.
“I went a little farther than I had to,” he said. “I saw my son standing next to me – I’m trying to support the next generation, so we went a little farther than we wanted to.”
Manning said on Monday it was a “coin flip” of the chances the property would remain in agricultural use, noting that real estate developers and a software company were among those interested.
As competing bidders approached Hornstra to congratulate him, one was heard to say he was “glad a farmer got it.” Hornstra, which also bottles milk for door-to-door delivery, already has Whitman customers on its client list.
He said the barns [which, like the other buildings and equipment included for sale at auction], being purchased “as-is” needed some work.
In his pre-auction instructions to prospective bidders, Manning said the first two parcels [94 Bedford St., divided between the ice cream stand, and other buildings and a second lot of the 55 acres behind it] would be auctioned separately.
All separate property lots were sold to the highest bidder, subject to the entirety, which is how both sides of the road were ultimately purchased by two separate bidders when bids were received greater than the individual bids. There would be no rebids of the individual lots.
Bidders were also cautioned that they were expected to have done their homework before the auction date.
Peaceful Meadows provided a lot of information down to the last five years of tax returns.
“With tons of information comes informed buyers,” Manning said. “If you are not an informed buyer, if you don’t know about this property and you didn’t go through all the information, and didn’t go through the properties, then don’t bid on the properties.” All properties are sold as-is.
Closing is slated to take place on or before Sept. 29, unless otherwise agreed upon by the seller in writing or if the buyer of the farm and ice cream stand went to a non-agricultural buyer, triggering the town’s right of first refusal under 61A.
As the bidding for the first two parcels as an entirety became competitive, Hornstra said he was just trying to decide where he was going. He held back from bidding on the two lots individually to get both as an entirety.
He looked at his son – who will be the fifth generation working the farm.
“He kind of rolled his eyes and I said, ‘OK, here’s $50,000 more, let’s see where it goes,’” he said.
Hornstra said he was not much interested in the other side of the road, bought as an entirety by a late-arriving group of Asian women, who said they had no specific plans for it, but wanted to preserve the land.
Peaceful Meadows to be sold
WHITMAN – Peaceful Meadows is slated to go under the auctioneer’s gavel for sale on Tuesday, Aug. 29 – and that prospect has been the talk of the town, and beyond for several days.
Real estate sales firm JJ Manning Auctioneers of Yarmouthport, has been contracted to hold an auction of properties owned by Peaceful Meadows along Route 18/Bedford Street in Whitman. The properties are at 67, 81 and 94 (lots 1 and 2) Bedford St.
“After many successful decades in business, beginning in 1962, the family has chosen to divest of these valuable assets through auction,” the firm’s website described the reason for the sale, further stating that the properties will be “offered individually and in the entirety to the highest bidder, regardless of price.”
JJ Manning President Justin J. Manning, said no other property the firm has handled before has engendered so much interest.
“I’ve never seen our Facebook [page] blow up like I have with this property,” he said. “I think between Friday and right now, we’ve had more than 350,000 hits on this. It’s absurd. It dwarfs anything that we’ve ever listed – there’s a lot of passion about this one.”
Two others running close behind were Foxboro State Hospital and a Nashua, N.H. rectory of the Sisters of Mercy.
Manning said he met with the three sisters who are the owners/decision makers of the property.
“At this point, they have worked really hard to continue the legacy that their parents started, and have been very proud of and have done well by it and [they] understand the following that has continued to provide a nice living for their family,” Manning said. “At this stage in their lives, they’re all very ready to move on. No one wants to continue running the business and [they] have other life expectations at the moment.”
Select Board members Justin Evans and Dan Salvucci said, while they didn’t know the particulars of the sale, Whitman’s Facebook pages have been filled with conversation about it all weekend.
“They want to retire,” Salvucci said. “That’s a lot of land down behind there.”
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter recalled that her first job was at Peaceful Meadows, but stated that the town has not received official notice of the sale.
“Once the Town receives official notification of the impending sale of the properties it will review and consider its options,” Carter said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “We are so sorry to see Peaceful Meadows close and we thank them for the many years they have operated their business here in town.”
Carter said the assessor was visiting Peaceful Meadows on Monday, because it is agricultural land and the town wants to make sure it is coded correctly.
“Peaceful Meadows Farm has been a Whitman landmark since 1920, with the Hogg family opening Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream in 1962. The news of the upcoming auction of the multiple Peaceful Meadows properties in late August has been a topic of conversation among residents since the news was announced,” Carter stated. “The Hogg family has provided delicious ice cream treats as well as many other dairy products and baked goods which have been sold at their dairy store. Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream has been an iconic family destination for so many Whitman residents as well as residents from many surrounding towns. The Town has not received any formal notification since the news was announced late last week.”
The land is described as: “four assessor’s parcels on Bedford St. (Rt. 18)
Sale 1: 94 Bedford St. (Lot 1): Ice Cream Stand k/a “Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream” w/ barns, home/offices, Equipment;
Sale 2: 94 Bedford St. (Lot 2): 55+/- acres of agricultural land;
Sale 3: 67 Bedford St.:a single family home; and
Sale 4: 81 Bedford St.: a two-family home.
A final plan concerning how the property components will be sold will be forthcoming, but Manning said there are, indeed, four components.
“It’s too early right now for me to tell you exactly how it is going to happen, but I can tell you that there will be at least four rounds of bidding for those four different components,” he said, indicating there is a possibility of combinations of properties.
The website stipulates that pre-auction offers must be tendered on a signed JJManning approved purchase and sale agreement and accompanied by a 10 percent certified deposit in certified or bank check or by confirmed wire transfer in order to be considered.
Up to a 2 percent Buyer’s Broker Commission is offered with a mandatory 24-hour broker pre-registration.
A viewing date of the properties up for auction is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 22 with the auction slated for 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29.
Manning said that some sales use the term “highest and best” for choosing a buyer.
“In auctions, there’s only highest,” he said. “Ultimately, everyone is bidding under the same terms, everyone is bidding using the same purchase and sale agreement, so it only comes down to who’s the highest.”
He did say interest has been strong already, with similar ice cream companies, agricultural companies showing intertest since the posting on June 6 or 7.
“For those who have been hoping it will continue on as Peaceful Meadows ice cream, that’s only going to apply if the high bidder has that intent,” Manning said. Buyers who have a kennel, equestrian or landscaping-related business would be free to make their own business decisions after purchasing the property.
The ice cream stand/dairy farm are only one component of the sale.
“It depends on who is the high bidder, and it could be a different type of business,” he said.
Manning said his firm has a “basic outline” for how the sale will happen and they are working with the sellers’ attorneys to make sure everything is done properly.
“When a property’s been in the hands of a family for so long, it’s almost like it has no history,” he said. He likened such a situation to the sales they had handled of Lakeville and Foxboro state hospitals, where deeds were hand-written.
“You just want to make sure there’s nothing that’s going to interfere with having a clean, straight-forward closing and clear title,” he said. Then further information may become clear. There may be financials regarding the ice cream shop that will be available to potential buyers willing to fill out and sign non-disclosure agreements.
He said that he understands there is also a recorded subdivision plan that is expected to show how the ice cream shop and dairy barn are divided from the 50+ agricultural acres.
“This is just some pieces that we don’t have,” he said. When more information is available, it will be posted on jjmanning.com.
JJManning Auctioneers has been engaged in the marketing and sale of high-end commercial and residential real estate at public auction throughout the U.S., with a focus on New England. During this period, the firm has conducted over 16,000 auctions totaling more than $5 billion dollars for private individuals, corporations, estates, financial institutions, attorneys, builders/developers, government agencies and others.
Geoff Diehl announces candidacy for governor
Former state representative Geoff Diehl has his eye on a higher office.
The Whitman Republican, in an address to an Independence Day “Freedom Festival” in Hadley on Sunday — hosted by the GOP Patriots group which supports the Trump-Pence conservative agenda — announced a candidacy that will focus on the impact of over-taxation and reckless government spending.
“I’ve served in the legislature and seen, first-hand, the impact government regulations have on businesses they don’t necessarily understand but want to control,” Diehl said. “The pandemic response of a total shut down of the economy, followed by arbitrary federal, state and local regulations only made it harder for the small businesses to stay alive, especially in the restaurant and hospitality industries. And I remain mystified how the big box stores like Home Depot remained open while your local hardware store was forced to close. Let that chapter of our state’s history remain a powerful example of what can never happen again.”
Diehl last ran for state-wide office in 2018, in an unsuccessful challenge to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. He told the Hadley audience that, having been furloughed from his job at a healthcare company while helping his wife KathyJo keep their performing arts studio going, gave him an insight into what small businesses face.
“Making sure Massachusetts is creating the best scenario for job growth is the key to a strong recovery because keeping people on enhanced unemployment is not the answer,” Diehl said.
He also proclaimed his total opposition to the Transportation Climate Initiative signed onto by Gov. Charlie Baker.
“The last thing working families in Massachusetts need is added cost to commuting, food and goods that are already being hit by the inflationary effects of massive federal spending,” he said. “All the original New England states have failed to join in the ‘cap and trade’ scheme and even environmentalists discount the projections for emission reduction.”
He also supports “Backing the Blue” and “making sure local school boards are given the funds and control to determine the best curriculum for their students,” in order to turn more decision-making to the local level.
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