4 - Wilmington Town Crier - Wilmington Memorial Library

The choree is yours
Speeding / Parking?
By SARAH G1LLOTTE
TEWKSBURY - I'm not too sure about this new policy about speeding.
Sure, it sounds like a pretty fair idea - you break the law and then you pay the
consequences. Except the consequences may not deal with just the police but
also the High School.
When I first heard about this policy I thought it applied anywhere and at any
time you were caught speeding, but that was before I found out that the rule
applied only when we're going to and from school and school events..
Almost everyone knows that there are police officers everywhere around the
neighborhood of the High School for the first couple of weeks of school and
most people know enough to slow down. Some people probably are going to
speed up again as soon as they get out of the vicinity of the school, which defeats
the purpose of the policy .but that doesn't mean they won't get caught. Maybe
after more kids find out about this new rule, some will drive a little bit more
responsibly, if they don't already, which I hope will help avoid any accidents.
Personally, I would choose to have the police notify the school and have my
parking permit taken away. At least that way I wouldn't be out SO bucks and
my insurance wouldn't go up. But when you think about it, people in the real
world don't have it that easy. They don't have the luxury of choosing whether
or not they want to pay their ticket - they have to. (Unless they want to fight it
in court.) Most people who live around here don't have a bus that will pick them
up near their house and take them to work; they have to rely on their cars.
There are some good things and some bad things about this new rule. Maybe
it will work and maybe it won't. I like the fact that I have a choice of whether
or not I get a speeding ticket. What I don't like is that the school has to get
involved, but I realize that with this new policy you can't do one without the
other. I personally don't think it should have any effect at school if we get
caught speeding, but I like the fact that I at least have a choice.
erstothe II
Co ton Crier
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10.1997 >
Keep recycling working Trash plant environmentally safe
DearLarz:
The people of Massachusetts are
joining Americans across the
nation to improve their quality of
life, conserve natural resources,
strengthen local economies and
create jobs. They are able to do
this through recycling and buying
recycled efforts.
This November 15, thousands of'
' Americans will take part in
recycling activities across the
nation and right here in
Massachusetts as part of America
Recycles Day. The effort is being
organized by a public/private
partnership with Vice President Al
Gore acting as the honorary
chairman. In fact, our state is an
official partner of this national
effort, and events are being
planned statewide (such as the Buy
Recycled Vendor Fair in
Boxborough, "Clean Out Your
Files Day" sponsored by North
Shore Recycled Fibers.and a tour
of the Container Recycling
Alliance's glass recycling facility
in Franklin).
Communities are sponsoring
these events to show how recycling
Thanks
Dear Larz:
Just a short note to say "thank
you" for the nice article written
about my mother.
Family and friends have given
many positive remarks. It was a
very special remembrance. Thank
you again.
Sincerely
Ruth Sheldon Childs
is working and demonstrate the
important role each of us plays in
keeping it working to conserve our
country's resources, reduce waste,
create jobs, and strengthen our
nation's economy. Newspapers can
become involved by freeing up
reporters to cover events.
The 1997 theme. "Keep
Recycling Working: Buy
Recycled," underscores the
importance of purchasing recycled
content products and packaging.
Thousand of recycled content
products are available and by
purchasing them, the nation's
consumers are building markets
for finished products made from
steel, glass, paper, plastic and
aluminum materials they place at
the curb or in dropoff facilities.
Whether at the grocery store or
at the office, buying recycled is
easy to do. Recycled products are
the same quality as products' not
made with recycled materials, and
they generally cost about the same.
But when you buy recycled, you
help conserve resources, reduce
waste an create opportunity for
economic development both in
Massachusetts and across the
nation.
In the coming weeks, I'll keep
you updated about American
Recycles Day activities here in
Massachusetts and around the
country. In the meantime, if you
would like more information about
Massachusetts Recycles Day plans,
contact Craig Ruberti or Kathi
Mirza at 617-338-0244.
Sincerely,
Dorothy Suput,
Executive Director,
MassRecycle
uloum&OJror
QTetobfrtrarp - Wilmington
Wilmington office located at
104 Lowell St.. P.O. Box 939. Wilmington, MA 01887-0939
(508)658-2346 FAX (508)658-2266
Publication No. 635-340
A publication of the Wobum Daily rimes. Inc.
One Arrow Drive, Wobum. MA 01801, published every Wednesday
Pubfaher Emeritus Capt. Larz Nelson
Publisher Peler M. Haggerty LayoulArtst ErfkNefeen
GenMgr./Edtor C. Stuart Nelson Names & Faces Editor Etaabeti Downs
NewsEdrtor FrankJ.Amato Mwrtsng Services Uatt Taylor. Jackie Ferrapaew
SportsEdtor JamesPote Advertising JohnO.OTM
Reporters Charlotte Cooper. Advertising MchMtBums
Se^D«v*n.DariGrafteo,EdLartdn,
Kevin Matter
Subscription prices:
Payable in advance. In Wilmington
Advertising NancvTaytor
Craiatwi Manager Michele Boutin
Proofreading ' Pat O'Brien
mailed at the full price.
No financial responsibility is accepted by
andTewksbury$20ayear. Elsewhere the Wobum Daily Times. Inc. for errors in
$24 a year. The Town Crier offers a $1 advertisements. A reprint w* be made of
cSscount to subscribers who renew dur- any part of an advertisement in which the
ing January without receiving a renewal error affects the value of the advertised
notice. On Feb. 1, renewal notices are Ham.
Periodic.lt postage paid at Wilmington MA 01887
Postmaster please sand Form 3579 to:
Town Crier, P.O. Box 939, Wilmington, MA 01887
l fi»V/ NATIONAL NEWSPi
> NEPA * ASSOCIATION
J
■sfbi
S
Dear Larz:
The North Andover trash-to-
energy facility is currently the
subject of several recent articles
and I would like to take the
opportunity to set the record
straight. The public authority that
oversees the facility. Northeast
Solid Waste Committee (NESWC).
and the company that built and
operates it. Massachusetts
Refusctcch, Inc. (MRI). a wholly
owned subsidiary of Wheelabrator
'Technologies Inc.. are working
together to create a mutually
beneficial restructured contract as
we move forward to retrofit the
facility in response to federal
environmental mandates.
Unfortunately, while the parties
work together to enhance our
partnership, special interests long
opposed to trash-to-energy projects
are making untrue and unrelated
claims about the plant, claims that
divert NESWC residents' attention
from real good faith negotiations
to unreal pollution ears. Issues
such as dioxin and mercury
contamination have been
exhaustively researched and
reported by scientists and the
United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) for
decades. These are important issues
to' discuss, but they need to be
grounded in fact, not emotion.
The current facts deserve
repeating. The North Andover
facility does not emit levels of
dioxin that have any measurable
impacts on the environment or
public health. And the ash residue
produced by the plant and disposed
in Pea body safely stabilizes any
minute traces of dioxin that may
appear in the ash. The trace levels
of mercury emissions from
trash-to-energy facilities are,
likewise, insignificant, originating
primarily from household
batteries.
Four years ago. Wheelabrator
was the first organization in
Massachusetts to receive regulatory
approvals for its successful and
ongoing initiative to collect button
batteries and remove them from
the disposal cycle altogether. To
further promote these efforts, in
I99S. Wheelabrator piloted a joint
program throughout Massachusetts
with the Rechargeable Battery
Recycling Corporation to collect
. and recycle used household Ni-Cd
rechargeable batteries; now. a
nationally recognized program.
The facility has existing air
pollution control equipment that
strips out many pollutants before
they are released to the
environment Wheelabrator and
NESWC have together began the
process of retrofitting the facility
under the federal Clean Air Act to
install some of the most advanced
pollution control technology
available. In fact, Wheelabrator
will be installing this advanced
equipment before the federally
mandated deadlines. This retrofit
should eliminate the concerns of
even the most ardent opponents of
the trash-to-energy process. For
more information on the.
effectiveness of retrofit
technology, you can call Integrated
Waste Services Association in
Washington at 202-467-6240 or
consult with EPA's Office of Air
!.
;
Quality Planning & Standard?.
Research Triangle Park in North j
Carolina.
Since 1985. the North Ando
facility has reliably disposed
more than five million tons$f]
municipal trash and generated o»t>r :
three million megawatts o(f j
electricity and safely managed]
more than one million tons of ash
residue. The facility has been
subject to stringent regulation and
oversight by regulatory agencies
and we are proud of its record. (;♦;
Safety is not the issue at the
North Andover facility. The issufV
is how we together can provide ■
long term arrangement under
which the NESWC communities\
and the plant operator can fairly j
apportion revenues, risks and
responsibilities. MRI and its parent
company, Wheelabratqr
Technologies, are committed H
help find a viable solution to theft
challenges and to extend its
partnership with the NESWffe
communities.
James Mclver,
Plant Manager
Cruising the Fjords of Norway
by Capt. Larz Neilson
A cruise in the fjords of Norway.
Doesn't it sound romantic?
This writer made that cruise
once, about the year 1947. His
sister Sylvia was with him, as the
ship cruised northward, and the
two Norwegian pilots pointed out
many of the sites to be seen. They
also pointed out some of the places
where German submarines were
hiding during World War II, when
they were sinking American cargo
vessels which were trying to go to
Murmansk, a Russian seaport on
the easterly side of the peninsular
which is North Cape, the most
northern land in Norway.
During the summer of 1947 this
writer was in command of a cargo
ship, in New York harbor, when
he received an order from the
company for which he was
working to fly to Sweden, because
the captain of one of that
company's ships had committed
suicide. The suicide had occurred
in Gothenburg, the largest seaport
in Sweden.
Sylvia Neilson. a sister, happened
to be a student at the University of
Stockholm, Sweden, when the
writer received that order. He
called her on the telephone, to let
her know he was coming.
Sylvia had been a teacher in
Wilmington High School on the
day of Pearl Harbor. As soon as
was possible she left her job to join
up with the Women's Army Corps
(WACS). When she finished some
years later she held the rank of
Major.
Sylvia is a Wilmington native
who, as a girl, delivered milk with
a pony cart around Silver Lake for
several years. Her uncle, Christian
"Pop" Neilson owned a dozen cows
and a farm, on Glen Road, where
it is met by Harnden Street
Pop had acquired that pony cart
from Caleb Harriman, he who
owned a big tannery in North
Wilmington. Pop acquired it at no
cost, because 'his of
granddaughters, but his niece was a
good person to use it, for a good
cause. Sylvia was the envy of many
persons living in the Silver Lake
area of Wilmington.
They told her of their envy, for
having a pony, when she was in the
WACS, and afterwards, when she
was home again.
Sylvia met the writer when he
landed at the Stockholm, Sweden
airport. Together they flew to
Goteborg (Gothenberg) the big
Swedish seaport. Sylvia was given
one of the rooms on a ship, in
which she stayed for a few weeks.
The captain who had committed
suicide had met up with a young
lady who somehow had gotten out
of Soviet Russia. She had formerly
lived on the shores of the Caspian
Sea, in a city called Baku, in
southern Russia.
They had taken off for a "tour of
Sweden," which lasted many
weeks.
At that time there was a dispute
about oil for American ships, or
something like that. Russia and the
United States were doing the
arguing, and the US had sought
assistance from the Kingdom of
Sweden.
The Swedish answer was to stop
delivering any oil to American
ships. The Chief Engineer of that
ship could get no help from the
Captain, who was touring Sweden
with that Russian girl.
Finally, the Chief Engineer wrote
a letter to the steamship company
in New York. He was almost out
of oil. When the captain finally
returned to Gothenberg and
learned of that letter, he committed
suicide.
There was no problem in taking
command of the ship. The problem
was in the finding out of what had
happened. For a part of the answer
the writer took his sister and the
Russian girl to a nice restaurant,
where three persons could sit and
eat and talk. And there the story
was evolved.
After a couple of days this writer
was prepared to leave port, for the
port of Narvik, in northern
Norway. The first sizable port in
Norway would be Bergen, where
there was a good chance of oil.
Two Norwegian pilots came on
board, as fuel was being pumped
aboard the ship. Would the captain
be interested in making a cruise
through the Norwegian Fjords, to
go to Narvik, his destination?
Why not?
The distance would be shorter,
and there would be no rough seas.
The odds were that the ship would
get to Narvik quicker. The pilots
were hired.
It was a wonderful voyage,
hundreds of miles through those
fjords.
The pilots spoke English, and
they knew the stories of the!
German submarines who had!
hidden out in the fjords and sank
American ships trying to deliver;
cargo to Murmansk, in Soviet
Russia.
This writer has never seen
anything in the United States about j
the ships which were sunk, trying J
to deliver cargo to Murmansk.,
Hundreds, maybe thousands of
American merchant seamen lost i
the lives in that effort. ~l J
The writer has told of the five
vessels which he saw, loading in
Hoboken, New Jersey, in the early!
part of World War- II. Only one
returned to the U.S. There was;
another place in Philadelphia, at
Pier 47, where the writer loaded!'
the SS Daniel Boone in 1943, and
the person in charge believed the!
ship was being loaded for
Murmansk,, a story previously told
by this writer.
Narvik was a city of about
10,000 population. British
destroyers and German submarines;
had been in that port during the
war. Submarines had been sunk;
and at least two destroyers.
It was only a couple of hundred
miles from Murmansk.
The nicest thing that happened, as
this writer and his sister walked^
around Narvik was to meet
young girl, about four years old
She recognized us as bein
Americans, and asked (i
Norwegian) "Have you an;
chewing gum?" ,
The ship loaded iron ore, if thwa
writer remembers correctly. It wa»>=
taken to the port of Baltimore,
Maryland.
i
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