october specials - Southbridge Evening News

Friday, October 1, 2010
• SPENCER NEW LEADER 13
Artists use home studios to display art in tour
BY ANGELA L. ZAJAC
SPECIAL TO THE NEW LEADER
The private studio doors of 17
local artists will be open to the public
this weekend across the
Brookfields, free of charge.
Coincidentally, the fall foliage has
begun to turn in the area and there
is no better place to view it than on
the back roads of central
Massachusetts.
The fall 2010 Backroads Studio
Tour is a hands-on spin of the art
show. The beautifully mapped, selfguided
tour brings the show into
the artists’ actual home studios in
six scenic rural New England
towns: Petersham, Barre, New
Braintree, North and West
Brookfield and Ware. Their doors
will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 2 and Sunday, Oct. 3.
On the tour, one will encounter
the artists in their natural habitats:
their home studios.
“Artists like to engage with people
and we don’t have stores,”
explained potter Rebecca Webber.
The tour is also a means of having
the public get a glimpse of how
something is created and see exactly
how it is made. This hands-on
interaction with the audience is
what makes this type of art show
truly unique. The artists will
explain, display, sell and create
their one-of-a-kind work for the
public all weekend.
President Kara K. Bigda said,
“Come out and enjoy the foliage,
see the active artists in their studios,
visit the antique shops, have
lunch and celebrate the artistic
diversity in central
Massachusetts.”
Along the tour one will find
extremely talented local painters,
potters, blacksmith, woodworkers
and weavers, to name a few. June
Glidden’s enchanting bakeshop in
New Braintree will also be open
and stocked with her hand-decorated
holiday cookies — delicious
works of art in themselves.
For a full list of participating
artists and to print out a copy of
the tour map, go to www.backroadsstudiotour.com
or contact Bigda at
kkoz517@charter.net for a brochure
and membership information.
Twenty-two requests on
town meeting warrant
Angela L. Zajac photos
Clockwise from top left: rank White of West Brookfield talks about the process of
wood turning, carving and burning in his studio, “Hollowoods.” Rebecca Webber, longtime
potter, explains finding inspiration in the Santa Fe style art displayed around her
West Brookfield studio. Hand-decorated holiday cookies by June’s Bakeshop.
Beautiful, creative and tasty describe June Glidden’s artistic cookies and cakes.
June’s picturesque bakeshop is located in New Braintree.
TOWN
continued from page A1
numbers must be placed “in a position easily observed from the street on a
year round basis.” Residents or property owners who does not know their
house number would have to contact the Board of Assessors “as soon as possible.”
The numbers themselves would have to be at least 3 inches high and 1 1/4
inches wide, and placed 3-5 feet from the ground. They would have to be
installed either on a sign no larger than 12 inches high by 12 inches wide or on
a mailbox if it is on the same side of the road as the building’s driveway.
For multi-unit properties, signs would have to be installed at the junction of
the driveway and the street, and at the spot where another driveway (or driveways)
branch off the main driveway.
The police chief or fire chief would, after 20 days, have the power to levy a
fine of $10 per day if numbers are not installed or currently installed numbers
become illegible and are not replaced.
The town bylaw would be in addition to Chapter 148, Section 59 of state law,
which says every building “shall have” a number attached to it — the same
information included in the Enhanced 911 system.
“Said number shall be of a nature and size and shall be situated on the building
so that, to the extent practicable, it is visible from the nearest street or road
providing vehicular access to such building,” the section states.
Fire Chief Robert Parsons said the proposed rules would give residents an
idea of what types of numbers to get (he noted “just about every house number”
people can buy at local stores is at least 3 inches high) and replace a bylaw
that “really didn’t define anything, other than it had to have a number.”
“When there’s an emergency, emergency responders will be able to find the
house a lot quicker,” Parsons said, explaining why he believes putting up
house numbers is important.
Money for work
Also on the Town Meeting warrant are requests to fund nearly $400,000 in
various projects approved by the town’s Capital Improvement Planning
Committee — which Selectmen Chairman Seth Fancher called a “significant
amount.”
“The question is, we obviously have a lot of capital needs,” he said. “Part of
the question is where do we spend the money, is it the right time to spend the
money?”
Not on the warrant, but coming up in the future, are the David Prouty High
School feasibility study and “no shortage of [other] projects,” Fancher said.
The projects would include $12,000 to renovate the animal control kennel at
the highway barn, $25,000 to make roof and soffit repairs to the police station,
$61,000 to repair the fire station roof, $96,756.04 to buy and build a storage building
at the fire station, and $190,000 to buy a 20-ton, six-wheel dump truck with
a plow and sander box to replace a 1984 dump truck at the Highway
Department.
Voters will also be asked to allow the Board of Selectmen to sign a lease
agreement of no more than 10 years for a brush mower for the Highway
Department, with a cost for fiscal 2011 not to exceed $12,000.
Article 20 asks for $7,500 from the Waterways Improvement Fund to pay for
state-mandated inspections and reports for the Sugden Reservoir Dam and the
Lake Whittemore Dam. Meanwhile, Article 21 (through a citizen petition) asks
for $130,000 from “free cash” to repair the Sugden Reservoir Dam. Fancher
said the reasoning for Article 21 was so that the water level of the reservoir
could go up and “increase their quality of life.”
Transfers and changes
In addition, voters will be asked whether they wish to:
• Reduce the maximum number of Finance Committee members from 15 to
11.
• Extend the amount of time people who live on private roads where the
Highway Department makes temporary repairs have to repay the town from
five years to 20 years.
• Rescind debt authorized at the 2009 Annual Town Meeting, but never
issued, for projects the town hoped would be funded with federal stimulus
money.
• Transfers of $5,000 to cover Town Administrator Adam Gaudette’s salary
for fiscal 2011, $12,800 to pay for hikes in the town’s liability insurance premiums,
$5,000 to hire a company to develop a new town website, $38,500 for future
land acquisition (for purposes such as open space) and $10,095.65 for unexpected
repairs to the generator that powers the police and fire stations.
• Appropriate $957 to pay a nurse hired by the Board of Health in fiscal 2010
for fluoride treatments at the town’s schools.