Owner puts BeachFire on the market for $1.5M Hull ... - The Hull Times

2 THE HULL TIMES, Thursday, November 17, 2011 www.hulltimes.com
editorial
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Founded June 26, 1930
412 Nantasket Avenue, Hull, MA 02045
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The knowledge that Hull has been severed from
the 10 th Congressional District is unsettling.
We sort of feel like a baseball player who unexpectedly
finds he’s been traded. And not the marquee
name player whom all the teams want. We feel like the
utility guy who never really made the grade anyway
and just kinda got thrown into the mix.
We knew our place in the 10 th . We’re small, but
then so are many of our fellow district towns, particularly
those on the Cape. We’re a coastal community in
a district awash with coastal communities. We share
the same challenges and the same opportunities.
Since Hingham, Cohasset, Scituate, Weymouth,
and Quincy are in the same boat as Hull in being
moved into Congressman Stephen Lynch’s District
8, we know we’re not alone.
And it’s not as if Congressman William Keating
has represented us for a long time. We’re still getting
to know each other, in fact.
But Hull seemed to like him and, as he told the
Times this week, he embraced Hull, so our courtship
seemed to be progressing nicely.
Now we feel jilted and we have to start all over
with a suitor who may not suit us.
Then again, he may suit us very well and, heaven
knows, the town may charm him. This Southie girl
recognizes certain key similarities between Hull and
Lynch’s hometown. We’ll have to see how it plays out.
The thing is, it would have been nice if someone
had alerted us that this was coming before it was a fait
accompli. We’re not saying it’s unfair, we just haven’t
yet had time enough to analyze the data. And, anyway,
no one seems to care how we feel.
The final redistricting maps were unveiled last
week and – Presto! – the Legislature voted on them
yesterday [Wednesday]. It took months and months
to configure the redistricting maps but, because our
legislators want their seven weeks off for their holiday
break, the people affected got next to no time to react.
It’s the high-handedness of it all that’s so galling.
Until the Times called them, neither state Rep. Garrett
Bradley, who sat on the redistricting committee,
nor our state senator, Robert Hedlund, uttered a word
on the topic.
Keating put out a short statement saying he would
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“From Shadows and Symbols into the Truth”
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Letters to the Editor
School accreditation supporters are a credit
to the community…
To the Editor:
Wow! What an amazing week at Hull High School!
During the four days that the NEASC visiting team
spent at Hull High School:
• Almost 200 people heard about the strengths and
needs of our school from Prince Charming and Cinderella
[a/k/a Andrew Ollerhead and Alyssa Steen],
Superintendent Dr. Tyrell, our student body president,
Molly Kane, members of our Leadership class, Hull
High School teachers Mark Galligan, Edwin Menon,
Deanne Zella, and Amanda Held;
• Every single HHS teacher, student services staff
member, administrator, and support staff member was
interviewed by one or more visiting team member;
• 16 parents participated in an interview panel;
• More than 200 students and parents attended a welcoming
reception and heard fantastic music from the
new and improved HHS band;
• 25 students were interviewed by a visiting team member;
• 32 students were shadowed; and
• Every teacher in our school was observed while
teaching.
In my conversations with the visiting team members,
all said that our community has been so welcoming
to them. They all commented on the respect,
honesty, and enthusiasm shown by our students. They
also said that, while they realize that our school has a
great deal of work still to do, there are so many great
things happening at Hull High School, and so much
that should bring pride to our community.
So, a heartfelt “Thank you!” goes out to all the
parents who attended the NEASC events and to all
those who brought chili, soup, stew, chowder, appetizers,
drinks, and desserts. We could not have done
move from Quincy to his summer home on the Cape
to avoid an elective collision with Lynch.
Lynch hasn’t yet come a-calling.
Now we know how Tim Wakefield feels. ∞
it without you.
A very special thank you goes out to the members
of our School Council, the Hull Public Schools IT
staff, Joe Doniger, Karen Powers, Fran Troy, and
Peter Seitz.
Finally, the faculty and staff of Hull High School,
led by Mark Galligan and Edwin Menon, spent more
than two years preparing for this visit. In addition to
teaching their students, they created rubrics, wrote
reports, and gathered evidence to prepare for the visit.
Our students and our community are indeed fortunate
to have such outstanding professionals working in
our schools.
We will not receive the official word from NEASC
about our accreditation status until late May, but no
matter what they say, I am so proud to be a part of this
amazing learning community. Every student, teacher,
staff member, and citizen of Hull has reason to be a
proud Pirate this week.
Sincerely,
Michael F. Devine, Principal
Hull High School
Village lot is going to the dogs – and that’s
a good thing…
To the Editor:
Last week’s zoning board of appeals meeting certainly
was a love fest for Dog Peace, a remarkable,
small, family-run business in town. As a very appreciative
client, I wasn’t surprised to see over 30 other
enthusiastic friends of the dog-care business crowd
into the selectmen’s meeting room to proclaim their
support for Jill and Dave Orpen. What most impressed
me, though, was the presence of John Ring, who has
leased a small piece of his property to the Orpens for
the business’s use two hours a day, four days a week,
and Ceil Garber, who runs the also beloved Sunshine
Pet Parlor on Nantasket Ave.
You might think that John, who collects a very
modest rent for use of his land, would want to steer
clear of a zoning dispute in his side yard. After all, Hull
being Hull and a town of many zoning oddities, he
runs a boatyard in the middle of the town’s otherwise
pretty sedate historic district.
Ceil, on the other hand, might be seen as an outright
competitor of Jill and Dave’s. Yet she spoke
eloquently at the board of appeals meeting in support
of their small business. I think that both John and
Ceil deserve applause for being great neighbors and
friends, and for fighting to help keep Dog Peace going
strong, especially in an economy that is forcing
so many businesses to close.
Every Hull resident knows firsthand the challenges
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