The Tremont Nail Company property, which has remained dormant for nearly four years, may become the site of a small senior housing project, pending approval of the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting voters.
    Alan Slavin of the Tremont Nail Master Plan Committee said his group will take a written proposal before selectmen in the coming weeks. The committee would like to see the seven-acre town-owed property split in half, with a senior housing project created on the highlands of the property.
    "Something to do with this property instead of it sitting there and noting bringing any income to the town," Slavin said.
    The town purchased the property in 2004 when the historic nail factory was still operating on the site. The company moved to Pennsylvania shortly afterward, leaving the town with vacant buildings that eventually fell into disrepair. The Community Preservation Committee commissioned a study of the property, but that study ran into cost overruns, and the CPC parted ways with the consultant. Recent studies have reveal rain damage to the main factory building.
    Slavin doesn’t believe it’s economically feasible for the town to do the necessary repairs on the old factory.
    "A study was done on possible uses of the property, and one of the possibilities was senior housing," Slavin said.
    Slavin said a factor will be the feasibility of building such a housing project on the highlands. The rest of the property is in a flood plain. But although the Tremont Nail Factory is considered historic, the property surrounding it isn’t actually in the town’s historic district. That would make development possible.
    Salvin would also like to see "The White Building" be used to house the office for CEDA (Community Economic Development Agency).
    "The White Building would be the next piece of the puzzle," Slavin said. "If we had the CEDA office there it could help getting the rest of the area developed as well. The town could also lease out office space there. It might present a nice thing for people coming to town to see, especially developers."

    In response to an article in last week’s Wareham Observer regarding rotting school buses in need of repair, School Committee members assured approximately 50 nervous parents that their children were never placed in danger during a meeting Wednesday night in the high school cafeteria.
    The Observer reported last week that half of the school bus fleet showed evidence of rot in the cross-member frames that support the engine and transmission. The Registry of Motor Vehicles, unsatisfied with the level of repair the school district attempted using on-staff mechanics, ordered the district to send 18 of the 36 buses in the fleet to an outside repair facility. The estimated cost of repairs could exceed $100,000.
    In that story The Observer quoted RMV spokesperson Ann Defensne, School Superintendent Barry Rabinovich, and School Committee Chairman Bob Brousseau as all saying students were never in any danger.
    Brousseau, who is up for re-election in April, acknowledged he was quoted correctly in the Observer story last week. He took issue with the article’s tone, however.
    "I view this as an attempt to raise fears" Brousseau said. "My final thought as I read this was, don’t allow the truth to get in the way of a good story."
    Fellow School Committee members Ken Fontes and Rachelle Gillette said they had never believed that their children had been put on an unsafe bus. Geoff Swett, a volunteer occasionally drives Wareham’s school buses to athletic events, said school bus drivers wouldn’t get into a bus or allow children to ride on one that they felt was unsafe.
    "Parents are putting their children on the buses. There was a lot of unnecessary angst because of that article," Cliff Silva said.
    Transportation director Mary Jane Driscoll told Rabinovitch that Wareham’s school buses undergo two different types of inspections. One inspection (similar to a car’s annual inspection) is done annually by the school department using state inspection equipment. Driscoll said the other inspection; done three times a year by the RMV, is "much more intense."
    Driscoll said repairs were needed on 18 buses for varying degrees of rust. Some of the buses have since been repaired. The remaining buses are in the process of being repaired, or awaiting a turn in the repair shop.
    "We never put a child in any bus that the registry considered unsafe," Driscoll said.

   Concerned parents filled Wareham High’s cafeteria Wednesday night for a public hearing on the proposed FY2011 school budget, which includes $720,000 in budget cuts.
    "It hasn’t been easy these last few years," School Committee Chairman Bob Brousseau said. "This has been building since 2003. We have been cutting programs and personnel and in many cases not filling retirement positions."
    Brousseau said that out of 350 school districts in Massachusetts only 15 spend the minimum amount allowed by the state.
    "I’m not happy to say Wareham is one of them," he added.
   Middle school and freshman interscholastic sports are on the chopping block, a potential savings of $25,000. A secretary retiring from the superintendent’s office will not be replaced ($18,490 in savings). Three teaching positions (as yet not specified) at the high school will be eliminated ($120,000). The text book budget will be reduced $50,000 and stimulus funding will be used to purchase books. A middle school guidance counselor position will be eliminated ($76,000). Five retiring teachers will be replaced by "fresh from college" (lower pay scale) teachers ($100,000).
    Money allocated for substitute teachers and custodial substitutes will be reduced ($50,000). A K-12 department head position will be eliminated (stipend savings $4,300, with the person staying on as a teacher). Professional development for paraprofessionals will not be instituted as planned ($9,370). An energy manager has been eliminated ($19,000). Copy paper purchase will be reduced ($40,000). Extended morning kindergarten will be eliminated ($100,000).
    Superintendent Barry Rabinovitch said that even with all those cuts the overall school budget will increase by 3.7 percent, far above the average annual increase of 1.68 percent in recent years.
     Increases in fixed cost such as insurance and energy are increasing faster than revenue.
    Offered an opportunity to comment on the budget, parents were quick to react to the abolishment of interscholastic sports for middle school students and freshman. Much of the cost of those programs stems from transportation.
    Some parents suggested that transportation for interscholastic sports be provided by school bus drivers willing to volunteer their time. Others suggested parents with specific skills should volunteer to do maintenance for the school so that money from the maintenance budget could be directed to transportation.
    School Committee member Cliff Silva said such suggestions could not be enacted because of union contracts.
    Parents worried that without athletic programs some students would lose interest in school. Others suggested that student/athletes would be at a competitive disadvantage entering high school.
    School Committee member Ken Fontes acknowledged that "cutting middle school sports is a step in the wrong direction." He suggested that parents come up with creative solutions to get their children to games. One suggestion was to form car pools.
    Rachel Gillette told parents that her children’s interests lie in the arts, which have already suffered deep cuts.
    "I know sports are important without question, but there are a lot of other things that have been cut. Let’s keep that perspective," Gillette said.
    "Minimum school spending means that it is the least allowable by law, the lowest you can go. That’s not the place to be and we have been thee for at least 20 years," Silva said.
    Silva then looked out at parents in the audience.
    "How many are here because of sports?" he asked.
    Almost every hand in the crowded room went up.
    "You can put together a grass roots save our sports, but I would love to see save our schools," Silva said, adding that cutting sports was only a small percentage of a total budget cut in tough economic times. "I urge you folks get beyond save our sports and save our schools."
    "Don’t talk down to people about the economy. We all know what the economy is," a man shouted from the audience.
    "Year after year we see minimum net. Why can’t you walk into Town Meeting and say, damn it this is what we need," a woman called out.
    "We need a proposition 2 1/2 override," another woman shouted. "I’ve been told by a member of the Finance Committee a prop 2 ½ override can be taken to Town Meeting by parents. It doesn’t have to be by selectmen."
    "I don’t think an override is the answer," School Committee member Geoff Swett responded. "All it would do is bail out the state that has failed to meet its obligation. Five years ago we were getting a quarter of a million dollars to transport your kids. Now we are getting zero."
    School Committee members approved the budget as follows: net school spending ($25,055,827) by a margin of 3-2 with Silva abstaining and Swett opposed; non-net spending ($1,530,847) 4-1 with Swett opposed; and the combined total budget ($26,586,684) 4-1 with Swett opposed.

     A "new" group - VoteApril6 - suddenly emerged last week in an advertisement inside the new Wareham Week newspaper, asking people to vote in the April 6 Town Election. There was no contact information except for an e-mail address. 
     The Observer found it interesting that this group wasn’t registered as a Political Action Committee so we had somebody send them an e-mail to find out what it was all about. That e-mail read: "I was reading this new free paper I saw and you got this advertisement in here about voting in Wareham. I turn 18 in two months and want to vote. How do I do that? Do I need to go to town hall and fill out some card or something? I started looking at the Courier last year, but they don’t write much about things going on in the town, like politics and stuff. Are you people that group citizens for Wareham that I saw in the paper last year? Can you tell me whose going to be in the election this year. I need some help with this. Thank you."
     The response sent by VoteApril6 was fascinating. Here it is in its entirety, unedited:
    "Thanks for making contact and for your desire to become a registered voter. If you will go to the Town Clerk .... Mary Ann Silva, whose office is on the first floor of the Town Hall, she will be happy to give you the materials you need to get registered.
     As for "Vote April 6" ... We are not focussing on supporting individual candidates but rather on doubling the number of people who vote. Wareham has something like 14,000 registered voters, but usually about 2,000 show up on voting day! 
    We’ve ordered lots of lawn sign, decals, and pins .... and perhaps you might want to help us get the word out to young voters like yourself. One of us will be visiting with our School Superintendent this week to see if we can get his support.
     As for getting information regarding the qualifications of people running for office ... keep reading Wareham Week, and don’t give up on The Courier ... They are already stepping up their pace in response to the new competition. There will also be gatherings where you will be able to assess the candidates, and I think you will see WCTV playing an active role.
     Thanks again ... a stay in touch. Wouldn’t we love to find 1,000 people like you! Vote April 6."
     We found several things very interesting about this. The phrase "Vote April 6" is the tag line that the Take Back Wareham crew end most of their posts with on the fake Observer web site. Also, VoteApril6 suggested that the person inquiring about them read Wareham Week and the Courier to learn about the election. Funny how the Observer wasn’t mentioned. 
      Also of interest is they never identified who they are in their e-mail.
     Perhaps most frightening is that this group will attempt to push their "non-political" message through the schools by meeting with Superintendant Barry Rabinovich.
      A follow-up e-mail was sent to the group, asking them to identify themselves. This was their response to that question:
    "Our primary motivation is our concern that is that it seems as if everyone is concerned about Wareham’s future, and what we are saying is, ‘If you don’t vote, you can’t gripe!’ We wish Wareham Week well but we’re not connected as staff. We paid the full rate for the advertising space from last week through April 6. We are not backed by any other group, and we are paying for everything out of our own pockets."
    A third e-mail insisting that those behind VoteApril6 identify themselves received no reply. The incumbents in the election are not involved with this group.
    We found it interesting that this group claims it paid nearly three months in advance. Very few newspapers ask for up-front payment for advertising. Based on Wareham Week’s advertising rates, VoteApril6 paid Wareham Week $1,500 before the new paper printed its first edition. Throw in the cost of lawn signs, decals and pins, that’s a good chunk of change to simply encourage people to vote.
   Conveniently enough, VoteApril6 now has an ad on-line on Wareham Week's web site, underneath a story about Wednesday night's School Committee meeting. During that meeting Rabinovich urged those in attendence to get out and vote if they don't like seeing cuts in the school budget.
   Yes, this has Take Back Wareham’s dirty little fingers all over it. 

   The minute I notice daylight beginning to linger later into the afternoon I start hearing the strains of Take Me Out To The Ball Game sung by my grandfather. Fifty-three years have passed since his death and still I hear his love for baseball singing in my memory.
    My grandmother loved baseball too. Nearly deaf and owning a hearing aid that didn’t really work, she’d sit watching baseball on a TV with the volume turned off while my mother took an afternoon nap one floor away. Nana didn’t need the sound. The joy of watching was enough. Three feet from the TV she’d sit literally on the edge of her seat, back held ridged by her corset, hands held tight in anticipation of the next great play.
    Three generations later hands were held tight in anticipation again, this time by my son Frank as he sat on benches waiting for his turn to play in Little League games.
    From the moment he was born Frank loved to play with balls. Open the door to Toy’s R Us and he’d head for a display of balls while big brother Bob stood transfixed in an isle of Star Wars action figures. Bob went from Star Wars to G.I. Joe action figures. Frank transitioned from bouncy beach balls to balls the size of grapefruits and then to Wiffle Balls and plastic bats. In the early spring, in puddles and mud of a well-shaded back yard, Frank and I would be play. He was the left hander. I was the right hander. Somehow he would always win.
    Frank loved baseball and lived for the moment that he could belong to one of Needham’s Little League teams. He was good at it. He wasn’t an All-Star, but he was one of the better players, and he certainly loved the game.
    Then came the year that he came home crushed after learning he had been assigned to the worst team in the league.
     The coaches and manger for that "worst team" turned out to be extraordinary. Twenty-two years have passed and I still haven’t quite figured out what happened that year. Maybe the coaches, knowing they had the "worst team," decided to just let the kids have fun. Maybe it was more than that. Maybe they were just gifted in the way that all coaches should be. In the entire season I never heard impatience shouted into the air. I never saw Frank or one of his teammates embarrassed by criticism. What I heard was praise, over and over again, not just for big things, but for little things as well.
    What I saw was a transformation for the record books. The "worst team" became the best team and won first place in its division. Left-handed Frank pitched a lot that year and he loved every minute of it.
     I wish Frank’s Little League experience ended with that year, but it didn’t. Encouraged, enthused, and loving baseball more than ever he progressed to a new team and different coaches the next year. The coaches would unleash ridicule on players that carried beyond the field and into the bleachers. Team moral hit bottom. Practices and games became things to dread.
     An outfielder watched a ball that seemed destined to go over the fence. Staring into the sun the outfielder jumped and pulled the ball from the air. It was a spectacular catch, one that stunned the crowd. It stunned the outfielder too, just long enough to make his throw to second base too late to double-up a runner.
    "How could you be so stupid?" the outfielder’s father screamed from the bleachers.
    Little League should be fun for kids. It shouldn’t become something to dread. Criticism from coaches should be constructive, not delivered as public ridicule. Parents shouldn’t call their children stupid.
    Wareham Little League president John Kelley summed up a coach’s job during an interview.
    Coaches should be "mentors, roll models, people to look up to."
    That’s the kind of coach Kelley had all through his years playing in Wareham Little League. Kelley not only admired his coaches; he chose to emulate them as well, becoming one even before his children reached an age which qualified them to participate.
    "Coaches should instill in kids to get involved with your community and to give back to the program," Kelley said.
    Little League is so much more than a schedule of practices and games. It’s an opportunity to be part of a community learning to pull together. It’s about more than winning or losing. It’s about respect for rules and each other. It should always be fun.
    Coaches and managers are needed for Wareham’s Little League. Anyone interested should send a letter of intent to Wareham Little League, P.O. Box 614, Wareham, MA. 02571 Attention: John Kelley.
    All positions will be filled in February.

    It’s official. Opening day for Wareham Little League will be April 25.
    "There are two big things the kids enjoy a lot: walking in the opening day parade and playing their night game under the lights. They feel like they are in Fenway Park," said John Kelley, president of Wareham’s Little League program.
    Between now and opening day Kelley has a lot of work ahead of him, especially recruiting additional coaches and managers. Kelley said every year some coaches and managers move on because their children move up to older leagues.
    Kelley’s son Matthew, 13, is moving on to Babe Ruth baseball this spring. Kelley’s staying with Little League, in part because his other children, Samantha and Cameron, will be playing on teams. But mostly it’s because he can’t part with his passion for Little League. This is Kelley’s 11th as a volunteer and third year as president.
    He played in Wareham Little League when he was a boy. He vividly remembers his coaches and managers. They were the center of his attention, the people he really listened to, the ones who took an entire team out for ice cream regardless of their record on the field.
    "Coaches are mentors, roll models, people to look up to," Kelley said. "I still remember all of the coaches I had as a kid. I still respect all of them to this day."
    More than 300 boys and girls ages 5-12 are expected to sign up for Wareham’s 28 Little League teams this year. Kelley will need to recruit up to 10 new coaches and managers. No special skills are required for the positions. Training clinics are held. Among topics covered in the clinics are how to work with players, various aspects of the game, and safety clinics.
    "Coaches and managers are very fortunate because the kids really listen to them," Kelley said. "The kids want to excel. They want to succeed. You want them to have positive experiences, something they won’t forget, to be a team, to be a team player. You strive for those qualities when you are there."
    There’s a reward for those who volunteer, Kelley said.
    "You see a sense of accomplishment in how (the players) have developed and grown over a time frame. You see them respect the game and the individuals they are with."
    There are life lessons to be learned as well, Kelly said. Learning how to deal with defeat can be equally important as learning how to be successful.
    There has definitely been success in the program. Last year the an all-star team of eight year olds played its way to Rhode Island in a national tournament.
    Time commitments for coaches and managers depend upon the age level to which they are assigned and range from three to five evenings per week beginning in late April and ending either in late June, late August, or October, depending on whether the person wishes to continue through summer and/or fall baseball.
    Those who are interested should send a letter of intent to Wareham Little League, P.O. Box 614, Wareham, MA, 02571, Attention: John Kelley.
    All positions will be filled in February. CORI checks will be required.
    Volunteers are also needed to assist with care of the Little League complex, score keeping, and fund raising.
    Sign up dates for players (as yet not determined) will be posted at www.warehamlittleleague.com.