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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2021 Page 13 THE SOUNDS OF SAUGUS | FROM PAGE 12 the food market back to the Saugus Senior Center. The veterans mobile food market is held on the third Wednesday of each month. Veterans and eligible dependents must sign up with the Saugus Veterans Service Office to determine eligibility. VSO Jay Pinette can be reached at 781231-4010 or at jpinette@saugus-ma.gov. Or on the first floor of Saugus Town Hall at 298 Central Street, Saugus MA 01906.” About the veterans’ bricks Board of Selectmen Vice-Chair Corinne Riley, who is involved with a lot of veterans’ events and programs in town, passes this note along: “The Saugus Veterans Council would like to inform those who ordered bricks prior to May 2021, which were displayed at the Memorial Day Ceremony, that those bricks will be installed at Veterans Park mid August and will be dedicated on Veterans Day.” CHaRM Center Recycling Drop-Off site open for season The community’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) site is open. This site will remain open to residents on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The site is located behind the Department of Public Works at 515 Main St. At the CHaRM center, the Town will accept the same recycling items that can be placed outside for curbside collection each week, such as paper, cardboard, bottles, cans and glass containers. No shredded paper is accepted for onsite recycling. Additional acceptable items include TVs and computers (up to three per year per address); car tires up to 22" (for a fee of $3); books; and textiles, such as clothing, bedding, pocketbooks, belts and shoes. Plastic bags are not permitted; residents are kindly asked to empty recyclables out of any plastic bags and to remove the bags from the site. Also, rigid plastics are not being accepted for recycling at this time. Residents may call Lorna Cerbone at the Solid Waste and Recycling Department at 781-2314036 with questions or for more information. Compost site open The town compost site is open to residents on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The site is located behind the Department of Public Works at 515 Main St. Stickers are required to gain seasonal access to the site. Stickers may be purchased for $25.00 at the Department of Public Works (DPW) located at the Compost Site when making your visit to the Compost Site. The Town accepts checks only for payment of the $25.00. No cash will be accepted. Kindly bring a check when visiting. Thank you! Compost site stickers must be permanently placed on the lower left corner of residents’ automobile windshields. Vehicles registered out of state are not permitted. Yard waste must be disposed of in brown compost bags or open containers. The Town will accept grass clippings, leaves and brush. As in years past, no branches or limbs larger than three inches in diameter are permitted. We ask all residents to please wear a mask and maintain and respect social distancing from others while visiting the site. Residents may call Lorna Cerbone at the Solid Waste and Recycling Department at 781-2314036 with questions or for more information. Help the Vietnam Vets “Roll to DC” A reminder from Joseph “Dennis” Gould, a Vietnam War Era veteran who served four years with the U.S. Navy; he has organized a fundraising drive that will help area Vietnam Era veterans visit Washington, D.C., in the fall of next year. “I am glad to announce that we will have a ‘Roll to DC’ for Vietnam Era Veterans from Melrose, Saugus, Wakefield and surrounding towns September 2022. “The managers of this effort will be Saugus VFW Post # 2346. “Gould will be Chair and David Nelson, Saugus American Legion and Stacey Minchello, Melrose Senior Center will be Vice Chairs. “Stan King, Quartermaster Post # 2346 be Treasurer.” The trip will be a four-night trip to D.C., staying at The Presidential Inn at Joint Base Andrews, home of presidential aircraft. It will include a ceremony and laying of a wreath at the Vietnam Wall and the Tomb of Unknown Soldier as well as visiting all military memorials and statues. “We are looking for major sponsorship and donations from all. The Vietnam Veterans will go on this trip free, but it will take approximately $70,000 of sponsorship and donations,” Gould said. “If you would like to be a major sponsor, please contact chairman Dennis Gould cell 617 257 4847 or e mail Jdgould1969@aol.com “If you would like to send in a donation, please make check out to: “‘Saugus VFW – Roll to DC’ write ‘Roll to DC 2022’ in comment Line and mail to: “Saugus VFW Post 2346 “190C Main St “Saugus Ma 01906 “Any questions or if you would like to volunteer to assist the committee, please contact Dennis at contact info above.” Food Pantry still open The Saugus United Parish Food Pantry will continue to remain open on Fridays between 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. despite concerns over the Coronavirus. They have made adjustments to protect their core of volunteers and the needy people who receive the food. For the protection of volunteers & clients, and to limit personal contact and crowding/gathering, the food pantry has been distributing pre-bagged groceries. Even though clients may receive items they don’t want or need, food pantry organizers feel this is the best course of action to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19. Those in need, even for short-term or one-time assistance, are encouraged to come. The food pantry is in the basement of Cliftondale Congregational Church at 50 Essex St. in Saugus. Let’s hear it! Got an idea, passing thought or gripe you would like to share with The Saugus Advocate? I’m always interested in your feedback. It’s been over five years since I began work at The Saugus Advocate. I’m always interested in hearing readers’ suggestions for possible stories or good candidates for “The Advocate Asks” interview of the week. Feel free to email me at mvoge@ comcast.net. Do you have some interesting views on an issue that you want to express to the community? Submit your idea. If I like it, we can meet for a 15- to 20-minute interview over a hot drink at a local coffee shop. And I’ll buy the coffee or tea. Or, if you prefer to continue practicing social distancing and be interviewed from the safety of your home on the phone or via email, I will provide that option to you as the nation recovers from the Coronavirus crisis. If it’s a nice day, my preferred site for a coffee and interview would be the picnic area of the Saugus Iron Works. “YOUR FINANCIAL FOCUS” JOSEPH D. CATALDO SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT RECENT CASE A BIG BOOST TO UPHOLDING WELL SETTLED TRUST LAW A July 23, 2021 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) upheld well settled Trust law and now provides the elder bar with more certainty in drafting irrevocable trusts in the context of Medicaid planning. MassHealth’s legal department could not persuade the SJC that a special or limited power of appointment contained in the applicant’s irrevocable trust caused the trust principal to be countable thereby resulting in ineligibility for MassHealth benefits for the applicant. The SJC cited the Restatement (Third) of Property: Wills and Other Donative Transfers, Section 17.2 (2011) and many Superior Court and Appellate Court cases as grounds for its decision against MassHealth. The benefits of this SJC case for the elderly in Massachusetts are profound. MassHealth has over the last 10 years or so been attacking almost any provision contained in an irrevocable trust in order to deny MassHealth benefits, even though so many of its legal arguments have been in complete contradiction with well settled case law and statutory law. Its arguments seemed to be more based upon its own ideology as to desired outcomes as opposed to them being based upon the actual law. In the case at hand, the applicant and her husband were the Settlors of an irrevocable trust. There was a provision in the trust granting the applicant, during her lifetime, a limited power of appointment to appoint all or any portion of the trust principal to a nonprofit or charitable organization over which she has no controlling interest. MassHealth argued that the applicant could appoint the trust principal to a nonprofit nursing home in order to pay for her nursing home care, and as a result, the entire principal of the trust was countable thereby making the applicant ineligible for MassHealth benefits. The SJC went on to state that since the applicant possessed a special or limited power of appointment, she could not appoint to an otherwise permissible beneficiary in any way that could benefit herself. As a matter of trust common law, statutory law and case law, a special or limited power of appointment, by definition, can never be utilized by the Donee of the power to benefit himself or herself in any way. After MassHealth appealed the Superior Court decision, the SJC took the case directly from the Superior Court thereby bypassing the Appeals Court altogether. The SJC also made it clear that a use and occupancy provision contained in an irrevocable trust likewise did not make the trust principal countable. The decision also made it clear that a trust instrument must be read as a whole in order to determine the Settlor’s intent when he or she executed the document. Trust provisions should not be read in isolation. Rather, they should be read in the context of reading the Trust instrument as a whole. Only then can you determine the Settlor’s intent when creating the Trust. This was an impactful opinion rendered by the SJC based upon excellent legal reasoning. Thank you to the Mass Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the Mass Bar Association. A job well done.

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