Page 16 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, NOVEmbEr 18, 2022 The Sounds of Saugus By Mark E. Vogler Good morning, Saugus! Thanksgiving is less than a week away now and the holiday lights and decorations are already out in some parts of town. Only six more weeks left in the year. As in past Thanksgiving weeks, The Saugus Advocate plans on publishing Wednesday, Nov. 23 – the day before Thanksgiving – instead of coming out on our usual Friday. We will have early deadlines next week, so anyone who needs to get announcements, news items or advertisements in The Saugus Advocate should contact us by late Monday. Plans are already in the works for one of the town’s most popular community events – the annual tree lighting ceremony and holiday festivities – set for 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2. Stay tuned for details. A great Veterans Day Last Friday (Nov. 11), Saugonians were treated to one of the best weather days in recent memory as a couple of hundred people gathered for the Veterans Day observance at Veterans Park. Special Town Meeting Nov. 28 Just weeks after having one Special Town Meeting, town officials are gearing up for another. The key item on the warrant for a Special Town Meeting set for Nov. 28 is an article that would grant the town manager authority to research, develop and participate in a contract, or contracts, to aggregate the electricity load of the residences and businesses in the town. Another article on the agenda would authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire title to the land and buildings located at 42 Jackson St. for public parking and other municipal purposes. Another article will permit the town to appropriate money for acquiring the land and buildings at 42 Jackson St. In addition, there are several fiscal housekeeping initiatives that will be considered at the meeting, which gets underway at 7:30 p.m. in the second floor auditorium at Saugus Town Hall. We did reach out … Better late than never, as the saying goes. Finally, this week, we got a detailed response from David DiBarri, superintendent of the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School District, regarding our front-page story in the Oct. 21 edition, titled “Trouble in the Forest.” The article, written by Laura Eisener, focused on a group protesting the destruction of more than 13 acres of trees for the building of a new vocational high school. Saugus is one of 12 communities in the school district and happens to be right next door to Wakefield – home of Northeast Metro Tech. So when Laura – who does a great and thorough job on her “Saugus Gardens” article each week – happened to notice people holding signs at The Voke, she decided to check it out. The people she interviewed raised concerns about what they believe to be the needless destruction of trees to clear the way for the new school. Of course, it would have been a better story had we been able to get comment from school administration at The Voke school. In his letter, DiBarri criticized the paper for not reaching out to the school. “Had the author contacted the School Building Committee, or visited the school building project’s website at www. northeastbuildingproject. com, they would have developed an understanding of the extensive work that went into considering alternative sites,” DiBarri wrote. Actually, we did reach out, but got no response, I advised the superintendent after reading his letter. Then I got an email response back from him that insisted “I can assure you though that nobody reached out to the school for comment.” The superintendent is mistaken, as Laura did talk to a real person at the school and was transferred to the voicemail of the administrative assistant. But she never received a call back. I also called the office that day and wasn’t able to talk with anybody either. I contacted Peter Rosetti, Jr., the Saugus member of The Voke School Committee, the next week, hoping he could get through to school administration. I played phone tag with the superintendent during the week after the story was published. And the superintendent’s response finally arrived this week. The superintendent apologized for a late Nov. 15 response on a story that was published four weeks earlier. We like to run letters to the editor when we receive them, no matter whether they are positive or negative. Sometimes, when a controversy erupts on a particular issue, government administrators prefer to criticize the media for not doing enough background on a story before publishing. Of course, it helps when these school administrators return calls. We still appreciated the belated response and hope The Voke administration can be more forthcoming in the future. Communication is a two-way street. Saugus High School presents “SELFIE” The Saugus High School Drama Club is staging “SELFIE,” by Bradley Hayward and directed by Alisha Dolan, from Nov. 17 to 19 at 7 p.m. at the Saugus High School Black Box Theatre. Here’s the story line for the play: It’s senior year and problems are mounting for a group of high school students as they prepare for the future. Facing bullies, parents, pressure, sickness and their own self-judgment, the characters search for ways to stand out. As they document their year, one click at a time, they come to realize life is not about what other people see – it’s about the pictures they have of themselves. Tickets for the show will be sold at the door for all three performances: $8 for students and seniors, $10 for adults. Seating is limited. For more information, please contact Alisha Dolan of Performing Arts at adolan@saugus.k12. ma.us. This week’s “Shout Outs” It’s always great when we receive nominations from multiple readers to publicly commend people and groups who contribute to the betterment of Saugus. This week, we heard from: Precinct 6 Town Meeting Member Jeanie Bartolo. She offered four Veterans Day thank you “Shout Outs”: “The first ‘Shout Out’ goes to the Town’s DPW Department for mowing the grass and raking up the leaves at Veterans Park for Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11th. Thanks guys! “The second ‘Shout Out’ goes to Stefano’s Landscapers for installing 20 bricks along the brick walkway at Veterans Park. A special thank you to the two workers who installed them; Juan Sandoval and Orlando Munos who did a beautiful job installing the bricks and tidied up the walkway one last time. Stefano’s Landscaping has done this for many years now at no cost to honor all Veterans on Veterans Day. We are so grateful to you. Thank you for all you do for Saugus. “The third ‘Shout Out’ is for TM Bank, new to Saugus, who donated and graciously served coffee and donuts at the Veterans Day observance at Veterans Park. They were warm and friendly to all and they passed out gift bags as well. Thank you so much for doing that for all who came to honor our Veterans. “And lastly, this fourth ‘Shout Out’ goes to the Belmonte STEAM Academy for the Veterans Day observance program they had on November 10th at the school. All Veterans were invited to attend. The Saugus Veterans Council members who attended had nothing but the highest praise for the children and staff for the respect shown to them and what a wonderful job they did to honor all Veterans.” Denise Chainey: “I wanted to give a shout out to the members and staff of ATCK Fitness in Saugus. This past week ATCK Fitness held a food drive and thanks to the generous donations from their members, they were able to donate two car loads of food and non-perishable items to the Saugus Food Pantry. This is just one of the many times they have collected items to distribute to those in need. They are always willing to help and give back to the community.” THE SOUNDS | SEE PAGE 17 —Cont est— CONTEST SKETCH OF THE WEEK GUESS WHO GOT SKETCHED? If you know the right answer, you might win the contest. In this week’s edition, we continue our weekly feature where a local artist sketches people, places and things in Saugus. Got an idea who’s being sketched this week? If you do, please email me at mvoge@comcast.net or leave a phone message at 978 683-7773. Anyone who identifies the Saugonian sketched in this week’s paper between now and Tuesday at Noon qualifies to have their name put in a green Boston Red Sox hat with a chance to be selected as the winner of a $10 gift certificate, compliments of Hammersmith Family Restaurant, 330 Central Street in Saugus. But you have to enter to win! Look for the winner and identification in next week’s “The Sounds of Saugus.” Please leave your mailing address in case you are a winner. (Courtesy illustration to The Saugus Advocate by a Saugonian who goes by the name of “The Sketch Artist”)
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