THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2021 Page 13 A letter to the DEP commissioner Precinct 10 Town Meeting Members call on DEP to require “open and transparent” closure of ash landfill (Editor’s Note: The five Saugus Town Meeting members for Precinct 10 recently wrote the following letter to state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Martin Suuberg and requested that it be published as a letter-to-the-editor, as it reflects their opinion on a matter of public policy that will be decided by MassDEP and the Saugus Board of Health.) Dear Commissioner Suuberg, We, the five representative Town Meeting Members for Precinct 10 In Saugus, wish to go on record against permitting any vertical or lateral expansion of the ash landfill operated by WIN (formerly Wheelabrator) of Saugus. We would further urge the DEP to immediately require WIN/Wheelabrator to commence an open and transparent closure process for this landfill which will reportedly reach capacity in 2024. As you indicated in your November 16th correspondence to Representative Turco, MassDEP is barred from issuing a favorable Determination of Site Suitability for any expansion of the Landfill and therefore any expansion cannot go before the Town of Saugus Board of Health for a site assignment. Local Boards of Health are only required to hold a Site Assignment hearing or issue a Site Assignment to applicants if they first receive a favorable Determination of Site Suitability. Alongside the legal issues of expansion, there are numerous environmental and health issues as well. WIN/ Wheelabrator’s ash landfill is located within a one-mile radius of Environmental Justice communities in Saugus, and THE SOUNDS OF SAUGUS | FROM PAGE 12 afterwards warm up with a cup of hot chocolate by the fire pit outside.” Jot this down on your calendar folks: Jan. 1, 2022. Hike starts at 10 a.m. Meet outside the Visitors’ Center of Breakheart Reservation (177 Forest St. in Saugus). The center will remain open until noon. For more information, call 781-233-0834. No 2022 Historical Society calendars It’s been a couple of years since Saugus native George Brown organized the production of those nice, large calendars for the Saugus Historical Society. George had been in charge of the calendar project for close to two decades. There was no calendar last year. And George and his wife have recently moved to Danvers. Not sure why the calendar project stopped, as it was a great project. And I enjoyed the large size and the fascinating old photos and postcards that were showcased. I love those calendars – and I can’t wait til the society starts producing them again. “I have been getting questions about whether they will be available this year, and unfortunately the answer is no, not this Year,” says Saugus Historical Society President Laura Eisener. “People have been asking about the Saugus Calendars usually produced by the Saugus Historical Society. While we do enjoy putting them together and are considering resuming them in 2023, they do take many months to put together and we were not able to determine earlier in the season whether we would have sufficient sponsors, time to prepare them, and places (like the library, senior center, and town hall offices) to distribute them,” Laura said. “We are also still unpacking and getting organized from the major construction that took place in 2019 and 2020. While we have filled one of the vacant board positions, we still have an opening if anyone has an interest in local history and a desire to contribute to the community,” she said. The society’s phone is still not functioning so if you are interested in serving on the board or have other questions about the historical society, please call Laura Eisener on her home phone at 781-231-5988. COVID-19 halts Friday breakfasts its impacts extend well beyond Saugus to neighboring Environmental Justice communities in Revere and Lynn. For decades, these communities, and in particular East Saugus, have been burdened by pollution and nitrogen oxides being emitted by WIN/Wheelabrator. As we are sure you are aware Saugus has hosted this facility since 1974. Saugus, and in particular East Saugus, has done more than its share for the region’s solid waste. For these reasons, we stand in support against permitting a vertical expansion at WIN/ Wheelabrator. You should also know that the location of this ash landfill has a zoning overlay that allows for construction of a solar farm. This use would be far more beneficial to the Commonwealth and its citizens. Sincerely, Martin Costello, Peter Delios, Peter Manoogian, Darren Ring and Carla Scuzzarella Saugus Public Library to host Dr. Rachel May J oin us on Zoom on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at 7 p.m. when the Saugus Public Library, in collaboration with several other area libraries, welcomes Dr. Rachel May for a presentation of her book “An American Quilt: Unfolding a Story of Family and Slavery.” After the author discovered an unfinished 1830s quilt, she investigated the history of the women who created it and the overlooked history of Northern slavery. May’s book explores the far reach of slavery, from New England to the Caribbean, the role it played in the growth of mercantile America and the bonds between the agrarian South and the industrial North in the antebellum era. This is a free Zoom program but registration is required. Once you register, you will receive a link to the Zoom presentation. May is also the author of “Quilting with a Modern Concerns about COVID-19 have led to a temporary shutdown of the Friday morning breakfasts at the Saugus American Legion Cpl Scott J. Procopio Post 210 Legion Hall, which is located at 44 Taylor St. Last week, we received the following email from Debra Dion Faust, Building Manager of American Legion Post 210: “Be aware that, due to a loss of one of our members to Covid (He caught it at a family wedding, not at the Legion itself.) we shut down the breakfast the Friday before Thanksgiving…concerns about the new Omicron variant, the fact that the rather unseasonably warm weather actually works against us, and the fact that the success of the breakfast means that the numbers who come make it difficult to ‘socially distance,’ we took a poll of those breakfast-goers who have given us their email addresses to make notifications possible, and have made the decision to shut down the breakfast for the month of December. “We plan to re-open on Friday, January 7. (We hope by that time to have had a truly hard freeze to help short-circuit transmission fears.) Thanks for your support. Have a good holiday season and a Happy New Year.” We will keep you posted on any developments affecting the Friday breakfasts at Legion Hall. Compost/Recycling Drop-Off site closing The Town of Saugus Compost/Recycling Drop-Off site closed for the winter season on Dec. 11. However, the site will reopen from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the third Saturday of the month in January, February, and March, weather permitting. Please contact Solid Waste/Recycling Coordinator Lorna Cerbone at 781-231-4036 with any questions. Want to be a Knight? The Knights of Columbus is looking for new members to join. If interested in becoming a member of this local organization, please call 781-233-9858. Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus program (Editor’s Note: The following info is from an announcement submitted by Julie Cicolini, a member of the Board of Directors for Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus, providing information about the program.) Who we are: Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus (HS2) is a nonprofit group of volunteers that are helping to offset food insecurity in households. HS2 proSlant,” a 2014 Library Journal and Amazon.com Best Book of the Year. She is an assistant professor at Northern Michigan University. This program is made possible by the collaboration of the public libraries in Newburyport, Billerica, Portsmouth, Boxford, Chelmsford and Saugus and the Langley-Adams Library in Groveland, Peabody Institute Library in Danvers and Bigelow Free Public Library in Clinton. vides students/families that enroll in the program a supply of nutritious food for when school lunches and breakfasts are unavailable to them on weekends. How HS2 can help you: HS2 bags are distributed at school on Fridays to take home. Bags include such items as peanut butter, jelly, a loaf of bread, canned meals/soups/tuna/vegetables, pasta/sauce, fruit cups, cereal, oatmeal, goldfish, pretzels and granola bars. To sign up go here to complete an online form: https://forms.gle/gmMGguycSHBdziuE9. Want to partner with us: HS2 relies on donations to create take-home bags for a weekend full of meals. All food is provided to children free of charge. It is our hope these resources will support the health, behavior and achievement of every student who participates. We would love to partner with organizations, youth groups, PTOs, businesses and individuals to assist in feeding students of Saugus. To learn more about how you can partner with us, visit the Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus Facebook page or email us at HS2Saugus@gmail.com. Checks can also be sent directly to: Salem Five c/o Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus, 855-5 Broadway, Saugus, MA 01906. Online donations can also be made at https://givebutter.com/HealthySaugus. 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 and a half 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.
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