Cape & Islands News

Christmas in February--a look back at Occupy Santa in Woods Hole

Video of Occupy Santa event in Woods Hole in early December

Video by Jon Goldman

The holidays may have passed, but filmmaker Jon Goldman of Woods Hole provides us with one finally look at Santa. Well, sixty Santas actually, at the Occupy Santa event staged in Woods Hole at the beginning of December.

On that clear day, sixty "occupiers" in bright red, blow-up Santa suits took to the streets of the quaint seaside village in search of year-round jobs. 

Jon Goldman, the creator of the video, was also the organizer of the event. He also created the documentary Oil in the Family.

See Paul Rifkin's coverage of the event here.

What attracts attracts 271 sex offenders to this area

Is Cape Cod becoming a sex offender haven?

The red dots on this map each represents where a registered sex offender live in the Mid-Cape area.

187 on Cape Cod, 84 more in in towns just over the bridge

By Walter Brooks

Like a patient about to die of in the final stages of a dread disease, the Mid Cape towns of Hyannis, Dennis and Yarmouth are covered with a red rash of registered sex offenders, 95 living in those three town alone.

We know that local 12-Step groups of every stripe often suggest that there is a logical reason why Cape Cod has a higher than average percentage of alcoholics, drug addicts and other hopefuls now in recovery.

We wondered if this also might explain the seemingly large numbers of sex offenders who have located here as well.

It is documented that when people feel they have a serious problem like alcohol abuse, they seek the place where they previously were happy and free of alcohol and other drugs, and that place is often the vacation area of their youth. That's probably why every Cape town except three are on the list for the 75 towns with the highest number of liquor licenses.

This is one reason there are more scheduled A.A. meetings here per capita than in any other area of which we know. Cape Cod TODAY even has a regularly updated A.A. blog called K.I.S.S. (for Keep It Simple, Stupid).

There is no comparison between the human problems above with the evils of sexual abuse because all the former can be arrested by anyone willing to admit they have a problem, and then be prepared to do whatever it takes to stop.

Sex offenders, on the other hand, seldom if ever stop their predatory and heinous actions, and we wondered whether the unusually high number of sex offenders per capita living on Cape Cod moved here for similar reasons. (Editor's Note: We were wrong about this See this Letter to the Editor.)

Michael J. Hill. SORB photo.

Throw in the just-off Cape towns of Wareham and Plymouth where there are 28 more, and there are 163 registered sex offenders from Plymouth to Provincetown.

What's it mean for Cape Cod?

This prurient interest in sex offenders was prompted by a story in the Berkshire Eagle this week which reported that a Level 3 sex offender named Michael J. Hill, 37, was arrested and charged by police on Cape Cod with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.

Hill is facing eight charges, including aggravated rape, kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon and threat to commit murder.

At his trial in Pittsfield which began Monday,  the alleged victim testified that she was held against her will and sexually assaulted over the course of about 20 days in late-January and February 2010.

Hill, a Level 3 sex offender which is a designation for those considered by the state to be at the highest risk for re-offending, has sexual assault convictions going back to 1989.

Cape has the same percentage of sex offenders as Boston

Over 75 % of our sex offenders
live in  the five towns of
Bourne, Dennis, Hyannis,
Wareham and Yarmouth.There are 216,902 people living on Cape Cod and 617,594 in Boston.

That means bucolic Cape Cod has about the same percentage of sex offenders as that big city.

I guess bucolic ain't what it used to be.

I'll bet most of you, like myself, assumed the sex offenders living here would mostly be in Hyannis and Wareham.

But tiny Dennis is #5 on the list with 16 sex offenders in that 2-mile wide town and Yarmouth and Bourne are at the top of the list ahead of Hyannis and Wareham.

Our alarm was discovering how many sex offenders have settled here, and our relief came when we discovered how easy it is to see WHO they are  and WHERE they live.

You simply go to this site, www.familywatchdog.us, type in the town name, and when the page appears, click on the "List" at top for the name and address of each offender.

• Yarmouth: 45 offenders
• Hyannis: 35 offenders
• Dennis:  25 offenders
• Bourne: 23 offenders
• Wareham: 21 offenders
• Plymouth: 17 offenders
• Harwich: 15 offenders
• Kingston: 13 offenders
• Plympton: 13 offender
• Falmouth: 13 offenders
• Duxbury: 11 offenders
• Mashpee: 10 offenders
• Carver: 9 offenders
• Brewster: 8 offenders
• Sandwich: 8 offenders
• Chatham: 2 offenders
• Provincetown: 2 offenders
• Eastham: 1 offender
• Orleans: 1 offender
• Truro: 1 offender
• Wellfleet: 1 offender

Sex offender information is also available on most every local police department's website as well.

Cape Cod Five files to change structure

Sorry, no IPO here! Just a tool for long-term strategy and local focus

By Teresa Martin

Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank has filed paperwork to reorganize into a mutual holding company, according to published legal notices.

 In some places, this move opens the door to a capital-raising initial public offering (IPO) by the organization or even eventual acquisition of the bank -- but the Cape Cod Five structured its filing to prevent both those scenarios.

"We set up a structure that is very common for mutual banks, but we did in a way that is a little unique in that we have just one share, owned by the holding company," said Dorothy A. Savarese, president and CEO of The Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank.

Filings on record

Click here to see a larger version of the notice as it appeared in the local daily today.According to Federal Reserve Bank records, The Cape Cod Five Mutual Company of Harwich Port on January 27 2012 sought to become a mutual bank holding company by acquiring 100% of the voting shares of the current Cape Cod Five.

Additional legal notices describe this as a multi-stage transaction that begins by creating a new mutual savings bank. This new bank then reorganizes into a mutual holding company with a subsidiary banking institution in stock form.  Lastly, the current Cape Cod Five Cents Saving Bank merges into the newly formed stock savings bank and continues operating under the Cape Cod Five name.

One term, many uses

Banks adopt this type of structure for multiple reasons. For many, a stock structure enables the bank to raise capital from the markets. This means the bank can tap into funds for corporate investment, growth, or other business purposes.

In other cases, the conversion has served as the prelude for a sale to a larger bank.

Savarese says that the Cape Cod Five has no interest in either of these scenarios and, in contrast to these approaches, used the restructuring as a tool to prevent them.

"We did it for flexibility." - Dorothy Savarese, CC5 President & CEO

"We did it for flexibility," she said.

The 157-year old organization plans to use the holding company structure to ensure the bank remains tied to the community and held by its members. She also said it could serve as a possible future platform for developing or buying new businesses, keeping each as a separate and distinct entity.

Umbrella

She describes the restructuring as being a bit like an umbrella.  From the seagull eye above, the bank remains a mutual organization. But from within, different kinds of operations can co-exist without having to roll into one company.

"As we go down the road and develop different products and services, this give us more opportunity to be flexible and take advantage of opportunities in the market place," explained Savarese.

Billion raised since the 70s

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a "mutual" company is a company that is owned by its members instead by public or private shareholders.  Mutual savings banks first appeared in the early 1800; the structure was supposed to encourage the emerging middle class to put its cash in banks.

Deregulation in the 1970s started the wave of mutual to stock conversion. Since then, thousand of banks used deregulation to free up cash - according to Barron's more than $40 billion has been raised in this process.

During the 1990s, competition intensified and banks of all sizes came under increasing pressure to raise money, expand operations, and have financial tools for incenting employees. Many banks elected a mutual-to-stock conversion as means to this end.

For example, last week, in Wellesley MA, Wellesley Bank completed a similar conversion, but instead of issuing one stock to the mutual company, it created a community and public offering with millions of shares.

Its stock (WEBK) began trading January 26 on the Nasdaq Capital Market. During its subscription and community offering phase, 2,249,674 shares of common stock were sold in the subscription and community offering at $10.00 per share - raising $22.4 million. As of midday January 31 shares were trading at $12.03.

Not at the Five

"We have no need for additional capital; we are very well capitalized." - Dorothy Savarese, CC5 President & CEO Savarese stressed that the Five's intent is completely different.

She pointed out that instead of creating a stock entity with multiple shares, her bank took the rather unusual step of creating one lone share of stock. The mutual holding company owns that single share, creating the effect of a mutual bank that cannot be sold or traded.

"We have no need for additional capital; we are very well capitalized," she pointed out. "And we are really trying to make it very difficult for anybody in the future to change use from being a mutual organization."

"We have the same commitment to the community, to providing community banking services as always. We wanted the additional flexibility to grow and expand to meet future customer and community needs."

As intriguing as that statement sounds, the bank doesn't have any concrete plans for new launches. In fact, Savarese took pains to point out that many banks made this change decades ago and nothing changed. It's just good to plan ahead for what might come, she said.

"This is a thorough regulatory process," said noted. "You don't want to wait until there's something you want to do tomorrow to put it into place.

Time table

Now that the Cape Cod Five has filed for conversion, the application moves into the review cycle. On Feb 14, the state board of banking has a scheduled public hearing on the request in Boston.

In addition, the Board of Bank Incorporation and the Division of Banks will take written comments on the Cape Cod Five's filing through February 24.

Teresa Martin is a well-known Cape Cod technology and business leader who served as  C.E.O. of the Cape Cod Technology Council and was a founder and officer of the OpenCape Corporation, which is dedicated to fixing the Cape's dropped cell calls and upload issues. Read Teresa's tech blog, Cape Eyes on CapeCodToday.com here.

Carolyn Cragin edits the editor

Monomoy Superintendent clarifies the media

Gives a sneak preview of new high school design

   It's not etched in stone yet, but Dr. Cragin was kind enough to send an architect's rendering of what the MRHS building's exterior might look like.  It's their first run at a design that reflects the area's aesthetic, and is far more like the present Harwich High School building which it will replace as the high school for both Chatham and Harwich when it opens in September 2014.

By Walter Brooks

Our Xtra yesterday about a report describing the "sticker shock" of the Fiscal Year 13 budget for the new Monomoy Region had a few errors which the district's superintendent, Dr. Carolyn Cragin, was kind enough to correct with a friendly email to us this morning:

Thanks for the opportunity to review the story.  There are a couple of issues that I can clarify.

The reference to elementary schools returning to individual town control is incorrect.  Monomoy is a preK-12 region and will be responsible for the operation of all grades starting on July 1, 2012. 

The elementary schools will continue to serve their neighborhoods (and any School Choice students within the region or from other towns) under the leadership of a regional central office. 

What makes FY 13 and FY 14 challenging to the budget is that until the new high school opens we will be operating the same number of buildings as we are in FY 12 and will need essentially the same level of staffing.  Central office is the only part of the district that will be a single entity next year, and even that will continue to be in two separate locations (academic in Chatham, financial in Harwich). 

FY 15, after MRHS opens, represents the first budget that will combine staff and students in 4 (rather than 6) buildings and that will begin to show the savings of full regionalization, primarily through attrition.  The September 2014 date for opening of the new high school is important because it will accomplish two major goals of regionalization -- increased opportunities for students and economies of scale savings for both communities.

The reference to 8 special education students did not come from my presentation (attached).  Because we maintain confidentiality regarding student identity, no number was given.

Carolyn
Carolyn M. Cragin, Ed.D., Superintendent
Harwich Public Schools, 81 Oak Street, Harwich, MA 02645
508-430-7200

Dolphin stranding mystery continues; member of IFAW team to address Congress later this week

IFAW teams continue to track and aid dolphins in distress

Member of IFAW team to address Congress later this week

Rescue efforts Monday at Powers Landing Beach in Wellfleet. Photo by AJ Cady, courtesy IFAW.

AJ Cady Senior Program Advisor of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) reported today that three more dolphins were spotted off Powers Landing in Wellfleet Monday afternoon. According to Cady, two of the dolphins swam away, but the third beached itself and died shortly after rescue efforts were underway.

Since January 12, there have been 102 strandings  including the dolphin that died today and three dead dolphins discovered this weekend.  Of that number, twenty-one were treated and released by IFAW rescue crews.  The twenty-one appear to be doing well, according to Cady.

Saturday, IFAW scientists performed necropsies, in hopes of determining the reason for the high number of strandings, but the cause still remains a mystery.

IFAW also reports that Katie Moore, Manager of Marine Mammal Rescue and Research at IFAW, will brief Congress about the dolphin stranding this Friday at 1 p.m. in Washington, DC.  Moore will address the members of Congress and offer a firsthand account of the high number of strandings and the devastating toll they are taking. Moore will discuss the continuing rescue efforts, the status of the dolphins that have been rescued, what scientists have learned to date and the need for federal funding.

Read more about the recent strandings here:

• IFAW reports the death of two more dolphins Monday
  
• Kerry, Keating ask for NOAA's help in finding cause of dolphin strandings
  
• Seven more dolphins strand in Wellfleet Thursday
  
• Six stranded dolphins rescued in Wellfleet

Occupy "Blue Meany" Octopus marches in Hyannis

Cape Cod "Occupy" protesters caught a few eyes Saturday

   (L-R) Cape Cod Occupiers Lee Roscoe (Brewster), Beth Verani (Cotuit), Mary Zepernick, as Miss Democracy (Yarmouth), and Elaine Dickinson (Harwich) standing across the street from the Bank of America.

By Paul Rifkin

The Blue Meany at Bank of America.

Don Cox, an occupier from West Barnstable.

Rob and Margaret Moir of Brewster.Saturday morning, January 28, a "Blue Meany" Octopus , made out of blue recycling bags, representing the ugly, grasping power of corporate “persons”, moved along the street and sidewalk by the Bank of America on Barnstable Road in Hyannis.

One person was the head of the Octopus and 8 others  used “wands” to guide the movement of the tentacles. 

At the end of each tentacle was a sign and or symbol for what the ugly corporation sucks in America like an oil rig, Congress, the Federal  Reserve Bank, military contractors, the courts, media, etc.

Others in the Occupy and Move to Amend movements supported the street theater with chanting, holding signs, banging tambourines and blowing kazoos. 

The action was directed against the Supreme Court's decision affirming corporate "personhood" and campaign money as free speech.

That protest was nationwide, but the Cape group was at the John J. Moakley United States Courthouse on Northern Avenue in Boston for a rally with speakers and street theater.

The goal is to amend the US Constitution and is sponsored by Greater Boston Move to Amend.

Here come the cops

When the Octopus (made up of Cape occupiers and several young men from Occupy Boston) decided to occupy the Bank of America property, the Barnstable police (see below) quickly arrived and suggested they needed to get off Bank of America property or face arrest. 

They proudly marched away back onto public sidewalks.

Norwood soldier laid to rest in Bourne National Cemetery

When our nation's our perils are past, shall our gratitude then sleep?

 Army Specialist Keith Benson had but one life, and he gave it to his country

Under heavy downpours and grey skies, the casket containing the body of Army Spc. Keith Benson is removed from a hearse at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts Friday morning during a graveside service. 

The Norwood native was killed on January 18, 2012 in southeastern Afghanistan while serving as a medic.

He wson of David Benson of Mansfield and Kathleen (Short) Benson of Norwood, brother of Kyle Benson of Norwood, grandson of Anne Benson of Norwood and the late Henry D. Benson, Lillian D. Short, and Col. John J. Short.

He is also survived by and will be missed by many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

The 172nd Brigade Blackhawks mourns his loss

SPC Benson was considered one of the most technically skilled combat medics within the brigade.

He demonstrated resolve and personal courage in conducting combat trauma under fire. He was recognized by his peers and leaders as a caring, disciplined Soldier who took pride in providing medical care to Soldiers.

SPC Benson’s impact goes beyond his actions in Paktika province and his loss affects this entire brigade.

Signed: COL Edward T. Bohnemann, Commander,
172nd Separate Infantry Brigade- Facebook.

The Pentagon did not announce a cause, but said the death is under investigation.
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade, based in Germany.  - Photo and video by David G. Curran.

Barnstable's Town Manager lands new job in Rhode Island

Barnstable's gain may be Portsmouth's loss
Controversial pol John Klimm may not be what the Ocean State expects

By Walter Brooks

A lightning rod for divisiveness?Pourtsmouth Rhode Island is a small town, about one-third the size of the Town Of Barnstable where John Klimm has been the Town Manager for the past dozen years.

But a job's a job, and the Newport Daily News reports that John Klimm has been hired as  the town administrator there according to a Portsmouth Town Council press release Wednesday.

Portsmouth is on Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Sound which is home to the more famous town of Newport. Most of its land area lies on Aquidneck Island, which it shares with Middletown and Newport.

Portsmouth encompasses some smaller islands like Prudence Island, Patience Island, Hope Island, and Hog Island. The 2010 census reported the population as 17,349 which isslightly more than one-third of Barnstable's 45,193 .

A controversial choice?

Klimm was a lightning rod for divisiveness according to some of his detractors, but three of the four Town Council members who voted to end his career here was defeated in last November's elections by - it is assumed -Mr. Klimm's angry supporters.

Klimm will begin work as Portsmouth administrator on Feb. 13.

“I really look forward to the opportunities and challenges of the future, working closely with the Town Council, municipal employees and the citizen and taxpayers of this beautiful community," said Klimm in the press release.

John Klimm will start in Portsmouth in three weeks.The press release from the Town of Portsmouth  quotes former Barnstable Town Council President Gary Blazis as stating, “John Klimm has strong practical experience in community development and management; he has developed and maintained strong inter-governmental relations at the county, state and federal levels and has managed the financial affairs of the community with exceptional skill. John has helped us achieve a level of financial health that is the envy of the entire state.

"Portsmouth is truly lucky to be getting him," Blazis said.

The selection of Klimm followed an extensive recruitment and selection process that was managed for the town by Municipal Resources Inc., a New Hampshire-based municipal consulting company.

According to Alan Gould, who managed the recruitment project for the consultant, Klimm emerged as the top candidate from an exceptional pool of more than 65 applicants from 22 states and Canada.

A long career on Cape Cod

John Klimm left his Barnstable Town manager job on September 8, and not a few locals wondered then whether he'll try to get some Republican power broker to get him a sinecure at the community college as they tried the last time he was out of work.

At age 25 in 1981 he became the youngest selectman ever elected in the town and served until 1987 when he became regional director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership. In 1991, he was elected to the State House of Representatives, where he represented the Barnstable district until 1998.

Klimm then worked briefly at the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce until late 1999 while its then éminence grise John O'Brien tried to foist him off on other state no-show jobs and finally got him appointed Barnstable Town Manager where he remained turning the town into his private fiefdom many say.

Gone, but not soon forgotten

Area satirists bemoan Mr. Klimn's passing since it probably spells the end of his starring role in a local lampoon website News of the Cape which parodies "Boardwalk Empire" as "Walkway Empir." with a Klimm look-alike in the leading role, see below.

Nantucket 26-foot boat makes it to Spain the hard way

Queen Bee left Nantucket Aug. 26, 2008, arrived in Spain last week

The map shows Esther Island, a small sandbar of a place between Madaket and Tuckernuck off Nantucket with an inset of Queen Bee in Spain. Photos courtesy Maritime Rescue Coordination Center Madrid, Spain.

Crew ejected after hitting a sandbar off Esther Island west of Nantucket

The hull of the 26-foot Queen Bee was located off the northern coast of Spain on Jan. 17, 2012.Most folks think of a jumbo-jet of a cruise ship when contemplating a trip from Nantucket to Spain.

But the Coast Guard reported today that a 26-foot pleasure boat, registered in the U.S., was located 20 miles off the northern coast of Spain on Jan. 17, 2012, three and a half years after stormy sea conditions ejected its crew off the coast of Nantucket.

The U.S. Coast Guard received the report of the located flotsam from Maritime Rescue Coordination Center Madrid Jan. 24, 2012, and was able to link the vessel to a search and rescue case that occurred Aug. 25, 2008, near Nantucket.

During that case in 2008, the Coast Guard responded to reports of two men who had been ejected from the center console vessel Queen Bee while attempting to cross a bar in 6 to 8-foot sea conditions. Both men were able to swim to Esther Island off the west coast of Nantucket and were provided first aid upon recovery.

"Three things popped out after we got hit. Rich, me, and that rescue bag." - Scott DouglasAboard the Queen Bee at the time were Scott Douglas and Rich St. Pierre. The men located a rescue bag with a personal flotation devise which flew out of the boat when they did, and they swam for two hours before reaching the nearest land which turned out to be tiny Esther Island

"Three things popped out after we got hit," said Douglas, the vessel owner and operator. "Rich, me, and that rescue bag."

But he added, "There were times when both of us didn't think we were going to make it. Everything had to go our way. It was a miracle."

Queen Bee starts a 1,241 day, 3,500 mile voyage across the Atlantic

Due to the dangerous sea state, the vessel was left to drift once the men were rescued.

The Coast Guard surmises that the Queen Bee likely drifted into the Gulf Stream and then north to the North Atlantic Current, said Art Allen with the Coast Guard's office of Search and Rescue. From there it would have headed east to Spain before being located 1,241 days later, after a 3,500 nautical mile trip.

Referring to the boat's extended voyage, Dr. Don Murphy with the U.S. Coast Guard's International Ice Patrol said that a trans-Atlantic drift is rare, but not unheard of. 

The Coast Guard deploys data collection buoys designed to track, study, and report currents in the northern Atlantic, said Murphy. Those buoys have been recovered anywhere from regions north of Scotland to, most recently and coincidentally, Spain.

Looks like movies WILL return to Chatham

Non-profit Orpheum Theater group raise over $1 million in three months

The remodeled cinema scheduled to open in December this year

   The Orpheum Theater group showed this short film to their supporters in Chatham on Monday.

By Walter Brooks

About the film

The short film above by Emily Berry is about three generations of Chatham folk who have grown up at The Chatham Orpheum Theater.
     Helen Fulcher was born in 1920 and worked as a ticket seller in the late '40s for the next 20 years.
     Helen's son Dick grew up there and later worked serving popcorn.
     His wife Marie also worked as a ticket seller in the '70s while her young sons explored the theater and her husband's mom sold the tickets.

When Regal Cinemas closed its movie complex on Route 137 in East Harwich in October, there were no movie houses from Dennis to Wellfleet.

But that cultural wasteland will soon be filled with a new movie house on Main Street in Chatham where once old black & white silent filmed flickered.

The Board of Directors of the Chatham Orpheum Theater restoration project announced at a press conference Monday that it is nearing its goal of raising $1.35 million to purchase the old movie house property on Main Street.

The building most recently housed a CVS pharmacy.

$1 million in cash and pledges had been raised by the start of Monday's meeting and every day's mail is bringing in an average of another $35,000 in pledges and checks.

The board has an agreement with building owner Ron Rudnick to purchase the space, which was most recently occupied by a CVS pharmacy. The board needs to have $1.35 million in its coffers by March 1 to purchase the property.

Ultimately, the board needs to raise a total of $2.75 million to renovate the space as a non-profit art house cinema.

When renovated, the "new" Orpheum Theater will have two separate theaters - one for current films with 160 seats and another for art films with 50 seats.

The group plans to also have other cultural events at the site.

“We don’t want to incur the debt of financing this project,” said board president Naomi Turner. “We have chosen to purchase and operate this theater as a non-profit organization, which means the longevity of this theater is insured for generations to come.

Safe now forever, Chatham Tricentennial gift

Chairwomen Naomi Turner said the Orpheum Theater project has taken over her life.The group said that it plans to open the remodeled theater in December as a gift to Chatham on its 300th birthday this year.

Once the sale goes through, the group said the building cannot be sold and converted back to retail space.

"It will belong to the public. And the public has an incredible opportunity to step forward and be a part of creating a long-term, fully functioning cultural asset in Chatham," said Turner.

The Orpheum Theater closed in 1985, after 70 years of operation. When CVS moved out of the space last year, a group of local citizens, led by Turner, banded together to bring back the old theater.

The fulsome results of their efforts was evident by the large crowd (see photo below) gathered Monday at the Chatham Community Center on Main Street to hear the latest report on the project.

See the Orpheum Facebook page here. See its website here.