Westport
in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Wednesday,
January 18, 2012
photos/EverythingWestport.com
Quick
Article Index . . .
Archaeology Day at the Handy House.
|
Selectmen try to squeeze a few more offerings into the town's Charter
contract. EverythingWestport.com Wednesday,
January 25, 2012
But how do you
negotiate with a single-source vendor? It is true that
Westport residents can switch to satellite TV, Verizon's DSL not-so-high
speed internet service (if available in their area), or for the truly
unfortunate, dial-up internet. Inset: from the left, Town Counsel
representative Attorney William Hewig; Director of
Government Relations for Charter, Tom Cohan; and Director of Operations for
Charter, Kevin Mailloux. Not exactly a suite of
advanced multi-media services. To be fair there were
few options years ago when Westport picked struggling Charter Communications;
many vendors couldn't cope with Westport's large geographical area and small
number of residential households. Westport has a little more than 3800
households hooked up to Charter. "We're
renegotiating a contract that just ran out," Selectman Jim Coyne told
the Charter representatives in attendance. "We're not negotiating or
trying to pick a company in competition with (Charter)," Coyne said. Charter emerged from
bankruptcy towards the end of 2009, but still remains a highly leveraged
company. And speaking of
leverage, Westport selectmen have very little in moving the cable provider to
substantially increase offerings or improve reliability of the internet
connection. To be fair they have
offered a few new HD channels, internet speeds are now offered up to 30MB
download speed, and they have opened a Gifford Road office for local support,
though staffing is minimal and they don't have a posted local number. But reliability is
still an issue with many residents. "We have accumulated over 60 complaint
letters," said Cable Advisory Committee Chairman Steven Ouellette.
"And we continue to get letters with issues." Coyne said that local
Channel 12 has on-going issues and has a history of going silent. "It's
even happened to me" he said. Coyne also complained of several broken
appointments, but did say that he was called by Charter representatives
beforehand. Two residents
requested that MSNBC be added to the roster of offerings. One resident
questioned whether a political bias might influence their program selection,
prompting Charter's Director of Government Relations, Tom Cohan, to say
"We have no bias towards programming at all." Several letters and
phone calls to selectmen reference long delays in phone response and
lackluster response to service calls. "We'll look into
these issues when we get back," Cohan told Selectmen. Director of Operations
for Charter, Kevin Mailloux, did point out the age
of the initial cable and connectors used years ago during installation have
been found to be the culprit in some of the reliability issues in older
installations. When questioned about
bandwidth increases to handle a heavier load of HD channels, Cohan responded
that "We're (only) looking for ways to use our existing bandwidth more
efficiently." Select board Chairman
Richard Spirlet would like the town to be able to broadcast live over the
public access channels from the Hix Bridge fire
house for emergency services as it is the town's emergency response system. "It's a priority
that has to be done," Spirlet said. In other business, Selectmen unanimously (4-0 with
Selectman Craig Dutra absent) appointed Anthony Connors of Westport Point to
the Energy Committee, Sandpiper Drive's James Sabre
to Westport Affordable Housing Trust, renewed Al Lees' shellfish aquaculture
license, granted Portas da
Cidade of 231 State Road request to build a 646
square foot outdoor patio, and awarded Henry's Diesel Performance Plus, Inc a
Class II Motor Vehicle License. More
to come. Archaeology Day at the Handy House.
EverythingWestport.com Saturday, February 28, 2012 Click here to view new video of Archaeology Day at the Handy
House. Click here to view the
hi-resolution photo album. Need
Adobe Flash to view album? Click here!
Over 150 archaeology
wannabes traipsed the grounds of the Handy House Saturday with visions of
discovering the next Rosetta stone dancing in their heads. Well, maybe not that
ambitious, but the prospect of a "find" just inches from their
trowel kept the "amateur" archaeologists looking for buried
artifacts that might help interpret the ancient language of life in olden
times. "Visitors were
excited," O'Neil said. "Many said they wanted to see more of this
type of activity at the Handy House, and some came by hopeful they could see
more of the house's interior." As the Westport Historical Society prepares
to embark on the stabilization of the building, this excavation might provide significant information about the
occupants and evolution of the Handy House property. "Parts of the building's foundation
have to be strengthened," O'Neill said. "The Handy House is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places," O'Neill explained. "A
archaeology survey is required by the Massachusetts Historical Commission
(MHC) before the ground is disturbed by a renovation process." "Today
is the community’s opportunity to discover history firsthand and to view
artifacts found during the dig." Westport Historical Society selects project
archaeologist Tom Mailhot to guide the application
process with MHC. "Tom
came highly recommended to work the application process for the WHS with the
Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC), permitting us to renovate the
Handy House's foundation," O'Neill said.
Above: Archaeologist Tom Mailhot
(center) watches as volunteers shovel and sift the debris looking for
artifacts. "The
purpose of the excavation was to make sure the Westport Historical Society
can do their foundation renovation at the Handy House without disturbing
anything of historical significance," Mailhot
told EverythingWestport.com. "Out
here in the front (of the Handy House) we decided to open up these two test
pits for public archaeology day so we can have people come in and have an
understanding of what we do as archaeologists, why we do it, and also
hopefully get them a little bit in touch with their cultural heritage," Mailhot said. "I've
done public archaeology on excavations before and this is the best turnout
I've ever seen," he said. "The
open house was the first of many opportunities for people to visit the Handy
House and to learn about plans for the preservation and future use of the
property," O'Neill said. The
remarkable house opened its doors to the public for the first time on
Saturday, May 21.
Left: Archaeologist
Barbara Donahue discusses the east side test pit with a Standard Times
reporter. Center: Archaeologist
Tom Mailhot gauges a clay pipe's stem bore
diameter. The bore diameter of the pipe stem, found during the dig, is an
indication of its age -a larger diameters indicate an older pipe. Right: volunteer archaeologists
dig and sift, looking for artifacts. All
artifacts will be processed and catalogued at the newly set up archaeology
laboratory located at 803 Main Road, and will become part of the Westport
Historical Society’s collection. The Massachusetts Historical Commission has approved
the project and the new lab space which offers future opportunities for
community involvement in this and other local archaeological digs. The
Historical Society recently assumed a new role as steward of the
Cadman-White-Handy House located at 202 Hix Bridge
Road when it purchased the property with Community Preservation Funds (CPC)
to insure the survival of the historic structure. Built
in three stages from 1710 to 1825, the house is one of Westport’s most
notably significant landmarks. Efforts
to preserve Westport’s Handy House received a $120,000 boost recently from
the Manton Foundation, an institution established by Sir Edwin and Lady
Manton to support cultural, educational and health programs. Test pits first step in the
"dig." "Nine
test pits will be dug around the building's interior," explained
O'Neill. What
is found in those pits will determine the next steps taken by the on-site
archaeologists. "It's quite a technical process," O'Neill said.
"If anything of significant interest turns up, then the scope of the
survey will broaden." Three
test pits were dug on Saturday; frozen ground prevented the digging of five
additional pits. "Those
pits will be excavated in late march," O'Neill said. "The
public should keep their eye on the local newspapers and websites for more
events like this to be scheduled in the near future."
Top picture: Tom Mailhot holds a cut nail and a wrought iron nail found in
the east side test pit. Cut nails were first used in the late 1700s, although
not widely. Bottom
left: WHS board member Carol Coutinho holds
a cut glass bead she found in the southwest test pit. Bottom right: water dowsing expert Cukie
Macomber, longtime Westport historian, demonstrates
his skill at a type of divination employed in
attempts to locate ground water.
"I favor a wild cherry branch," Macomber
said. "I started dowsing in 1938." © 2012 Community Events of Westport. All rights
reserved. EverythingWestport.com |
