Tearful Uxbridge Bids Farewell to Stefanilo HUNDREDS CROWD ST
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Mailed to requesting homes in Douglas, Northbridge and Uxbridge Vol. II, No. 23 Complimentary to homes by request ONLINE: www.blackstonevalleytribune.com “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Friday, March 6, 2009 Tearful Uxbridge bids farewell to Stefanilo HUNDREDS CROWD ST. MARY’S CHURCH REMEMBERING A PRINCIPAL AND A FRIEND FOR BELOVED EDUCATOR’S FUNERAL MASS BY THOMAS MATTSON the funeral. “One that I’ve KRISTAL TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER been carrying in my head for LEAR UXBRIDGE — Some 800 the last couple of days.” K people came to St. Mary’s “It’s Dan in his woodwork- Church Thursday, Feb. 26, to ing shop,” Father LaBaire say a last goodbye to School continued. “At his home on KRISTINA Superintendent Daniel Vine Street. He is surrounded REARDON Stefanilo. by every kind of wood imagi- Stefanilo, 54, also served as nable. And 22 pieces of equip- high school principal. He suf- ment plugged into three elec- remember being 16 years fered a fatal heart attack on trical outlets. In the middle Iold back in the summer of Saturday, Feb. 21. Dan sits with a block of wood. 2002, having just received my A charismatic leader with He has his lathe in hand. He class schedule for my junior a common touch, Stefanilo looks at the wood, observing year of high school in the Andy Levin photo had a symbiotic relationship it intently. And Dan sees mail. It was not what I’d with students. He was also something most of us cannot wanted, and I was near tears. now sounds a little bit silly, I looking for my guidance the father of five children. see.” If I couldn’t take AP was a stressed out high counselor, who had taken my “I have this snapshot of Rev. LaBaire said Stefanilo Thomas Mattson photo Calculus, AP History, and school student, and I was in a class requests in the spring. Daniel Stefanilo,” said the worked the wood “patiently, Ian MacConnell, of Douglas, upper level Spanish, I wasn’t panic. But it was my high school Rev.Steven LaBaire, pastor of plays bagpipe music outside St. sure if I’d ever get into col- As I walked up the steps of principal, Mr. Dan Stefanilo, St. Mary’s, who presided at Turn To MASS page A6 Mary’s Church. lege. And while I realize that Uxbridge High School, I was Turn To UHS page A8 Szlosek in place as new town manager BY ANDY LEVIN TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER UXBRIDGE — Michael Szlosek appears to be well prepared for what should be a most daunting chal- lenge. Managing the operations of a town that was already under intense financial pressure well before the current national economic turmoil took hold last fall would appear to be a difficult enough test on its own. But doing so in a community that has failed to renew the contracts of its first two town managers and which has offered only a one-year deal to its latest would seem an employment situation that is extraordinarily tenuous. Szlosek, however, seems the least bit intimidated by the scenario. The low-key, 46-year-old Ludlow native took over as town manager two weeks ago, succeeding Jill Myers, who was let go by the Board of Selectmen when her three-year con- Thomas Mattson photo tract expired Feb. 20. Rehearsing a lip-synching number are (from left) Matt Gonzalez, Zak Modica, Shannon Hester, Christine Brunson, Tori A graduate of Ludlow High Landry, Tori Watkins, Emily Asp, Karrie Gorman, Jessica Bolandrina and (behind atop a table) Will Shannon. School, Szlosek earned his bache- lor’s degree in English literature Michael Szlosek has begun his new job from UMass Amherst; he received as Uxbridge’s town manager. his MBA with a concentration in finance from the same university. “It’s a great town, very warm peo- GETTING IN SYNCH Szlosek went on to acquire a law ple,” Szlosek said of Uxbridge dur- degree from Boston University and ing a conversation in his office lat had a private practice for a period of week. “There are some challenges. DHS STUDENTS READY FOR DANCE COMPETITION time, but found himself increasing- We are short-staffed and that is ly drawn to the governmental probably not going to change, so we BY THOMAS MATTSON became an art form way back school kids. It does not take any affairs of his hometown. That’s are all trying to do what we can with TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER when, perhaps based on the fact it originality but it allows a lot of when he applied for and was hired the resources we have.” The departure of Myers, as well DOUGLAS — You know when a was so easy to create bad timing in dancing. In a strange way, lip- as Ludlow’s town manager, a post he as her assistant Kim Hood, has left a movie’s soundtrack is out of old movies that someone figured synching comes across almost as a held for several years. bit of an information vacuum in synch with what the actors seem out perfect timing was a teachable form of mime, something you Szlosek began making the rough- Town Hall, Szlosek admitted. to be saying. technique. Lip-synching has been ly one-hour commute from that Fortunately, according to Szlosek, For some reason, lip-synching particularly popular among high Turn To DANCE page A6 Pioneer Valley community to this town on Feb. 23. Turn To MANAGER page A7 Grades realignment proposed BY THOMAS MATTSON meeting on the realignment was explained it, former TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER planned for this past Tuesday, Superintendent Paul Soojian NORTHBRIDGE — From what March 3, this time at the Balmer thought reorganizing the grades interim School Superintendent School. between the two schools would Henry O’Donnell told some 50 PTO If the realignment goes through, save money. O’Donnell said reor- members last week, it appears pre- it will be a change from last year ganization is never done for educa- kindergarten, kindergarten and and this year, but not from 1995- tional reasons, but almost always first grade will all attend the 2005, when O’Donnell was superin- for financial reasons. Northbridge Elementary School tendent. He retired June 30, 2005, Soojian instituted the change next fall and grades 2-4 the Balmer but returned as an interim school from pre-K, kindergarten and School. head last July 1. It is expected he grade 1 attending the Northbridge While O’Donnell said he would will serve in that position through Elementary School and grades 2-4 consult with the School Committee June to assist newly chosen at the Balmer School, to pre-K, before making a decision, he all Superintendent Susan Gorky with kindergarten and grades 1-4 divid- but assured the PTO the change the transition, beginning in June. would be made. A second PTA As school administrators have Turn To GRADES page A7 Thomas Mattson photo At right, interim School Superintendent Henry O’Donnell speaks to Northbridge PTO members about his proposal to realign grades at the elementary and Balmer schools. A2, 3 ...................................... LOCAL A10-13........................ SPORTS THE BLACKSTONE VALLEY TRIBUNE CAN BE A4,5 ..................................... OPINION B2 ............... VALLEY NOTEBOOK A7 .................................... OBITUARIES B2 ......................... CALENDAR REACHED VIA E-MAIL: [email protected] INSIDE 2 • Friday, March 6, 2009 BLACKSTONE VALLEY TRIBUNE HISTORY OF THE BLACKSTONE VALLEY TRIBUNE Hiram Walker’s Native Town obin Hood and Friar Tuck might have bonnie laddie by the Firth of Forth. of their own fancy, too. Wildcat Cove, Bear ALMANAC emigrated to America. If so, they no doubt Dr. William Douglas, a Boston physician and a Corner,Grassy Pond, and Coffee-House Crossing Rwould have pushed from crowded Boston Scot by birth, who wrote several historical and are a few samples. QUOTATION OF THE WEEK into the wilderness of what is now Douglas, medical works, offered the inhabitants of what On many old road maps, the southern part of where in the 17th century a few stragglers from was called New Sherborn the sum of five-hun- Douglas was referred to as Tasseltop. There are “Most of all, Dan believed in me, the Narragansett or Nipmuc tribes tried to culti- dred dollars as a fund for the establishment and no mountains nearby.It just happened the South vate corn in the dense forests. Robin and Tuck maintenance of free schools, together with thir- Douglas Inn once kept by a William Jefferson and I knew that, and he helped me would have brought their cudgels with them, for ty acres of land with a house and barn, if they stood at a junction in the main road through that believe in myself.” it was much like Sherwood Forest. would name their town Douglas. Historians say area. The inn had curtains with tassels at the top. For ‘evidence,’ we have the tradition of it was thought a bell was promised to the Center Or perhaps the tasseltop curtains were in a tithing-men to point to in towns like Douglas. School by Dr.Douglas, in addition to fifty pounds chapel across the street. The records are not — Marie Helin, a former student of They were respectable and dignified men, we a year for seven years to support the ministry. clear. have it on good authority. Their badge of office Town records show that another legal meeting Outside of “Coffee-House Crossing,” which the late Daniel Stefanilo. was a long staff, and it was their duty to be in the was held in 1750, at which the town voted not to sounds like 18th century London, the place meetinghouses on the Sabbath, and to note any allow a “Rev.Mr.Phipps 50 pounds in place of the names have the aura of storied, even humorous, HE TATS disturbance on the premises.