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That Championship Game! A summer weekend in the Tantasqua over CM: one man’s perspective—Page 14 Hamptons. Why not? Page 13 A Hometown Paper for Sturbridge—Page 2 MAILED FREE INTO EVERY HOME VOLUME 1 AND BUSINESS IN NUMBER 1 The Sturbridge Times STURBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS WWW.STURBRIDGETIMES.COM A HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER FOR STURBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS USA THE JULY 2007 EDITION Rt. 20 greenery in Sturbridge New OSV CEO New Rotary starts full-time Centennial Park with big agenda one step in a broader plan By Richard Murphy Route 20 is a hard road. It is much traveled by commercial and passenger vehicles, and it spans the length of the Common- wealth. While some towns have let the major commercial artery aspect take over, Sturbridge aims to protect the small town charac- James Donahue ter as much as possible. By Paul Carr It isn’t easy. But the town is not A new page will be writ- without civic-minded folk who ten this month in the history offer initiative and the desire to of Old Sturbridge Village ensure delightful green space for (OSV) as Jim Donahue the townspeople and their visi- assumes full-time duties as tors. President and Chief Exec- On Flag Day last month, these utive Officer of the museum folks, mostly Rotarians, gathered and all of its operations. to dedicate the new Rotary Until last month, Dona- Centennial Park at the corner of hue was the CEO of the Cedar Street and Route 20. Bradford Dunn Institute for Much of the attention was Learning Differences in directed to Sturbridge Tree Providence, RI, a network of Warden, Tom Chamberland, educational programs that whose efforts had resulted in STURBRIDGE TIMES PHOTO BY RICHARD MURPHY includes a charter school Sturbridge’s 18th Tree City USA Donovan founded in 2000. designation. The award was to PARK DEDICATED, AWARDS PRESENTED He has served once week- have been presented to Chamber- Alan Snow, Community Action Forester, Urban and Community Forestry of the ly in his new role with OSV land on April 12, though was Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation presented Sturbridge Tree since last winter. postponed because he was Warden, Tom Chamberland, with the 18th Tree City USA Award as well as their Growth Award. He is flanked by Dick Vaughan, President of The Rotary Club of Now on board full-time, deployed to New Orleans with Sturbridge. Dick is impresario of The Spirit 970AM, WESO. The station broadcast Donahue talks about his The Army Corps of Engineers. the Flag Day ceremonies. Rotary Centennial Park, which was dedicated that day was Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 4 planned under the direction of Sturbridge realtor, Lorraine Hebert. Prsrt. Std U.S. Postage PAID A Hometown Newspaper for Sturbridge Worcester, MA This newspaper is brought to you by the merchants and Permit No. 2 services who are advertising in these pages. Please remember this when selecting goods and services. 2 THE STURBRIDGE TIMES | JULY 2007 EDITORIAL A hometown paper The Sturbridge Times How to use for Sturbridge HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER OF STURBRIDGE,MASSACHUSETTS 01566 USA The Sturbridge Times hen I moved to Sturbridge nearly two PUBLISHED DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF EACH TO SEND NEWS years ago, one of the first things I looked MONTH AT STURBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS W for was the hometown paper. While I was OR LETTER TO EDITOR glad to find The Southbridge Evening News, to which I PUBLISHER & EDITOR PAUL CARR E-mail: [email protected] gladly subscribe, I had hoped there would be a paper MANAGING EDITOR JOHN K. SMALL or go to www.sturbridgetimes.com SALES PAUL CARR and select “Got News?” and write to us there. with the name STURBRIDGE on its masthead. DENNIS FINN I grew up in a town with its own newspaper. While or write to us at P.O. Box 418 in Sturbridge 01566 CONTRIBUTORS RICHARD MURPHY or call us at 508-347-7077 it rarely gave us breaking news, it did cover odds and ERIK RADVON ends about life in our town and was always worth a TO PLACE ADVERTISING look. THE STURBRIDGE TIMES TO ORDER A DISPLAY AD: P.O. BOX 418, STURBRIDGE, MA 01566 Sometimes that paper told us interesting things Go to www. sturbridgetimes.com TEL. 508-347-7077 FAX 508-347-8150 and select “Advertise” and then “Order Your Display about the people with whom we were familiar but WWW.STURBRIDGETIMES.COM Ad” (you can order right online) or Call 508-347-7077 didn’t quite know. Like the people in town hall. Or the DELIVERED INTO EVERY HOME AND BUSINESS TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: new cop on the force. Or the ladies who spooned out IN STURBRIDGE. Go to www.sturbridgetimes.com LIST PROVIDER: ALLMEDIA OF DALLAS, TEXAS our lunches at school. From that paper, we learned RESIDENTIAL LIST UPDATED EVERY 3 MOS. and select “Advertise” and then “Classifieds” (you can PRINTED AT MASS WEB, AUBURN order right online) or Call 508-347-7077. that some of our fellow residents were experts at MAILED BY CLARK MAILING COMPANY, WORCESTER See Classified Section in this newspaper for more information. something. We found out who was marrying whom, DELIVERED BY THE STURBRIDGE POST OFFICE who was moving to Chicago for a big job, or what had happened in the town 100 years ago that month. Brevity by Guy and Rodd We were a small suburb about 15 miles west of Boston, and I remember learning from the pages of our little town paper that there were great things to do in our town, and in Boston and on the Cape and else- where. So it was also a paper that spoke directly to us all about ideas and possibilities. From time-to-time we saw our own faces on those pages—under sweaty baseball caps or with grease paint smeared on our cheeks. Our images were chron- icled in majestic processions, at 50th wedding anniver- saries, and in memorial photos celebrating that we had lived and died in that town. In retrospect, I realize that my original hometown newspaper was in a sense also a citizen of that town. While it was directly the voice of the people who worked on the paper, it rightly echoed many other voices. Its effect gave us a sense of continuity and com- munity that could come only from a hometown paper. It helped identify us collectively by confirming what was happening around us. It also affirmed who we were as friends and neighbors. It had our name on it and we were glad to have it. After my first year as a Sturbridge resident, the idea of a paper for this town still tugged at me. So late last year I sat down and mapped it out. As we move beyond the first issue, I expect that this paper will take on its own dimensions, with its life coming from the residents of this splendid town. Our focus will be on the social and lifestyle components of our town and neighbors, though we will address issues of concern across all news categories that affect us. Through our Letters section and Guest Editorials, we will hear from many people. Soon, through words and images, we should recognize in these pages one coherent voice that is uniquely Sturbridge. THE STURBRIDGE TIMES | JULY 2007 3 THE VIEW FROM STURBRIDGE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A letter from the editor to the people of Sturbridge Dear Neighbors, That is exactly what happened takes over a community news- editorial and communications We haven’t generated any let- to my childhood hometown paper. The critical factors are skill and a desire to create a ters to the editor yet, so I figured paper (see editorial on page 2). the vision and agenda of the viable, strong business that will I’d sit down and write one to you. After Fidelity, that paper was publishers. Some are there to be helpful to the community. Let’s headline this: “To those gobbled up again by a whole protect the original idea of the In my work, I have created who think there’s something a little other crew of strangers to the town paper; others slap on a for- publications and communica- presumptuous about starting a town and is today an unrecog- mula package and calculate to tions tools for companies and newspaper when you’re a relative nizable clone. the bottom line. organizations that tell stories to newcomer to the town.” The New York Times owns the I’ve lived here for nearly two affect a desired outcome. While I haven’t heard this small town papers not far from years and like Sturbridge. I don’t The outcomes that I am hop- from anyone, the possibility here in Shrewsbury, Westboro know all of the ins-and-outs and ing for with this newspaper are exists that this sentiment hangs and Clinton. Those papers retain dramas that flow through the that it will be a worthwhile out there in some corners, so I’ll a distinctly local flavor and veins of this town, though that’s addition to our community, that explain my perspective on this. seem to be examples of success- an advantage, not a liability. it will entertain and inform us, Across America, companies ful hometown papers owned We are starting as a monthly and will grow to reflect all of the like Fidelity Investments have remotely. and will revisit frequency when wonderful things that make bought up small community My point is that sometimes it we can properly assess the level Sturbridge an exceptional place.

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