Man About Canton: New Solar Farm

DID YOU KNOW …

Preliminary site work has begun on the new solar farm at the former Pine Street landfill. The solar farm will be the largest in New England, according to Frank McMahon, attorney for Southern Sky Renewable Energy. Construction began on December 5, and an estimated 20,000 solar panels will be installed starting in January 2012.

The town is leasing 15 acres of the old landfill to SSRE Company for $20,000 an acre, giving the town $300,000 of lease-generated revenue in the first year of a 25-year contract. The lease rate increases 2.5 percent every year, and according to Selectman John Connolly, “The project is expected to generate about $9.85 million for the town over the course of the 25-year lease, and result in lower energy costs.” The best part of the deal is that the town spent no money on this project.

Over 170 Canton seniors came out to celebrate the season and get in the holiday spirit at the Canton Council on Aging’s annual holiday party last Wednesday. The seniors celebrated with a lunch held at the Canton Town Club. Decked out in their festive finest, seniors feasted on food from Centerfield’s and danced to music by the Dixie Diehards. According to Council on Aging Director Diane Tynan, it was the 26th annual Christmas party for Canton seniors.

Speaking of Christmas parties, Dottie “The Bingo Lady” Morris and her associates held their annual Christmas party last Thursday at the Hagan Court Community Clubhouse. A pasta dinner with sausage and homemade meatballs was served by Dottie’s helpers, including 9-year-old Cole Braconi Ash, who was there helping from beginning to the clean-up, and a special thanks goes out to him.

There were Christmas parties everywhere last week in Canton. In addition to the parties already mentioned by MAC, we had the annual Recreation Commission party for seniors on Sunday, December 11; the Canton Senior Men’s Club party held at the Legion on December 16, which featured the one-man band in Tom Bruhl; and the Canton Association of Business and Industry held at the Reebok Company … and MAC hates to say it, but he attended all of them, and he is seeing his svelte figure going south.

New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton, the state’s largest post-acute care hospital, is up for sale.

According to the National Retail Federation, the U.S. shopper plans to spend an average of $704 this holiday season. The most popular destinations mentioned by 66 percent of shoppers are discount stores. Gift cards are increasingly becoming a mainstay of people’s wish lists. Nearly 58 percent of shoppers said they’re requesting a gift card.

Workers have finally completed the installation of a new roof at the Canton Post Office.

Canton High goalkeeper Colby Gavigan recorded 10 shutouts during the season, leading the Canton High School soccer team to a 9-0-5 mark in capturing its fourth consecutive Hockomock title. Colby finishes his senior year with 13 shutouts, allowing only 12 goals in 20 games. The CHS soccer team has extended an unbeaten streak of 38 games in the Hockomock League and a 47-game streak at home.

Congratulations to Hockomock soccer MVP Chris Murray, who was recently named to the Adidas All-American Team — the first male athlete in CHS history to achieve All-American honors.

Former Cantonite Jim Shannon was named the Eastern Massachusetts Senior Softball Over-50 League’s Most Valuable Player.

The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, was officially dedicated in 1886 in New York Harbor. Originally brown, the copper statue has since turned green from natural weathering. This year marks Lady Liberty’s 125th birthday.

The stone wall at the Canton Corner Cemetery has finally been repaired. Over a year ago, a car crashed into the wall, knocking over the top couple of layers of the large stones.

You may not realize it, but the popular winter song “Jingle Bells,” which is about 150 years old, never mentions Christmas and is instead about old-fashioned winter fun. Most people know and sing it, and it has been recorded by hundreds of singers.

Talking about winter songs, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” was created in 1939 in Chicago for the Montgomery Department Stores for a Christmas promotion. The lyrics were written as a poem by Robert May, but weren’t set to music until 1947. Gene Autry recorded the hit song in 1949.

MAC will end this week’s column with one of his favorite Christmas quotes, which typifies a Christmas message of joy: “An artist once drew a sad picture of a wintry twilight, the trees heavily laden with snow and a dark, dreary house, lonely and desolate in the midst of a storm. Then, with a quick stroke of gold paint, he put a light on in one window, transforming the entire scene into a vision of warmth and life and good cheer … that the birth of Christ was such a light in the dark world.”

MAC wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.

This is all for now folks. See you next week.

Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=10321

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Dec 21 2011. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.