Man About Canton: Listing Selectmen

Did you know …

Eagle Scout candidate Shawn Lynch of Canton recently told selectmen that he plans to list every selectman who has served the town since it was incorporated in 1797 and have their names engraved on a plaque to be presented to the town. Lynch is a Life Scout and will achieve Eagle Scout honors when he completes his town project.

The bids to replace the windows and doors in the Galvin Middle School and Hansen Elementary School came in almost $200,000 under the $1.748 million authorized by last year’s town meeting. According to School Business Manager Ken Leon, the project will begin the day students leave for summer vacation and finish before the beginning of the start of the new school year in September.

The Canton Democratic Town Committee will hold its annual caucus on Saturday, February 8, at Town Hall starting at 10 a.m. All registered Democrats are invited to attend if interested in running for the Massachusetts State Convention.

There are four football coaches from Canton that have been inducted into the Massachusetts High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame: Bill Donovan in 1965, Paul Therrien in 1993, Charlie Stevenson in 2004 — all former head coaches at Canton High School — and Vincent Hickey Jr. in 2004, former head coach at Blue Hills Regional Technical School. Other noteworthy coaches from the Hockomock League in the Massachusetts High School Hall of Fame are Albert Toomey of Stoughton, inducted in 1976; Valentine Muscato of Oliver Ames, inducted in 1979; Ray Beaupre of North Attleboro, inducted in 2000; and Jack Martinelli of Foxboro, inducted in 2011.

Blue Hills Regional is accepting applications for residential and commercial additions, alterations, and repairs for the 2014-2015 school year. The owner pays the cost of all materials plus 25 percent and must have a complete set of architectural plans, as well as all necessary permits and variances. For more information, call Blue Hills at 781-828-5800. The application deadline is March 30.

Canton-based Dunkin’ Brands plans to open 650 to 800 new Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins locations globally this year, with 380 to 400 being located in the United States. Last year, Dunkin’ Brands opened 790 new stores.

If you own a condo in New York City, the average tax bill is $7,987 a year.

As first reported in the Canton Citizen in December, Canton activist and former Conservation Commissioner Bruce Rohr is spearheading a move to change local elections from the month of April to November, the same time as national and state elections. Rohr is trying to get a home rule petition passed at the annual town meeting in May for such a change. State law mandates that town elections be held in late winter or spring, but Rohr will petition the state legislature to override the law if the town meeting passes his article.

Japan-based beer and soft drink maker Suntory Holding Company of Osaka recently purchased the Beam Company, the owners of Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey, Maker’s Mark, and Knob Creek bourbons, for $13.6 billion in an all-cash deal. The Beam Company is the second largest maker of American whiskey and is currently No. 4 globally. Beam traces its flagship bourbon to 1795 when Jacob Beam sold his first barrel. James, or “Jim,” Beam restarted production after prohibition was repealed in 1933.

In the past few months, some noteworthy people have passed away. One of them was Jane Kean, 90, better known to all of us baby boomers as “Trixie,” Ed Norton’s beleaguered wife on the Jackie Gleason TV show “The Honeymooners.”

Robert R. Taylor died at age 77. Taylor was the creator of Soft Soap, which revolutionized the way people wash their hands, with soap that was dispensed by a convenient little bottle with a pump on top. In the first six months after Mr. Taylor put it on the market, he sold $25 million worth of Soft Soap. He also bought the Calvin Klein cosmetics line along with its Obsession and Eternity fragrances. In 1987, he sold Soft Soap to the Colgate-Palmolive Company, and in 1989, he sold his Calvin Klein fragrances for $376 million.

Edgar Bronfman, 84, was a billionaire businessman and chairman and CEO of the Seagram’s liquor empire. He was also the longtime president of the World Jewish Congress.

Malcolm Renfrew, a chemist who oversaw the development of Teflon, which became synonymous with the nonstick frying pan, passed away in October on his 103^rd birthday. Teflon was first used in 1945 to coat the valves and seals of pipes that would hold a chemical necessary for the enrichment of uranium 235, the key ingredient in a nuclear chain reaction in the atomic bomb.

Ruth Robinson Duccini, the last of the original female munchkins from the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz,” has died. She was 95. With her death, only Jerry Maren, 93, remains alive from the 124 original munchkins.

And finally, according to energy reports, oil heat continues to be the most reliable, cost effective, and readily available energy source. People have to burn 1.4 times the amount of natural gas to get the same heat content as one gallon of heating oil. In MAC’s opinion, there is no such thing as cheap energy anymore no matter what fuel you choose to utilize in your home, but if you have a choice, oil heat would be the way to go.

George Bernard Shaw once said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

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=24109

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Feb 6 2014. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.