Winchendon PD Assist in Corraling Totally Out of Control Driver

by Inanna Arthen
According to the Ashburnham Police Department, on Thursday, March 30, at approximately 8:00 a.m., a vehicle [described by some witnesses as a black Dodge Ram pickup truck] failed to stop for Winchendon police and headed through town and down Rte 140 at a high rate of speed. Local residents reported on social media that police had closed southbound lanes on 140 and were putting down spiked stop sticks. The vehicle disregarded Winchendon and Ashburnham cruisers and turned onto 101 north, heading for Ashburnham center.

Ashburnham police stated, "The vehicle traveled onto School Street [Ashburnham], which is a dead end Road on the Cushing Academy campus. Due to the fact that the vehicle could not exit the area, the vehicle traveled on a sidewalk between two buildings and entered the playing fields at Cushing. Several people had to flee sidewalks and field areas during this time. The truck then exited the fields where it returned to Center Street at the intersection of Willard Rd. The vehicle, unable to make a right turn onto Willard Rd, continued straight down a private residential driveway and into the woods where it became stuck. During the attempt to stop, the suspect vehicle attempted to strike several Ashburnham Police Units and did strike a Winchendon Police Unit."

The driver barricaded himself in his truck and refused to cooperate with officers. The Massachusetts State Police Patrol, Negotiation and STOP teams responded to the scene. At around 9:45 a.m. the suspect was placed in custody, and transported by Ashburnham Fire Department to an emergency medical facility for evaluation.

Ashburnham PD stated, "No injuries were sustained by the suspect, pedestrians or Police involved," which is amazing.

The driver was suspected of possibly being involved with an unarmed robbery in Fitzwilliam (possibly a Dunkin' Donuts) and was fleeing that location. Ashburnham PD asks that anyone with information or videos of this incident to contact Det. Les Holgerson at lholgerson@ashburnham-ma.gov.

How much damage was sustained by the Winchendon cruiser that was struck is unknown.

Ashburnham PD thanks "the many agencies involved which included, Winchendon, Gardner, Westminster, Ashburnham DPW, Ashburnham Fire, and teams from the Massachusetts State Police STOP and Negotiation Teams."

Bull Spit Brewing Moves Forward with Plans for Summer Season

by Inanna Arthen
Although work on the property and building at 4 Summer Drive is still in progress, Bull Spit Brewing Company appeared before the Board of Selectmen on Monday, March 27 to jump through several more hoops allowing them to use the premises for outdoor entertainment and general business through the coming summer and fall. After operating the outdoor "Pop-up Bull Yard" on Central Street in the summer and fall of 2021 (in the space now occupied by the new Walgreens store), Bull Spit offered music and beverages outdoors at 4 Summer Drive during September and October of 2022. This year they plan to expand their offerings with their own food truck. Jim Hunt of Bull Spit came before the Board seeking a Common Victualler License (to sell food), a Mobile Food Vendor Permit (for their food truck) and a 7-Day Entertainment Permit (for music performances). The permits were for Thursdays through Sundays.

Asked about a proposed start date, Mr. Hunt told the Board, "We are going for licensing next month. So we're hoping in May, I would hope sometime in May we get it back from the state and are good to go. And then we usually run through as far as we can. So sometimes we made it to mid-November."

Selectman Barbara Anderson said, "I'm just trying to anticipate maybe some problems with noise being right on the water. It'll carry, I'm assuming, and should there be any complaints, there's not a whole lot of neighbors near you which is fortunate, but it will go across the water pretty easily."

Mr. Hunt replied, "We operated last year out there with our live music on Saturdays and Sundays and we don't anticipate having live music on Thursdays or Fridays in the immediate, we're gonna stick with our Saturdays and Sundays. We did much better I think in that location, noise-wise than we did when we were on Central Street. We didn't get nearly the amount of concerns about noise or noise traveling. We ended up having a great relationship with a lot of our neighbors down there." He assured the Board that they would be in touch with the Town Manager and Police department so any concerns would be addressed promptly.

With regard to the Food Truck, Mr. Hunt said he had been in touch with Health Inspector James Abare "and he gave me a punch list of things to get done and we're working on getting those and this is one of those items we had to do." For their food truck, which they operated in Lancaster in 2020, Mr. Hunt said, "We used a lot of our meats from our farm which was nice. So a lot of grass-fed options. We had a nice pork taco that was very successful. Of course our eight ounce hamburger or grass-fed burger was a massive hit. Our pulled pork sandwich is nice, but we also are going to do some farm-made meatballs that are big success, our meatball subs are really good...we're looking at some other creative ideas to have on there, something different outside of what you can get in town already, is kind of the thought process there."

Asked whether this food truck would be moving around to other locations, the Board was told the truck will almost entirely be parked right at Summer Drive. "I think we did commit to moving it for Fall Fest and then possibly the Food Truck Fest but those are the only other two commitments in town that we've had other than that it's going to be at our location," Mr. Hunt said.

Recreation Director Tiffany Newton added that she handles the permits for any large events and makes sure that individual vendors have gotten their licenses and permits from the Health Inspector as needed, so the individual vendors don't have to come before the Board of Selectmen for every event.

The Entertainment permit application led to some discussion about times and the balance between what was too early and what was too late. The entertainment permit listed Friday, Saturday and Sunday for outdoor music. Mr. Hunt explained, "In the past we've done 5:00 to 8:00 on Saturdays last year. We were hoping to work with the Police Department to bump that to 6:00 to 9:00 this year. And Sundays we will stick with around 2:00 to 5:00, mid-afternoon time. And if we did something on Friday, and we don't have any immediate plans for that, it would fall in that same Saturday timeframe."

Mr. Hunt said that they'd like the music to stop about an hour before closing so people have time to finish their food and beverages and leave without a rush or a crush. If they started too early, people were still at work or finishing dinner. On summer nights, people might like to stay out later enjoying the music. Town Manager Justin Sultzbach put in that eventually Bull Spit would have a taproom open in the building and people could go inside after outdoor activities ended.

The Board agreed to approve all three permits, and to approve the Entertainment permit without specifying absolute times. Board Chair Audrey Labrie said, "I think [Bull Spit] showed us last year that they're very, very conscientious about how the townspeople feel about things and the hours and the noise and such like that. I'm fine with play it by ear." Ms. Anderson added, "I feel like we need to give you every opportunity to be successful that we can, and by limiting it too much, we're encroaching on that."

With the permits approved, Mr. Sultzbach introduced the proposal for a one-year lease of the 4 Summer Drive property to Bull Spit so they could continue their operations there. "Part of the issue that we are running into, I think collectively, is that remediation is still ongoing," he explained. "That did go to bid, it came out about $100,000 over. So we have applied for an additional $100,000 to address that. But in order to get us between where we presently are and where we want to be, we need something kind of inbetween to bridge us. So that's the intention of this short-term lease, is to just formalize a document that will allow Bull Spit to continue operating there in such a way that will protect the interests of all parties involved."

No motion from the Board was needed immediately, Mr. Sultzbach said. The lease would dissolve and terminate when the property was formally turned over to Bull Spit.

Edited to correct name of Walgreens store

Town Manager Updates BOS on Old Murdock, Beech Street Projects

by Inanna Arthen
At their meeting on Monday, March 27, the Board of Selectmen heard updates from Town Manager Justin Sultzbach about several ongoing projects in town.

Phase One bid documents for work on the Old Murdock Senior Center were released on March 22. Sealed bids are due by Thursday, April 6 at 2:00 p.m. Andy Barr, the architect from Russo Barr Associates who is working with the town, will appear at the Board's meeting on Monday, April 10 to review the bid responses. "Hopefully we'll have a low qualified bid in hand at that time, and he will walk you all through the nitty gritty of the scope of work that we're going to be doing in Phase One," Mr. Sultzbach said. "We don't have a set schedule on construction yet because it's partly dependent on the selected low bidder's availability. Also the availability of materials and the other staging requirements. So we are, with that set, anticipating work to begin as early as May but no later than June, and to be wrapped up before we go into the winter."

Mr. Sultzbach continued, "Ultimately, it's going to be about just shy of a million dollars in construction cost repairs. The remainder is spent on soft costs. So that includes the OPM [Operations Project Manager], the architect all of these drawings and bid documents as well as the temporary repairs that we did in late fall early winter of last year."

The scope of Phase One will include repointing, repairing and replacing masonry all around the higher parts of the building--the most visible problems now wrapped up in tarp. "What will follow after is some more substantial replacement of the slate roof and the last phase is going to be window replacement," Mr. Sultzbach said. "It may not be an actual full blown, like take all the windows out. But it could be the installation of storm windows or something like that on the exterior to help cut down so you'd save on energy costs as well. But that's something that we'll be developing out in the next year or two."

Selectman Barbara Anderson asked if the town was still seeking additional grant monies. Mr. Sultzbach replied yes, but "it's slim pickings for this type of project." The town will continue to work with the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation. The Mass Historic Preservation Fund typically caps its construction grants at $50,000. The town would have to "get creative" in seeking ways to pay for these projects.

"So structurally, it is a rock solid building, by all accounts that's what we've heard," Mr. Sultzbach assured the Board. "And I think it's slightly deceiving. We actually had one gentleman call about a year ago in a panic when the tarp had blown off and he saw the structure underneath. And he was of the impression that the entire tower was going to fall off. The substructure is fine. Within reason. It's a very old building, but it's strong and what people are seeing fall off is a facade. It's decorative, it effectively hangs on to the structure, so I think that's important to highlight.

"But we'll continue to look at the building. It has come up in some conversations about the possibility of doing some type of building survey to maybe try to identify the best future use. Obviously, it's the home of the Council on Aging, but I think making this type of investment in that structure. I think inevitably that's a conversation that comes up so I would anticipate that to maybe come forward shortly."

With regard to the Beech Street projects, Mr. Sultzbach said, "We are going through the necessary Conservation Commission procedures to initiate the demolition of the Beech Street garage. Thank you to Mr. Croteau for the work that he's been putting into that. And we're on track for our goal to have that structure down in the early spring. Realistically it would be pulling it down to the foundation and then potentially addressing the foundation itself with grant funds or doing that work in house but charging it back to the cost of the project."

The sale of the two-unit house next to the garage had fallen through, but the town has entered into a new purchase and sale agreement which hopefully with be finalized, Mr. Sultzbach told the Board.

Arts Review

2023 MHS Tournament of Plays Serves Up a Four-Pack of Fun

The casts and directors of all four Tournament of Plays shows wait for Tournament Director Stephanie Rondeau to announce the award winners on closing night.
Photo by Inanna Arthen

by Inanna Arthen
The Murdock High School Classes of 2023, '24, '25 and '26 presented their entries in the annual competitive Morton E. Converse Tournament of Plays on Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25. The judges based their deliberations on both nights' performances, and awards were presented at the conclusion of Saturday's show. The decisions couldn't have been easy--all four classes did an energetic, enthusiastic and highly entertaining job, despite having about a month to rehearse and prepare following the production of the MHS musical.

Each class chooses a contemporary one-act play to produce, usually with a comic or humorous tone, and accommodating a good-size cast to allow as much participation as possible. Although the cast members of each play gave their all to their parts, not all the plays were equally deserving of their talent. Plays were presented in a different order each evening.

The senior class of 2023 presented "Container of Sharks!" by Don Zolidis, directed by Kristi Iannacone. This short play riffs on the TV show Shark Tank (and a little bit on its predecessor, The Apprentice). A series of hopeful entrepreneurs come onstage to pitch their business ideas before a panel of billionaire investors...and one actual shark. If they convince the panel to back them, they'll get start-up money; if they don't, they'll be eaten alive--literally.

Onstage for the entire 35 minutes were Donovan Whitaker as The Voice, (who emceed the interviews and between entries, napped or read a giant newspaper), Brook Zabik as icy businesswoman Ramina Mountjoy, Jason Vivieros as Vispan Jack (an Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos style tech bro) and Dylan Monette as Yagtar, a hungry shark. Cast members Camille Hart, Tiana Graessle, Abigail Guerra, Yang Yu Chen, Angelina Dellasanta and Calvin Tenney each played dual or even triple roles as the dozen aspiring entrepreneurs--all of whom have lots and lots of issues. Some of the interviewees came on in pairs and some individually.

The actors had a lot of fun with the entrepreneurs, who had emotional meltdowns over their grandmothers' cookies, outright fights, and almost killed their partners with inventions like a snore suppressor (if you don't breathe, you can't snore!). One adoring couple proposed a device to record their wedding day and replay it every single day for their rest of their lives. It's not surprising that the panel decided to fund an invention that can destroy any annoyance with an orbiting space laser (a certain radius of inaccuracy applies).

While the cast was great, and the costumes very creative, this was the weakest of the texts--playwright Zolidis' work is derivative to the point of rip-off, too quickly outdated as parody, and the long procession of entrepreneurs starts to drag.

The junior class of 2024 presented "A Cut Above the Rest" by Claire Demmer, directed by Candace Frye. This short play has fun with a "Who's on First" style gag, with one character really named John Smith and three more using "John Smith" as an alias. The characters have assembled for the funeral of a wealthy 80-something lady, but not everyone has the same motive for attending--a priceless diamond necklace is in play.

Mark Quinn and Patrick Bouchard gave a nice Abbott-and-Costello vibe to the two jewel thieves, Snake/not-really-John Smith and Harry/not-really-John Smith, crashing the funeral. Alex Leblanc and Colin Rowe (really John Smith) were the pseudonymous cops aiming to prevent larceny. All four alternated between searching the house and lying to suspicious guests. McKenzie Lafreniere and Alyssa Belliveau played the bereaved sisters of the deceased. The family's female attorney, described in the script as a "vamp" who hits on one of the thieves, was played with elan by Steven Gauthier, in a long spangled gown, red wig and full beard. Jeff Alisauskas played Rev. Waters in a robe, stole and gray wig.

This play had one of the more elaborate sets, with chairs, tables, plates of cake, art work on stands, a lectern and a casket. The cast, who were all onstage for most or all of the play, did a very good job staying in character and keeping ongoing "business" in motion continuously--miming conversation, eating, moving around, etc.--while speaking characters interacted individually in various pairs. This is not easy to do!

The sophomore class of 2025 got a bit film noirish with "Death of a Dead Guy" by William L. Bowman, Jr., directed by Kelly Fitzpatrick. In the posh Bascombe home, circa 1940s, a high-strung maid discovers her boss, Reginald Bascombe III, slumped over his desk with an enormous knife sticking out of his back. While the unruffled butler attempts to contact the police for sudden widow Mrs. Bascomb, in walks Pete Cannon, "the meanest, roughest, toughest, ace private eye in the business" to helpfully inform everyone "ya got a stiff in yer library." From there, everyone is trying to solve the crime--or has there been one?

This work had the smallest cast list, with just six characters (one of them mostly dead). The leading role of Pete Cannon was shared by two actors, Jayden Lindsey and Bradley Wightman, with Bradley playing the part on Saturday, complete with trench coat and fedora. Madison Scortico was bedecked in a dinner gown and pearls as Mrs. Bascombe, Quinn Richards wore a tux and the appropriate gravitas as butler Bertram, Aria Cantor shrieked well as the maid, Collette, and Madelyn Santos vamped around the stage as the possible suspect Toots, even with handcuffs on. Wiley McKay played the murder victim, who still reacted to events onstage despite being a corpse. The costumes were period and detailed, and the set included tables, chairs, a telephone, two standing mini flats representing windows, and the Desk of Death.

The actors did a good job but were a little harder to understand than the other three casts, making the dialogue harder to follow. The text, true to its source material, is wordy, heavy on tough-guy dialect and has less action, other than the entrances and exits. It's a cute take-off on film noir but a little dated. Wiley McKay had the final line in the play, but on Saturday it was drowned out by the audience applauding the exit of the non-dead characters.

The freshman class of 2026 concluded the Tournament with "Bad Auditions by Bad Actors" by Ian McWethy, directed by Kevin Robertson. This play was the best written of the four, and is the shorter of two versions--it's also a running actors' in-joke, although just as funny for the audience. A stressed-out casting director for a community theatre, and her assistant, hold open auditions for the leading roles in Romeo and Juliet. What seems like a slam-dunk turns into a parade of artistic license, including an actress who arrives with her acting coach, another with her agent demanding Skittles in the dressing room, a method actor, an angry Brando clone, one who says he never knows what to do with his hands, and an actor who comes in wearing a dinosaur costume.

Autumn Oyola played the tightly wound casting director with a combination of incredulity and despair, while Connor Tribou played her down-to-earth assistant, Roger. Abigail Paton, Romeo Medeiros and Kaya Stinehart all played dual roles, and the rest of the hopeful thespians were played by Shannon Connolly (hysterical as the baseball-capped, whistle-blowing acting coach), Jack Varca, Sophia Boisvert and Liam Egan in the dinosaur suit.

This play had the simplest set of the four, consisting of only the table and chairs the auditioners (and briefly, the acting coach) sit at, but there was a lot of movement, some of it quite vigorous. The method actor came in whipping a sword and speaking in Elizabethan patois, while another would-be Romeo assumed the production would be modernized like "the diCaprio version" and bounded around firing a mimed gun. Director Kevin Robertson told the Courier that the freshmen had a late start with their play and had to pull it together even faster than the rest of the casts. You'd never have guessed!

Backing up the casts and directors were their crews, who (among other things) coordinated getting each play's set into place in the pitch dark, following luminous taped marks on the stage, in one to two minutes. The Class of 2023 crew was Rickelle Divoll-Tieu and Karen Vongchairueng, the Class of 2024 crew was Alexyss Brown, the class of 2025 crew was Ian Hart on lights and sound, Cody Beauvais-Michaud on props and costumes, and the class of 2026 crew was Kylieann Brown and Brendan Girouard.

After about fifteen minutes of deliberation, the casts and crews of all four plays were called onstage for the announcement of the nominees and awards by Tournament Director Stephanie Rondeau, who opened actual envelopes, just like the Oscars, and teased the students by pretending to forget about the Best Play Award. Without teasing, the nominees and winners appear below. Small trophies, certificates and one big trophy were given out.

Founded in a speech contest sponsored by Winchendon toy manufacturer Morton E. Converse in 1938 or 1939, and running as a one-act play class competition since 1941, Murdock's annual Morton E. Converse Tournament of Plays is the longest-running one-act play festival in Massachusetts.

2023 Nominees and Winners

Black Bridge Bird Life!

Among the hawks, ducks and their ducklings, occasional eagles and much more, this past Saturday, March 25, and its cold rains offered yet another winged visual delight, as this fully matured heron hunted the shallow exit waters of the Black Bridge Dam for small fish and other forms of food allowing the few who walked the bike path in bad weather to yet again enjoy its many forms of beauty offered to the public.

The Heron stands motionless for quite some time waiting for prey to cross its shallow watery path, as the large bird remained in the area for nearly 2 hours due to there being less people in the vicinity.
Photo by Keith Kent

Slowing moving from spot to spot, the graceful Heron gently searches for a new spot to find additional food extending its head up high for a better view of the area without having to take to the air.
Photo by Keith Kent

Not to happy about geese invading its perceived feeding grounds of the day, the Heron begins to become focused directly on the two nearest geese as of to say "come no closer"!
Photo by Keith Kent

Geese which have been gathering edible items laying around both below and above the water begin to take notice of the angered Heron in the cove to the left of the exit waters of the Black Bridge Dam, which at that point noticeably continued to keep their distance.
Photo by Keith Kent

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