For those who had clamored since before April’s Annual Town Meeting for a three-way meeting of the Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee to look at the town’s finances, the first public meeting of the Tri-Board on June 11 must have been something of a disappointment.

The residents of the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts who advocated for a Tri-Board Summit were by and large the same group that led the charge at Annual Town Meeting to “send a message” and pass higher-than-recommended budgets for the School Department, Police, Fire, DPW and library. Even after the May 27 referendum reality check, their actions still left the town with an $850,000 overall budget deficit for FY09.

After succeeding in unbalancing the town’s budget, they kept up the pressure for a Tri-Board Summit. Surely such a meeting of the minds would discover a happy way out of the town’s financial plight – perhaps a pot of gold that had been overlooked previously. But what did the Tri-Board do at its very first official meeting?

It said, “Balance the budget first, then we’ll talk.”

The Board of Selectmen had already called a Special Town Meeting for June 30 in hopes of balancing the FY09 budget once and for all by reinstating the original 2.2 percent across-the-board budget reductions that Annual Town meeting had undone. The Tri-Board overwhelmingly voted to endorse rolling back the School, Police, Fire, DPW and library budgets to their original Finance Committee recommended levels.

Probably not what the Purveyors of Information had in mind when they collected all those signatures demanding a Tri-Board meeting.

Back in April, when Annual Town Meeting was busy putting back into various budgets money that the town doesn’t have, amendments were proposed to make such additional funding conditional on a Prop. 2½ override. Each time, the same people who voted to increase the budgets voted down a mechanism to fund them.

One resident stood at Town Meeting and said that she was puzzled by “how we’re deciding to spend money we don’t have.” She pointed out that without defining a way to raise money, “deciding to spend it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Some of us thought that there must be some hidden strategy behind simultaneously voting for funds and voting against any mechanism for raising them. Surely there had to be some method to the madness.

But there was none.

Tri-Board/FinCom member Al Palmerino summed it up at the June 11 Tri-Board meeting.

“I don’t believe that the town should be using a credit card type financial philosophy,” Palmerino said, “of spending money first – as was done at the Annual Town Meeting – and deciding how to pay for it later. The town should not be spending money without an accompanying means of supporting revenue.”

I’m guessing that’s not what the activists who demanded the Tri—Board summit were hoping to hear at the very first meeting. They also probably weren’t thrilled when Palmerino started talking about Prop. 2½ overrides.

“We must be straight and honest with the public,” the veteran FinCom member said, “that a single override is not a panacea or a resolution.” Palmerino pointed out that as the town depletes the increased funding from one override, another and then another will be required.

At Annual Town Meeting in April, School Committee member Carmen Urbonas was part of the chorus calling for a summit meeting of the three boards. Of the ten Tri-Board members, Urbonas was the only one who voted on June 11 against endorsing the budget-balancing articles on the Special Town Meeting warrant.

Urbonas said that she saw the Tri-Board’s role more in terms of developing revenue-generating recommendations and finding ways to “re-engineer” the way departments operate.

Tri-Board (and selectman) chairman Betsy Sheeran assured Urbonas that that work would come in good time.

“We cannot sit here and plan for revenue raising, when we do not have a balanced budget,” Sheeran said. “We have to balance this budget. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of this town.”

Palmerino cautioned against expecting quick results in terms of generating revenue-enhancement possibilities. “This could very well be a process that takes an entire year,” Palmerino said. “I’m not in any hurry to rush to some sort of conclusion during this fiscal year.”

In the wake of the School Department’s initial decision to put forth an outsized FY09 school budget, coupled with Annual Town Meeting’s curious effort to increase budgets without identifying a revenue source, it appears that even town officials who might ordinarily be open to considering an override have closed that door, at least for this year.

Surely this was not at all what the activists had in mind when they demanded that the Tri-Board convene.

[This column originally appeared in the June 26, 2008 Wakefield Daily Item.]

Vote NO on Wakefield, MA school budget

In next Tuesday’s referendum election on the $27.4 million School Department budget, the only vote that make sense is a “No” vote.

This conclusion has nothing to do with the value of education, the needs of the Wakefield School Department or the sincerity of the School Committee. It has everything to do with arithmetic. The town of Wakefield, Massachusetts simply doesn’t have the money to fund the school budget at this level, and those who support this amount have not come forward to tell us where they think the town is going to get the money.

It all goes back to January of this year, when the town’s early estimates revealed a likely FY09 deficit of nearly $1.3 million. That anticipated deficit figure has fluctuated slightly, but has remained in the $1 million range. Consequently, all town departments were asked to submit FY09 budgets that were about 2.2 percent lower than the prior fiscal year in order to enable the town to balance its total budget, as required by law.

The Police Department submitted a budget that was $90,000 lower than FY08. The Fire Department did the same. The DPW cut $86,000.

Due to the financial realities, almost every town department was willing, however reluctantly, to trim its budget.

One wasn’t.

The School Department, which comprises 60 percent of the overall town operating budget, did not come in with a reduced budget. They did not come in with a level-funded budget. They brought forth a budget that was 8 percent higher than last year, and more than $2 million higher than recommended by the Finance Committee.

The Board of Selectmen again urged the School Committee to cut. So did the Finance Committee. FinCom Chairman Dan Sherman, not exactly a fiscal conservative, called the school budget “fiscally irresponsible.”

At last month’s Annual Town Meeting, school supporters packed the Galvin School auditorium and passed the $27.4 million School Department budget. To date, supporters of that school budget still have not proposed a way to finance it.

Following Town Meeting, a group of citizens exercised their right under the Town Charter and collected the 200 signatures required to petition the Selectmen to call a special referendum election on the school budget passed by Town Meeting. That election is scheduled for next Tuesday, May 27. If a majority votes “No,” then the Town Meeting vote will be voided and the school budget will revert to its FY08 level of $25,980,430.

Assuming that happens, the town will still be faced with a deficit of $851,602. That’s because the School Department was asked to reduce its budget by 2 percent like every other department. So a school budget reduced to level-funding by the referendum is still $558,000 higher than the town can afford.

In addition, Town Meeting put back all the money that had been cut from departments like the Police, Fire and DPW – essentially negating all their efforts to live with their means.

So, even supposing a majority votes “No” on May 27, the town will still have an overall budget that is $851,602 more than it can afford. That means one of two things: an override attempt or more cuts.

Was this a pre-meditated strategy by school supporters? Did they push for a school budget that was more than $2 million higher than recommended knowing that it would likely be rejected in a referendum, making a subsequent override attempt for $851,602 look almost palatable by comparison?

It’s hard to know, because the silence coming from those who supported the higher school budget has been deafening. They haven’t identified a source for any of the additional funds or given much indication of what’s on their minds.

Therefore, only one course of action makes any financial or mathematical sense on Tuesday. Vote “No.”

Sentimental comedy about seniors at Stoneham Theatre

It doesn’t hurt that playwright/director Jack Neary’s sentimental comedy about senior citizens is set in a working-class eastern Massachusetts neighborhood and features five characters who, to those who grew up in this area, will be as familiar as their own neighbors. But “The Porch” is also a very funny play that draws you into the lives of these characters and makes you care about what happens to them next, thanks in large part to top-notch performances from all five actors in the Stoneham Theatre cast.

There’s caustic and cynical Gert (played by Sheriden Thomas), whose irreverent comments often make her friends Marjorie and Alma cringe. Marjorie (Cheryl McMahon) has just a touch of Edith Bunker battiness in her. And Alma (Ellen Colton) isn’t so much dense as sheltered, and needs to have things like Bill Clinton’s favorite activity with Monica Lewinsky explained to her.

Leo, (John Davin) is married to Gert. He likes Foxwoods, but hates those bus trips with all the old people. Leo’s neighbor and Marjorie’s husband, Pat (Richard Snee), is like your favorite uncle – easy going and philosophical, taking life as it comes with deadpan humor.

Various combinations of these five characters discuss everything from Bill Clinton’s affair to whose music they want played at their funerals (top choices: Mitch Miller, Jerry Vale and Herb Alpert). “The Porch” has – and this is no knock – all the best entertainment elements of the most creative situation comedies. It is, after all, a comedy about various situations that these characters have encountered over the years.

All the action takes place on the front porch of Alma’s house as she gets ready for her Labor Day extended family party. Her neighbors are lending a hand because it’s the first year since Alma’s husband died five years ago that she has revived this annual party for her children and many grandchildren.

Talented set designer/scenic artist Jenna McFarland Lord has created such a realistic and authentic representation of a New England bungalow that you’d swear they built an entire house right on stage. No detail seems to have been missed, from the doorbell to the drain spout to the trash barrel and basketball hoop in the yard.

“The Porch” is a comedy, but it does have its sentimental moments. It’s a story of friendship among five friends and neighbors who enjoy each other’s company at the same time as they drive each other crazy.

When Leo tries to sneak out of the cookout early, Gert tells her husband that he isn’t going anywhere.

“Since when do you make my decisions for me?” Leo challenges his wife.

“Since July 23, 1962,” she retorts.

Audiences attending a performance of “The Porch” can expect to be told a good story and to laugh a lot, while spending an evening in familiar surroundings with characters they recognize and identify with. They are survivors who thrive on a combination of humor, faith and compassion, despite their sometimes gruff exteriors.

“The Porch” is a play that will appeal to just about everyone, including people who normally wouldn’t go to the theater. You can even safely drag your husband or father to this play, and count on the fact that he’ll leave with a smile on his face.

“The Porch” runs through June 1, at Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main Street, Stoneham. For show times and tickets, go online at stonehamtheatre.org or phone 781-279-2200.

[The Porch, by Jack Neary. Set Design, Jenna McFarland Lord. Costume Design, Seth Bodie. Lighting Design, David Wilson. Production Stage Manager, Sarah Hilary Johnson. Production Manager, Dave Brown. Sound Design, Jamie Whoolery.]

This review originally appeared in the May 21, 2008 Wakefield Daily Item.

“Route 128 is the road we all love to hate,” David Kruh told the audience at last night’s Sweetser Lecture 2008 season opener at the Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church. Kruh then proceeded to deliver a fascinating photographic history of the highway that runs around Boston, from Cape Ann to the South Shore.

Kruh was making his third Sweetser appearance, having previously given talks on Scollay Square and the Big Dig. Currently a full-time marketing manager for Analog Devices, during his varied career Kruh has worked as a copywriter, a computer programmer, a radio producer/engineer and a spokesman for the Big Dig. He has also dabbled in acting, stand up comedy and playwriting. His play, “Curse of the Bambino,” premiered on Boston’s Lyric Stage in 2001.

He has also written two books on Scollay Square, as well as “Building Route 128,” which he co-authored with Yanni Tsipis.

In the early 20th century, Kruh explained, the region’s transportation system was in a “spoke and wheel” design. Boston was the Hub, and the roads led in or out from its center. There was little need for a north/south roadway around Boston in those days, according to Kruh, as the small roads and trolleys that ran north and south were more than adequate for the times.

“Then of course some darn fool had to go and invent the automobile,” Kruh said. Suddenly all the small roads built for horse and buggy traffic were inundated with motorized cars, trucks, buses and taxis. “By the 1920s,” Kruh pointed out, “Boston was in perpetual gridlock.”

If you lived north of the city and wanted to get to Cape Cod, or lived south of the city and wanted to get to New Hampshire, Kruh explained, you had little choice but to fight your way through Boston.

“In an effort to combat the problem,” Kruh said, “in 1925 the DPW assigned a number of existing roads approximately 15 miles outside the city as a circumferential route around Boston. They called it Route 128.”

There was no highway, Kruh stressed, just these local streets labeled as Route 128. Kruh described the convoluted north to south route that would have been taken along these roads during the 1930s and 1940s by any driver wanting to avoid Boston. For awhile, Kruh said, this “ad hoc” route around Boston was more than adequate to handle the traffic volume.

But by the 1930s, Kruh noted, the downtown areas of communities like Woburn, Lexington and Waltham that the old Route 128 ran through were inundated with traffic, and Boston traffic was no better as many people still chose to drive through the city to get north or south.

In the 1930’s, new state DPW Commissioner William Callahan (for whom the Callahan Tunnel is named) secured enough money to start building what he proposed as a six-lane highway 16 miles outside Boston. The first major construction was the Route 1 overpass in Lynnfield.

“Callahan continued to build Route 128 in pieces as money became available,” Kruh said. Construction was suspended during World War II. But after the war, Kruh explained, as more and more people moved from the city to the suburbs, highway construction became an easier sell.

In 1949, when a $200 million highway program became available, Callahan made the completion of Route 128 a top priority. The topology of many areas had to be altered to make way for the highway, and countless homes were moved, Kruh explained. The extent of blasting work needed to construct the Beverly to Gloucester stretch, begun in 1952, made Route 128 one of the most expensive per mile highways in the history of the state.

Kruh said that construction of the 22 mile section of Route 128 from the Wakefield-Lynnfield border to the Wellesley-Needham border took place between the spring of 1950 and the summer of 1951. That stretch of the highway opened in August 1951 with a series of ribbon cuttings in each town through which the highway passed. Kruh projected a film clip of a parade of cars allowed to drive on the new highway for the first time.

“There you have it,” Kruh quipped, “a film of the first traffic jam on Route 128.”

When opponents blocked I-95 from continuing into Boston as originally intended, Kruh said, Route 128 from Canton to Peabody inherited the I-95 designation, making it eligible for federal highway funds.

“The new highway was an unbelievable success,” Kruh said of Route 128, with 50,000 cars jamming the northern portion on the first day it opened. “Before the southern portion was completed.” Kruh added, “stretches of the northern portion were already being widened from two to three lanes.”

Kruh explained the rapid growth of technology companies around Route 128. There was plenty of cheap land around Route 128 and lots of public and private money fueling research and development at places like MIT, Kruh explained.

With little room to build in Cambridge and Boston, Gerald Blakely of the development firm of Cabot, Cabot and Forbes conceived a plan to recreate the college campus environment in developing areas along Route 128, with well-designed buildings and lots of green space. Blakely’s plan attracted numerous electronics firms and other manufacturers to locate along the highway.

By 1967, Kruh said, there were 729 commercial enterprises located along the highway employing 66,000 people.

Shopping centers like the North Shore and Burlington malls sprang up, Kruh explained, as farmers were more than willing to sell land at inflated prices to developers.

The stunning prosperity that Blakely’s industrial parks brought to the area also brought more traffic, Kruh noted. Route 128 also wound up absorbing the traffic burden of other proposed highways that were part of an overall transportation master plan, but were never built.

“I suggest buying books on tape,” Kruh advised, “because traffic will likely not be getting better any time soon.”

[This story originally appeared in the Wakefield Daily Item.]

As far as the Zaccone family knew, the beautifully engraved watch was lost forever.

It had been awarded to Guy Zaccone of Wakefield back in 1958 by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts – the oldest military organization in the Western Hemisphere. Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company members served on every battlefield from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.

John Zaccone, Sr., Guy’s son, grew up in Wakefield and now lives in New Hampshire. He hadn’t seen the watch since before his father died in 1986, and for the last 22 years he had no reason to believe he’d ever see it again.

Then his son, John Zaccone, Jr., Guy’s grandson, got a phone call out of the blue.

On the other end of the line was Frank Zoda of Ware Street in Greenwood. Zoda said that he had an impressive looking watch with the name “Guy Zaccone” engraved on the back. He had looked up the name Zaccone in the Wakefield phone book, hoping to track down a relative of the watch’s owner.

When his son told him about the call, John Zaccone, Sr. was at first doubtful. Zaccone, Sr. admitted that given “the often less-than-honorable intentions some folks have these days, I was skeptical and hesitant as to the authenticity of the story. I’m very happy to report that my initial thought couldn’t have been further from the truth.”

It turns out that the watch had been in the basement workshop of a now deceased local jeweler, Tom Hanright, who lived next door to the Zoda’s. Hanright had worked for years at Sorenson’s, a long-time Albion Street jeweler, and eventually bought the business from Mr. Sorenson.

The watch was hanging on a board with at least a dozen other unidentified watches that had been dropped off at the jeweler’s by their owners for cleaning or repair and never picked up. When Hanright retired, they ended up in his basement workshop.

Due to failing health, Hanright fell on hard times in his later years. Frank Zoda would often walk next door to visit his ailing neighbor and lend a helping hand if he could. Before Hanright died, he told Zoda to take the board with the orphaned watches. Zoda took the watches, but at the time they were of little interest to him. For years, they sat in a box in Zoda’s home.

Recently, Zoda happened to pull one watch out of the box and was showing it to his wife, Pat. She turned it over and saw the inscription on the back. It was clear that the military organization had given the watch to Guy Zaccone as an award of some kind.

Both Pat and Frank Zoda had the same reaction. “This watch belongs with that family,” Pat said, as Frank set about checking the phone book to see if there were any Zaccones still living in Wakefield.

When he reached John Zaccone, Jr., Zoda invited him and his father to come by his home and pick up the watch.

The Zaccones visited the Zodas on a recent Saturday morning and were treated to coffee and pastry and reunited with their long-lost family heirloom.

“Evidently my father had brought the watch to an Albion Street jeweler for repair, cleaning or whatever,” John Zaccone, Sr. said. “The jeweler had since gone out of business, my father had passed and the watch, along with other random pieces was relegated to a box and stored in the jeweler’s basement.”

It turned out that Pat Zoda and John Zaccone, Sr. remembered many of the same teachers from their days at Wakefield High School, including Dr. Elizabeth Upham. John Zaccone, Sr. grew up in Wakefield and graduated from Wakefield High School in 1964. Pat Zoda graduated from WHS in 1958 - her classmates will remember her as Patricia Moff.

“It was a very happy occasion,” Pat Zoda says of the Zaccones visit. When she told Zaccone, Sr. that the watch still ran, “his face lit up,” Pat says.

John Zaccone, Jr., is a World War II history buff, and was impressed to learn that US Navy veteran Frank Zoda served in the Pacific during the War, and was on the destroyer USS Hale in Tokyo Harbor when the Japanese surrendered.

For the younger Zaccone, Frank Zoda’s determined effort to return the watch to its rightful owners reflects the values of the World War II generation.

“Most people’s reaction, especially today, would be ‘What can I get for this?’” Zaccone says. Instead, Zaccone points out, Zoda’s response was to ask, “What is the right thing to do?”

“That’s so typical of his generation,” Zaccone says. “They went overseas as kids, 17-21 years old, did their service, came home and just carried on. That generation is so selfless and humble. They’re so humble that they don’t demand attention for literally changing the world.”

Both Frank and Pat Zoda say that the thought of trying to sell the valuable watch never occurred to them. In fact, someone tried to convince Frank to take the timepiece to a jeweler to see what he could get for it. But Zoda wouldn’t consider it. No matter how much it turned out to be worth, Zoda was determined that the watch belonged with the Zaccones.

“I would still give it back to the family even if it were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Zoda says. “All the more reason to return it to the family.”

John Zaccone, Sr. was touched by the “uncommon thoughtfulness” exhibited by Frank and Pat Zoda.

“My son and I went to their home where we were treated as special guests,” Zaccone said. “At the end of the visit we left with the watch. It runs and I often wear it in tribute to my father.”

[This story first appeared in the May 1, 2008 Wakefield Daily Item.]

Thoughts on the April 7, 2008 Wakefield (Massachusetts) Town Meeting

Sometimes it pays to listen to our elder statesmen.

But when we become caught up in a righteous cause, it’s easy to ignore the voices of experience in our midst. We dismiss them at our own peril.

Advocates to fund the School Department budget did a good job of filling the Galvin School Auditorium Monday night with teachers, young parents and others who believe so fervently in education that they want the town to spend money that it doesn’t have.

The School Committee put before Town Meeting a $27.4 million FY09 budget, which is $2 million more than the Finance Committee recommended.

Finance Committee Chairman Dan Sherman, who isn’t exactly Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation, warned Monday’s Town Meeting that the School Committee’s proposed budget was “fiscally irresponsible.” He predicted that if the School Department budget passed without additional revenue, it would force drastic cuts in other areas of the town budget.

But the vast majority of the 700 voters in attendance Monday night were in no mood for such talk. Several speakers from the floor accused the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee of “failing to provide leadership” in the current fiscal crisis.

The Selectmen cut $90,000 each from the Police Department and Fire Department, and another $86,000 from the DPW. In total, they cut their share of the town budget by 2.18 percent in an effort to live within their means.

Some would call that leadership by example.

Former Selectman and Board of Public Works member Jim Scott has a wealth of first-hand experience with large municipal budgets. He also knows his way around Wakefield politics. Scott tried to inject a dose of reality into the proceedings Monday night.

Speaking from experience, Scott predicted that even if the higher than recommended school budget passed Town Meeting, someone would surely collect the needed 200 signatures to put it on a town-wide ballot as a referendum question, and it would lose.

“Democracy is the art of compromise,” Scott said. He called upon the School Committee to put together “a reasonable budget.” Such a budget, Scott argued, even in the form of a modest override, might have a chance of passage on a town-wide ballot. “But this budget is not going to fly,” Scott said.

But few in the auditorium were interested in compromise. Most had already made up their minds, and looking around the hall at all the friendly faces, they could hardly believe that they could ever lose.

But it’s one thing to marshal a few hundred supporters to Town Meeting and quite another to get an override or spending question past Wakefield voters in an election. History teaches that the laughter and congratulations that follow a Town Meeting victory can quickly turn to disappointment on Election Day.

“Half a loaf is better than no loaf,” elder statesman and voice of experience Jim Scott tried to tell them Monday night.

But they didn’t want to listen. The day may come when they wish they had.

[This column originally appeared in the April 10, 2007 Wakefield Daily Item.]

Sisters of Swing at Stoneham Theatre through May 4

You don’t have to be a member of the Greatest Generation to enjoy Sisters of Swing, the tribute to the Andrews Sisters currently playing at Stoneham Theatre.

But considering that the Andrews Sisters sold over 90 million records, had more Top Ten hits than the Beatles or Elvis and paved the way for all the girl groups that followed, Sisters of Swing is a worthwhile take for grandparents and grandchildren and anyone in between.

The three performers who play the sisters all have voices that do justice to the harmonies that the girls made famous with hits like “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and “Rum and Coca Cola.” And although much can be accomplished with talent, makeup and wigs, it appears that an effort was also made to cast in each role a performer who bears at least a passing physical resemblance to the Andrews sister she is playing.

Laura DeGiacomo as Patty, Kerri Jill Garbis as LaVerne and Kimberly Robertson as Maxene Andrews share the stage almost equally, although DeGiacomo, as de facto lead singer Patty, probably gets a shade more of the spotlight than her co-stars.

Veteran stage actor Steve Gagliastro plays a variety of male roles in the show, from the Andrews Sisters’ Manager, Lou Levy to Bing Crosby, with whom the girls frequently performed and recorded. Gagliastro also provides a comic touch with some over-the-top physical comedy, appearing in drag as a German barmaid and as a belly dancer.

Sisters of Swing is not some touring company stopping by for a brief engagement. The main cast is made up of local performers with extensive Boston and regional theater credits. While director/choreographer Robert Jay Cronin is now based in New York City, he was born and raised in Arlington.

Cronin lets the music speak for itself, following the Sisters from their childhood in Minnesota, through their heyday in the 1940s to their up and down personal and professional lives in the 1950s and ‘60s. The simple set features three tall panels covered with photos of the trio, with a video screen in the center showing a steady stream of black and white stills and film footage of the real Andrews Sisters at points in their careers that correspond to the action on stage.

Behind the panels, barely visible through a screen, are five members of the six-piece band that provides the instrumental accompaniment to the girls’ vocals. Rick Copeland plays the trombone; Tim Cote blows the trumpet; Heather Katz-Cote handles the reeds; Mick Lewander is on percussion; and Ben Stevens plays Bass. Out front with the sisters is the show’s Music Director Justin Hatchimonji on piano. He also plays a small but key speaking role as Vic Schoen, the Andrews Sisters’ band leader, composer and musical arranger.

In stark contrast to today, the Andrews Sisters represented a time when show business performers were proud Americans who were not afraid to display their patriotism. Aside from their record breaking concert tours, the trio volunteered their time - traveling the world during World War II, entertaining the troops on the battlefield and at military hospitals. Heard everywhere on radios and jukeboxes, the Andrews Sisters became a cherished institution to a nation at war.

The Andrews Sisters didn’t just inspire and lift up a nation at a time of depression and war. Countless other girl groups, including the Lennon Sisters, the Supremes, the Pointer Sisters and Destiny’s Child owe a huge debt to the Andrews Sisters.

After you see Sisters of Swing at Stoneham Theatre, you’ll understand why.

Sisters of Swing runs through May 4 at Stoneham Theatre,
395 Main St. Stoneham. For tickets and show times go online at www.stonehamtheatre.org/ or phone 781-279-2200.

Sisters of Swing, by Beth Gilleland and Bob Beverage. Based on an idea by Ron Peluso. Musical arrangements by Raymond Berg. Directed and Choreographed by Robert Jay Cronin. Music Director, Justin Hatchimonji. Costume Designer, Kurt S. Hultgren. Associate Director, Corey Jackson. Set Design, Audra Avery. Production Manager, Dave Brown. Lighting Design, Jeff Adelberg. Production Stage manager, Sarah Hilary Johnson. Associate Choreographer, Ellen Peterson.

[This review originally appeared in the Wakefield Daily Item.]

First time two people from Wakefield have been on Democratic & Republican State Committees

In the February 5 primary election, most attention was focused on the Presidential candidates, with some local precincts also voting for candidates in the primary for State Representative from the 32nd Middlesex District.

But while all that was going on, Wakefield was making a bit of political history of its own. Also on February 5, the voters elected Albert J. Turco as the representative from this district to the Republican State Committee. On the same day, Betsy Sheeran won election to the Democratic State Committee. Turco was unopposed. Sheeran garnered 62 percent of the vote district-wide to defeat Peg Crowe of Malden.

It is the first time, as far as anyone knows, that two people from Wakefield have represented this district on both the Democratic and Republican State Committees.

“In fact,” Turco points out, “as far as we know, no one can remember anyone from Wakefield ever having been a state committee person in either party.”

State Committee members from both parties are elected from each senatorial district. So, Sheeran and Turco will be representing Wakefield, Malden, Melrose (Wards 1-5), Stoneham, Reading and Lynnfield on their respective parties’ state committees.

But the historical significance doesn’t end there. Sheeran points out that she and Turco are also chairmen of the Wakefield Democratic and Republican Town Committees, respectively. Both also currently serve on the Board of Selectmen, marking the first time the two parties’ Town Committee chairmen have served on the board at the same time.

The names Betsy Sheeran and Al Turco have long been familiar to anyone with at least a passing interest in Wakefield politics. Before serving as a selectman, Sheeran chaired both the School Committee and the Housing Authority. Turco has in the past served as chairman of both the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen. He is also a past Town Moderator.

During their common tenure as selectmen, Turco and Sheeran have consistently demonstrated their ability to disagree without being disagreeable.

“Although Betsy and I have not always agreed on all the issues,” Turco says, “we have always given each other a respectful hearing on our positions, and we’ve worked well together on various projects on the Board of Selectmen.”

Under their leadership, the Democratic and Republican town committees have also worked together in various ways. Both committees are financial supporters of the Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry and each committee has donated a sum of money to the restoration of the World War II Memorial on the Common. The two party committees collaborated to hold a joint memorial for 9/11.

But the election last month of Turco to the Republican State Committee and Sheeran to the Democratic State Committee is worth more to Wakefield than just a historical footnote.

“It means that the town has more clout,” Sheeran says, “not only with our own legislators but with legislators state-wide. The positions that we both hold as elected members of the state committees means that we can get closer to the ears of legislators, both in the district and outside the district. We have a much wider range of people that we could speak to and voice our concerns.”

Sheeran says that because Wakefield has an active, vibrant and involved Democratic Town Committee, she has often been invited to speak to Democratic Committees in other cities and towns. Wakefield’s DTC has 82 members, according to Sheeran, one of the largest in the area, even among some of the bigger cities.

“I’m sure that’s why Betsy was asked by a number of people to run for state committee,” Turco said, “because it has gotten around that she has an excellent local town committee.” Sheeran adds that she was also chairman of Stephen P. Maio’s campaign for State Representative several years ago. While unsuccessful, Sheeran feels that her role in the campaign helped to raise her district-wide profile among Democrats.

For his part, Turco says that he became better known among Republicans in other communities in the district through his chairmanship of Sen. Richard Tisei’s re-election campaigns.

“We also have an excellent Republican Town Committee here in Wakefield,” Turco says. “There are very few in the Commonwealth that have 35 members, and we have 35, plus some associate members.”

On the Congressional District level, as members of their respective state committees, both Turco and Sheeran will play key roles at their parties’ caucuses next month at which delegates to the national party conventions will be chosen.

Another function that Turco and Sheeran perform as state committee members is attending local party committee meetings in cities and towns throughout the district. In addition, if a local town committee is experiencing factionalism, that party’s state committee member for the district may be called in to moderate disputes.

One thing that both the Democrat and the Republican agree on is that being split between two state representative districts has been bad for Wakefield.

“It’s the first time since before the Revolutionary War that the town has been split between representative districts,” Turco says. “We have to do everything we can when redistricting happens between 2010 and 2012 to see if we can have Wakefield made whole again. I don’t know how realistic that is.”

Sheeran couldn’t agree more. “This town was dealt a severe blow when it was split,” she said. Sheeran and Turco agree that they would have no objection to Wakefield being in a district with another community, as long as the entire town was in one district.

Despite their heavy involvement with party politics, both Sheeran and Turco stress that local town elections are, and should remain, non partisan. Neither party’s Town Committee ever endorses candidates for local office.

“That’s where we separate the partisan politics,” Sheeran says. “Because at the end of the day, sitting on the Board of Selectmen, we have to look out for what’s good for this town.”

[This story originally appeared in the March 25, 2008 Wakefield Daily Item.]

The Cutting, at Stoneham Theatre

Each act opens with the sounds of sea gulls, although their full significance will not be realized until much later. Currently at Stoneham Theatre, The Cutting is part mystery, part psychological study and part exploration of the honesty of silence - as it draws you into the mind of a young woman apparently traumatized into mutism.

Judith (played by Eve Kagan) is in jail in connection with the mysterious death of her mother, although it’s unclear to the investigators whether Judith had anything to do with her mother’s demise, because Judith isn’t talking. She has not uttered a word in the five months that she has spent behind bars, despite the authorities’ best efforts to prod her into explaining what happened to her agoraphobic mother, with whom Judith shared a house high on an English seaside cliff.

In desperation, the authorities bring in a renowned child psychiatrist with a specialty in treating children who refuse to speak. The doctor is initially reluctant to take the case because she prefers to work with children, and Judith is an adult. Finally, she agrees to see Judith three times a week over a period of time to see if she can gain any insight into the mind of this young woman who stares endlessly and silently out the narrow prison window.

Alex (Rachel Harker) introduces herself to Judith by her first name, rather than as “doctor,” explaining that she is on a first name basis with the children who form her usual client base. The ploy doesn’t work, and for session after frustrating session, Alex is unsuccessful in prying a word from the mouth of Judith.

On a certain level, The Cutting is a meditation on the value of talking, and the need that some feel to avoid silence at all costs, filling every moment with endless chatter. “I am terrified of silence,” Alex observes at one point, “and my patient is not.”

Finally, with time still remaining in one of their sessions, Alex gives up and informs Judith that she won’t be returning. But the door to the secure jailhouse office is locked and the guard has strayed from her post. So Alex resigns to sit back and relax for the twenty minutes until their session will be over and she can leave for good.

And then, Judith speaks. So now, of course, Alex must return, again and again as Judith’s former silence turns into a torrent of words. She speaks rapturously of a mysterious gardener named Gerald. But, Alex wonders, did Gerald really exist or did Judith’s lonely imagination invent him? And could this Gerald have had a role in Judith’s mother’s death?

All of the interaction between Judith and Alex takes place in the tiny jailhouse office. Set designer Gianni Downs has elevated the little office atop a rocky bluff that suggests the cliffside home where Judith lived with her mother. But in fact, much of the plays action takes place in the audience’s imagination, as Alex coaxes Judith to talk about her life, her home, her garden, her mother and Gerald.

The story itself is compelling and engrossing. Like Alex, you analyze Judith’s every utterance for clues to what really happened. But the best reasons to see The Cutting are the performances of Kagan and Harker.

Kagan has been impressing audiences and critics alike over the last several years. She was nominated for an INRE Award for Best Supporting Actress in Talking to Terrorists at the Sugan Theatre. Stoneham audiences will remember her performance in as Louise in Gypsy.

Rachel Harker last appeared at Stoneham Theatre in The Odd Couple. She has appeared in off-Broadway productions as well as locally at New Rep, Lyric Stage and Boston Playwright’s Theatre.

Director Weylin Symes has wisely trusted these two accomplished professional actors to get inside their characters and explore for themselves what makes these two very different women tick.

The Cutting is one of those plays that provide the audience with plenty to talk about on their way home from the theater, or better yet, to contemplate in a precious moment of silence.

The Cutting runs through March 16 at Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main Street, Stoneham. For show times and tickets go online at http://www.stonehamtheatre.org/ or phone 781-279-2200.

[THE CUTTING, by Maureen O’Brien. Directed by Weylin Symes. Set Design, Gianni Downs. Costume Design, Rachel Padula-Shufelt. Lighting Design, Christopher Ostrom. Production Stage Manager, Sarah Hilary Johnson. Production Manager, Dave Brown. Sound Design, David Wilson.]

The best thing to come out of last week’s FCC hearing into Comcast Corp.’s Internet polices had nothing to do with the subject of the hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to look into the communications giant’s network management practices.

But the thing that tickled me about the news story was the fact that Comcast got caught doing something that Big Cable and other companies have been getting away with for years: packing audiences at government hearings with their own supporters and otherwise planting straws with the intention of creating the illusion of public support for their business policies.

This time Comcast got caught with its pants down, and here’s hoping that the episode will remind public officials and citizens that these companies will do absolutely anything they can get away with.

Last week’s hearing into Comcast’s network management policies was held in a 300 seat lecture hall at Harvard Law School. Critics charge that Comcast paid people to occupy seats in order to prevent those wishing to speak against Comcast from getting in. Once all the seats were filled, people were turned away.

Comcast hasn’t denied paying people to fill seats, claiming that they did it only to hold enough seats for company executives. But others insist that the hired seat-fillers stayed planted for much of the day, preventing critics from getting into the hall.

This kind of thing is nothing new, and many officials at various levels of government are on to this tactic. But the companies still do it, because some officials and citizens can still be fooled into thinking they are witnessing a spontaneous groundswell of public support for some commercial development, supermarket or cable franchise.

The same strategy of packing attendance has been employed at local hearings right here in Wakefield. It’s a favorite tactic, not just of cable companies, but of other firms subject to the inconvenience of obtaining local licenses and permits.

The 2006 public hearings on Verizon’s request for a cable TV license in Wakefield are a prime local example. Arriving early to cover one of those hearings, I found the selectmen’s meeting room at Town Hall already packed. I was fortunate to grab one of the last seats.

John Carney, chairman of the Board of Selectmen at the time, immediately saw what was going on as he called the meeting to order. He asked the Verizon employees or retirees in attendance to raise their hands. Carney stopped counting when he reached double digits, and there were still more Verizon people milling around in the hallway as the hearing got underway.

Carney explained that he did not want the hearing to be devoted to employees singing Verizon’s praises.

“I’m sure Verizon’s a wonderful company,” Carney said, “but we don’t have to hear it ten times over.”

Of course, that was exactly the reason that Verizon had asked all those people to come – that, and to fill seats and outnumber those who might have less flattering things to say about the company.

But holding seats and orchestrating testimonials at public hearings isn’t the only way that these companies try to create the illusion of widespread popular support where none really exists.

Sometimes a big city public relations firm with local connections is hired to write letters to the editor in favor of the big box store that wants to come to town. The PR firm sweet-talks local citizens into signing the letters and then releases them one at a time to the local newspapers. Before long, it looks like a spontaneous groundswell of popular support.

Most people can’t be bothered writing a letter, even about an issue they feel passionately about. So when you suddenly see a series of letters in the newspaper from ordinary citizens in support of some retail corporation’s business agenda, it should set off your BS detector.

There may be nothing illegal about big companies marshalling supporters to a hearing or coordinating letter-writing campaigns.

But, as the recent Comcast example reminds us, it’s important that regulators from the local level up to the federal level recognize these tactics. It’s critical for officials to know when they are being manipulated by a corporate player with huge resources and a big stake in the outcome.

[This column originally appeared in the March 6, 2008 Wakefield Daily Item.]