Man About Canton: Canton Garden Club
By Joe DeFeliceDid you know …
In honor of Arbor Day, the Canton Garden Club plants a tree somewhere in the town each year. This year the Garden Club had Absolute Landscapers plant a new kousa dogwood tree in front of the Canton Police Station. Also, the flowers and herbs sold at their annual plant sale, which was recently held at the Canton Public Library, are grown by its members who subdivide and re-pot perennials from their own gardens and friends’ gardens for this sale. They also create herb gardens and other arrangements along with geraniums and vegetables. The profits from this sale will be used for town planting and for three scholarships to be given out this year. The Canton Garden Club president is Cheryl James.
The Canton Lions Club will be awarding two $750 scholarships to any Canton resident who is a senior in high school and has been accepted at a university or college for the 2014-2015 school year. For more information, call Lions Club President John Friel at 781-821-1967.
At the recent annual town meeting, Canton voters, all 163 of them, approved the following funding recommendations of the Canton Community Preservation Committee: $200,000 toward the repair of the tennis courts at Canton High School; $93,700 for the installation of new electrical boxes and smoke detectors at housing units under the control of the Canton Housing Authority; $30,000 for restoring the Civil War soldier in front of the town hall; $25,000 for preserving gravestones at the Canton Corner Cemetery; and $2,705 to be spent by the Canton Historical Society for restoring the Friendship Quilt. According to CCPC Chairman Lisa Lopez, $700,000 remains in the CPA budget to start next year’s process.
Town meeting voters also approved $35,000 to fund the annual 4th of July celebration.
The voters, all 163 of them, also authorized the appropriations of almost $2 million from free cash, including $895,000 to put toward repairs to the Shepard Pond dam and $485,000 to cover excess snow and ice costs incurred this winter. By the way, all 163 voters also approved Canton’s $79 million budget for fiscal year 2015.
This year, the Canton American Legion Post 24 baseball team will be coached by Greg Lyons and managed by Al Jackson.
The law in the United States requires everyone to pay Medicare taxes on all earnings from work, whether they’re 18 or 80. Currently, the Medicare tax rate is 2.9 percent on all earnings. You pay half, and your employer pays half. If you’re self-employed, you pay the full amount.
Between 2007 and 2013, the number of unemployed who are 55 and older increased more than any other age group. In 2013, it was 70 percent higher than it had been in 2007.
Hawaii has the highest life expectancy in the United States at 78 for men and 84.7 for women.
Barry Nectow, who served as the school business officer in Norton, has been hired to take over as the Canton school business manager, replacing Ken Leon, who will retire at the end of the school year after 17 years of service in Canton.
Former major leaguer Bobby Witt from Canton is the agent for Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who is looking for a long-term contract, but the Brewers will probably pick up the $13 million option he has for 2015.
Amy Sasin, a Canton High alum and sister of Marty Sasin, the Kennedy School gym teacher, is the head softball coach for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Amy was named the Little East Conference Coach of the Year in 2014 and was the first softball coach in program history to be voted by her peers as the top coach in the conference circuit. This past season, Sasin led her charges to the most conference wins in program history, and her team qualified for the 2014 Little East Championship Tournament.
The 75th annual CYO Golf Tournament, the oldest junior golf tourney in New England, will be played July 21-24 at the Ponkapoag Golf Course in Canton.
Finally, MAC recently received an interesting email from one of his readers and will quote it here: “Have you noticed that the garish yellow awning that had been over the Chubby Chickpea store is finally gone? I’m thrilled. The yellow never should have been allowed in the first place, especially back then when the Canton Beautification Committee was carrying out some great improvements. Every day, driving up Bolivar Street to Washington Street and sitting at the light, I would stare at the loud, ugly yellowing awning. I feel so much calmer now waiting at that light.”
Remember it is a challenge to beautify ugly facts.
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=25666
Posted by Joe DeFelice
on Jun 5 2014. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion.
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