WATERED DOWN - Because the underground water main serving Spinnaker Island is leaking, the offshore condominium community will draw its water from a line attached to this hydrant on the mainland while the pipe is fixed. [Chris Haraden photo]
By Christopher Haraden 03.JUL.08
An underground leak in the water main serving Spinnaker Island has forced the offshore condominium community to use a temporary pipe attached to a mainland fire hydrant, but water company officials say service should not be affected while the break is repaired.
“The line is still pressurized and still providing water to the 110 condos,” Aquarion Water Co. Senior Vice President Larry Bingaman said Tuesday. “Right now we have installed a temporary line from the hydrant on the land to the hydrant on the island, and we are in the process of chlorinating that line and sampling to ensure that there is no bacteria, [and that] the temporary line is clean and safe.”
On Wednesday morning, Aquarion Operations Manager Robert Roland said the company’s testing, which must be done for a 24-hour period before a new line can be used, should be completed before day’s end, and water service would be moved to the temporary piping, which is attached to a hydrant on Spring St. in front of Hull’s sewer treatment plant and stretches over the wooden bridge to the island.
Aquarion Water Co. representatives presented an overview of their utility’s proposed rate increase to a skeptical board of selectmen on Tuesday night.
Aquarion Senior Vice President Larry Bingaman discussed the upcoming 21-percent rate increase for Hull’s customers, saying that the company hasn’t increased its rates since 2001.
Since then, Bingaman said, several factors have prompted the company to ask for the hike, such as capital investment, related depreciation expenses, and an increased cost of doing business during the last seven years.
Aquarion representatives met with the selectmen in anticipation of the formal public hearing on the rate request, which will be conducted by the state Department of Public Utilities on July 16 at 7 p.m. at Hull High School.
Bingaman told the selectmen that if the company’s rate increase is approved, a Hull customer’s total monthly bill would jump by about $10.88, up from $50.95 to $61.83 per month. He said that a family of four’s usage of 175 gallons of water a day would amount to about $2.03 per day, or $740.95 per year. He said that compares to a person buying a 20-ounce bottle of Dasani water at Cumberland Farms for $1.29 or a bottle of Poland Spring water for $1.19.
Bingaman said that since 2001, $9.3 million has been spent on improvements such as repairing and replacing water mains, repairing and replacing meters and hydrants, and other projects. He said that although much of the work was done in Hingham, the towns of Hull and Cohasset take advantage of a “shared benefit” of system upgrades. Specific to Hull, Aquarion has spent more than $1 million in improvements, such as $328,000 for water mains, $622,000 on meters and services, and $32,000 on the storage tank.
Selectman John Reilly said it was “disingenuous” to say that the proposed rate hike is “only pennies a day” for the average customer. He said that by his calculations, the water company has received an average increase of 7.3 percent per year when all past rate adjustments are considered.
HITTING THE BOARDS – Surfers who rode the waves of Nantasket in the 1960s and ’70s gathered once again in Hull for the first ‘Surf 68’ reunion. Shown clockwise from top left are Roger Crawford of Marshfield, John Burns of Cohasset, Bob Coletti of Norwell, Warren Horsley of Randolph, Audrey Berman-Cassevoy of Hull, and Rip Amontea of Hingham. [Lucy Wightman photo]
By Lucy Wightman 03.JUL.08
Surf 68’s 40th reunion made an impressive splash onto Hull shores last weekend. Aptly named for a peak year of surfing activity 40 years ago, the get-together celebrated years 1966 through 1970, when Hull’s surf subculture thrived. Attendees came from Hawaii, Colorado, California, and New England to attend the first official reunion of its kind. For most in attendance, three or four decades had passed without seeing their surfer buddies.
Clad in brightly colored Hawaiian shirts and earth-toned surf brand T-shirts, reunion goers mingled in the mist as Surf 68 began Saturday afternoon. Their first destination was the backyard of the Bergan family home at 362 Nantasket Ave.
The red Colonial-style house is itself a throwback to the era, as it is the only residential structure to survive the bulldozers that cleared the Hull Redevelopment Authority property in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The area behind the home was once a makeshift and spontaneous surfboard rental destination, managed in 1966 by reunion attendee John Flynn.
Ellen Bergan Sylvester, daughter of Old Nantasket author “Doc” William Bergan, said she was thrilled to offer the house for the event’s commencement. “I was born in this house and grew up with many of the surfers,” she said. “Even though I wasn’t a surfer, they were my crowd and some of us are still very close.”
Almost 100 people, most in their 50s and 60s, came to share articles, photographs, and most popularly, stories. Memories were minimally focused on skills and equipment necessary to adequately ride a Nantasket Beach wave. Instead, the attention was on the relational cohesiveness created while sharing ocean swells during the surfers’ formative teenage years. Rekindling old and lost connections generated such palpable excitement, its vibrancy was almost impossible to track.
• Beacon Hill comes to Hull. Gov. Deval Patrick plans to meet with local residents in a town meeting-style session in Hull on Thursday, July 10. State Rep. Garrett Bradley said Patrick will answer questions on a wide variety of topics, and the public is invited to address their concerns directly to the governor. The session will begin at 6 p.m. at the Bernie King Pavilion on NantasketBeach, and is scheduled to last about 90 minutes, according to the governor’s press office. This is the first of several appearances around the state that Patrick plans to make this summer, Bradley said.
• Celebrate safely. As residents and visitors prepare to celebrate the Independence Day holiday weekend, Hull’s fire and police departments issued reminders that fireworks are illegal in Massachusetts and that bonfires are not permitted during the summer.
In a joint statement by acting Deputy Fire Chief Christopher Russo and Police Captain Robert Sawtelle, the town’s public-safety agencies said they “will be working with the board of selectmen, town manager, and conservation commission to assure that everyone is safe” during the holiday weekend.
Russo and Sawtelle said that between 1998 and 2007, 677 major incidents involving illegal fireworks were compiled by the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System.
“As a result, there have been deaths, civilian injuries, firefighter injuries, and property loss totaling $1.5 million,” they said. “On average, 69 percent of the injured were under the age of 18 and as young as one year old.”
![WATERED DOWN - Because the underground water main serving Spinnaker Island is leaking, the offshore condominium community will draw its water from a line attached to this hydrant on the mainland while the pipe is fixed. [Chris Haraden photo]<p>](clients/hulltimes/7-3-2008-9-58-38-AM-6206719.JPG)
![HITTING THE BOARDS – Surfers who rode the waves of Nantasket in the 1960s and ’70s gathered once again in Hull for the first ‘Surf 68’ reunion. Shown clockwise from top left are Roger Crawford of Marshfield, John Burns of Cohasset, Bob Coletti of Norwell, Warren Horsley of Randolph, Audrey Berman-Cassevoy of Hull, and Rip Amontea of Hingham. [Lucy Wightman photo]<p>](clients/hulltimes/7-3-2008-10-58-26-AM-5445611.JPG)
