Here’s what made news in Dartmouth in 2019

Dec 24, 2019

It has certainly been a busy 2019 in Dartmouth.

The town’s municipal building boom was in full swing, with a new police station, maritime center, and renovated football stadium officially opening. A new library is poised to open in the near future.

People and places in the community earned awards and acclaim both locally and nationally, and tragedies and contentious topics gripped headlines.

Here’s a look at the top stories to appear in Dartmouth Week in 2019.

New honors and new records.

It was certainly a year of accomplishments in Dartmouth, both among the community and in town. 

For the fourth year in a row, Dartmouth High School's marching band and color guard earned the title of national champions. Student musicians earned a 98.575 in the Group 5 national championship, setting a new record in addition to the band's fourth first place win. 

One Dartmouth locale earned its time in the spotlight too. Padanaram Harbor was named the Best Harbor in the US this year. The award, bestowed by boating community website USHarbors, was the result of an online poll. 

Staff from USHarbors presented the town with a commemorative plaque at a special ceremony for the award. The plaque is now on display inside the new Maritime Center. 

New buildings, new projects. 

It was out with the old, in with the new for the Dartmouth Police Department, which moved into its first purpose-built police station on September 22.

The $13.4 million plan to build a new police station at the site of the former Gidley School was approved at the June Town Meeting in 2017. 

For several years prior to that, the department had been working out of trailers and modular units after its Russells Mills Road headquarters building was shuttered due to bacteria contamination in the water supply, which made an officer sick. 

Dartmouth Public Libraries is also nearing completion of a new state-of-the-art library building to replace the north branch library on Tucker Road. 

The $10.5 million, 15,800 square foot new North Dartmouth Library officially broke ground in July 2018, and significant construction was completed in the last few months of 2019. The building is on track to open soon. 

The case for a new north branch library had been made as far back as the early 2000s. A state project to re-align Tucker Road with Route 6, which would call for the demolition of the Tucker Road branch, helped advance the project. 

Friday night lights looked a little different this year too, with the completion of the first phase of the Memorial Stadium renovation project. Visitors, athletes, and performers were greeted with a new artificial turf field, improved LED lighting, and drainage improvements, made possible by the $1.7 million project.

The project had been considered for nearly a decade, but the Dartmouth School Committee made it a priority in 2018. The first phase of the project received Town Meeting approval at the October Town Meeting in 2018. 

Members approved the remaining phases at the October Town Meeting in 2019. The bleachers and grandstands, concession stand and kitchen, press box, entryway, and new shelters and buildings will be added in the coming year. 

Environmental disasters and fast-moving fires. 

The year was not without its share of tragedies, however. Several major fires made headlines in Dartmouth, starting out just 12 days into the new year.

On January 12, a fire consumed a barn at Cluck and Trowel, a small, family-run chicken and egg farm on the Dartmouth/Westport border. Although no humans were injured, nearly 200 chicks perished in the fire. 

But from the ashes came an overwhelming community response. More than $26,000 was raised through a GoFundMe campaign established in the immediate wake of the fire, and after a series of successful fundraisers and benefits, the farm was back on its feet by the end of the year. 

Another inferno made headlines in Dartmouth: The destruction of a Salters Point summer home. 

The November 7 blaze reduced a $1.24 million, 3,504 square-foot home inside the exclusive gated community to ashes, and although two nearby homes were damaged, fire crews were able to spare the neighborhood from further damage. 

Residents of Bliss Corner have been contending with an ongoing environmental crisis. 

After the 2018 revelation that the neighborhood was once used as a dumping ground, further state investigation in 2019 has produced data indicating contamination with heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at several residential properties, including a daycare.

Finally, what could have been a tragic situation aboard a Dartmouth school bus was averted due to the heroism of a bus driver.

On the morning of October 29, Tremblay's Bus Company driver Mark Jardin was behind the wheel of a bus carrying Dartmouth middle school and high school students, when a car struck a deer on Chase Road. 

The impact sent the deer careening through the windshield of the bus. Jardin, as parents and school staff noted, sprung into action to help the kids aboard his bus, even though he himself had sustained a serious hand injury.

Controversies and scandals.

Several major political, economic, and environmental controversies made headlines in Dartmouth and across the country this past year. 

Amid the national debate over immigration, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson made headlines for his close contact with the White House through advisor Stephen Miller, one of President Donald Trump’s leading advisors on immigration.

In an email Hodgson sent to Miller in 2017, which was made public in December 2019, Hodgson tattled on Dartmouth's St. Julie Billiart Church for housing leaflets advising immigrants of their legal rights. 

Dartmouth town employees and teachers’ plight with the rising cost of health care was another big newsmaker. Since the late summer and early fall, union employees in the schools and Town Hall have been working without contracts.

Contract negotiations have been hindered by the cost of healthcare. Town employees pay 48 percent of their healthcare costs, while the town pays 52 percent of the cost — a divide that is among the highest in the region. The result, town employees say, is an unfair burden to employees. 

No resolution was reached in 2019. Instead, there are preliminary discussions about a possible Proposition 2 ½ override to raise taxes and address the issue. 

Residents of Lake Noquochoke could have lost their lake, after a proposal to drain it was put forth by the City of Fall River.

In May, the future of Lake Noquochoke was put in jeopardy after Fall River — which owns the legal rights to the waterway — suggested draining the lake to address a dam which is in need of repair. Dartmouth and Fall River are now working together to save the lake.

A statewide discussion on using Native American imagery in high school mascots raised questions about whether or not Dartmouth Public Schools should continue its use of the Indian head logo. 

After several months of remaining mum on the issue, activists and the Dartmouth School Committee weighed in at a public meeting in October. Despite concerns from the community, a majority of the School Committee committed to keeping the symbol in place. 

Here’s to an exciting and event-filled year. Now on to 2020!