blackstone valley - Yankee Xpress

NORTH EDITION: Grafton, Millbury, Sutton, Upton

BLACKSTONE VALLEY CROSSTOWN ADS AND BUSINESS NEWS

May 26-June 23, 2017

Postal Patron

formerly The Yankee Xpress

Towns in Memorial Day Mode By Rod Lee They are older now of course and the turnout for parades isn’t what it used to be, but members of Upton VFW Post 5594 will continue an important tradition by conducting Memorial Day observances. So too will veterans in other Blackstone Valley towns, including Grafton, Millbury and Sutton. “We had to shorten the parade route,” David Kennedy, quartermaster of Upton VFW Post 5594, said. “The crowds had gotten so

sparse and we had gotten so old. We needed to walk downhill!” So now, after observances starting at Lakeview Cemetery at 8:00 a.m. and at several other sites, Mr. Kennedy and his cohorts will queue up at the Memorial School and march to the Common. The service there will occur a little after 10:00 o’clock. (FYI, VFW Post 5594 goes right from Memorial Day into its “Cruisin’ at the Upton VFW” season,

RI Hydroponics in Sutton promises growth and gardening By Amy Palumbo-LeClaire While everyone else is “going internet,” Tom Fox, owner of Sutton’s new gardening (growing) business, located on Route 146, chose to “go brick and mortar” following a decade of IT sales and marketing, traveling and working for corporate America at Anheuser Busch, Alashan Cashmere, American Partners and Oracle. “I’ve done upper level sales for Fortune 500 companies, selling million dollar projects. Now I’m selling dirt,” the outdoorsman who

hikes, mountain bikes, runs, and climbs 4,000 footers (White Mountains, New Hampshire) admitted. “My disconnect is outside. It’s who I am and what I like doing.” His new business has even enabled him to check off one more must-do from his bucket list: Bring Your Dog to Work. “I’ve always wanted to be able to bring my dog to work. Now I can,” he said with a grin. “Customers are welcome to bring their dogs in Continued on page 2

which starts with a car show at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 30). Nowhere is Memorial Day taken more seriously than in Sutton, where members of American Legion Dudley-Gendron Post 414 dedicate weeks to remembering those—living and dead—who answered the call of duty. “We go to thirty-seven cemeteries in Sutton,” Dave Karacius, bar and function manager at DudleyGendron Post 414, said of activity that occurs in the buildup to Memorial Day. “We go to every single one. We visited the last one yesterday (May 16).” Even then, he pointed out, that does not account for all of the town’s war deceased. “Some [veterans] are buried in people’s yards. “We are diehards,” Mr. Karacius said. “My dad (Victor Karacius) was a World War II veteran who landed in Normandy and fought his way through France and Germany. I have been running around here (the Boston Road post) since I was eleven years old.” Representatives of DudleyGendron Post 414 are out early on Memorial Day with a stop at the West Sutton Cemetery and from there to Manchaug Center, the South Sutton cemetery “and then

INSIDE INSIDE FOOD AND FUN PULL-OUT SECTION CALENDAR

19-22 24-25

FOCUS ON ARTS/CRAFTS The power of nature on canvas PAGE 6

KEEPER OF THE FLAME VSO Robin L. Fletcher PAGE 7

GRAFTON FLEA MARKET Adds beer garden PAGE 10

GRAFTON BUSINESS SCENE Businesses embrace summer PAGE 13

CENTER FOR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY Enhances workforce skills The Sons of Upton Memorial near Upton Town Hall.

we come back here and we meet in Wilkinsonville for the parade and more cemeteries.” Members of the Post together with the Sons of the American Legion, the Women’s Auxiliary and Boy Scouts march from Sutton Center to the high school at 11:00 a.m. Nothing stops them. “Last year we had rain but we even had three selectmen march with us,” Continued on page 4

PAGE 17

REBECCA’S PLACE 3 Thriving in Upton PAGE 22

Local savings. See page 39

Stowe Farm K-9 Kids Camp prepares for summer dog training By Amy Palumbo-LeClaire Maura O’Connor, a sixth-generation Stowe family descendent, wasn’t about to leave behind her American bulldog, Leo, the rescue dog assigned her at Star Academy for Professional Dog Trainers in Texas, where she became certified with a new diploma K-9 Training Specialist in March of 2017, following three months of school. Nor did she plan to return to the family farm with Tim Cohen, head dog trainer, who ran the internship program there and taught her just about all she knows about obedience training. “People don’t realize how rewarding it is to have a trained dog,” says Cohen. “You’re supposed to be able to enjoy and hang out with your dog. He is more equipped to navigate the manmade world through training.” RI Hydroponics owner Tom Fox consults with a customer.

Continued on page 2

Owner and trainer Maura O’Connor of Stowe Pet Facility and Kids Camp poses with Hedo.

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K-9 KIDS CAMP Continued from page 1

With cowboy boots, a well-behaved (and smiling) bulldog, and a vision to help children and families “understand the proper responsibility of being a pet owner for the dog and child’s sake,” Maura O’Connor, with Tim Cohen, returned to Millbury prepared to train dogs and open up a dynamic camp for kids. Stowe’s K-9 Kids Camp is slated for ten dogs and ten kids from the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. from June 26 through 30 (Monday – Friday) and currently has one opening left for interested dog owners, but another one is scheduled for July 5 through 9. Participants will learn to develop a stronger bond and exercise better manners with their dog, identify hazards and poisons, administer first aid, deal with heatstroke, among other important topics. To qualify for the camp, dog owners must be old enough and strong enough to control their dogs, provide a record of medical history, and be willing to administer Cohen’s three fundamental training tools: timing, consistency, and motivation. The grounds of Stowe Farm provide the perfect setting for dog training. A spacious agility park full of ramps, hoops, climbers, cots and jumps has been set up behind inhabitant farm animals — in clever proximity to enhance the dog’s focus and training amid natural distractions. “Our goal is to push dogs to further their skills regardless of the stage they’re in upon completion. Perhaps they will finish tricks at home that weren’t quite completed during camp or build on the knowledge gained. We are

giving them a foundation here. It’s all about setting the owners up with success with their dogs. Training is never complete. I train my guys every day. To think they’d ever be complete is foolish. There’s always another distraction,” Cohen admits, his own Texan res-

As fun as everything is here, their owner is the most fun thing.

--Tim Cohen

cue dog, Cyrus, perched in remarkable obedience on a ‘place cot’ for the entirety of our interview. Helping the dog and owner to better communicate with each other is a cornerstone of the Kids Camp training. “As fun as everything is here, their owner is the most fun thing,” Cohen says. “Yelling only teaches the dog that you are not serious until you have to repeat yourself over and over and get louder and louder. Instead,” he advises, “use a matterof-fact tone and a calm, collected delivery. You give the dog a choice to behave for a reward. Dogs like affection, petting, praise, bonding, and touching. The dog is in charge of what means the most to them. They enjoy playtime but need food to live. Adding food to training really adds that extra oomph. They need food to survive and are more willing to work for it.” In addition to safety, communication, and bonding techniques, the dog owner will learn effective strategies for building new habits with her dog. “It’s about building frequency and repetition so it’s not

hard for them, but becomes second nature,” Cohen says. “We don’t work for free and neither should they. Hunger for dogs is a motivating tool. When a dog comes flying into the kitchen I want him to come to me with intensity and apply that same energy when I ask him to stay on a place bed, sit, or stay.” According to Cohen, an owner can exhaust a dog more easily by administering a handful of training minutes versus physical exertions alone. “It’s a struggle for a dog to be still,” he admits. “A few minutes of training can equate to taking a dog for a run or jog around the block. Obedience challenges them mentally and physically even for short durations of time.” A dog lover at heart, Maura grew up surrounded by farm

animals. She and her husband, Jay, built a pet boarding facility twelve years ago for the purpose of breeding bloodhounds, one currently in business for daycare and overnight pet boarding. Stowe Farm’s Pet Facility is open seven days per week for boarding and training dogs while owners are working or on vacation. The cost is $23.00 for an overnight boarding stay, with additional fees added for private training lessons. “Owners don’t have to worry about boarding their dogs with other bad mannered dogs,” says O’Connor. “The dog is with us 24/7 to ensure that everything is crisp and solid. The private lessons make their stay more structured.” This summer, pet owners ought to consider Stowe’s

RI HYDROPONICS

years. Further south, there are shops in Woonsocket, Cranston, and Seekonk. Its name—hydroponics— suggests a method of indoor growing with water solvent and plant solution. The store offers the growing guru a wealth of products, including fertilizer, high-end plant nutrients, soil, lighting systems, a growing system for every budget, and the unlikely top seller—a high-powered indoor gardening fan. Open for about two months now, its customer demographic ranges from the “little old lady buying a seed tray” to the college student, to just about everyone in between, and that includes the Spencer farmer who grows a gargantuan pumpkin every year for the Spencer Country Fair. Tom Fox is candid about what works when it comes to growing effectively. “Any gardener should use a good, beneficial bacteria in the soil, whether using a high or low nutrient line,” he said. “Adding a beneficial bacteria or a product like fish waste (for sale at Hydroponics) works. There is a whole world that lives in the soil, such as bacteria, fungi, algae, etc. They make nutrients more bio-available to the plant in the area between the root and dirt, called the rhizosphere.” Whether growing indoor gardening herbs, flowers, ornamentals, lettuce, or micro- greens, the indoor garden shop stocks a variety of key products, all of which are sold with education on lighting, growing mediums, and other aspects of the hydroponic system. Inspired by his AP Ecology teacher, Mr. Krouse, of Cranston West High, who helped him create an eco-system via the collection of local pond species to be used for a quad inside the school, Tom Fox has a passion for gardening and, aside from that, people. “I’m a people person,” he admitted. “You never know

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while browsing. You have to be a dog person to understand that policy.” An avid gardener, biologist, adventurist, and doglover, the Cranston, Rhode Island, native credits his love for the earth to his mom, his first customer, who recently purchased a bar of soap from the shop. “I like nature. I have been working with my mother, weeding her garden and planting vegetables for chore money since I was a kid. Every Mother’s Day we go out for breakfast, then go to Jacavone’s in Johnston. This year she’s going to be seventy-four. We’re going to plant some bulbs and do an above-ground.” RI Hydroponics is run in partnership with founders Carmello Coriante and Jeff Page. The shop, located on Route 146 in the plaza beside Tony’s Pizza marks the fourth location for a chain that’s been around for five

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Kona and Leo await instruction at Stowe Farm Pet Facility.

K-9 Kids Camp for a worthwhile investment to learn better ways to live happily and safely with their dogs. “Leo taught me as much as I taught him,” says Maura. “He is Mr. Personality and he aims to please.”

Stowe Farm is located at 15 Stowe Road, Millbury. Visit www.stowefarm.com, email [email protected], call 508-865-9860. -----------------------------------------------------Contact Amy at [email protected]

who you’re going to meet behind the counter. The most important part about all jobs I’ve had has been working with people. I make sure to give each customer the personal attention they deserve and provide quality service.” One of his goals in moving forward with RI Hydroponics is in connecting with the local community. “I’d like to sponsor a team in the area and build a relationship with local communities. I want people to recognize me in town. I’d like to have a viable business where I can be helpful and dispense the knowledge that I have.” Despite a wealth of gardening knowledge and products, both organic and synthetic, Tom Fox confessed to a major challenge in running the shop. “Tony’s Pizza. My challenge is to stop eating,” he laughed, alluding to the Route 146 neighbor and Sutton restaurant staple. “I need to stay away from pizza.” Stop in and see Tom at RI Hydroponics this month for a seed starting kit. Help

mom get her garden ready this spring! RI Hydroponics is at 140 Worcester Providence Turnpike in Sutton; 508-865-4276; store hours are MondayFriday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ---------------------------------------------------Contact Amy at [email protected]

Ryan Sczerbinski of Hydroponics in the grow media room.

Hydroponics organic growing stock.

Blackstone Valley Xpress, May 26, 2017

Smashing Windows for a perfect picture A conversation with Laura Barone

Laura Barone has the energy one might imagine when hearing or seeing “Smashing Windows.” I’ve met with Laura several times now and each time she’s a whirlwind - hauling fabric books out of her car and into my house, holding samples up against the sunlight, drilling window sashes to install new blinds. For me, choosing window treatments for a new house was daunting. For Laura, helping customers decide on the latest window fashions is a daily adventure. Smashing Windows is home-based in Upton. Laura closed an experimental storefront in Shrewsbury last year, finding it more efficient to bring samples to customers’ homes and businesses, even if it means carting around a car full of products. People like the shop-at-home service, she says. I asked about the latest trends in window fashions. “People are going away from the ‘poof and foof’ – I call it that. The swags, the fussy, ornate products are out of style.” The most popular window treatments now are roller shades, which come in hundreds of fabric possibilities. “They are sleek, in vogue,” she says. Color-blocked,

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