South Coast

Mattapoisett has embarked on its first master planning process in 20 years.

The town’s mix of housing types and the busy Route 6 corridor are likely to get a lot of attention as the town lays out its vision for the future, according to Planning Board administrator Mary Crain.

Robert Hiller, the Rochester man who fell into a coma after contracting Eastern equine encephalitis last summer, finally came home Tuesday.  

On a recent July morning, around 20 students worked in the Our Sister’s School community garden. They grew vegetables like cabbage, lettuce, and tomatoes.

The South Coast has a much longer and more robust history of making products than Cape Cod or the Islands. Two South Coast manufacturers in particular make very different types of products, but both employ specially-trained local talent to produce them.   

Davico Manufacturing in New Bedford has spent 28 years making just one thing - replacement catalytic converters. But within that one product category, there’s a huge amount of variety: 1,700 different sku’s, or part numbers, according to Davico Business Development Manager Glen Hamblet,

It’s a dream of  many young people to fly in a plane, and perhaps one day become professional pilots. Recently, a number of South Coast kids got a chance to take a free flight at the New Bedford Regional Airport. – some even handling the controls for a few minutes. Event organizers say that the objective is simple: give kids a taste of being up in the sky, and it just might spark a lifelong interest in aviation. 

Last summer, the New Bedford whaleship Charles W. Morgan sailed around New England after an extensive restoration. The Morgan gained fame as the last remaining whaler in the world. But what of the other vessels that once were part of the large New Bedford whaling fleet? The story of New Bedford’s Stone Fleet is told by two park rangers from the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park - Judy Roderiques and Lucy Bly, also known as the “1850’s ladies,” Abby and Ruth.  

When the irresistible force known as Ruth Bates walked into a classroom, wearing her signature red high top sneakers, her students knew immediately that it would be no ordinary class.

A teacher, gardener, cook, baker, traveler, hiker and sailor, Bates’s zest for life and boundless energy fired her students’ imagination, enabling them to tap into their own creativity.

Colleague Diane Perry said Bates’s passion for learning and teaching were equaled only by her love of the natural world.

For most people, commuting to school means a simple car pool or a school bus. In Fairhaven, one elementary school has taken commuting to a new level with an organized student bike commute every Friday. They’re calling the new program, the “Bike Bus.”

The Bike Bus began with the new school year in September. More than fifty kids and their parents turned up in the center of Fairhaven to ride their bikes to school on the bike path.