Choose Granite Countertops in Gosnold, MA for Elegance and Durability

Where can a 16-year-old with an addiction get help on Cape Cod?

Unfortunately, they would have to travel off-Cape, said Richard Curcuru, CEO and president of Gosnold Behavioral Health, a healthcare company that treats addiction and mental health issues.

“It's unfortunate that we don’t have more child/adolescent services on Cape Cod,” he said.

However, this will change soon. Gosnold is currently renovating a Cataumet site from a crisis stabilization center for addictions into a facility that will treat co-occurring mental health and addictions, for patients 16 and older.

Ideally, Gosnold would like to treat even younger patients, but treating patients 16 and older is a start, Curcuru said.

More:5 foods you won't want to miss on Cape Cod this summer and where to get them

The Cataumet site, which closed in June of last year, had 40 beds for clinical stabilization services. However, transitioning to a facility that would treat co-occurring mental health and addictions was Curcuru’s plan since he started working at Gosnold six years ago, he said.

Working in the psychiatric field has shown him the connection between mental illness and addiction, Curcuru said. In fact, 80% of patients that Gosnold treats for substance abuse also have a co-occurring mental disorder.

More:Board OKs Gosnold facility conversion to co-occurring disorders

“We know that the most effective way to treat these patients is to treat their illnesses simultaneously, and we don’t have the facilities to do that,” said Curcuru.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in anxiety and depression in patients, and awakened mental health disorders in patients who may have previously only had to deal with substance abuse, said Curcuru.

Gosnold Behavioral Health Center, the new name for the Cataumet site, will have 33 beds for patients. The facility plans to open in December. It is currently undergoing renovations to make it “hospital-ready,” meaning that patients will be unable to harm themselves. Patients will stay for around 10 days, and then most likely go home with an after-care plan that usually involves therapy.

Patients who were previously being treated at the Cataumet site for sole substance use disorders will instead be treated at Emerson House, which has 37 beds but is aiming to eventually maintain 40.

The Miller House, which has 23 beds, will be closed and sold to make renovations to the Cataument site financially possible, Curcuru said. The reimbursement through Medicaid was not enough for Gosnold to continue operating the Miller House, he said. However, both Emerson House and the Gosnold Behavioral Health Center will continue to accept Medicaid.

More:Gosnold transforming to include treatment for co-occurring disorders

Although the Miller House has served the community well for many years, it cannot be sustained, said Curcuru. All staff from Miller House will be relocated to other facilities.

Treating addictions includes medical detoxification and then rehabilitation where patients learn about things such as triggers that lead to their addiction. Treating mental health disorders includes prescribing appropriate medication and maintaining safety.

All these practices come together in the co-occurring treatment unit, said Curcuru.

It can be difficult to say whether patients develop addictions because they are trying to self-medicate their mental health disorder, or develop mental health disorders because of their additions, said Curcuru. Part of what Gosnold attempts to do is figure that out.

“It’s a comprehensive evaluation to determine what is the primary illness for these patients, and how do we most effectively treat their illness?” said Curcuru.

Contact Asad June at ajung@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @AsadJungcct.

It rained the day before high school graduation a few weeks ago. Real rain, good rain, the kind of rain that makes you understand why they call it a “rain shower,” the water pooling on our dirt driveway the way it does on bathroom tile.

I was home to watch my brother Jake walk across the stage at the Tabernacle. Early that morning, my dad nursed a cup of coffee at the kitchen counter. He didn’t notice my grandparents hurrying into the house from the car, coats pulled over their heads.

“We needed this rain,” he said simply, with a note of contentment and pride, as if he had sent the rain itself.

No doubt his mind was on the fields at Grey Barn Farm that, after the first June haying, would crisp in the dry dirt without rain. Rainfall is make-or-break in the business of baling hay, which is exactly my father’s business this time of year. But it’s not my business, not yet anyway, and to me June rain is like the flash of lighting before the thunderous green of Island summers.

After real rain, the late-leafing oaks, the soft little milkweed starts, the knee-high pasture grasses, remember their own richness and put it on display. This is exactly how things should be. Rainfall reawakens the plants, nature feeds nature.

About a thousand miles away, in Chicago, where I now spend most of the year as a student, there’s a similar lushness. On the University of Chicago’s central quadrangle, oak, maple, birch and cherry have traded in their springtime blossoms for summer leaves. Ivy patterns the limestone of century-old halls and laboratories. Students and faculty spending the summer on campus spread out picnic blankets across a carpet of grass, perfectly mown, so deeply green that you can lift yourself up and leave with grass stains on your palms.

It becomes easy to forget, on a midwestern summer day, that a month or two prior the administration rolled out the grounds crew. Over their shoulders, in the backs of their pick-up trucks and ATVs, were rolls of sod — rolls and rolls of sod, so many rolls that you wondered where they got it from and how much it all cost.

The sod arrived in time for Alumni Day and Commencement. Any muddy patch, any dying bush or failing tree, was dug up by the grounds crew and in its place rolls of sod were pounded into the ground with garden stanchions.

What is the point of nature when we must work against it to reap its benefits? Summer rain on the Island is a premonition of chicory and milkweed and Queen Anne’s lace. In Chicago it is a headache for the grounds crew, who prefer the neatly-timed cycles of their irrigation lines.

The Island has no monopoly on a verdant summer. But it does offer us the chance to walk in nature, real nature, and let us smile with the knowledge that rain is a blessing, that we are not in the company of artifice but what Wendell Berry called “the peace of wild things,” whose beauty is a great and blissful accident.

Noah Glasgow lives in Chilmark and Chicago. He was a summer intern at the Gazette in 2022.

GOSNOLD --- On Cuttyhunk on Monday a bullfrog bellowed from a pond, red-winged blackbirds hopped from reed to reed, waves crashed on the beaches and a small parade of microphone wielding reporters and photographers wound its way down a hill toward one salt-washed home.

The occasion for the descent of the media on the final punctuation of the Elizabeth islands was the Cuttyhunk Elementary School eighth grade graduation. The class size: one. The name of the affable single graduate: Gwen Lynch.

Gwen was the final student to pass through the one-room school, which has operated almost constantly since 1873. With her departure to a boarding high school next year, no more students will live year-round on the island. To mark this bittersweet milestone, the keynote commencement speaker — and the press draw — was celebrity comedian Jenny Slate.

On an island with less than 20 year-round residents where almost everyone travels by golf cart, Cuttyhunkers had mixed feelings about the attention.

“I’m staying low. I’m not going anywhere near any of that stuff,” said Cheryl Goslin, whose three jobs include housekeeping at the nearby Cuttyhunk Fishing Club.

“There are more of you guys here than there are residents,” said school committee member Renata Davidson after glimpsing a reporter’s notebook and leaving the town hall in a hurry.

“What it needs to do is support people who make a living on the island,” said historical society board member Allie Thurston, referring to the media attention. “It’s how do you strike that balance of they come on the boat, and then they go away.”

Gwen, for her part, took the day in stride. The 13 year old was the only student at the school for the better part of her eighth grade year. She is no stranger to isolation, having spent her whole life on the island. Her father Duane Lynch also graduated from the school. Her older brother, Carter, graduated last spring.

Gwen is a skilled sailor with an independent streak. She wants to one day become a mechanical engineer. Every year, she and her summer friends host a gymnastics show in her front yard to raise money for the annual August fireworks display. She loves white nail polish and the movie Spiderman: Homecoming. She can tell you anything about the telegenic lead actor in that movie, Tom Holland, including his dog’s name.

Sitting in her kitchen Monday with three reporters while her hair was being curled, she said she was excited for the celebration. She admitted that being the only student in the school wasn’t always easy.

“It’s really quiet. It’s a little awkward sometimes,” she said. Later she added: “It really is lonely.”

Nevertheless, she went to school every day, learning with her teacher Michelle Carvalho, writing poetry, growing plants, putting together a shadow puppet show. She met friends who live off the island through summer visits and interscholastic programs, and she kept in touch with them through FaceTime. Her school days were ordered: she would arrive at 9 o’clock and take English, math and Spanish in the morning. Then she would go home for lunch, and return for social studies, science and technology in the afternoon.

The school will be converted into a STEAM academy next year, welcoming student groups from other schools to learn about Cuttyhunk during educational trips. Ms. Carvalho will spearhead the program.

Ms. Slate, who is originally from Milton, was invited through a friend of a friend to speak at the ceremony. She and Gwen had spent some time together to prepare for the big day.

“She’s honestly, like, awesome,” Gwen said of the comedian.

On the morning of her graduation, Gwen graciously managed the spotlight. She walked up a scenic hill toward a CBS camera, and then when the producer requested it, walked up again. (CBS beat out HBO and NESN for the exclusive, according to Gwen’s mother Lexi). She gamely responded to questions from reporters, allowing an honest glimpse into life as a girl on Cuttyhunk and the quiet courage that requires.

The Cuttyhunk Church was full for the ceremony. The school superintendent, chairman of the board of selectmen, and Ms. Carvalho all spoke. Alumni of the school were asked to stand and were honored.

Ms. Slate devoted her speech entirely to a girl she said was “truly in a class by herself.”

“Your self-possession and confidence is admirable and delightful,” she said. “I started to realize that you who go to school by yourself on an island that is basically empty for half the year are still way cooler and more popular than I was as a teenager.”

Gwen gave a speech too, reflecting on her 13 years on the island and her time at the Cuttyhunk school. She looked out at the community that had surrounded her that whole time.

“Thank you for raising me. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for giving me the best beginning a child could ask for,” she said.

Home page picture by Albert O. Fischer 3rd.

By DAVID WRIGHT

On May 31, 1602, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold became the first European known to set foot on the stretch of mainland America that came to be called Dartmouth. Somewhat to his surprise, he received a very friendly reception from the Wampanoags living in that area.

"Captain Gosnold... went ashore with certain of his company, and immediately there presented unto him men, women, and children, who, with all courteous kindness entertained him, giving him certain skins of wild beasts, which may be rich furs, tobacco, turtles, hemp, artificial strings colored, chains, and such like things as at the instant they had about them. These are a fair-conditioned people." So wrote Gabriel Archer, one of the gentlemen venturers who had sailed with Gosnold, a friend from their time together at Cambridge University.

Gosnold's voyage in 1602 was but the latest in a long series of explorations across the Atlantic by English adventurers. Notable earlier efforts included those by Sir Francis Drake, engaged as privateer by Elizabeth 1 to sail to the Americas in 1572; Sir Humphrey Gilbert's annexation of Newfoundland in the name of Queen Elizabeth I in 1583; and Sir Walter Raleigh's sponsorship of Sir Richard Greville's attempt to establish the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island (North Carolina) also in 1585.

Stimulated by the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, Elizabethan England was determined to take over the lead in colonizing North America from Portugal, Spain and France. Bartholomew Gosnold had all the right connections with the English 'establishment' of that era, not least to Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State to Elizabeth I, and like Gosnold, a former student at Cambridge University.

Fortunately for historians, Gosnold took with him not just one friend from his days at Cambridge, Gabriel Archer, but another, John Brereton, both of whom wrote detailed 'relations' (accounts) of Gosnold's voyage, discoveries, and meetings with the Wampanoags.

Gosnold's chosen vessel was a bark, the Concord, which, by an interesting and possibly significant coincidence, had been built in, and operated primarily out of Dartmouth, Devon.

By present day standards, it was a dangerously small vessel for an Atlantic crossing, with a waterline length of 60-70 feet and rated at 30 tons, about the tonnage of one of today's medium-sized fishing vessels on the New England coast.

Gosnold's port of departure from England was Falmouth, on March 26, 1602; from there he chose the unusual route (for an English ship at that time) of sailing first to the Azores before turning west to what is now southern New England.

This route, which was well known to the Portuguese, had the advantage that a long reach on the port tack would take him to where he wished to land, and was 1,000 miles nearer that shore than Portugal or Spain. In fact, he nearly missed the Azores altogether because the sailing master was unable to sail close enough to an unusually strong wind. The island they finally raised was St. Mary's at the extreme southeastern corner of the group.

On May 14, 49 days after leaving Falmouth and 30 days after sighting St. Mary's, Gosnold made his landing at what he called Savage Rock, now known as Cape Neddick (just north of Portsmouth) in Maine. Very soon after their arrival, eight 'Indians' came out from the shore, one of whom was dressed in vest and breeches of black serge and wearing shoes and black stockings. Another wore a pair of breeches of blue cloth.

Otherwise, according to Archer, they were naked "saving about their shoulders certaine loose Deereskinnes, and near their waists Seal-skinnes tyed fast like to Irish Dimmie Troueses." Physically, these Indians were described as of tall stature, of broad and grim visage, of a black and swarthy complexion, strong and well proportioned, their eyebrows painted white and their hair long, tied up with a knot behind their heads.

Supplied with a piece of chalk, the non-naked Indians, probably the chief and his entourage, drew a map of the coast thereabouts. It may even be that they traced the shoreline which Gosnold proposed to follow southwards from the latitude of his landfall to his planned destination, the great bay (Long Island Sound) first discovered in 1524 by Verrazzano, an Italian explorer in the service of the French crown.

Finding themselves "short of their proposed place," as Archer expressed it, and at an exposed anchorage with the weather uncertain, Gosnold and his company decided to weigh anchor and stood off "southerly into (the) sea the rest of that day and the night following, with a fresh gale of wind."

The following morning, Gosnold found himself in quiet protected waters at the southern end of another great bay (Cape Cod Bay). Here he went ashore with four companions, determined to find the large water he sought further south.

They marched all that afternoon, Brereton reported, with their muskets "on their necks," toiling up one slope after another on an intolerably hot day, until they reached the highest hilltop (easily identified as Shootflying Hill, near Hyannis). This gave them an exhilarating view as just below them, to the south, began the great expanse of water known now as Nantucket Sound, cheering Gosnold with the thought that he had actually found the great bay described by Verrazzano.

Returning to the Concord, Gosnold discovered that an Indian had appeared on the shore, fearlessly mixing with the visiting strangers. Brereton described him as "a young man of proper stature and of pleasing countenance." Archer wrote that he was "armed with his Bow and Arrows, and had certain plates of Copper hanging in his Ears."

Gosnold also found that his colleagues "had pestered (encumbered) our ship so with Cod fish that we threw numbers of them overboard again." As Brereton put it, "Surely I am persuaded that in the month so of March, April and May there is upon this coast better fishing and as great plenty as in Newfoundland."

He summed up the advantages of the area over Newfoundland in general— "the schools of mackerel, herrings, cod and other fish that we saw daily as we went and came from the shore were wonderful; and besides, the places where we took these Cods (and might in a few days have laden our ship) were but in seven fathoms of water, and with less than a league from the shore; where in Newfoundland, they fish in forty or fifty fathoms of water, and far off."

Four days later, after circumnavigating the very testing waters of the dangerous shoals around what he named Cape Cod, Gosnold was coasting along the southern shore of the cape, but this time he was in the quiet waters of Nantucket Sound. After further exploration, he landed on a large island and finding it "so large, well wooded, and with such luxuriant grape vines, many beautiful lakes, and springs of the purest water," he called it Martha's Vineyard, in honor of his mother.

On May 23, when Gosnold and his party went ashore near Prospect Hill, "thirteen savages came running to them, armed with bows and arrows and all naked saving they cover their privy parts with a black tweed [dressed] skin tied about their middle and between their legs behind."

These Indians offered a wicker basket filled with boiled fresh-water fish, probably served with sorrel, which the Indians used as a salad. Among their other gifts, the Indians presented their visitors with deerskins, a mark of honour, as the wearing of these was a privilege reserved for nobility in these tribes.

In return, Gosnold gave his new Indian friends "certeine trifles, as knives, points [laces, much used instead of buttons] and such like, which they much esteemed," his chroniclers reported.

After sailing across the western opening of Vineyard Sound, Gosnold reached what he called Elizabeth's Isle (now Cuttyhunk, the most easterly of the Elizabeth Islands). Ten men were put to work building the house that was to serve as a fort, the first structure put up by Englishmen in the region that became known as New England.

While this house was being built, Gosnold and his gentlemen companions became hosts to a number of visiting Indians. The first was a single Indian with two squaws, possibly the resident owner of the island. The squaws, as Archer told the story, were both "cleane and straite bodied, with countenance sweet and pleasant" to whom the Indian "gave heedful attendance" because of their "much familiaritie" with Gosnold's men.

On May 31, Gosnold, wanting to see the mainland, sailed north from Cuttyhunk to the nearest point on the mainland that could be seen— estimated at 4 leagues (about 12 miles)— and named by the visitors as Hap's Hill (Round Hill). There, on the land which more than 50 years later came to be called Dartmouth, he went ashore.

Gabriel Archer's account of their very friendly reception by the native Americans is quoted in the first paragraph (above) of this article. Archer went on to say, "This main[land] is the goodliest continent that ever we saw, promising more by far than we any did expect for it is replenished with fair fields, and in them fragrant flowers, also meadows, and hedged in with stately groves, being furnished also with pleasant brooks, and beautiful with two main rivers that (as we judge) may haply become good harbours, and conduct us to the hopes men so greedily do thirst after."

Archer ended his account of this notable day: "Thus, with this taste of discovery, we now contented ourselves, and the same day made return unto our fort, time not permitting more sparing delay."

It is not clear from Archer's or Brereton's 'relations', which were the 'two main rivers' that were visited that day, although the Acushnet River would probably have been one of them. What the adventurers really hoped to find was a big river leading into the interior of the continent and perhaps through it, to what they called the 'South Sea' (or the Pacific as it had long since been named by arguably one of the greatest of the early Portuguese explorers, Ferdinand Magellan).

This 'big river' had first appeared decades earlier on the 1529 map drawn by Verrazzano, who had named it Norumbega. Had Gosnold sailed on westward around the next point of the coast, less than 20 miles beyond Elizabeth's Island, he would have found the great bay which Verrazzano had entered in 1524, with a river flowing into its northeastern corner, navigable for his ship over 30 miles into the interior.

(Editor's note: History buff David L. Wright of South Devon, England, is a frequent visitor to Massachusetts, with a particular interest in Dartmouth's past, as he lives right next door to Dartmouth, England. Next week: Part II of Gosnold's journey— the return to England.)

GOSNOLD, Mass--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Four hundred and fifteen years after hosting the first English trading settlement in New England, picturesque Cuttyhunk Island made new history this year, celebrating its first summer getting the majority of its electricity from a solar electric array that also charges an energy storage system for nighttime power.

Throughout the summer, the microgrid system, developed earlier this year by Solar Design Associates Inc. of Harvard, Mass., has provided the majority of the electricity for Cuttyhunk residents as well as summer boaters visiting its harbor. The combination of solar and storage provides more than 80 percent of off-season electricity as the summertime population of 300 shrinks to about 50 year-rounders.

The island, which has 174 electric meters, had previously relied solely on diesel-powered generation with fuel delivered by barge for all of its electricity. The new Cuttyhunk microgrid comprises 1,020 solar panels with maximum output of 351.9 kilowatts, plus 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electric storage in a bank of lithium-ion batteries. The project was supported by a U.S. Agriculture Department rural electrification grant.

Paul Elias, a member of the Gosnold Electric Light Commission that oversees the town-owned utility serving the island, said: “We’ve been delighted with the performance of the system Solar Design Associates engineered and installed, and they have been superb to work with. The microgrid’s performance and reliability have exceeded all our expectations, and we are on track to burn 30,000 fewer gallons of diesel fuel this year. That is an excellent benefit for the environment of this unique place and major cost savings for the community.”

Solar Design Associates president Steven J. Strong said: “Solar plus storage is clearly the next frontier for renewable energy, and the Cuttyhunk project validates the extraordinary benefits this innovative approach can deliver for cost, reliability, and sustainability at community scale.”

SDA is currently developing a solar-plus-storage system for the Isle au Haut Electric Power Co. in Maine that is projected to provide 100 percent of its year-round electricity and eliminate its dependence on a 35-year-old undersea electric cable. Isle au Haut has 140 year-round and seasonal electric customers.

“While solar plus storage is an especially compelling approach for island communities dependent on high-cost diesel generators or costly-to-maintain cables, we’ve developed solar plus storage solutions for commercial, industrial, and utility customers as well,” Strong said. “We see enormous potential around the world for this transformational energy technology.’’

On Cuttyhunk, Solar Design Associates served as Engineer-of-Record for the project, providing design and engineering, procurement assistance, permitting support, construction management, and full system commissioning.

Cuttyhunk, 14 miles by sea from New Bedford, is the westernmost of the Elizabeth Islands that comprise the town of Gosnold, whose 75 inhabitants counted by the 2010 Census make it the least-populated town in Massachusetts. Gosnold is named for 17^th century explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, whose crew set up a sassafras-harvesting outpost on Cuttyhunk in 1602 and the first known English trading post in New England.

About Solar Design Associates, Inc.

Passionately committed to renewable energy, Solar Design Associates has been providing comprehensive renewable solutions to building owners, solar developers, academic institutions, government and utility clients, creatively integrating renewable energy systems into buildings and utility infrastructure in New England, nationwide, and around the world since 1974.