On Aug. 24, those of us who have waited almost 11 months for the purchase of the Nathaniel Thomas Mill property to take place, waited with anticipation for key questions regarding the delay, to finally be answered by our town counsel.  Some of those questions that we put forward back on July 27 included the following.   1. What is the so called cloud on the title to the water rights to the Nathaniel Thomas Mill property? And please provide some substantive detail explaining why you believe this represents a cloud on the title, preventing the purchase of the property? 2. If some other property owner, who owns property on the other side of Wampatuck Pond, may have an argument that he and not the current owner of the Nathaniel Mill property actually owns the water rights, please give us the details of that claim, and support it with case law to back it up. 

Labor Day weekend is now a pleasant memory. Collectively we all survived the apocalypse named Earl and the weekend was spectacular weather. The kids are back at school, we have a few more weeks of, we hope, warm days and cool sleep filled nights before the crisp New England autumn takes hold. It’s a great time of year.

READER'S VIEW: This letter is in response to the “Answer taxpayer questions relating to the Thomas Mill” by Gary J. Banuk of Holmes Street which was published in last week’s Hanson Express.

It may be that all the volatile economic news and the realization that we, as a nation, are so intimately involved in a worldwide, very competitive economy got us to thinking about education. By U.S. standards Massachusetts is doing quite well, especially in the critical categories of math and science. We also like to think that as Massachusetts goes, the Whitman-Hanson School District is pretty competitive. That all being said, we think that Whitman-Hanson and Massachusetts could be doing a lot better given the appropriate time, talent and treasure to work with.

FROM THE EDITOR: Whitman-Hanson students are enjoying one last week of summer before the 2010-2011 school year starts up.

When I was growing up, back to school meant running out to the store with my parents and picking out new pens, pencils and other school supplies and of course a Barbie lunch box.

This past weekend we enjoyed the largesse of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts and His Excellency The Governor of Massachusetts in that we had a weekend reprieve from the 6 1/2 percent Massachusetts sales tax. I must confess that Herself and I were pleased to contribute to the economy with the purchase of a new refrigerator and a paper shredding machine. Now the amount of money saved in sales tax wasn’t enough to pay for a decent lunch in a good restaurant, but it was symbolic of having the opportunity to stick a figurative finger in the eye of state government.

We appreciate that summer officially isn’t over until late September, around the 22nd we believe, but psychologically the season concludes with Labor Day; Sept. 6 this year. We are now in the dog days of August. The air hangs heavy as a wet wool blanket and the occasional afternoon thunder storm washes the world clean for a few hours and we can just relax and enjoy the warmth.

READER'S VIEW: I feel the need to address the person known as “Town Guy,” who made comments about Bruce Young on the Express Web site in the comments section following the article regarding the Nathanial Thomas Mill. He implied that Bruce Young must have something to gain personally to be so passionate about getting to the truth of the issue of the hold up in the process of the town’s purchasing of the mill. To ask “What’s in it for Bruce” means simply that you do not know about the strength of his character.

READER'S VIEW: Wampatuck Pond occupies a unique position on the South Shore. It rests squarely on the rise of land between two watersheds. At its southern end the landowner has the right to drain water from it into his bogs, water that then passes through the Great Cedar Swamp, out the Taunton River, and into Narragansett Bay. At the northern end of Wampatuck Pond another landowner controls the right to drain water out through Indian Head Brook, the Drinkwater, and North River into Massachusetts Bay. Between these two extremes the pond sits scenically. Rather like the federal government’s system of checks and balances, the body of water is maintained because two different landowners control its output. At the Washington, D.C. level we complain that this means “nothing ever happens” because of the stalemate between opposing forces. At our level, that’s a good thing. In the last three centuries I believe Hanson has grown accustomed to that pond. And the pond endures in large part because of the ownership of the water rights to various parcels of land abutting the pond.

In the summertime, Herself says I have way too much time on my hands to think about things and just wonder why things are as they seem. For instance: