13 2-4-2009

INSIDE LOCAL NEWS/ 5, 12-16 OBITUARIES/ 5, 6 SPORTS/ 17-20 WEATHER/ 12

ENTERPRISENEWS.COM

OUR TOWNS ■ ABINGTON

Anti-drug coalition to discuss ways to educate children and parents and find ways to get help for those touched by drugs. MORE ON 15 ■ BROCKTON

Seventeen candidates have applied for the position of school superintendent to be vacated when Basan Nembirkow leaves. MORE ON 12

W E D N E S D AY, F E B R U A RY 4, 2009

City pulls plow pact Brockton cancels contract with Stephen Paull after police find firm using unregistered snowplow By Maureen Boyle ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

BROCKTON — The city canceled its pact with a private snowplow contractor after police discovered the company was using unregistered vehicles — some with forged Registry stickers — to clear the streets. The city canceled the contract with Stephen Paull of Easton last week after police, for the second time this year, discovered one of his vehicles was unregistered and

■ BROCKTON

uninsured, according to city officials and court documents. Police stopped a 1999 Ford F450 owned by Paull on Jan. 27 at Pleasant Street and Westgate Drive to make a federal Department of Transportation inspection. They discovered the vehicle was unregistered and the license plate decal was counterfeit, according to paperwork filed in court. Brockton police Capt. Emanuel Gomes, the city’s traffic

commissioner, said the city suspended Paull’s work that day. Officers had made a similar stop of another of Paull’s vehicles on Jan. 18 and discovered that vehicle was also not registered. “The traffic unit, in doing traffic enforcement, towed three of his vehicles over the course of the last couple of months,” Gomes said. “We had seen a pattern that the vehicles were not properly PLOW/PAGE 14

MARC VASCONCELLOS/THE ENTERPRISE

MIKE JAQUES shovels snow off the sidewalk on Legion Parkway in Brockton.

EASTON

FROM THE

H E A RT

City high school students are outperforming what statistics say they should be doing on MCAS, school officials say. MORE ON 1

New use eyed for land

READERS SHARE THEIR STORIES

■ BROCKTON

An admission by a certified nursing assistant that he assaulted a patient at St. Joseph’s Manor doesn’t end all legal action in the case. MORE ON 12 ■ BROCKTON

Enterprise golf writer Bob DiCesare wins second-place in the Profile category of the International Network of Golf Media Awards. MORE ON 17

Owners seek condos for plot offered to town last year

■ EAST BRIDGEWATER

Officials are asking unions to revisit their contracts in light of state local aid cuts and expected budget woes. MORE ON 14 ■ EASTON

The Stonehill men’s hockey team is on the right track heading into a game against Western New England College. MORE ON 18 ■ MIDDLEBORO

State Sen. Marc Pacheco said a plan allowing a combination of resort casinos and slot machines at race tracks will have the best chance of passing. MORE ON 4 ■ MIDDLEBORO

The Planning Board rescinded a permit for an industrial park and filed notice with the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds. MORE ON 15

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By Vicki-Ann Downing ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

there every step of the way. Of course he had to keep working though, and so things may not have happened as quickly as he would have liked. As I mentioned earlier, my father was diagnosed with cancer in March of ’08. The summer rolled along quietly. He continued to work all summer long, taking every other Monday off for his clinical trial at MGH in Boston. He tiled the bathroom in the now, “new part” of the house, and grouted it. He and my mother looked at kitchens together, at every

EASTON — Last spring, Bob and Joanne Carroll offered to sell 2.5 acres they own on Williams Street to the Community Preservation Committee for recreation, because the land abuts The Carrolls a town bought the play31 Williams ground. St. land, The committee which declined to includes a consider house, in the purchase after 2005. a consultant said the parcel was wet and would require too much fill to become athletic f ields. Now, the Carrolls are proposing a different use for the property. On those same 2.5 acres, they want to build “Williams Street Village,” an affordable housing development of 28 two-bedroom, townhousestyle condominiums. Their neighbors are not pleased. “We feel a bit betrayed,” said Tony Pires, a local businessman who lives across from the Car-

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COURTESY PHOTOS

JOHN CHAMBERS’ FAMILY gathers around him upon his return from the hospital. From left are his daughters Amy, Mary, and Michaela, and his wife, Ann. John died Sunday.

FRIEND FOR LIFE Those touched by one man’s work help brighten his last days “From the Heart” is an occasional series of stories written by local residents. Today, Mary Chambers of Bridgewater writes about her father, John. By Mary Chambers SPECIAL TO THE ENTERPRISE

M

y father has been working on our kitchen for about three years. My father is a finish carpenter with his own business and is constantly making people’s dreams come true through his hard work and dedication to perfection. Last March, my father was diagnosed with cancer. My family consists of

the addition to be ready. three girls, Michaela, 19, Amy, 20, myself (Mary) 24, A few years after we got my mother, Ann, 49, and my settled into our “new home” father, John — he just work started on the “old turned 58. part.” About 10 years ago, we We gutted the inside of put an addition onto the house. Slowly but our two-bedroom, surely, everything startone-bath house. ed coming together ... We did most walls went up, the of the work ourshower was put in. selves, from stainBelieve me, this ing the finish work didn’t happen to grouting the overnight. tile in the new This was bathroom. It my Dad’s took a good baby, and amount of he was time, determaybe five mined JOHN years, for to be CHAMBERS

■ MIDDLEBORO

Waste Management of Massachusetts gets an “A” for effort in its management of the town landfill. MORE ON 15 ■ MIDDLEBORO

Selectmen have appointed four members to the newly formed Middleboro at Home Committee. MORE ON 14

Psychiatric examination for accused killer Luke Doctors to test his competency to stand trial By Maureen Boyle ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

BROCKTON — Accused double-murderer Keith Luke is now undergoing a psychiatric examination at Bridgewater State Hospital.

The 22-year-old stand trial. Brockton man was Luke is being held sent to the state hospiwithout bail on two tal Monday after his counts of murder, aglawyer, Joseph gravated rape, kidKrowski Jr., asked a napping and hate Brockton District crimes. Court judge to force He is accused of his client to undergo a forcing his way into a Keith Luke 20-day evaluation. Clinton Street apartDoctors will now examine ment on Jan. 21, raping and Luke to see if he is competent to shooting a 22-year-old woman

who survived, fatally wounding her 20-year-old sister and then shooting to death a 72-year-old man pushing a cart filled with cans along the same street. He is also accused of leading police on a chase after the shooting and firing at the pursuing cruisers before crashing into several cars. According to court papers, he told police it was part of a

plan to kill as many “nonwhites” as possible and it was to end in a murderous spree during a synagogue bingo game. Luke pleaded innocent in Brockton District Court at his arraignment on Jan. 22. He is set to return to court on Feb. 24.

Maureen Boyle can be reached at [email protected].