Best of 2011

Before the Enterprise embarks on a new year we thought it would be fun to look back on the current one and have each reporter, editor and photographer pick their favorite piece from 2011. In a job where we literally write hundreds of stories and shoot thousands of photos a year it was not an easy task. Every story we write and photo we take is important to us, but some speak to us - as reporters, photographers and editors - a little more than others. Below are our Staff Picks for 2011. They are the ones that remind us why we do this job and why covering the news on the Cape can be challenging, exhilarating and wonderful. May 2012 give us the opportunity to provide the same insightful pieces and quality work to you the reader.

Most Read Web Stories of 2011

  1. Mashpee: Facing A Lawsuit, Future Of Poppy Marketplace In Jeopardy
  2. Mashpee: Deal Struck On Popponesset Marketplace
  3. Region: Wind Turbine Noise: A Real Headache, But Not Why You Think
  4. Falmouth: "Operation Buzzards Prey" Disrupts Cape Cod Drug Ring
  5. Mashpee: What Of The Popponesset Marketplace?
  6. Falmouth: Creator of Ideonomy Known in Falmouth as the Man with the Cat
  7. Mashpee: Mashpee Woman Dead After Morning Car Crash
  8. Falmouth: Falmouth Selectman David Braga Resigns from Police Dept.
  9. Sandwich: AG Files Suit Against Owners Of Peters Pond Park
  10. Mashpee: Murder Is The First In Mashpee In Seven Years


Barnstable

  • Jim Kinsella
    Navy SEAL Leaves Shining Legacy

    My favorite story was about Kevin Houston, a 1994 Barnstable High School graduate who went on to become a Navy SEAL. In early August, he was killed when the helicopter he was riding in was shot down over Afghanistan.

    Kevin had wanted to be a Navy SEAL since he was a boy. People who knew him described him as “larger than life." His relationship with his surrogate father, Vietnam War veteran Christopher Kelly of Osterville, was especially touching.

  • Laura Reckford
    'The Klimm Factor' Plays Role In Council Ouster

    This has been such a volatile political year in the town of Barnstable. It is in some ways a reporter’s dream, but it has been a rough six months or so for those at the helm of Barnstable’s government. Town Manager John Klimm was ousted and then, three councilors lost their positions in a contentious election. Covering election day is always a fun assignment for a reporter, but this year in Barnstable was especially exciting.

Bourne

  • Michael Rausch
    Rescuers Come To The Aid Of Giant Fish

    There is a natural curiosity that is part of the make up of a writer, the desire to know more about an issue, a person, an event. That desire can be satisfied even when a writer works on an article based within a field with which he is familiar. It is ramped up even more when a writer finds himself taken outside his comfort zone. Such was the case for me when a story on the rescue of a sunfish came my way.

    What could have turned out to be a quickly drafted, single paragraph in the weekly police and fire logs became a fascinating exploration into a unique sea creature. From researching what a sunfish is, to seeing a picture of one, to hearing the accounts of how it was rescued, as well as how frequent mola need rescuing, this was a story that both challenged and delighted me as the separate pieces came together.

Falmouth

  • Brent Runyon
    Creator of Ideonomy Known in Falmouth as the Man with the Cat

    Patrick Gunkle is one of those people that you notice on the street because he rides around with his cat on a bicycle. That's pretty much all I knew when I decided I wanted to write a story about him.

    The good folks at the Woods Hole Public Library helped me get in touch with him, but I still had to convince him that doing a story in the newspaper wouldn't result in more people coming up to him and asking him about the cat. That was difficult, but in the end he was happy with the story and so was I.

    It's my favorite story of the year because he was unusual and surprising and there was so much more to him than I could have ever hoped for.

  • Chris Kazarian
    Falmouth's George Blaney Has Hand in UCONN Huskies Success

    Often as a reporter you get stuck in a routine: covering familiar topics, from wind turbines to wastewater, that are of vital importance to the town. And often you tend to see the familiar faces, from town officials to concerned residents, who play a vital role in shaping this community. But every so often you stumble upon someone who is on the periphery and may not get that kind of local recognition, but is contributing to their chosen field in a special way.

    Such is the case with this story I wrote about George Blaney, the associate head coach for the UConn Huskies. As a Villanova alum I’m a huge college basketball fan and allegiances aside, it was exciting to interview someone who has not only contributed to the game like Blaney has, but achieved the highest of highs: winning a national championship. And his recollection of his first Final Four in 2004 showed just how much college basketball and coaching has meant to him.

  • Elise Hugus
    140 Years of Fisheries

    It was a slow news week in June, when Bill asked if I’d like to do something on the 140th anniversary of the NOAA Fisheries in Woods Hole, which was the beginning of federally funded marine research not only in Woods Hole but in the entire country. I jumped at the chance to explore the Enterprise’s extensive archives--dating back to the 1870s-- and interview people who remembered turning points in the institution’s history, including the hurricane of 1954 and the 1961 integration of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and finally, the creation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the 1970s. Not only was it fun for me to write, but a lot of readers wrote in with their own memories!

Mashpee

  • Elsa Partan
    In Ancient South Cape Beach Tree Stumps, Signposts Of Coastal Change

    This story is about how ancient stumps uncovered in a storm help show the future of Cape Cod in the era of climate change. It brought together accessible science, Cape Cod geological history, and the beach. I enjoyed thinking about how Cape Cod looked hundreds of years ago and thinking about the people who might have walked among the trees, back when South Cape Beach was a forest. The past is a window on the future, scientists tell us. We might be wise to get ready.

  • Geoff Spillane
    Popponesset Marketplace Open And Eager For Business

    Time magazine named "The Protester" as its 2011 Person of the Year, primarily due to the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States and the revolutions in Egypt and Libya. Not to be outdone, Mashpee had its own band of protesters and activists that effected change this year. Upon hearing the news that an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit would result in the closure of the Popponesset Marketplace. a beloved summer institution for generations of visitors, a group of more than 1,000 people—young and old, from near and
    afar—banded together to "save the marketplace."

    The nostalgia-driven campaign relied heavily on social media, as well as old-fashioned signs of protest that included posting notices on trees in South Mashpee. While some of the remarks posted on Facebook and Twitter were caustic, calmer heads prevailed, and the marketplace, renovated to accommodate easier handicapped access, will remain open for the forseeable future. The following article was a personal favorite for 2011, as , unlike many other news stories, it had a happy ending for all parties and showcased the power of mediation and compromise.

  • Brian H. Kehrl
    Will Firemen Rescue Cats Stuck In Trees?

    The Mashpee Enterprise published a fair amount of investigative work this year. We analyzed data about where home and vehicle break-ins are taking place. We crunched numbers from voting rolls to report in detail, for the first time, about who votes in Mashpee and who does not. We broke two stories about legal actions filed against the Mashpee School District and another about a lawsuit that threatened to close the Popponesset Marketplace. We are proud of those stories and many others that helped readers better understand their local government, businesses, and the town they live in.

    But sometimes the most fun stories are less about hard news and more about a little slice of life. They are about people, our neighbors and friends and the people we see in the grocery store but do not know by name. This is such an article. It is more like a children’s story than investigative journalism, but it is not without a little drama. It was fun to write, and we got as many compliments for it as we got for just about any other story we ran this year. In the spirit of explanatory journalism, it also answers a question that many cat owners have wondered at one time or another.

Sandwich

  • Mary Stanley
    AG Files Suit Against Owners Of Peters Pond Park

    The August 12 edition broke the story about what was happening at the Peters Pond RV Resort. I am proud that I was the first reporter to break this story highlighting some of the questionable practices occurring at the camp. The second story, AG Files Suit, offered me the opportunity to sit down with more than 50 people who told me their stories and expressed gratitude that I was informing the public about the troubles they had to silently endure. These people were so afraid of the retaliation that might occur that they asked me to meet with them at the Cape Cod Canal on a Saturday so that they could tell their story.

  • John Paradise
    Sandwich Man Is Out To ‘Walk America’

    The piece about cross-country trekker Chris Allen was my favorite story of the year. Chris is a smart, cheerful, unassuming guy who dropped everything to set out on a grand adventure. What’s not to love about this story? A lot of us in our youth flirted with the idea of breaking free of life’s routine for something wilder, bigger, more unexpected. Most of us did not follow that dream. A brave few did. Chris is one of them.

Sports

  • Rich Maclone
    With Defense, Speed, Grit, And Class, Falcons Win Super Bowl

    There are a lot of reasons that we play sports, but the goal of every team is to win a championship. I remember back in August, just a few weeks after Mashpee Coach Matt Triveri's wife had given birth to a set of triplets, talking to the Coach about his team's chances of winning it all. He'd had several teams come close to winning the league title, but they'd always come up just a bit short.

    Everything came together for the Falcons football team in 2011, though. MHS won an overly entertaining game against Abington in late October and then survived a war against East Bridgewater to finally sew up a trip to the playoffs. What followed was a demonstrative showing by the MHS defense in the playoffs as Mashpee blew out Millis-Hopedale.

    As if out of a storybook, the unforgettable season was capped off by Mashpee dominating Cardinall Spellman in the Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium of all places. I'll never forget the faces of the Falcons as they celebrated on Tom Brady's playground, posing for photos at midfield while camera flashes lit up the night. Mashpee has its championship.

Entertainment

  • Marilyn Rowland
    JazzFest Falmouth: Jazz Stoll Offers Music, Community

    I have selected my story on the JazzFest Falmouth Jazz Stroll as my favorite story of the year because it is not only about the many musicians, both amateur and professional, who live and perform here; it is also about the audiences who enjoy music and the myriad other art forms found on the Cape. It its about their responses, the interaction between the musicians and those out for a stroll on a fine fall evening in downtown Falmouth, and the sense of community that everyone felt, as the arts brought people together.

    I took videos as I strolled and these are available on my blog, blog, Notes on the Arts: