The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 32

Community Bulletin Board MBTA set to expand parking at some commuter rail stations Commuter rail parking Available commuter rail parking at stations in the South Weekly circulation area: Behind the parking crunch is the growing popularity of commuter rail. In fiscal 1999, the MBTA counted 36 million commuter rail passenger trips nearly double the number in 1990. Existing Planned parking additional Station space spaces Mansfield 858 800 Sharon 565 102 Canton Junction 520 none Route 128 450 2,220 (Westwood) Canton 858 none Stoughton 858 none Walpole 144 none Pfimptonville none none Walpotel Windsor Gard. none none (Norwood) Norwood Central 393 none Norwood Depot 144 none Islington 60 none (Westwood) Dedham 497 none Corporate Center Endicott (Dedham) 15 none Canton Center 209 none Stoughton 339 none Mkkfleborough 432 340 LakeviHe Bridgewater 500 none CampeUo 553 none (Brockton) Brockton 100 none MonteDo 421 none (Brockton) Randolph 363 none Holbrook Braintree 1,228 none Plymouth 100 none Kingston 1,003 none Halifax 281 120 Hanson 363 none Whitman 341 unknown Abington 385 unknown South Weymouth 476 none Quincy 872 none Alden is looking for volunteers to assist in the office, library, and special events. Call 781-934-6634.

Health clinic Cura Visiting Nurse Association in conjunction with the Duxbury Board of Health, will hold a health clinic every Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon at the Old Town Hall, Tremont Street. Free. Call 508-746-0215. Immunization clinks.

Cura Visiting Nurse Association, in conjunction with the Duxbury Board of Health, offers a clinic for free immunizations for residents ages 18 and under on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 4 p.m at the Cura Visiting Nurse Association, 89 Court Plymouth. Call 508-746-0215. Volunteer drivers needed. The Duxbury Senior Center, 862 Tremont St, is seeking volunteer drivers to transport seniors to medical appoint ments. Volunteers are reimbursed for mileage.

Call 781-934-5774. Volunteers. The Standish Humane Society cat shelter uses volunteers to help care for stray and abandoned cats. Call 781-834-4663. Alzheimer's support group.

The Alzheimer's disease support group of Duxbury meets on the first Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at Bay Path Kehabiutation and Nursing Center, 308 Kings Town Way. Free. Call 781-585-2397. EASTON Book discussion group.

The Youth Services Room at the Ames Free Li brary, 53 Main offers a book discussion group for readers of all ages. The group will meet the last Monday of most months at 6:30 p.m. The book for discussion for the Nov. 29 meeting is "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse. Copies may be reserved at the library.

Call 508-238-2000 or visit the Web site people.ne.me-diaone.netamesfreelibrary. HANOVER Mall charity night The South Shore YMCA at Mill Pond in Hanover will raise funds for its 2000 Annual Support Campaign through Hanover Mall's Charity Night today from 6:30 to 10 p.m. This evening the mall will be open only to tnose with Unanty Night tickets. The participating organizations retain all of the proceeds. Tickets are $5.

Call 781-749-8591. Newcomers Club. Hanover Newcom er's Club is seeking crafters for their annual craft fair, Dec. 4, at the Hanover Middle School, Whiting Street. Call 781-982-1658 or 781-871-2397.

Weight-control program. TOPS, Take Off Pounds Sensibly, meets every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the parish hall of the First Congregational Church, 515 Hanover St Call 781-837-8967. Country line dancing. St Andrew's Church, 31 Church hosts country line dancing Wednesday evenings at 7:30.

Cost $5 per class. Call 781-878-8508. Cancer support groups. The American Cancer Society sponsors cancer support groups on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in St.

Andrew's Episcopal Church. All are welcome. Call 781-826-0327. HANSON Transport volunteers needed. The Hanson Multi-Service Senior Center is looking for volunteers to transport seniors to and from doctor appointments.

Mileage compensation is available. Call 781-293-2683. HINGHAM Health screenings. Free health screening clinics will be conducted by the Hingham Visiting Nurse, a branch of the Affiliated Community Visiting Nurse Association, on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to noon and Thursdays from noon to 2 p.m.

at the office at 10 Downer Ave. Screenings are also held the third Thursday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon at the Stop and Shop, Lincoln Plaza (Route 3A). Call 781-681-1000. Charity Night The Hingham VNA Thrift Shop, 40 North Main St, will raise funds for the Hingham VNA through Hanover Mall's Charity Night today from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

This evening the Mall will be open only to those with Charity Night tickets. The participating organizations retain 100 percent of the proceeds. Tickets are $5. Call 781-741-8105. 2000 calendar.

The Hingham Historical Society offers a year 2000 calendar depicting the town's architectur-. al heritage. It is composed of photos from the collection of Phil Swanson and available at various locations throughout town including the Public Library, 66 Leavitt St, and the Continued on next page mutual support groups for parents and anyone in a parenting role who would like to improve their relationships with their children. Weekly meetings are held on Wednesday evenings. For times and locations, call 800-882-1250.

Volunteers needed. Brockton Area Multi-Services HIV Case Management program is seeking volunteer drivers for the food delivery program and occasional trips to medical treatment. Call 508-580-0219. AA meetings. Brockton Hospital, 680 Centre St, hosts weekly meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous on Fridays from 8 to 9 p.m.

in the hospital cafeteria. Call 508-941-7979. CANTON Art sale. Canton Art Association will hold its 49th annual art sale at the Canton Public Library, 7876 Washington on Nov. 27 from 2 to 4 p.m.

Sale features original art work by association members. Free admission. Call 781-828-1727. Volunteers needed. Meadowbrook of Canton, 1 Meadowbrook Way, is seeking volunteers to sort and deliver mail, transport residents to functions within the facility, and assist with activity programs.

College internships are also available. Call 781-961-5600. Volunteers needed. HESSCO Elder Services is in need of volunteers to deliver Meals on Wheels to home-bound elders. Drivers for Hot Weekend Meals delivery are especially needed.

Call 781-784-4944. CARVER Blood pressure, hearth clinic. The Carver Branch of the Affiliated Community VNA (formerly the Carver Public Health Nurse) will be conducting a free blcpd pressure and health monitoring clinic Nov. 22 from 10 to 11 a.m. at Carver Public Library, Main Street.

Call 508-866-3873. Immunizations. The Carver Branch of the Affiliated Community VNA (formerly the Carver Public Health Nurse), 48 Lakeview offers pediatric and adult immunizations the second Wednesday of each month from 9 to 10 a.m. and the fourth Wednesday from 2:30 to 3:30. Free.

Call 508-866-3873. COHASSET Writing group. The Buttonwood Writ-ers Group for adults interested in creative writing meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 7:30 p.m. at Buttonwood Books and Toys, Shaw's Plaza, Route 3A Call 781-383-2665. Volunteers.

The Youth Resources Committee at the Recreation Department uses volunteer supervisors for teen events and activities. Call 781-383-7003 or 781-383-4109. Volunteers. Cohasset Elder Affairs, 3 N. Main uses volunteers for transportation and for Tuesday and Thursday luncheons.

Call 781-383-9112. Newcomers Club. The Scituate-Cohas-set Newcomers Club is always open to new members and invites new residents of Scituate and Cohasset to learn about club activities, such as mom and tot playgroups, monthly dinner, hiking groups. Call 781-383-0865 or 781-545-0221. Consignment shop.

The Cohasset Consignment Shop on Route 3A is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The shop helps fund programs sponsored by the Social Service League. Call 781-383-0687.

DEDHAM Reunion. The Dedham High School Class of 1970 is planning its 30th reunion for November 2000. The committee has a list of classmates still being sought Call 781-762-7861. Alumni sought Dedham High School is compiling a directory of the school's graduates and is seeking addresses of graduates andor location of recent reunion lists. Information on graduates before 1937 is especially needed.

Call 781-326-2788 or e- mail jvarnummassed.net. Volunteers needed. HESSCO Elder Services is in need of volunteers to deliver Meals on Wheels to home-bound elders. Drivers for Hot Weekend Meals delivery are especially needed. Call 781-784-4944.

DUXBURY Bake, craft sale. The Senior Center, 862 Tremont will hold a holiday bake and craft sale Nov. 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the new senior center.

Call 781-934-5774. Museum volunteers sought The Art Complex Museum at Dutbury, 189 ABINGTON Health screenings. A free health screening clinic for residents will be provided by the Abington Branch of Affiliated Community Visiting Nurse Association on Nov. 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Stop Shop, Route 123.

Call 781-878-1141. BRAINTREE Garden Club. The Bridgewater Garden Club will meet Nov. 22 at 7:30 at the Bridgewater Senior Center, Wally Krueger Way. Christine De-cas will present a program on using flowers in holiday decorations.

Free. Call 508-697-7617. Health screenings. The Bridgewater branch of the Affiliated Community Visiting Nurse Association will hold a free health screening conference for residents Nov. 23 from 4 to 6 p.m.

at the High Pond Estates Community Building, High Pond Road. Call 508-697-4368. Meeting for young widows and widowers. The Young Widows and Widowers I mutual help organization for younger widowed men and women holds weekly meetings on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. at the South Congregational Church, 1075 Washington St.

Semi-monthly meetings for longer widowed persons are on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 7:30 in the same location. Call 781-337-8689. Gay Men's discussion group. The South Shore Gay Men's discussion group meets every Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at All Soul's Church (Unitarian Uni-versalist), corner of Church and Elm streets.

Free. Call 781-843-2566. Singles group. The Single Life, a social group for single, divorced, or widowed people who no longer need a support group, meets every Tuesday from 8 to 9:30 p.m. in the Massachusetts Respiratory Hospital, 2001 Washington St.

Free. Call 800-294-9996. SMART Recovery. A project of Alcohol Drug Abuse Self-Help Network, SMART Recovery holds weekly meetings on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Prattown Community Club, Orange Street.

Free. Call 781-891-7574. Nicotine Anonymous. The Massachusetts Respiratory Hospital, 2001 Washington St (Route 37), holds Nicotine Anonymous meetings every Saturday at 10 a.m. and every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

Call 781-984-2629, Gamblers Anonymous. Gamblers Anonymous meets at All Souls Church, 196 Elm 8 p.m. Free. Call 781-331-0070. BRIDGEWATER Book Babies.

Bridgewater Public Library, 15 South continues the Book Babies program for infants and toddlers under 30 months and their caregivers on Tuesdays from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Free. Call 508-697-3331. Scleroderma group. Bridgewater Scleroderma support group meets the last Wednesday of every month at the Bridgewater Public Library, 15 South St Free.

Call 508-697-0656. Scout badge seekers sought Bridgewater State College Earth Science and Geography Club is seeking Boy Scout or Girl Scout troops interested in working with the club toward earning Scout badges. Call 508-531-1390. BROCKTON Volunteers sought The Southeastern Chapter of the American Red Cross, 281 Pleasant is in need of volunteers for the accounting department. Responsibilities include research, data entry, filing, and other clerical duties.

Call 800-232-8812 or 508-586-4790. Smoke-A-Non. Brockton Hospital, 680 Centre St, hosts weekly meeting for Smoke-A-Non, a self-help group for those with smoking addiction, on Tuesdays from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Call 508-941-7979. Prostate cancer group.

Brockton Hospital, 680 Centre offers a prostate cancer support group the third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. in the hospital's Assembly Room. Call 508-941-7979. Cancer programs. A breast cancer support group and the American Cancer Society's "Look Good, Feel Better" program are available at Brockton Hospital, 680 Centre St For information on times and days of these programs, call 508-941-7979.

Reunion. Brockton High School class of 1979 will hold a reunion Nov. 27 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at the Sheraton Inn, 180 Water St, Plymouth.

$45 per person. Call 508-697-7419 or 508-583-1054. Parenting groups. Parents Helping Parents (formerly Parents Anonymous) provides a free network of PARKING Continued from Page 1 road next to an old nursery, so people are parking in the woods." State Senator Jo Ann Sprague (R-Walpole) said she has some unhappy constituents. "I have constituents who are getting towed.

I have constituents who are paying parking fines. They get caught there. They need to go to work and the parking is all gone." Behind the parking crunch is the growing popularity of commuter rail, especially in the outer suburbs. In the 1999 state fiscal year, which concluded June 30, the MBTA counted 36 million commuter rail passenger trips nearly double the number in 1990. Transit officials attribute the ridership boom to Boston's worsening traffic problems, the strong regional economy, suburban population growth, and improved marketing.

A substantial part of the rider-ship increase also is due to expanded service, including the reopening of the Old Colony Railroad to Kingston and LakevilleMiddleborough. "We are a victim of our own success," Pedro said. Ridership has grown steadily on the Old Colony Railroad since the service began two years ago. Average weekday inbound trips on the Kingston line now are 4,124 nearly 1,000 more than a year ago. The MiddleboroughLakeville line carries 3,664 inbound passengers, up more than 500 from 1998.

Ridership usually increases markedly in the winter, when snow-wary commuters leave their cars at home. Some local officials and legislators criticize the MBTA for not building more parking initially for the Old Colony trains. "It should have been planned for much sooner," said state Senator Marc R. Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat whose district includes the LakevilleMiddleborough station. Pedro said the MBTA has been scrambling lo add parking throughout me system bui often faces opposition from neighborhoods, local property owners, and city and town officials.

"In some places we have really nad lo jump through Pedro said. Other forms of mass, transportation also have experienced parking shortages. Parking garages at the Quincy and Braintree Red Line rapid transit stations routinely fill up weekday mornings. The Hingham commuter boat parking lot also is close to capacity. The MBTA is considering relocating the parking lot at the Hingham Shipyard, where the commuter Notebook NOTEBOOK Continued from Page 7 ther, Paul, who opened the first store in Quincy in 1944.

"In the early years, my dad never had to worry about help he had us nine kids," said Curry, who joined the Marines in 1967 and served a year in Vietnam, where he was wounded. He then returned to the family business and took evening courses at Boston and Northeastern universities. He briefly worked in Worcester for a small office equipment chain. Hardware store sales are now over $3 million a year and are growing at a rate of 13 percent annually, he said, adding that his son, Sean, 31, is now in the business. There are 22 full- and part-time employees.

Curry also has been a board member of Quincy 2000, the public-private partnership, and the Quincy Partnership, which has raised money for various city projects. Last year, for example, $60,000 was solicited for the Abigail Adams statue. "That was the most enjoyable project I've ever been part of," he said. Curry's extensive business background "and his love for Quincy and the hospital are why I chose him to represent the community as a whole on the board of trustees," Sheets said. Doughnut chain seeking Vt.

site Honey Dew Donuts, which has corporate offices in Braintree, says it will expand its New England operations by the middle of next The MBTA owns land next to both the Halifax and LakevilleMiddleborough stations. About 340 spaces will be added to the 400-space LakevilleMiddleborough parking area. In Halifax, 120 spaces will be added to the 300 existing spots. While the design of those projects is complete, construction will not be finished in time to help commuters this winter. "In the short-term, we are going to have to keep dealing with it," said Chawner Hurd, chairman of the La-keville Board of Selectmen.

MBTA spokesman Lydia Rivera said officials do not know whether the additional spaces at Halifax and MiddleboroughLakeville will be sufficient to handle the increasing demand. "We are hoping that it will provide at least some of the solution," Rivera said. MBTA officials advise commuters who are shut out of the LakevilleMiddleborough station to drive north to Brockton's Campello or Montello stations, which have had available parking. The proposed expansion of the Mansfield station is a joint project involving the town of Mansfield and two regional transit agencies, the MBTA and the Greater Attleboro Transit Authority. The project would add roughly 800 spaces to the approximately 800-car downtown Mansfield station, already the most heavily used station on the Attleboro line.

The new station building would be more than twice as large as the existing one, and at least two intersections near the station would be redesigned to improve traffic flow. The first floor of the new Route 128 parking garage opened Nov. 1. The other three decks are scheduled to open by February. The Route 128 parking garage is designed to serve not only Boston commuter rail passengers but also riders on Amtrak's Boston-Washington East Coast service.

High-speed trains to New York are scheduled to begin running next year. store was opened 26 years ago in Mansfield. Randolph-based Dunkin' Donuts, meanwhile, has 673 shops in Massachusetts and 3,500 others throughout the United States, a company spokeswoman said, declining to comment on its much smaller competitor's plans. Honey Dew franchises are generating total annual sales of about $70 million from doughnuts, muffins, bagels, pastries, and seven varieties of coffee, Bowen said, proclaiming, "Our doughnuts are bigger than anyone's." The business remains profitable, he said. There are 12 employees in Braintree, and franchisees pay a one-time fee of from $125,000 to $600,000, depending on the cost of a store's property and its location, he said.

Notes: Sharon commuter parking is for town residents only. Parking expansions are planned for Whitman and Abington, but the number of spaces is unspecified at this time. SOURCE: MBTA Globe staff chart boat terminal is located. The move would be accomplished by trading land with a developer planning a housing complex at the shipyard. No new parking spaces would be added, but the shift would make it easier to add a deck to the parking lot sometime in the future, according to state Senator Robert L.

Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican whose district includes Hingham. Business year with a new franchised shop in Vermont "Vermont will be the last New England state for us to penetrate, and we now have more than 15 possible locations there under review," said Richard Bowen, founder and owner of Honey Dew Associates which oversees 150 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine. However, Massachusetts, where there are 100 outlets, will continue to be the bread-and-butter of his chain's operations, Bowen said. "The plan is to have one store in every city and town" in the state. There are 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth.

"It's easy to say that well go around the world, but we want to do the best job we can in Massachusetts, where we began." The first Robert Curry, owner of Curry Ace and Braintree, was named chairman GLOBE STAFF PHOTO BARRY CHIN Hardware stores in West Quincy of the Quincy Medical Center..