Heath Robbins

One of the entrees, the New England Lobster Bake (38.95), features lite clam chowder , steamed clams and mussels, grilled chouriço, corn on the cob, and a steamed 1-1.25 lb. lobster

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

The much-awaited Legal C Bar planned for Derby Street Shoppes will open this Thursday for a "soft opening" meant to introduce customers to the Legal Sea Foods bar-centric chain.

The bar has been preparing to enter the Hingham market since Jan. 1, when Jasper White’s Summer Shack closed up shop.

Renovations to the building have been ongoing since then, and the contemporary venue is preparing to fling open the doors to the 6,5000-square-foot space Thursday evening.

According to a company spokesperson, the bar is a similar concept to the well-known Legal Sea Foods chain, but is a more casual.

Even with the focus on the bar, company officials say the restaurant is still family-friendly.

“They have a great kids program and have won awards for their kids menu,” a spokeswoman said. “Everything they do is catered to family friendly. This just has a bit more of a bar scene.”

This will be the third Legal C Bar for the region, following outposts at Legacy Place in Dedham, and Terminal B of Logan International Airport.

Hingham’s location will be fairly consistent with other Legal C locations, all with the same menu. Manned by chefs Rich Vellante and Steve Ernst, dining options feature items that can be shared, but still feature favorites from the Legal menu as well as traditional dining choices.

However, there will be some signature drinks exclusive to Hingham. In total, 19 signature cocktails, based on classic libations, will be available for guests.

Unlike the usual Legal Sea Foods, which feature individual tables in different sections of the restaurant, the Legal C concept will feature a more open floor plan. While separated into a bar room and a dining room, some tables lie between the two.

“[Customers] can have a formal dining or causal bar experience,” a spokeswoman said.

In total, the restaurant will have 195 seats – approximately 34 at the bar, four at the raw bar, 60 at low tables, 80 at high tables, and 18 at three community tables.

Once completely up and running, the restaurant will be open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and until midnight on Saturdays and 10 p.m. on Sunday. However, the soft opening on Thursday and Friday, will only feature dinner service.

Lunch service will begin Saturday.

Several menus, including those for gluten free, lunch, and take-out are offered. To view the dinner menu, click here

For more information, call 781.556.0010 or visit www.legalseafoods.com.

Photo Rick Swanson

Kids fill up reusable bottles at the new Hydration Station at Hingham High

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Hingham High administrators say they have kept thousands of plastic bottles out of local landfills with the installation of a third hydration station on the school’s campus.

The machine, donated by Aquarion Water Company along with 100 reusable bottles, keeps track of how much water is dispensed, counting it by the number of plastic bottles. Installed late April, administrators said the machine has dispensed thousands of bottle’s worth of water in just a month.

“We’re seeing several hundreds [of bottles saved], probably into the thousands by now, in just a few weeks,” said Hingham High Assistant Principal Rick Swanson. “…It gives us a sense of what kind of impact one thing can have, that one step…encouraging more kids to stop using single-use bottles…and how much of an impact it can have in not producing that plastic.”

Hingham is no stranger to Hydration Stations, which are tantamount to a water bubblers with a spigot more like a faucet. Aquarion first donated money to install the first station in 2011.

With lines continually long at the front-lobby station, Hingham administrations successfully petitioned the PTO to have a second Hydration Station installed in the cafeteria last year.

Yet there was still a need. After some conversations with Aquarion, the company agreed to donate the money for a third Hydration Station, this one with a tracking tool.

The machine, a newer version than the first installed two years ago, also fills up bottles faster.

“With the cost of installation, it’s a couple thousand dollars for a unit. They have been very generous,” Swanson said of Aquarion.

Representatives from Aquarion say Hingham High isn’t the only local school eager to get their hands on the fresh H20.

Hull High also received a Hydration Station two years ago and is in talks to receive a second. More locally, South Elementary School and Plymouth River Elementary School, both in Hingham, have approached Aquarion for stations.

“The program is evolving,” said Ronit Goldstein, Community Relations Manager for Aquarion. “Fortunately, the parents are understanding that it’s not a uniform unit and the time installed isn’t up to us; it’s when the kids aren’t in the building. As we get more of a demand, we’ll look at what we’ve budged to do and that may increase based on how successful the program is.”

Yet Hingham has become the model for the program, with excitement high as each new unit graces the High School hallways.

“I think the high school has really taken to this, to say the least. The level of enthusiasm that day, I was overwhelmed,” Goldstein said. “It’s amazing, high school students using reusable bottles, and excited about a hydration station.”

Swanson said the donation falls in line with Hingham’s overall mission to boost recycling compliance while simultaneously reducing recycling volume.

“It sounds strange that we want our recycling volume to go down, but if our participation rate is going up, which it is, and volume is going down, people are reusing, and that’s a better place to be,” Swanson said. “Recycle is your third option. If you can reuse you won’t have to recycle. We’re seeing a big improvement in the number of kids and teachers as well going for reusable bottles instead of bringing in a new bottle every day and recycling. This is a big step forward.”

The third station was placed on the second floor of the building, joining the first station – located in the first floor lobby, and the second – located in the cafeteria.

Swanson has hopes of even bringing more into the school, especially after seeing the demand.

“One of the unintended consequences is kids line up and the lines get long. In between periods kids have a hard time getting to class on time. So [if we can, we’ll try to] get another one up there to cut down on the lines and satisfy the demands,” he said.

Hingham High School received a shout-out at the May 7 Red Sox game at Fenway Park and received a $1500 gift card to Jordan’s Furniture after collecting the most used baseball and softball equipment for the “Double Play” campaign. Sponsored by Jordan’s Furniture and the Red Sox Foundation, the campaign seeks to provide equipment for underprivileged children in Boston through the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) youth program. Hingham has won the equipment drive three years in a row, and this year collected 150 items to donate to kids in need.

Percentage of females, 2010

By Matt Carroll, Boston Globe | May 16, 2013

Click here to see a larger, interactive version of this chart.
Additional town-by-town snapshots.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Several calves have been born recently at Hornstra Farms' Hingham and Norwell locations, as the dairy farm continues its slow but steady growth.

The calves are part of an ever-evolving process of building a herd, said owner John Hornstra.

“We milk like 38 cows right now, and bottle the milk from those 38 cows,'' he said. "And then the young cows are future milk producers. We hope to milk 60 cows when we’re at full production. We’re raising these cows to fill our barn.”

According to Hornstra, cows give milk for only 305 days after giving birth. To keep milk production going, cows are continually bred. Gestation takes nine months, and cows are typically bred again a few months after giving birth.

That process had grown Honstra’s heard from the six he started with in 2005 to the 38 at the farm today, which is soon to have even more once the calves are grown.

“There’s a bunch at Hersey Street and a bunch at our farm in Norwell,” Honstra said of the babes, who are grazing on open pastures.

Farming goes back a long way with the Hornstra family, starting in 1915.

In the early '70s, the family got out of the cow business, but when John Hornstra took over in 1985, he was determined to bring it back.

“I always wanted to have a farm where people could come and see the cows being milked and it being bottled and making ice cream. That’s when I decided I wanted to have a farm locally,” he said.

Hornstra has been building on that dream since then, making improvements to the farm to support the diary operation, and adding milking cows bit by bit.

“Other than having my own children, [farming is] probably the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Raising a cow, seeing the milk it’s producing, it’s very rewarding,” Hornstra said.

Despite the growth of the heard, Hornstra Farms is not a factory, owners say. Production is done as it was on an old-fashioned dairy farm, and the farmers don’t use artificial growth hormones.

That commitment to fresh, local, and pure has customers coming back after a rough economy.

“We’re very fortunate,” he said. “We have a wonderful clientele of people that prefer better-quality products or fresher or local. That’s what we specialize in, is locally produced.”

Hornstra Farms will soon be open to the public so people can see the cows being milked as well as come by for fresh produce.

“We’re still under construction, but we’re hoping to be ready for the public sometime … this summer,” Honstra said.

For more information on the farm, click here.

Hingham Jewelers’ is familiar with jewelry give-aways, handing out 12 presents during Christmas time in a scavenger hunt around the South Shore.

Owners will bring that same spirit of giving to Mother’s Day this year, with a diamond necklace giveaway to one winner in the store.

“Mother’s Day for us is a big weekend, and it’s so adorable. It’s all the dads walking in with little kids. I thought, 'What could we do that would be fun?' ” said Stacey Page, one of the owners of Hingham Jewelers.

Page decided to offer a necklace giveaway during the second part of a two-day Roberto Coin trunk show, offering a diamond necklace to one winner during the Saturday day of shopping.

The necklace, which retails for $600, is a small, white gold and diamond heart on a delicate silver chain.

According to Page, the plan is to give every customer coming into the store on Saturday a mini cupcake, each with a number written on a flag on the cupcake. One number will correlate with a pre-selected number from the store.

“If you stop and think about it, it’s really sweet. The fathers saying. 'What would Mommy like?' and they are so excited. So we thought, let’s have some fun with it,” Page said. “Everyone is so good to us, we’re so lucky, so we thought let’s do something fun with someone who couldn’t normally get something like that, saying, ‘Look Mom what I got you.’”

With the 12 Days of Christmas Scavenger Hunt popular, Page wasn’t sure how many people would turn up for the Mother’s Day event.

“I hope it’s a fun big crowd. I hope it’s not crazy. But I think it will be manageable,” she said. “People understand the reasoning behind it and the meaning."

Along with the necklace giveaway, Page said the store was coordinate some last-minute giveaways for customers shopping that day.

Additionally, customers who make a purchase of a Roberto Coin jewelry over $1,000 will receive a complimentary gift bag.

The store will have extended hours for Mother’s Day shoppers, open from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. on Friday, during the first day of the trunk show, and on Saturday from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m.

For more information on the store, click here.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Hingham Police are investigating whether the arrest of a Boston man and the theft of a car, both on High Street early Monday morning, are related.

According to police, at 1:44 a.m., an officer patrolling a familiar area of High Street saw a truck that he had never seen before parked on the side of the road.

A man was sitting in the driver’s seat, and the officer went over to him to ask what he was doing in the neighborhood.

According to police, the man said that he had met a girl on Facebook that morning, and that he was on his way to her house when he had gotten lost.

When the officer asked for identification, the man allegedly admitted that he didn’t have a license because it had been suspended. A computer search also showed the suspect had several outstanding warrants for his arrest, police said.

Keon Lamont Austin, 27, from Boston was arrested and charged with driving with a suspended license.

A few hours later, another incident happened on the same street, where someone allegedly stole a car from of a High Street driveway.

Police said the car was unlocked, and the car keys were in the vehicle.

According to police, the car owner ran out of the house and tried to stop the car, but it took off at a high rate of speed.

An officer nearby on Cushing Street saw the car and started to follow it.

Police said a chase ensued, leading onto Route 3 and then onto Interstate 93 northbound. Once the car got on I-93, Hingham officers stopped their pursuit, due to the high rate of speed and the unsafe driving conditions of the suspect.

Police are investigating if the two incidents are related.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

A 45-year-old man was injured on Tuesday after falling from the Hingham Middle School Construction site.

According to police, the worker, from New Bedford, was on the third story staging of the building when he fell.

Police said he was conscious when paramedics arrived. He was transported to South Shore Hospital.

Police were unsure of his condition.

Hingham’s building Inspector secured the scene after the accident.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Christine Dietterich is concerned for her safety every time she pulls out of her Summer Street driveway.

The Hingham resident says she gets nervous when her kids get off the bus on the busy street, and winces when she sees cars cruising down the open road faster than the 35 miles per hour speed limit.

While a larger fix to the problem may be some time away, Dietterich and neighbors are banding together to try to find short-term safety solutions for the corridor, which stretches from Hingham’s Bathing Beach through the rotary and all the way to Hull.

“The biggest thing is that the speeds are out of control,” Dietterich said. “It’s a 35 mph on the main part of Summer Street coming from the rotary…people are flying.”

Serious accidents have peppered the history of the street, including a double fatality in 1988, to a serious accident in 2000 to another fatally with a young neighbor, Joe Zona, in 2005.

More recently, accidents involving alleged drunk drivers occurred in 2009 and 2012. A rollover accident happened this past November.

“We feel we live between fatalities,” Dietterich said. “It’s a game of Frogger getting out of our driveway.”

One of the problems is that the four-lane street, two on either side, gives drivers a false sense that they have more room than they actually do. According to Dietterich, people cut corners as they go around the bends, and with only a small bit of space between the fog line and the sidewalk, it’s difficult to maneuver around those cars.

Cars also fly down the street coming from the rotary, which some view as one lane and others view as two.

Then there are the short-lived red lights along Summer Street that make it difficult for cars on side streets to enter the corridor.

And that’s just driving. Not to mention the difficulty in walking anywhere with sidewalks intersected by telephone polls. In less forgiving weather, the sidewalks are half covered with leaves or snow.

Town officials are aware there is a problem.

“It’s not an easy solution but it does need to be worked,” said selectman Bruce Rabuffo.

Rabuffo noted that the stretch of road has always been troublesome. Several years ago, the state lowered a hill on the road to make it easier to see other cars and also increased the roadway to four lanes to try to accommodate traffic.

Yet problems still exist, and safety concerns are seeping into Hingham’s waterfront, making economic development difficult.

“How can we go back and revisit Summer Street while making it more safe while fixing the traffic circle and the waterfront?” Rabuffo said.

Though Dietterich and others have suggested shrinking the roadway to one lane on either side, Rabuffo said high traffic counts on the state road prohibit that change.

Another solution would be to change the rotary to a traffic light, but there are a significant number of utilities underfoot.

A study would need to be undertaken by the state to determine the best solution, Rabuffo said, but the Derby Street corridor is the town’s first priority.

Neighbors are aware a long-term solution is still years away, but have continued to meet with local officials, most recently in late March, to try to influence change.

“Our goal at this point is we’re trying to create a task force,” Dietterich said.

That task force would consist of Harbor Development, Traffic Committee, and Planning Board members, as well as neighbors and other town officials.

In the meantime, Dietterich and neighbors have had several talks with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to try to change the timing of some traffic lights.

The Hingham Police Department has also done their best to patrol the street, and setting up radar trailers to alert people of their speeds.

Even with those efforts, more needs to be done Dietterich said.

“You’re dealing with so many different government [agencies], but we have to do something, “ Dietterich said. “We can’t sit back anymore.”