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After learning that organizers were canceling the Junior Miss program due to a lack of money, a local woman decided to rescue this year's competition.
"I have a 14-year-old daughter (Jordan) who can't wait to do Junior Miss ... in the year 2013," said Jill M. Bedoya, who took part in a competition here in 1988 and served on Junior Miss committees at both the town and state levels.
"I stepped forward to offer my services to run this year's program so there were no girls left without the opportunity to participate in and experience a Junior Miss program. Junior Miss has been a part of my family for many, many years. My father, Tom Mercer and my aunt, Raye Lynn Mercer, ran the Franklin program for about 10 years, prior to taking over the Massachusetts state program, which they both ran for years. I grew up with Junior Miss," Bedoya said.
She refused to let the 40-year-old program, open strictly to Franklin High School senior girls, cease.
Many people put the program together, she said, and they just needed a little support.
"I have lots of contacts and I'm trying to use my coordination abilities to give the Franklin committee some support," she said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
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The income tax question on the ballot this fall is a reckless proposal that will have severe and immediate consequences for all of us. This binding referendum will take more than $12 billion—nearly 40 percent—out of the state budget, driving up local property taxes and leading to drastic cuts in services. Our communities will suffer sweeping education cuts, steep reductions in public safety personnel and further deterioration of roads and bridges. Times are hard enough. Let’s not make them worse.
Even after a century, members of the philanthropic Ray family may still be hanging around their old haunts, according to staff at Dean College.
Workers at Ray House, which serves as the school's admissions office, and several staff members, including Vice President of Enrollment Jay Leiendecker, have reported encounters with spirits they believe are Ray family members. The house was their former home, built in the 1800s.
Sensing a spirit, or seeing a shadow flash by is not rare at Ray House, Leiendecker said.
"It's not once every so many years - there's definitely a spirit living in the house," he said, adding, "Nothing bad has happened."
In fact, if the otherworldly inhabitants are members of the Ray family, he said they're probably quite friendly ghosts, because they were incredibly charitable people in life.
Although encounters are common, they can still be startling.
"We had window-washing crews come here on weekends, and a man was washing the window inside and out one Saturday," Leiendecker said, pointing to his tall office window overlooking the campus, "and he apparently went screaming for the hills after he saw ... something."
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
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The Framingham and Franklin school systems face a common problem - the need to hire a new superintendent - but they're looking to solve it in different ways.
They're among at least 11 school systems in the region that have either hired new district leaders in the past year or are in the process of doing so. Some, like Franklin, have sought to nurture internal talent and hire from within the school district. Others, like Framingham, have put out a nationwide call for applications.
Both approaches reflect a desire to hire the best leaders from what area school officials say is a shrinking pool of candidates for a growing number of openings.
Just last week, Shrewsbury's longtime superintendent, Anthony Bent, announced he will be retiring at the end of the academic year.
Bent, who has headed Shrewsbury's system for 15 years, said the School Committee will search for his successor both inside and outside the district, casting a broad net in order to "have the best potential pool to choose from."
Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said there have been between 50 and 60 superintendent vacancies in each of the last five years, up from fewer than 10 annual openings a decade ago. Each open slot used to draw 75 or more applications, whereas school districts are now lucky to get 20 applications, he said.
Read the full article in the Boston Sunday Globe West section here
Read the full article here in the Boston GlobeThe MBTA's oversight board voted yesterday to raise parking rates by $2 at all of its lots and garages beginning Nov. 15 as part of a plan to pay back wages owed to union employees.
For many daily riders, the increase will have the same effect as a $10-per-week fare increase, or about $500 per year. Rates currently vary, from $1 per day at ferry yards, to $2 at commuter rail station lots, up to as much as $5 at the four most expensive garages.
"That's doubling it," said Margie Katz, a record supervisor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston who takes the commuter rail to work from the Campello station in Brockton, where daily rates had been $2. "It will be an extreme hardship."
Calling the global economic crisis and financial pressure "the perfect storm" for taxpayers to pass Question 1, which repeals the state income tax on Nov. 4, legislators implored local politicians to rally against it.
"If it passes, we can pretty much shut our doors and go home," said Rep. John V. Fernandes, D-Milford, during a legislative breakfast with the Massachusetts Municipal Association at the Milford Senior Center yesterday.
"We can't sit back on such an important question. The cynicism that drives this means we have to explain to people the seriousness of the consequences. I know people who tend to vote for this who work for local government," Fernandes said.
Fernandes, state Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, Ashland Assistant Town Manager/Finance Director Mark Purple, and Douglas Executive Director Michael Guzinski, along with others at the forum, believe the question has a very good chance of passing, and it scares them.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Neighbors are rallying to save a nearby colony of feral cats, contacting national animal rights organizations after learning Highwood Condominiums' board of trustees plans to trap and euthanize them.
Animal Control officers Cindy Souza and Tracey Holmes say the feral cats' feeding station, which they set up with Purr-fect Cat Shelter of Medway in nearby woods is on state land where trapping is prohibited.
"We've kind of stepped back ... It's really up to the people to stand up to the association at this point," Holmes said.
And they are.
Resident Leslie McShane contacted Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, to bring attention to the situation.
"I thought they should know what goes on in small towns that want to euthanize their problems ... instead of reaching out to the community to try and find homes for the feral cats or try to relocate the colony to a friendlier area that they can all survive in," McShane said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
Check out these editorials from around the state.
Just outside Milford Regional Medical Center, men covered from head to toe in protective suits, gloves, rubber boots and breathing apparatus had already decontaminated several victims of a mock terrorist attack when Fire. Lt. Patrick Salmon got a message over his walkie-talkie.
A voice on the other end said the state was reporting: "It may be a terror attack with sarin gas," a nerve agent used in chemical warfare.
Around 7:35 p.m., 55 minutes into a drill mimicking a terrorist incident on a commuter train arriving in Franklin, emergency workers were prepping the third and final victim to bring to the hospital.
"So far, it's good. It's dark out, so we had some issues until we got the lights set up, but now we can keep taking patients" if necessary, Salmon said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
The Benjamin Franklin Classical Charter Public School's board of trustees last week voted to rent the historic Red Brick School from the town for one year.
"I'm feeling very good about it. I've been a strong proponent on using the building," said John Neas, president of the charter school's board.
Neas said the school faces a critical need for space in its building, which he estimated to be about 35,000 square feet.
"We use every inch of space available to us. We have 416 students and a waiting list of 200 students we can't accommodate," Neas said, noting that the board is looking for another school site. (In the best scenario, he said, they might have a new building in five years.)
And every weekday afternoon, charter school students and staff must vacate the building so that St. Mary's Church, which owns the building, can hold religious ed classes there, Neas said.
"That means our school dismisses at 3:10, and we have from 3:10 to 3:45 for after-school activities. That creates some issues for us," he said.
"This is a possibility for us in terms of having space to do those types of things," Neas said.
Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
In keeping with the same financial forecasts given over the last year, Town Administrator Jeffrey D. Nutting last night told the Finance Committee he anticipates fiscal 2010 will be "a very challenging year."
"Local receipts aren't going to bounce back quickly. Everything is tightening and tightening and tightening," Nutting said in the first Finance Committee meeting of the new fiscal year.
His biggest concern for the fiscal '10 budget is whether there will be a reduction in state aid, he said.
Nutting does not believe Franklin will be "as revenue-rich" as last year, he said, noting that the town's fuel, pensions and insurance costs will continue to escalate, outpacing revenue.
The town will bid for a new electric energy contract this spring, "another big exposure," Nutting said.
Read the full story in the Milford Daily News here
Saving cash on energy can be as simple as choosing a conventional television over its plasma counterpart, which is three to four times pricier, said Fred Schlicher.
Residential energy use, which accounts for about 20 percent of all energy consumption in the United States, is "a near and dear subject to us, " Schlicher said, particularly this winter, when "we may be facing energy prices twice as high as last year."
Schlicher, a program manager for Massachusetts Climate Action Network, offered tips on cutting home energy bills and suggested resources for improving energy efficiency in the first of a four-part climate series at the public library, attended by about 40 people last night.
Some of the top energy-suckers at home: appliances and lighting (20 percent), water heating (16 percent), space heating (60 percent), and refrigerators, particularly those more than 10 years old (no statistic given), Schlicher said.
He recommended using a "Kill-A-Watt" meter, which costs about $30, to identify "very quickly" which appliances use the most electricity at home.
"You plug it into the wall and see what the big users of electricity are; it's a great monitor," Schlicher said.
read the full article in the Milford Daily News here
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