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| MNN Annual Conference |
Interested in attending this year’s event? The 2024 Conference will return to the DCU Center in Worcester on October 24, 2024.
"Hi All!Wanted to share this event for young adults (ages 21-35)!
Come connect!"
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| Young adult (21-35) mixers |
All participants must be pre-registered to attend the event! The cost is $20 per person with a 2.50 processing fee. This includes appetizers, beer and wine, and dessert. Best of all, it's a monthly mixer geared toward connecting young adults, ages 21-35, for conversation, networking, and fun. We will meet on the third Wednesday from 7-9pm every month in one of two locations which will rotate. Both locations are in Worcester with their own lots for safe and easy parking!
October 16th 7-9pm First Unitarian- Bancroft Room- 90 Main Street Worcester, MA (parking off State Street to the left of the building, entrance in the lower lot.)
November 20th 7-9 pm -The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester- 140 Shore Drive Worcester, MA
December 18th- 7-9pm- First Unitarian- Bancroft Room- 90 Main Street Worcester, MA (parking off State Street to the left of the building, entrance in the lower lot.)
January 15th 7-9pm- The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester- 140 Shore Drive Worcester, MA
QUESTIONS? email MYAN@uucworcester.org
Shared from -> https://www.facebook.com/share/p/tkYiGGLtxU7eJvya/
"Walkers and wheelchairs with missing parts or improvised upgrades crowd the floor of the workshop on the outskirts of Worcester.At the facility, one of four Assistive Technology Centers run by the state, designers and technicians customize and adapt equipment, from shower chairs to iPads, to make them safer, more comfortable, or easier to use for people with developmental disabilities. The solutions can be as complicated as rebuilding a motorized chair, or as basic as laminating a cardboard box, as one of the adaptive equipment designers, Gabrielle Reis, discovered during weeks of trial and error as she attempted to build a tray for a wheelchair.“Some of the hardest situations have some of the easiest solutions,” said Reis, 30, of Boston.Massachusetts is among the few states with facilities dedicated to devising creative solutions to accommodate the unique needs of people with developmental disabilities, according to officials with the state’s Department of Developmental Services, or DDS. About $2 million is budgeted annually for the program, though it has other funding sources, including insurance payments and donations."
"The WooSox may have hit a home run with huge attendance numbers at their new home in Worcester, but a study says the city has whiffed when it comes to shelling out public dollars to fund the team’s new stadium.The Red Sox Triple-A farm team moved from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to Worcester in 2021, setting up shop in Polar Park, a new $160 million stadium owned and largely paid for by the city of Worcester.Last season, the team’s second year in Worcester, the Worcester Red Sox drew more than 500,000 fans, second among all 120 minor league teams in the country. And the WooSox arrival has unquestionably contributed to the upbeat buzz about the state’s second-largest city.But Robert Baumann, an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross, says the stadium still adds up to be a loser for the city’s finances. In a new paper, Baumann and co-author J.C. Bradbury, an economist at Kennesaw State University, conclude that Polar Park will cost the city $40 to $60 million over 30 years."
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| CommonWealth Magazine: "New study calls WooSox stadium a bad deal for Worcester" |
Dean Leadership Institute was pleased to welcome Dr. Charles Steinberg, president of the Worcester Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, as the first speaker of the fall semester for the Dean Leadership Institute.Dean College Chancellor Edward Augustus introduced “Dr. Charles”, whose career in baseball began 40+ years ago with an internship with the Baltimore Orioles, his hometown team. Dr. Charles joined the Worcester Red Sox, known as the Pawtucket Red Sox at the time, as president on November 15, 2015, after many years as Executive Vice President of the Boston Red Sox.Dr. Charles spoke to our students about the qualities that he looks for when hiring an intern – qualities that he wished he would have known when he was first starting his career.“Integrity is paramount,” said Dr. Charles. “Can I trust you? Do you do what you say you’re going to do? Can I believe you?” he added. “I had no idea when I started my internship with the Orioles that they were going to notice me. I didn’t think they cared – they had bigger things to do. Later I would realize that interns are watched like hawks and your professional career starts on day one.”
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| Two members of the Dean College baseball team presented Dr Steinberg with a special baseball bat |
Dean College is pleased to welcome Dr. Charles Steinberg, president of the Worcester Red Sox, as the first speaker of the Dean Leadership Institute (DLI) Fall Speaker Series.
Dr. Charles Steinberg joined the Worcester Red Sox, known as the Pawtucket Red Sox at the time, as president on November 5, 2015 after many years as Executive Vice President of the Boston Red Sox. In a vast career in which he has also worked with the Baltimore Orioles, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig, "Dr. Charles" has helped revamp and re-energize the WooSox front office while leading the effort to aggressively reach out to the community to restore and enhance bonds of connection. He has also been instrumental in the community engagement of Central Massachusetts, including the development of Worcester’s Polar Park and the relocation of the franchise to the city in 2021.
The program is FREE and open to the public. RSVP to attend the Dean Leadership Institute event on September 29, 2022 (https://host.nxt.blackbaud.com/registration-form/?formId=4b46fee6-5f34-4a3c-afe8-1a4ac93373e2&envId=p-znTBbqSjmkypIjo1twnSVg) .
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| Dr. Charles Steinberg to open Fall Dean Leadership Institute Speaker Series - Sep 29 |
The Massachusetts Women Veterans' Network will host the first ever FAMILY DAY on Saturday, October 1, 2022 at Greenhill Park in Worcester! See flier to register!
Shared from -> https://www.franklinma.gov/veterans-services/news/women-veterans-network-host-first-family-day-park
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| Women Veterans' Network to Host First Family Day in the Park! |
"Worcester is looking at inclusionary zoning to add affordable homes. This chart shows how slow housing development has been last +10 yrs, even as city's population grew.
For more graphics like this, check out mhp.net/datatown"
Worcester data:
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| housing development has been last +10 yrs in Worcester, MA |
What does Franklin's data look like?
Note: please be careful with the visual comparison. The volume scale for Franklin (300-200-100) is significantly less than Worcester's (600-400-200).
The chart depicts how many new housing permits that Franklin has issued for each year of the data collection (net of demolitions), broken out by type of building
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| Franklin and Worcester data together to see the info on the same scale |
Sparked by the MHP tweet - https://twitter.com/mhpdata/status/1551662361110630401
The Franklin radar picked up this story from Worcester:
"The owner of a Worcester apartment building that partially collapsed earlier this month took dozens of tenants to court on Monday seeking a way to remove their possessions from the building to make way for repairs.
More than 100 people had to evacuate the 267 Mill St. building on July 15 after the roof caved in, punching a hole in the building from the fourth floor to the basement. The collapse was likely caused by construction materials placed in one small area on the roof, according to court records.
No one was injured in the incident, but the collapse left every resident homeless, with many now sheltering temporarily at a Worcester hotel. Meanwhile, their possessions are stuck in the damaged building, which Worcester officials ordered condemned on July 18.
On Friday, the company that owns the building, Franklin-based 267 Mill Street LLC, sent about 30 tenants summonses to appear in court on Monday over the removal of possessions."
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| 267 Mill St. in Worcester pictured on Wednesday. Residents had to leave all their possessions during an evacuation on July 15 after a roof collapse. (Neal McNamara/Patch) |
As we approach the local election for Nov 2, I share this statement from Tracy Novick, School Committee member of Worcester, MA. The section shared here is a brief piece of her full comments (link provided). I think this provides great insights for potential School Committee candidates. Tracy makes this statement with 15 years of experience. Experience that is worth learning from.
"I first think it’s important to note that this is our job. School Committees in Massachusetts under MGL Ch. 71, §37 are described as having four core responsibilities, one of which is “to select and terminate the superintendent.” This is not the job of interest groups, of business interests, of non-profit entities…it is the job of the Worcester School Committee, period. I intend, and I believe my colleagues intend, to do our job, as it is our job to do.
It is the governance of the school committee that determines the direction of the district. I have heard it said that the superintendent is a reflection of the school committee. In selecting the superintendent, the school committee expresses a set of values and communicates the level of professionalism the committee expects of its employees. It ultimately also determines the quality of the education the district delivers to students.
Second, the most important thing that any committee needs to do in conducting a superintendent search is tell the truth to their community. If they intend to appoint an internal candidate, they should say so. If they are going to do a full, inclusive national search, then they have the responsibility to not only say so, but to do so.
The Worcester School Committee will conduct a full, inclusive national search, period. "
Read the full statement here -> https://who-cester.blogspot.com/2021/09/my-remarks-on-tonights-vote.html
"Timberyard Brewing Co. spent much of 2020 pivoting and belt-tightening.The East Brookfield brewer furloughed all five of its part-time servers last March, then tried for the better part of the spring and summer to find the hours to piece its staff together again.This year, though, Timberyard has already hired six new servers and a kitchen assistant. Production has increased by 200%, as the brewery signed a new distribution deal and hired on its first assistant brewer.Area breweries were rebounding from the pandemic well before the state lifted all COVID-19 restrictions. Now most breweries are not only on sure enough footing to hire their employees back, but also need to add more staff to prepare for the large crowds expected this summer."
"The man entrusted with the key approached a dull-gray door flecked with rust. A turn of the wrist threw the lock to reveal a ballpark in suspension, its outfield far from true-hop ready, its billboards fading, its thousands of empty seats the hard-plastic playground of pigeons.
Maybe Pawtucket should charge the birds admission, said the employee, Chris Crawley, who is the maintenance manager for the Rhode Island city of 71,000. His joke was of the coping kind.
It was a sunny and mild Tuesday, perfect for the home opener of the spanking new Worcester Red Sox in a spanking new ballpark 40 miles to the north, in Massachusetts. That is all well and good and hooray for baseball, but — for a half-century and up until very recently — the Worcester Red Sox were known as the Pawtucket Red Sox."
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| a night at McCoy in 2019 |
The Worcester Public School District is getting into their school start time discussion. Yes, remember that? Franklin put it aside to deal with the Davis Thayer issue and then the pandemic hit. It is still sitting on the sidelines.
The Davis Thayer issue remains only partially resolved, so it would seem that the Franklin school start time discussion is not likely to resume anytime soon.
The decision to close Davis Thayer effective September 2021 was made by the School Committee at their Feb 9, 2021 meeting. Planning on the transition of Thayer students to the Keller facility for September are underway. The FY 2022 budget is being adjusted to account for what savings and/or expenses would occur to make the transition seamless for both school and Town sides of the budget. (The School budget handles the education side, the Town budget handles the facility operation side.)
The decision to make the Davis Thayer building 'surplus' for the School District has not yet be scheduled. The Town of Franklin can't do much officially without that notification from the School District.
The next big item the School Committee (and community) will get into should be development of the 'master plan' for the school district. Recall that the facility utilization report revealed the District could operate with less schools than it currently has. The excess capacity could be addressed by closing additional schools and potentially restructuring to operate with three elementary schools, one middle school all feeding to Franklin High. How to get to this position, if it is desired, is what the 'master plan' should work on.
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| Worcester getting into their school start time discussion |
"Before they built Polar Park, the Worcester Red Sox hosted 21 fan meetings and jotted down 877 ideas. One thing was crystal clear: Worcester didn’t want its new stadium to be Fenway Park.
“Worcester wanted something different. They didn’t want to be Fenway green,” says Dr. Charles Steinberg, Worcester Red Sox president. So most everything will be blue; from the understated industrial corrugated metal exterior to the blue seats and 22-foot blue Worcester Wall in right field with seats and a fan deck.
No Green Monster in left?
“There was a naturalness to the Green Monster that we didn’t want to force,” says chairman and principal owner Larry Lucchino. “And there was a hill in right field that we needed to build a wall in front of.”
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Via Tracy Novick:
"I was asked to write up what I said at last night's Worcester School Committee meeting about our vote to reopen school buildings. I don't write my comments ahead of time--I speak from notes--and in this case, I was partly responding to the public comment that preceded our vote.
If you'd like to hear it, you can watch it on YouTube here."
https://youtu.be/1d8wv5A9U_M (if the video doesn't start at 2:00.16, then skip ahead to that point to get to this particular topic. BTW - Tracy finishes about 2:13 (so only about 13 minutes but a great summary!)
The text of Tracy's remarks http://who-cester.blogspot.com/2021/02/on-reopening-of-school-buildings.html
From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:
"Just as Linda Hixon and Shawn Driscoll were finishing their book, “The Grip: The 1918 Pandemic and a City Under Siege,” last winter, another pandemic hit.
They believe that after more than 100 years have passed, the United States should have learned more about how to protect itself from COVID-19.
“I’d have to say we’ve learned nothing from the 1918 pandemic,” Hixon said. “We should have and we can, but we didn’t.”
Driscoll said the 1918 flu pandemic should have taught everyone that local, state and federal governments need to work together to implement safety measures, and decide when to shut down and reopen businesses and schools. But somehow it didn’t.
“I don’t think we’re truly taking the lessons that need to be learned from 1918-19 and applying them to the 21st century,” he said."
From the Milford Daily News, articles of interest for Franklin:
When the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920, giving women the right to vote, it was after 70 years of hard work that started with a convention in Worcester.
There were other discussions held about women’s rights, including the heralded regional convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 organized by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but the first national Women’s Rights Convention held in Worcester in 1850 was a foundation to the cause of women’s rights. The convention was organized by prominent women’s rights activists, including Lucy Stone of West Brookfield and Abby Kelley Foster of Worcester. It proved such a success they followed it up the next year with a second national convention in Worcester.
The women’s movement grew out of efforts to abolish slavery for which both Stone, Foster and Foster’s husband, Stephen Symonds Foster, were all active. Stone gave her first address on women’s rights three years before the convention from the pulpit of the Evangelical Congregational Church in Gardner, where her brother, the Rev. William Stone, was minister.
Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required) https://www.milforddailynews.com/news/20200817/since-1850-worcester-heart-of-fight-for-womens-rights?rssfeed=true
"Please make no mistake: having our kids out of school is absolutely catastrophic to their education, and, in many cases, to their physical and mental health. In some cases, this has been exponentially increased by the lack of timely response, or mismanagement, or other leadership lacks.A worthy read, to continue follow this link:
I'm not under any illusions on how destructive this time is to many.
I also spend a good bit of time in and around schools, and schools of different types. I know what it's like in a suburban high school at lunchtime, and what it's like at an urban elementary school at recess. I've been in the closets that pass for offices for speech therapists and myriad of other support staff, the auto bays and shops of a vocational school at work, the flood of students running for buses at the end of the day.
I've also been in a lot of bathrooms.
I don't of course know it all, but know what a lot of that looks like in schools in Massachusetts right now.
I don't know how we do it without kids touching each other and breathing on each other and their teachers. I mean that, genuinely. I have tried and tried to figure out how you'd do it."
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| Tracy Novick: "The pit in my stomach" |
"Citing a lack of evidence and need, an independent consultant hired by the Select Board has concluded that Eversource’s plan to replace a 3.7-mile natural gas line that runs through Hopkinton and Ashland is severely flawed.Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
Eversource is looking to decommission about 4 miles of underground piping that runs through Ashland and Hopkinton and place new 12-inch pipes alongside them.
In Ashland, the gas pipeline runs for 2.5 miles and intersects through more than 80 residential parcels, the Chestnut Tree Apartments and a number of environmentally sensitive areas, including portions of the wetlands and the conservation-restricted Great Bend Farm Trust. The company says the project is needed to address pressure drop problems and provide a more reliable and consistent flow of natural gas to customers in Greater Framingham.
In June 2018, Eversource filed an application with the state’s Energy Facility Siting Board, an agency that reviews large scale energy projects. In its application, the company also included preliminary information about an alternative under-street route should the Siting Board deny its request to place the new pipes on the existing easement."
"City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. has given the OK for work to resume this week on some construction projects here, Polar Park being one of them. What happens next, what does the resumption of work mean for the immediate and longer range future?
That’s a different story.
In a prepared statement, Worcester Red Sox chairman Larry Lucchino said this:
“While we look forward to resuming the construction of Worcester’s new ballpark, we recognize that precautions, health, and safety remain paramount. We will support our local construction workers, and we will abide by the conditions set forth by our leaders to ensure an environment that complies with their public policy and expert medical recommendations."
