Town planner and new bylaw proposals

I was watching the Planning Board last night and was generally impressed with the way our new town planner comports himself. I think the ideas about landscaping, buffering and even signs are just the kind of discussions we need to be having to make some "visual oases" among the Rt 12 clutter.

I haven't studied all the changes to this point but having some direction for the town going forward on these issues is a welcome change.

Sox in October

I've been a fan since '67, Yaz, Impossible Dream (yeah I know - getting old) and ever since. I also played baseball in school, and do so currently for fun in the Boston Baseball league.

It's great that they won the AL East over the hapless Yanks (who are the new baseball playoff losers) and now the pennant. Imagine two WS in the space of 4 seasons? Unbelievable - GO SOX!

A few more sleepless nights I guess, but playoff baseball is the best!

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

All I can say is wow. What a year for him - first an Oscar, now this. I've followed his environmentalism since the late 80s and Earth in the Balance days. Most or all of what he's claimed from those days has turned out to be true.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/12/nobel.gore/index.html

Will there be a Gore/Clinton ticket in 08? The Gore hardcore supporters would say he won once already ;). Time will tell - congratulations to Al Gore on this honor!

Tackling a salty issue

Anyone notice the readings of sodium in our fine (blech) town water supply have been rising over the years? It's a sensitive topic too if you ask for the readings from the AWD. You usually get some kind of response along the lines of "well it's not even as much as a hotdog". Which is true technically of course because the amount in a hot dog is in the 100s of mg/l whereas the amount in our water is only between 30 and 300.

Wait a minute - 300?! Yeah that's the amount listed for some tests last year. The big problem I have with that is that amount is a base level for any cooking, drinking or water used for washing and bathing (heard of bath salts? ;). So add that to your boiled hot dogs and you have a recipe for high blood pressure soup. Anything beyond about 10 is noticeable in drinking water. Check the sodium levels for most bottled water and you'll find readings in the range of 0 to 5mg/l. The EPA suggests that a level of 20 mg/l is considered healthy. By the way, sodium is included on the CCL (contaminate candidates list) for drinking water, although it's included only as what they call a Research policy. If it were a Regulatory Determination Policy AWD would have to fix this situation. That day may come ....

The common wisdom suggests this is because of road salt. I don't know that we know that for sure though and I would venture a guess there are other sources too. For instance, how about the massive private parking lots along Rt 12? The location of our wells could not be at a worse place for road salt and ice treatment- the junction of Rt12, 290 and 90.

According to this article today in the Globe, Andover is dealing with this same issue trying to relocate a salt storage shed. Salt levels have risen to unhealthful levels during a short time.

it found that the level of sodium more than doubled between 1998 and 2003, from 32 parts per million to 70 parts per million - more than three times the EPA's recommended maximum level for human consumption.

Though sodium is not as dangerous as some compounds on the federal government's list of drinking water contaminants, high levels of the element in tap water are a health concern.

The EPA notes that a high level of salt intake may be associated with hypertension. On its website, the EPA states that it needs to update its guidance level for sodium and that it believes the level is probably too low. In a related consumer advisory, the agency reports that "sodium levels in drinking water from most public water systems are unlikely to be a significant contribution to adverse health effects."

We've had our issues with this in Auburn for at least 30 years. Something should be done about it. Think of the expense people go through, many who I know, to buy bottled water for drinking. Even the corrosive effects of the salty water on bridges, cars, pipes and the like.

We need to work on this I think. According to MassHighway, there is a low salt area in Oxford, which has a "town gap" in Auburn. Maybe this needs to be expanded. This is a health issue for anyone on a restricted sodium diet, really the whole town and we need to hold to task the water district, highway departments and others dumping salt that ends up in our drinking water.

Here's an overview from EPA on the issue. It's a clear case of pitting the rights of travellers over the rights of residents yet again in Auburn. So we want to enable clear roads for people passing through (or spending money at the businesses in town), even if that means residents all end up with hypertension? I don't think so - we can do better ....

Public vs private schools

Interesting new study on private vs public education. For those parents of means, this becomes an issue at some point - are my local public schools doing a good enough job educating students or should I consider paying (twice) for a private school for my kids?

Prevailing wisdom is that of course the more expensive private schools, thanks to advantages in income, enjoy an inherent advantage over public schools. They often boast of smaller classes, more individualized attention, instruction and curriculum and higher test scores.

Apparently, other factors, such as parental involvement, have a higher impact.

In trying to determine whether the type of high school attended by a student made a difference academically, the new study tried to separate out the effects of income; earlier eighth-grade test scores; parental expectations; whether parents discuss school with their children and whether parents participate in school activities.

When all these factors were accounted for, the only kind of private schools that had a positive impact on student achievement were Catholic schools run by holy orders such as the Jesuits. Such schools have more autonomy from the church than most Catholic schools, which are typically run by a diocese and are overseen by a superintendent in the local bishop's office.

Also this from the study center's president

"People commonly believe private schools are just inherently better," Jennings said. "We're forgetting that families are key to how well kids do. Maybe we ought to start to spend more time on families."

So maybe it's really the family that matters vs public and private. The parents that care enough to be looking at school choice are more involved hence the better results ... food for thought.

Charter review meeting tonight

Subjects like should we have a town manager, establishment of a DPW, reorganizing the town etc. are the types of things to look at with a charter review.

What's working in our town government and what isn't?

Come and be heard, be involved in the process, or stop complaining! ;)

MCAS results out for Spring 07

Taking a look at things, Auburn's mostly "in the middle" of performance for towns in the state.

From 06 to 07 scores of 10th grade students did decline by a little. But we have a new high school, and you would think it would rise since the kids were in the "improved" building. So maybe the building itself doesn't have as much affect on test scores as other factors like curriculum, teachers etc ... hmm. Well we have tangible numbers to try and improve and this should give folks some fodder for discussion in the ongoing strategy meetings at the HS.

2006

Auburn High School
Grade/ Subject	% Advanced	% Proficient	% Needs improving	% Warning/ Failing	Students tested	Placement overall
10th English	12	58	24	5	154	188 of 337
10th Math	45	24	23	8	154	177 of 337

2007

Auburn High School
Grade/ Subject	% Advanced	% Proficient	% Needs improving	% Warning/ Failing	Students tested	Placement overall
10th English	16	53	26	5	142	209 of 341
10th Math	40	26	30	4	141	216 of 341