One of the institutions around town and a great place for friend seafood and ice cream is Ronnies. And for those who fear trans fat, cholesterol and such things, they use a healthy version of oil called Trifry, made from grapeseed, canola and safflower oils which contains neither of those two evils.
My cousin, the late Dave Bylund worked there for years and passed on this past May. He's missed for sure by everyone and especially those at the stand. Besides missing him they miss his tremendous work ethic and the way he took care of things.
Tonight I had a haddock and onion rings with vanilla shake and they were both tasty and ungreasy as usual. It's a great place and one of those things I love about living here in summertime!
They close next Monday and it's a long time til Good Friday - take advantage while you can!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Blackstone bikeway
T&G story today talking about the new bikeway from Worcester to Providence.
Interesting stuff ... something the "crossroads" town should do some time (meaning Auburn).
http://telegram.com/article/20070926/FRONTPAGENEWS/70926004
Interesting stuff ... something the "crossroads" town should do some time (meaning Auburn).
http://telegram.com/article/20070926/FRONTPAGENEWS/70926004
Cheap heating oil
Federal fuel assistance was announced today. $12M will help those in need. Here are a couple of links if you want to look into it:
http://www.mass.gov/dhcd/components/cs/Fuel/default.htm
http://www.massdhcd.com/fuel/fa.asp
Also I wanted to put in a plug about Mass Energy. It's essentially something like a fuel co-op. You join by paying $50 and then get to buy heating oil at discount rates. Generally fuel is around 20% less at Mass Energy than retail suppliers. The oil is delivered by local operators and they have budget plans. CK Smith does delivery for me.
They also have bio-fuel available for about 10% premium. In addition to less carbon (for being "green") and sulfur emissions the fuel burns cleaner in your system. Today's price was around $2.45 per gallon through them which is comparable to other's regular fuel price.
Also they promote green electricity, conservation, solar etc.
If you're interested tell them you heard it through the blog for me!
http://www.mass.gov/dhcd/components/cs/Fuel/default.htm
http://www.massdhcd.com/fuel/fa.asp
Also I wanted to put in a plug about Mass Energy. It's essentially something like a fuel co-op. You join by paying $50 and then get to buy heating oil at discount rates. Generally fuel is around 20% less at Mass Energy than retail suppliers. The oil is delivered by local operators and they have budget plans. CK Smith does delivery for me.
They also have bio-fuel available for about 10% premium. In addition to less carbon (for being "green") and sulfur emissions the fuel burns cleaner in your system. Today's price was around $2.45 per gallon through them which is comparable to other's regular fuel price.
Also they promote green electricity, conservation, solar etc.
If you're interested tell them you heard it through the blog for me!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
McMansion bylaw
Interesting story about what Wellesley residents are doing to combat the obnoxious McMansions popping up all around our great Commonwealth.
Critics of McMansions are pushing to change town zoning laws by tying allowable house sizes not just to the size of individual properties, but to the scale of the neighborhood. The proposed ordinance would also involve a review board of residents to make judgments about a proposed house: Would it block a neighbor's sunlight? Would its droning air conditioning sit too close to the property lines? Would the driveway cause glaring headlights to shine in nearby windows? "It means that the builders who are just after giant, graceless boxes will have to find somewhere else to build,"It goes to show what can be done to preserve neighborhood character when residents get together on this stuff. The key is to think proactively about the next project coming down the pike and work to set some standards, otherwise developers exploit the rules to maximize profits without regard for such issues.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
3Ps - one down for Berlin St
Well, it took a while (30 years by some counts) but the town actually repaved Berlin St recently. Dave D's company (Lynch) did it while he was working on clear cutting 88 Wallace for his side project.
Now if only they would have put in drainage (that would be Pipes, another of the Ps) ... because it will get degraded in short order (a year or three) without it.
But that's getting ahead of myself ... Wallace and Berlin are completely paved now. Nice job too.
I also noticed Harrison and Burnap on the slate for this week. Burnap sure needed it bad too. I don't know what prompted this sudden spurt of superior service from highway department (maybe all that talk of DPW? ;), but it's welcome!
Basic services for town residents - hooray!
Now if only they would have put in drainage (that would be Pipes, another of the Ps) ... because it will get degraded in short order (a year or three) without it.
But that's getting ahead of myself ... Wallace and Berlin are completely paved now. Nice job too.
I also noticed Harrison and Burnap on the slate for this week. Burnap sure needed it bad too. I don't know what prompted this sudden spurt of superior service from highway department (maybe all that talk of DPW? ;), but it's welcome!
Basic services for town residents - hooray!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Dr Harrington meeting
In case you missed it, there was a presentation at the AHS by a Northeastern professor last week on labor trends, who in the economy makes the good money etc.
Generalizing, he presented wide ranging data on education and wage trends in the economy. It was an interesting presentation and very well received. One key point:
* Basic skills competency is a predictor (meaning has a high correlation) to performance in college as well as earning level. This is referring to basic reading, writing and math skills. The obvious conclusion was that there is a high return on investing in these skills in our kids.
What's funny is that this presentation was very similar to those given to me around 25 years ago when I was deciding where to attend school. At the time Auburn had a confusing collection of electives and a myriad of choices for course of study for the HS. You could see that as a good thing but it was my parent's conclusion that they lacked focus and what was needed was an emphasis on core skills. For this reason we chose a private school. Unfortunately money was tight but after the first year the school was very generous in aid (since I put up the grades).
There was a bundle of other data which showed the shift to a service economy away from manufacturing and the relatively high value of technical skills and higher education.
One somewhat surprising trend was the value of work and vocational education. It turns out when kids in the middle teen years work for a year or two they end up making more money and have a higher chance of graduating with a 4 year degree. You can look at the performance of 10th grade students at Bay path in math for evidence of that. The actual MCAS test is not emphasized in the school's curriculum yet they outperform neighboring Oxford for example in math. The theory is that by learning the applied skills the MCAS scores improve as a result without having to resort to special coursework designed for the test alone.
In all I think it was a good presentation, one I heard many times and one of the reasons I decided on a technical career so long ago. I'm glad educators in town were impressed by the data and it's my hope this will affect the curriculum going forward. It's certainly something for the SC to use as a basic resource.
I do think it was somewhat of a sales pitch and self-serving, but this is America after all, everyone's selling something ;).
I would have liked a discussion of how to make tuition more affordable so we can compete with international workers and students elsewhere. There was no mention of imported students and the hand in glove relationship of universities with the H1B program as well as keeping tuition high to line their pockets. Norm Matloff has a lot of interesting stats about foreign grad students and H1B/L1 program.
Generalizing, he presented wide ranging data on education and wage trends in the economy. It was an interesting presentation and very well received. One key point:
* Basic skills competency is a predictor (meaning has a high correlation) to performance in college as well as earning level. This is referring to basic reading, writing and math skills. The obvious conclusion was that there is a high return on investing in these skills in our kids.
What's funny is that this presentation was very similar to those given to me around 25 years ago when I was deciding where to attend school. At the time Auburn had a confusing collection of electives and a myriad of choices for course of study for the HS. You could see that as a good thing but it was my parent's conclusion that they lacked focus and what was needed was an emphasis on core skills. For this reason we chose a private school. Unfortunately money was tight but after the first year the school was very generous in aid (since I put up the grades).
There was a bundle of other data which showed the shift to a service economy away from manufacturing and the relatively high value of technical skills and higher education.
One somewhat surprising trend was the value of work and vocational education. It turns out when kids in the middle teen years work for a year or two they end up making more money and have a higher chance of graduating with a 4 year degree. You can look at the performance of 10th grade students at Bay path in math for evidence of that. The actual MCAS test is not emphasized in the school's curriculum yet they outperform neighboring Oxford for example in math. The theory is that by learning the applied skills the MCAS scores improve as a result without having to resort to special coursework designed for the test alone.
In all I think it was a good presentation, one I heard many times and one of the reasons I decided on a technical career so long ago. I'm glad educators in town were impressed by the data and it's my hope this will affect the curriculum going forward. It's certainly something for the SC to use as a basic resource.
I do think it was somewhat of a sales pitch and self-serving, but this is America after all, everyone's selling something ;).
I would have liked a discussion of how to make tuition more affordable so we can compete with international workers and students elsewhere. There was no mention of imported students and the hand in glove relationship of universities with the H1B program as well as keeping tuition high to line their pockets. Norm Matloff has a lot of interesting stats about foreign grad students and H1B/L1 program.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Preserving land in Auburn
The MPIC had an excellent speaker on Wednesday night from Greater Worcester Land Trust (http://www.gwlt.org). Colin M.J. Novick, the project Coordinator for GWLT spoke energetically for about an hour. The purpose of the meeting was to have an informational discussion of conservation, how they went about it in Worcester, successes and failures and such. The idea was to partially test the waters for what the town could do in this regard.
It's a shame it wasn't televised, because there was a lot of information, but in essence he went through their results in maps and on a slide presentation (will try and get a link to the information) as well as some of how they did it. They started in 1987 and continue to this day, preserving around 1500 acres of open space in the city. It doesn't sound like a lot but given it's mostly in an urban area it's certainly something to be proud of.
Conservation takes a lot of time and commitment. For the first 3 years, no land at all was saved from development. This was partially because of a real estate boom at the time. I quipped at one point that on the bright side we're in a downturn which would make things easier. But over time, given their persistent efforts and presence, opportunities arose. One action they took that made a lot of sense was in the beginning they identified the 15 top parcels or opportunities and tracked them over time. They went out and knocked on doors to discuss what the owners wanted, were patient and found funds both in the trust and at all levels of government.
There are many ways to accomplish conservation besides owning the land. Conservation restrictions for instance, allow someone else to own the property while providing some agreed upon conservation level and management. The owner gets special tax consideration for this which saves them money while preserving the land from development. Trail easements across private land are a way to link conservation tracts and in MGL liability is very limited.
Most if not all conservation done by GWLT allows some degree of public access. This is mostly passive recreation but not always (for instance Green Hill Park which has a golf course and armory on it). But the goal is usually to preserve the land from development while allowing things like walking or hiking, not motorized vehicles and such. So folks can enjoy it but at the same time keep the character of the habitat or landscape and not destroy it.
There are at least 3 things that can be done in a given town - formation of a 501c3 corp like GWLT, use the assistance of a group like that on a limited basis or have a town-based organization. The reason a completely government-based org isn't good is that to a lot of people that seems intrusive or negative. If you're a non-profit, people are much more likely to work with you and trust you (since you have no money for one).
Ann Weston mentioned many 61a (farming) properties as well as other town owned land which are opportunities for conservation. Also the Auburn Hills project was again mentioned for possible land gift to the town should they decide to go with the open space plan. In this case, it might make sense to get outside help of GWLT or another organization because things could happen very quickly.
The bottom line is that people have to care about parcels to succeed in preserving them. The director really has a positive attitude, keeps up to date on which grants are available and is willing to wait and work with various parties to get things done. Obviously, his energy helps tremendously, but he also made a point to explicitly credit his platoon of volunteers for all the efforts they make. Land will be preserved by those who use it now or remember it from when they were kids and enjoyed it and those who value keeping some natural features about the place safe from development. There are incentives to landowners for this also but it's really the commitment of volunteers that make this work over time.
Contact me if you're interested in this topic, I will be trying to garner support for it and testing the waters for interest. I think a place to start will be the Concom also groups like the Sportsmen's club and other organizations in town.
It's a shame it wasn't televised, because there was a lot of information, but in essence he went through their results in maps and on a slide presentation (will try and get a link to the information) as well as some of how they did it. They started in 1987 and continue to this day, preserving around 1500 acres of open space in the city. It doesn't sound like a lot but given it's mostly in an urban area it's certainly something to be proud of.
Conservation takes a lot of time and commitment. For the first 3 years, no land at all was saved from development. This was partially because of a real estate boom at the time. I quipped at one point that on the bright side we're in a downturn which would make things easier. But over time, given their persistent efforts and presence, opportunities arose. One action they took that made a lot of sense was in the beginning they identified the 15 top parcels or opportunities and tracked them over time. They went out and knocked on doors to discuss what the owners wanted, were patient and found funds both in the trust and at all levels of government.
There are many ways to accomplish conservation besides owning the land. Conservation restrictions for instance, allow someone else to own the property while providing some agreed upon conservation level and management. The owner gets special tax consideration for this which saves them money while preserving the land from development. Trail easements across private land are a way to link conservation tracts and in MGL liability is very limited.
Most if not all conservation done by GWLT allows some degree of public access. This is mostly passive recreation but not always (for instance Green Hill Park which has a golf course and armory on it). But the goal is usually to preserve the land from development while allowing things like walking or hiking, not motorized vehicles and such. So folks can enjoy it but at the same time keep the character of the habitat or landscape and not destroy it.
There are at least 3 things that can be done in a given town - formation of a 501c3 corp like GWLT, use the assistance of a group like that on a limited basis or have a town-based organization. The reason a completely government-based org isn't good is that to a lot of people that seems intrusive or negative. If you're a non-profit, people are much more likely to work with you and trust you (since you have no money for one).
Ann Weston mentioned many 61a (farming) properties as well as other town owned land which are opportunities for conservation. Also the Auburn Hills project was again mentioned for possible land gift to the town should they decide to go with the open space plan. In this case, it might make sense to get outside help of GWLT or another organization because things could happen very quickly.
The bottom line is that people have to care about parcels to succeed in preserving them. The director really has a positive attitude, keeps up to date on which grants are available and is willing to wait and work with various parties to get things done. Obviously, his energy helps tremendously, but he also made a point to explicitly credit his platoon of volunteers for all the efforts they make. Land will be preserved by those who use it now or remember it from when they were kids and enjoyed it and those who value keeping some natural features about the place safe from development. There are incentives to landowners for this also but it's really the commitment of volunteers that make this work over time.
Contact me if you're interested in this topic, I will be trying to garner support for it and testing the waters for interest. I think a place to start will be the Concom also groups like the Sportsmen's club and other organizations in town.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
