Man About Canton: Snowplows are Disappearing

DID YOU KNOW …

At least three snowplows have been stolen in Canton over the past few months, including one owned by the Canton Housing Authority valued at $4,000. It is the second time in two years that a snowplow has been stolen from the Housing Authority maintenance yard behind the Hemenway complex. The plow was chained to a post, but thieves used bolt cutters to remove it. Two Canton contractors have also seen their snowplows disappear from their properties.

With reports of metal thefts steadily increasing, Canton police are asking business owners to lock up all scrap metal and expensive equipment.

The Randolph High School basketball team recently beat Blue Hills in a thrilling, last-second 56-54 win before a capacity crowd at the Randolph High gym. The reason for the full house was that 10 of the 11 students on the Blue Hills roster are from Randolph. According to Blue Hills coach Brian Gearty, “There are many close friendships, and there has been a lot of talk about this game.”

Former Cantonite Charlie Stevenson Jr. is the athletic director at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood.

The Blue Hills Ski Area in Canton is having major problems with the lack of snow and unseasonably warm weather. For the first time in three years, Blue Hills did not open before Christmas.

A Canton developer is planning to construct a 3,400-square-foot, two-family structure on the property located at 415-425 Bolivar Street.

Dryer fires are on the increase, and the Canton Fire Department urges homeowners to remove the lint after every dryer load and not run the appliance when no one is home.

It doesn’t come as a surprise, but the average net worth of members of Congress is $913,000. While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent between 2004 and 2010, the median net worth for all Americans has dropped 8 percent during the same period, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics. Nearly half the members of Congress are millionaires.

The town of Stoughton has voted to purchase the 97-acre Glen Echo Pond property in North Stoughton, just over the town of Canton’s property line, for $1.2 million. The Stoughton selectmen recently voted 3-2 to allow the town council to proceed with the purchase of the land after town meeting members voted 93-30 to authorize to town to borrow up to $1.5 million to purchase the property.

Attendance at movie theaters in America has dipped to the lowest in 16 years. Hollywood has struggled to interest audiences in its movies over the past two years.

Here are some interesting facts about the casinos in Connecticut: Thirty percent of the customers that go to the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut come from Massachusetts, while 20 percent of the customers at Mohegan Sun are Bay Staters. Foxwoods is the second-largest casino resort in the world, with four hotels, 6,600 slot machines, and 348 table games. It did $1.8 billion in business in 2010. The two casinos each pay 25 percent of the slot proceeds to the state of Connecticut, and over the years have pumped nearly $6 billion into Connecticut’s treasury. Foxwoods opened in 1992, while Mohegan Sun opened in 1996. And you wonder why the politicians want casinos in Massachusetts. It may be the only way it can stay out of the red without raising taxes.

The Canton High School Alumni Association will hold its annual Pasta Social, catered by Nocera’s/Chateau, on Saturday, January 28, at the Canton American Legion Hall from 6 to 11 p.m. Tickets are $12 each and for more info, contact Mary Roach Harding at 774-501-2790.

Jerry and Helene Frank are retiring after 27 years of covering government meetings for Canton Community Television. MAC will also remember Jerry carrying the camera, while his wife carried the heavy recorder at all the local Canton events. Though officially retired, Jerry does not plan to stop completely. He’ll fill in when needed.

MAC was told that the lamppost light at the corner of Neponset and Washington streets in front of the 7/11 convenience store will never light up because there are no electrical lines connected to it. Now that’s a waste of money!

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back, while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are “limbs;” therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more. Artists know limbs are more difficult to paint, hence the expression, “It will cost you an arm and a leg” … Now you know the rest of the story.

A New Year’s resolution for this year: The way to get ahead is to start now. If you start now, you will know a lot next year that you don’t know now and that you would not have known next year if you had waited.

This is all for now folks. See you next week.

Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.

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Posted by Joe DeFelice on Jan 11 2012. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.