Man About Canton: Special Interests at Annual Town Meeting
By Joe DeFeliceDid you know …
Chapman Street resident Bruce Rohr and his neighbor, Selectman Vic Del Vecchio, were able to convince 43 voters at Canton’s annual town meeting to pass a bylaw allowing the town to hold its annual town elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Canton would become the first town in Massachusetts to shift its elections to the fall. State law mandates that all town elections must be held during the months of February, March, April, May, or June.
Personally, MAC did not support this new bylaw as it will not make much of a difference in the town of Canton. Changing the date to November will bring out more voters in a national or state election year, but in MAC’s opinion, it will not bring out Canton voters to run for office. You certainly cannot get them to the town meeting as only 163 out of 14,430 registered voters made it to the high school auditorium on May 12, and by 11:45 p.m., only 83 voters remained to vote on the new bylaw that passed by the slim margin of 43-40. Changing the town election date is a bad idea and will not work.
According to the Social Security Administration’s list of the most popular American baby names for 2013, Noah is at the top of the list for boys’ names, followed by Liam, Jacob, Mason and William. For the girls, Sophia was number one, followed by Emma, Olivia, Isabella, and Ava. Michael was king for 45 years between 1955 and 1999, before Jacob rose to number one. Mary dominated the first half of the 20th century, but today it is not in the top 100.
Velma Coffey, secretary to the Building Department and longtime secretary to the Canton Zoning Board of Appeals, has retired. Selectmen appointed Adrienne Borges as her replacement.
Fishermen who fish off the wall at the Reservoir Pond on Pleasant Street are not happy with the new parking restrictions that prohibit parking on either side of Pleasant Street from 92 Pleasant Street to Oak Street. The restriction also includes the launching of boats from Pleasant Street. Both restrictions take effect June 1.
Talking about Pleasant Street, selectmen voted to appropriate nearly $440,000 in Chapter 90 roadway funds to pave Pleasant Street from Washington Street to Pleasant Circle. The town will be receiving about $753,000 in Chapter 90 funds this year from the state.
The Canton Association of Business and Industry will sponsor the eighth annual Tom Clark Golf Outing on Monday, June 16, at the Milton Hoosic Country Club at 70 Green Lodge Street in Canton starting at 3 p.m. For more information, contact Paul Hannigan at 781-828-2555.
John Dineen has moved his auto service from 286 Bailey Street to the former R.C. Muirhead Building at 395 Washington Street.
Dunkin’ Brands, the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins, plans to erect a 410-square-foot lighted sign that would be visible from Route 128 at its headquarters at 150 Royall Street.
The town of Westwood will provide as many as 10 liquor licenses for the University Station Project. The $500 million development is being built by a collaboration that includes New England Development, Eastern Real Estate, LLC, National Development, and Clarion Partners, LLC, all of whom bought the 140-acre parcel for $45 million in 2012. More than 18 acres will be set aside as open space.
According to the project’s lead developer, Paul Cincotta, vice president of New England Development, 75 to 80 percent of the parcels have been leased out.
Sharon High School was ranked the top public secondary school in the south shore by U.S. News and World Reports. Sharon High was 10th on the Massachusetts list and ranked 215 on this year’s list of top high schools nationally out of more than 19,000 high schools examined, with 352 in Massachusetts. The top-ranked high school in Massachusetts is Boston Latin School.
Talking about Sharon, their recent town meeting rejected an article that would allow a cluster development of 98 single-family homes in the Rattlesnake Hill area. Instead, the owner of the property, Brickstone Properties, will go ahead and develop 250 Chapter 40B affordable units. Sharon Selectman William Heitin said that he considered the cluster zoning plan better than the affordable housing development. The neighbors opposed the plan in hopes that nothing would be built. This is another example where a special interest group at a town meeting overrides the interest of the town as a whole. The schools in Sharon won’t be happy with the influx of the many students who will mostly likely be moving to Sharon.
Betsy Wall, former Cantonite and head coach of the Norfolk Aggie softball team, sports a 13-2 record, and they are averaging more than 13 runs per game. Betsy, who has led the team since it was created in 1992, said “this has been a dream season.”
Governor Deval Patrick has nominated Canton Attorney William Sullivan for a Superior Court judgeship, and it has been approved by the Governor’s Council.
Remember that “short cuts make long delays.”
This is all for now folks. See you next week.
Joe DeFelice can be reached at manaboutcanton@aol.com.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=25579
Posted by Joe DeFelice
on May 29 2014. Filed under Featured Content, Man About Canton, Opinion.
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