Man About Canton: Heating Oil Prices

Did you know …

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects a 10 percent decline in spending for home heating oil this winter. Oil prices remain depressed around the world and nearly 20 percent of homes in the northeast rely on oil furnaces for their heating source.

According to the EIA, spending for propane is projected to grow 14 percent while natural gas and electricity spending are projected to increase by 6 and 7 percent, respectively. Many families are already struggling to pay utility bills because of the pandemic, so any increase is a concern.

The state unemployment rate is now the lowest (9.6 percent) it has been since March 2020, the last month of data that did not fully reflect the massive layoffs prompted by government-mandated shutdowns and large-scale shifts in consumer behavior to avoid public health risks.

The federal unemployment rate has been going down for the past few months and dropped to 7.9 percent in September.

It took only a little over one year to build the new home for the Skating Club of Boston. Last April, the club submitted plans for the 180,000-square-foot, three-rink facility on the 36-acre parcel on part of the former Lost Brook Golf Course at 750 University Ave. in Norwood, just over the Canton town line. The new facility opened on September 8 and has been called the “Ferrari for Skating.” U.S. Figure Skating, the national governing body for the sport in the United States, recently selected the new rink as host of an upcoming national championship qualifier. According to the club’s executive director, Doug Zeghibe, “This facility can host every and any event up to a U.S. or world championship.” According to a recent article in the Boston Herald, the new Skating Club of Boston facility features three rinks, a 2,500-seat performance center area, and a physical therapy and athletic training center. The Skating Club of Boston was able to build this impressive state-of-the-art campus by selling its old home on a two-acre property in Brighton to the Davis Companies for $26.25 million.

According to former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, the COVID-19 pandemic will end up costing the United States an estimated $16 trillion, which is four times the cost of the Great Recession. About half of that amount is related to lost gross domestic product as a result of economic shutdowns and the ongoing spread of the virus.

The Canton School Department is facing a budget deficit of approximately $1.65 million in the current fiscal year because of COVID-19 spending. A plan to remedy the shortfall was approved recently by the School Committee and Select Board and involves tapping into the Finance Committee and Special Education reserve accounts and borrowing funds from various school revolving accounts.

According to the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, the median price of a single-family home jumped 12.4 percent to a record-high $680,000 in September 2020. Compared to September 2019, sales are also up 32.3 percent.

The median price of condominiums for September 2020 climbed to $592,500.

From MAC’s trivia file: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr. (1925-2020), the older of two surviving grandsons of the 10th president of the United States, John Tyler (1790-1862), died on September 26 at the age of 95. President John Tyler had 15 children, the most of any U.S. president. One of his sons, Lyon, was born when John was 63 years old. Before his recent passing, Lyon Tyler Jr. and his 91-year-old brother Harrison Tyler were the last surviving sons of Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Sr. (1853-1935), who was 72 years old when Lyon Jr. was born on January 3, 1925, and 75 years old when son Harrison came along in 1928. The three generations of Tylers span an incredible 230 years. Harrison Tyler is now the last surviving grandson of President Tyler, the earliest president of the United States with living grandchildren.

Three things cannot be long hidden — the sun, the moon, and the truth.  –Buddha

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=71261

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Nov 20 2020. Filed under Featured Content, From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.