Man About Canton: CANTON LOSES ROSELAND HOUSING CASE

DID YOU KNOW…

The State Court of Appeals recently ruled against Canton and in favor of the State Housing Appeal Committee’s approval of Roseland Property Company’s application to build 196 apartments and 28 homes on Randolph Street, near the Randolph town line, under Chapter 40B, the state’s affordable housing law. The court said Canton erred when it turned down Roseland’s application because the town was only at 7.9 percent Chapter 40B affordable housing and not at, or over, the magic 10 percent figure that would have empowered the town to say no. The town will appeal. 

The Canton School Committee has unanimously approved more than $675,000 worth of “less painful” cuts  and fee hikes in its FY11 operating budget but also has to come up with another $700,000 in cuts in order to close a projected $1.375 million shortfall. The committee voted to bring back two user fees — a bus fee for students in grades 7 through 12 and a high school parking fee. They also voted to raise the athletic user fee by $25.

Meanwhile, school officials in Stoughton are proposing a level services budget for FY11 of $35.5 million, saying non-union employees will have to go without raises in the interest of averting layoffs. Fiscal Year 2011 begins on July 1, 2010.

Those of you who are procrastinators will be happy to learn that the 2009 federal and state tax return deadline in Massachusetts has been extended through May 11, 2010, because of the recent rainstorms and severe flooding we experienced in March. The tax extension applies to taxpayers in the counties of Norfolk, Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester.

The Art Scholarship Memorial Walk organized by the Friends of Beth Spence Cann will be held at the American Legion Post 24 (behind Canton High) on Sunday, April 18, beginning at 12 noon. Registration is from 11 to 11:45 a.m., and the cost is $20 for adults, $10 for children ages 10-16, and free for children under 10. For more information, contact Kim White at 781-821-1351 or Maura McNeice at 781-821-1831.

Subway sandwich shops began serving breakfast nationwide on April 5 in a move that the sandwich chain hopes will help add customers and sales.

Norwood Hospital is one of six non-profit Caritas Christi Health Care hospitals that are being purchased by Cerberus Capital Management for about $380 million. In addition to Norwood, the sale involves St. Elizabeth’s in Brighton, the Carney Hospital in Dorchester, and hospitals in Brockton, Fall River, and Methuen. Under the terms of the sale, Cerberus has pledged to keep the chain’s 13,000 employees and won’t sell the hospitals or make them public for at least three years. They will also continue to run the hospitals as Catholic institutions under ethical rules adopted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which includes a ban on abortions.

After years of dedicated services to the town, Frances Clines has resigned from the Canton Traffic Study Committee. You may recall that a few years ago, Mrs. Clines was instrumental in quashing the East-West Road proposal, which would have run a road from Pleasant Street out to Route 138.

MAC was happy to see that the town won the lawsuit against the architect and builder of the police station with respect to the necessary repairs to the new station’s flooring, which began to buckle soon after the station was renovated in 2004. The town will recover $425,000 plus 12 percent interest dating back to when the suit was filed in 2006.

Congratulations to Paul Seery of Oakdale Road who sold his Fairway Frank hot dogs at concession stands at the National Golf Expo at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston last month. All proceeds from the sales went to benefit the non-profit Massachusetts Chapter of the ALS Association. ALS is the acronym for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and is often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

From our “Time Marches On” Department comes this little tidbit: John Babcock, the last Canadian veteran of World War I, passed away at age 109. As MAC reported earlier, the United States has only one surviving World War I veteran, Frank Woodruff, who turned 109 earlier this month in West Virginia.

Congratulations to Andrew Dowton of Green Street in Canton. He is the outstanding 6’4” captain of the Milton Academy Boys’ Mustang basketball team who led the team to its best record in 30 years.

Finally, individuals and businesses hardest hit by the recent floods should be aware that federal aid is available. You can apply for reimbursements or loans by calling 1-800-621-3362 or by visiting www.fema.gov.

Be a can-do, will-try person. Focus on what you have, not what you don’t have, and what you can do rather than what you cannot do.

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=1916

Posted by Joe DeFelice on Apr 15 2010. Filed under Man About Canton, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.