My Turn: ‘The opposition’
Modified: 1/7/2021 1:51:46 PM
Attending Deerfield Zoning Board of Appeals public hearings regarding the proposal by Liscotti Development to build a 9,300-square-foot store at the corner of Mill Village Road and Greenfield Road in Deerfield has been a deeply frustrating experience. These hearings, held over Zoom due to COVID, insulate both the board and the public from understanding the full range of public sentiment about the proposal. The lawyer for the developer has been given apparently unlimited time to speak, while members of the public neighbors, Deerfield residents and taxpayers have had to limit their speaking time to three minutes, barely enough time to make a point, much less counter the misinformation presented at each meeting by the applicant’s attorney.
A new Main Street brewery has been given an extension of its sewer allocation, but questions remain about the status of the business, specifically whether the owner stills plan to open in Bourne.
Oak Bay Brewery has been on target to open in the former Asacks Footwear store at 140 Main Street in Buzzards Bay. Brewery owner Brian M. Poulin appeared before the Bourne Board of Sewer Commissioners in December 2019 and requested a wastewater allocation of 2,256 gallons per day for his new business.
The commissioners unanimously approved the request, in part because Town Administrator Anthony E. Schiavi said there were 2,408 gallons of wastewater capacity available out of the 200,000 gallons per day Bourne can send to Warehamâs treatment facility.
BEVERLY â An industrial site on Sohier Road continues to show high levels of contamination d…
The online meeting, which was hosted by Mayor Mike Cahill and attended by about 60 people, marked the first public meeting in nearly two decades about the cleanup at Varian. Cahill called for the meeting after residents raised concerns following a story by The Salem News detailing high levels of contamination in the groundwater at the site at 150 Sohier Road, despite a cleanup that has been going on since 1992.
BEVERLY â New testing found no evidence that contamination from the former Varian site is im…
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection tested homes and businesses in the area earlier this month and concluded that chemicals from Varian were not getting into the air inside of homes. But the agency also said it would do a deep dive into the cleanup and conduct additional testing to make sure the neighborhood is safe.
Home » News » Reduce holiday trash and have a greener new year
Statistics from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show that during the holiday season, the average American family throws away 25 percent more trash than they usually do.
Think about your household: could some of this trash be reduced, reused, recycled or composted? Reducing holiday trash can help households save money on “Pay As You Throw” town trash stickers or bags, reduce carbon and methane emissions, and protect the environment.
Recycling, yes or no
Wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper and greeting cards/envelopes are all recyclable. However, paper items that contain glitter, wire, metallic inks or foil are not acceptable. Tape and labels are OK. Remove batteries from singing greeting cards before recycling the card.
For more than a decade, nitrogen pollution has degraded the water quality in Popponesset Bay while the Town of Mashpee has continued to permit hundreds of septic systems that are the known source of the pollution.
In a report published earlier this month titled âCape Codâs Polluted Bays: A Decade of Missed Opportunities,â the Conservation Law Foundation counts 648 polluting systems within the Popponesset Bay watershed that have passed inspection or received a permit in the past five to 10 years.
Those 648 septic systems fall within the Town of Mashpee and the Town of Barnstable. The CLF in September announced plans to sue both towns and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to halt septic system installations and inspections.