Category: Waltham Times

  • Waltham class helps older adults avoid internet scams  

    Scammers use AI-generated voices to fool people that their family member is in trouble and needs quick money.

    They target “the weakest moments” when people are most vulnerable. 

    And they use schemes such as phishing and spoofing to trick their victims into disclosing sensitive personal or financial information. 

    Those were some of the lessons at a recent presentation  at the Waltham Senior Center titled “Money Smart for Older Adults.” The class is aimed at arming senior citizens with the tools they need to protect themselves from people who attempt to steal their money.

    “Elderly adults are … easy prey for these types of scams,” said Jorge Martinez, who co-taught the class on Feb. 18. 

    Northern Bank employees Martinez, a commercial loan specialist, and Sara Amzough, a commercial lending closer, have been teaching anti-scam courses in Waltham and several neighboring towns as part of the bank’s effort to warn against internet scams that “dupe” older people into giving out their personal financial information. 

    Online internet scams targeting adults ages 60 or older in the United States have skyrocketed over the past several years. Fraud losses reported by older adults have grown from about $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the most recent data by the Federal Trade Commission. 

    In 2025, the Waltham Police Department received 296 reports of scams or fraud, officials said. A department official said police do not have data on the breakdown of types of scams or the age of the people reporting them. 

    Martinez said phishing scams are when senders are searching for individuals’ private account information so they can commit fraud or identity theft. He said spoofing happens when a scammer disguises an email to look familiar to the people being scammed. 

    Red flags for possible scams

    Linda Luke, a Brighton resident who attended the class, said she appreciated the information. 

    “There’s so much new stuff coming out, and a lot of elderly [people] might not know it because they don’t go out that much. They don’t communicate too much with other people,” Luke said. “So it’s good to have a class like this with different examples.” 

    During their presentation, Martinez and Amzoug provided examples of common internet scams, including messages that appear to be from organizations the individual may do business with, such as banks or insurance companies. 

    She and Martinez also provided tips on how senior citizens can avoid computer or internet scams, including being cautious about opening attachments or downloading files from emails, using trusted security software, making strong passwords and not being reliant on caller ID to authenticate phone calls. 

    Martinez advised attendees to pay attention to messages with spelling errors or messages with hyperlinks in a font size larger than the rest of the text, as those often indicate a scam. They also urged participants to report scams to the local police.

    Additionally, Martinez said banks should not be requesting personal information to be verified by email. Instead, he said users should call their bank directly if they receive any messages related to their finances. 

    “We work for banks, so we usually would never ask you to verify your information because we have your information,” he told the attendees. 

    Both he and Amzough recommend that seniors delete any suspicious emails or messages from unfamiliar sources and download security software that scans their computer.  

    Seniors at the event pledged to remain vigilant. 

    “I’ve heard the same spiel a million times, but sometimes it penetrates a little further into the brain,’’ said Carol Dargie, an 81-year-old Waltham resident who attended the class.  

    “So maybe [I’ll] think twice before I’m one of these [stories],” 

  • Low-Vision Actress Embodies Resilience in ‘Wait Until Dark’

    Low-Vision Actress Embodies Resilience in ‘Wait Until Dark’

    Eliza Barmakian, right, rehearses with AMalia Tonogbanua for the play “Wait Until Dark.” (Cal LaFauci/Belmont Voice)

    Belmont resident Eliza Barmakian ran through her blocking during a Saturday morning rehearsal at the Greater Boston Stage Company with her lines memorized and her guide dog, Zinga, resting peacefully at the stage manager’s feet. She did not feel nervous. Like the character she’s playing, Barmakian lives with limited vision.

    Despite growing up with aniridia—a rare genetic condition that causes severe light sensitivity and reduced vision—Barmakian pursued a career in theater. Now, as one of the two actresses playing the lead in this production of “Wait Until Dark,” she hopes to show audiences the resilience of people with limited vision.

    “I’ve come to really see my blindness as something that gives me strength and character,” she said. “Of course, it’s not who I am fully, but it definitely has impacted my life, and so I am very excited to be taking on a role that is really showcasing a blind person in the spotlight.”

    Barmakian showed independence from a young age. She navigated the world without needing extra support until kindergarten, when the school brought in a contracted teacher from the Perkins School for the Blind to add accommodations to her classroom. The instructor tried to incorporate technology into every part of her learning experience, even though she did not need it most of the time. That’s when Barmakian realized she was different from her classmates.

    “[My classmates] thought the technology that I had was pretty cool,” Barmakian said. “But I always thought, ‘I hate that I’m different.’ ”

    She recoiled against the changes. She pushed herself to fit in with her classmates by playing soccer, hanging out with friends, and reading paperback books to prove that her blindness could not prevent her from being a normal kid.

    “I always thought that pushing myself to the x degree would make me stronger,” she said. “Little did I know, the thing that was going to be harder was accepting who I was, as opposed to straining to read a nine-point font.”

    While developing a sense of self, Barmakian discovered a love of music and storytelling by watching “High School Musical.” In her room she sang “When There Was Me and You” along with the main character Gabriella, feeling like a princess in a tower aching to be with her prince. At other times she danced around the house to Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber CDs.

    “I didn’t even know what song was gonna come on next, but I always thought about it as, ‘This song is telling a story’,” she said. “When I was exposed to theater in seventh grade, I started to think, ‘Oh well, I’ve been doing that thing in my room. . . that’s the same thing they’re doing up there. I can do that.’ ”

    She tried theater for the first time in eighth grade and has not stopped since.

    Toward the end of high school and into her time attending Providence College, Barmakian’s vision deteriorated further, the result of corneal erosion that clouded her sight.

    When she began feeling less safe when crossing the street, Barmakian reconsidered whether fitting in was worth the work. She switched to larger texts, read things digitally, used a cane for a few years, and was eventually paired with Zinga.

    None of these changes prevented her from performing. Between biology labs at Providence, she took acting electives and participated in as many extracurricular productions as she could. After earning a biology degree in 2024—a dual product of her interest in the subject and her parents’ insistence on having a backup plan to theater—she decided to try acting full-time.

    “It was a now-or-never kind of thing,” Barmakian said. “I decided to try it out in the Boston area, since it’s much less competitive and anxiety-ridden than just picking up and going to New York.”

    Her family supported her immediately.

    “When she graduated with the biology degree, she did what we asked,” said her mother Beth Barmakian. “So, at that point, when she said, ‘I really want to pursue this,’ I was like, ‘Now’s the time to do it.’ ”

    Barmakian began rehearsals for “Wait Until Dark” on Feb. 10.

    “The process has, with a few exceptions, felt very similar to a typical rehearsal process,” director Weylin Symes said. “There are a couple moments just making sure Eliza feels safe if there’s some fight choreo, but that’s true of anyone.”

    After a week of rehearsal, Barmakian understood her similarities and differences with her character. She dealt with insecurities about her visual impairment early in life while her character Susan Hendrix, who was recently blinded in a car crash, still feels the burden a year and a half after the accident. Barmakian has limited vision, while Hendrix is blind.

    There are other differences between her portrayal of the character, and the version played by Jenny S. Lee, the other lead actress.

    “It reads differently when we both play the role,” Barmakian said. “I think that allows for this opportunity to see that blind people are different. They’re not this one singular thing.”

    Working with Barmakian influenced how Symes thought about Hendrix.

    “What I keep realizing is if Eliza weren’t in the show, oddly enough, I think I would be directing Jenny to be more timid or more hesitant … than she is,” Symes said.

    Watching Barmakian perform during her rehearsal time influenced Lee’s portrayal of the character.

    “By being the funny, brilliant, strong person that she is, [Eliza] gives us so much permission to play Susan with equal amounts of brilliance and complexity and strength,” Lee said. “I feel like there’s an instinct a lot of the time to play a character with a disability with less strength. But I think there’s no question that this is just a part of who [Susan] is. She’s equally brilliant and complicated.”

    That strength and complexity are exactly what Barmakian hopes to show in her performances.

    “For so long, there’s often been this idea that if you are disabled, you are lesser than,” she said. “I hope that people come out of this show feeling like, ‘blind people can do that,’ kind of thing.”

    She hopes she can inspire other visually impaired individuals to pursue what they love, with a little less insecurity about their disability.

    “I think this show is an opportunity for me to give light to the strength that there is in being blind,” she said. “If I can be up there on this stage, I can give another little girl sitting there, who might be listening during an audio-described performance, the strength to say, ‘I can keep going.’ ”

    Cal LaFauci is a journalism student in BU’s newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Belmont Voice and other news organizations in the Boston area.

  • Lexington synchronized skaters head to nationals

    Lexington synchronized skaters head to nationals

    Shooting Stars Pre-Juvenile team skating at the 2026 Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships / Photo credit: Ray Lam.

    Last year, Sebastian Lam and his synchronized skating teammates finished 13th out of 13 teams at the Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships. A year later, 10-year-old Lam and the Shooting Stars Preliminary team fared quite differently in the same tournament.

    They won. 

    Now skating on the Shooting Stars Pre-Juvenile squad, one level above preliminary, the team competed again at the 2026 Eastern sectional. 

    Six teams from Lexington’s Hayden Synchronized Skating took to the ice at last month’s competition. Several finished at the top and qualified for the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships.

    The Hayden Synchronized Skating Teams were founded in 1979 by Lynn Benson, a former national singles figure skater and Ice Capades performer. That same year,  Benson launched the Haydenettes, a senior-level synchronized skating team that eventually became one of the country’s premier teams. 

    Under her leadership, the Haydenettes won 15 U.S. titles and competed in 22 national-level championships. 

    With 32 U.S. national wins and several top tier finishes at international competitions, the Haydenettes rank as the nation’s most decorated synchronized skating team, according to U.S. Figure Skating.

    Hayden Synchro is also home to the Lexettes and Hayden Select, two other elite squads, along with the Haydenettes, which are members of the U.S. national team.

    According to the Synchro Center website, 134 teams competed at the Eastern sectional, a qualifying event for the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships.

    Sectionals ran from Jan. 14-17 at The Skating Club of Boston’s three-rink facility in Norwood, according to Ray Lam, a Hayden Synchro board member. Two of his three children skate with Hayden Synchro. Sebastian Lam is Ray Lam’s son, and his daughter, 12-year-old Johanna Lam, skates on the Mini Mates team.

    Mini Mates team skating at the 2026 Eastern Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships / Photo Credit: Donald Tanguay

    Hayden Select skater Kadynce Morton said she was nervous but confident before stepping onto the ice at sectionals.

    “Before Easterns it kind of was a mix of both [feelings], “ Morton said. “We were so fortunate to be skating at Easterns in our home rink. The Skating Club of Boston is where we practice so it felt like every other morning. We walked in knowing that this is our house, we own this and so there was that shared confidence—but it’s also nerve-racking to stand in the tunnel and go, ‘OK, everyone’s out there watching’ like we gotta go out and do the thing.”

    Before taking to the ice, Morton said she squeezed her coach’s hand for focus.

    “We have a great connection, so whether you were nervous or excited or any mix of all of the emotions we were definitely all there for each other,” she said.

    Morton grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif. She started skating at age 5, and is a sophomore at Boston University majoring in lighting design at the College of Fine Arts and pursuing a minor in human physiology. This is her first season with Hayden Select.

    Hayden Synchro’s free skate choreography was inspired by Eve, the biblical figure. Instead of performing to a pop or rock song, Morton said, the team skated to a poem written by a former team member, with music in the background. The performance was titled, “Theme — Eve Reimagined.” 

    “We have this like serpentine, mischievous story,” she said. “We’re skating to a poem that was written by one of our alumni skaters and it’s about Eve reclaiming her curiosity and not just settling for the expectation that was set for her.” 

    Morton said Hayden Select’s choreography was also inspired by Madison Chock and Evan Bates’s snake charmer-themed performance from January 2020.

    Overall, Hayden Synchro’s teams turned in a strong performance, according to results published on the U.S. Figure Skating website.

    Star Mates finished fourth out of 12 teams. Ice Mates claimed second out of six, Mini Mates finished fourth out of five, and Shooting Stars Preliminary finished 11th out of 21. Hayden Select was the only team to compete in the senior division.

    The Shooting Stars Pre-Juvenile won its 16-team division. 

    “I was surprised, excited and proud of how the team did,” Sebastian Lam said. His father, Ray Lam said the  competition marked a comeback for the skaters on Shooting Stars Pre-Juvenile.

    “A lot of these skaters [in Shooting Stars Pre-Juvenile] were in the preliminary team last year,” Ray Lam said. “And because that’s their first competition experience … they had a few mistakes and had a hard time recovering.”

    Not only did Shooting Stars Pre-Juvenile finish first, he said, but their performance at the Eastern sectional set a benchmark.

    “At Eastern, they got [a] seasonal high of 37-plus points, which is their seasonal best,” Ray Lam said. “And that says a lot about how hard the skaters work, how encouraging, how effective the coaches were.”

    The Hayden Select team also posted its best free skate score of the season.

    “I think we felt pretty good,” Johanna Lam said. “We got a pretty good score. I think we’re happy with that.”

    Alicia Wang, a skater on the Haydenettes, watched parts of the Eastern sectional from rinkside. She said the younger teams were impressive.

    “I thought they looked great,” she said. “I thought that their coaches were doing a great job of training them with the synchro basics and building their roots in the synchro.”

    Wang also said the younger Hayden Synchro teams had the cleanest performance, despite not every team placing in the top four of its division.

    Wang grew up in Chapel Hill, N.C. She studies human physiology at the Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences and plans to minor in public health.

    The top four teams in each section advance to the 2026 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships.

    Hayden Select, Star Mates, Mini Mates and Ice Mates will all compete at nationals, along with the Haydenettes and Lexettes, which qualified directly without competing at sectionals.

    “We’re aiming to do as well as we did last year where we got third,” Johanna Lam said. “I think we’ve been having a lot of practices and I think we’re pretty confident.”

    The 2026 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships run from March 4 to March 7 in Salt Lake City. More than 80 teams from around the country will compete. 

    “Regardless of whether they win or don’t win, the skaters just continue to work hard and continue to excel,” Ray Lam said. “Nationals is definitely a big stage, but on the other hand, we won’t just let the competition … take over the mentality of being a good athlete.” 

    The U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships began in 1984. Four years later, Hayden Synchro won the national competition. 

    As of 2023, the Haydenettes have won five bronze medals at the World Synchronized Skating Championships, and 15 U.S. titles, according to U.S. Figure Skating.  

    Hayden Synchro fields nine teams and more than 100 skaters.

    “It looks like a very soft, beautiful sport,” Ray Lam said. “But behind it, there’s a lot of resilience, a lot of tough mentality to make it happen.”

    Although synchronized skating isn’t an Olympic sport, it is popular worldwide and is the fastest-growing figure skating discipline in the country, according to U.S. Figure Skating. 

    Johanna Lam said she hopes to join the Haydenettes and continue the lineage of championships.

    “If synchronized skating is an Olympic sport at that time,” she said, “then I’d want to go to the Olympics with them.”

    This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Lexington Observer and other news organizations in the Boston area.

  • At Waltham’s Banh Mi O’i, Vietnamese cuisine and inclusivity are on the menu

    Tucked away on Lexington Street, across from Star Market, is Banh Mi O’i, a bright, modest cafe serving up tasty Vietnamese fare. 

    Customers said they visit for that authentic flavor. John Bangs, a construction and property manager in Waltham, said he has been coming to Banh Mi O’i weekly for about a year, often bringing coworkers. 

    “I had the pork Banh Mi and fell in love with it,” Bangs said. 

    Banh Mi O’i interior. Photo by Elizabeth Mehler.

    Phong Huynh, a new employee at Banh Mi O’i, said he moved to America from Vietnam five years ago and appreciates the restaurant’s authenticity.

    “When you work in a restaurant that is run by Vietnamese people, they actually understand how to make food exactly like in Vietnam,” he said.

    Ahn Pham, the cafe’s manager, said his cousin Yeanie Bach, who owns Banh Mi O’i, launched the shop to honor her family’s history. She was inspired by her own childhood experiences, when she and her mother ran a Banh Mi cart in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, Pham said. 

    Bach opened her first Banh Mi O’i location in West Roxbury in 2020 and the Waltham store on Lexington Street two years ago. 

    “Banh Mi is about honoring the hands that built a better life, paying tribute to roots, and building a space where culture, memory, and community come together,” Bach wrote on the cafe’s website. It is “more than a restaurant.”

    All about communication

    Banh Mi O’i extends its welcome to everyone, including people with communication challenges. Because of its efforts in fostering an inclusive space, the restaurant was highlighted in a new short documentary, “We Need to Talk,” which features five individuals who use an AAC device. 

    In the film Tiny, a 22-year-old with autism, walks up to the counter at Banh Mi O’i and orders lunch using an augmented alternative communication device. The tablet-like device lets Tiny, who is nonverbal, press buttons to give voice to her wishes.

    Banh Mi Oi Tiny and mom get their order. Photo by Elizabeth Mehler.

    “Can I have a barbeque chicken [and] water, please?” the device says. 

    The front desk server quickly responds and brings her the order. 

    “Sandwich,’’ the device says as Tiny begins to enjoy her food. 

    Tiny first began visiting the restaurant with her mother, who already knew Pham, the manager. Though the staff initially had no training with the AAC device, Pham said they are extra welcoming to Tiny.

    “We feel like if we can do something to make her happy, to welcome her more, we just pay a little more attention,” Pham said.

    “The [documentary’s] message is that individuals who use AAC are part of our community,” said Corinna Riggs, a senior clinical advisor at the Guild for Human Services, a nonprofit based in Concord. She served as a production consultant on the film to raise awareness about AAC devices. 

    In the film. Tiny’s mother, Oanh Bui, says Tiny had no means of communicating with anyone, including her family, before getting an AAC. The device has given her a newfound independence and freedom to express herself, Bui adds. 

    Banh Mi O’i employees are “accepting of [Tiny’s] different communication style,” Bui says. “They really have the patience to be able to wait for her so that she can be able to get her orders in.”

    Shop manager Pham honed his communication skills through his immigrant experience. He grew up in Vietnam before moving to America at 19 years old. He attended high school in South Boston and then two years in college before joining the Army. Along the way, he learned how to connect with others in English. 

    Pham said that meeting customers at the Waltham shop has helped him to better serve people of all backgrounds and abilities.

    “It’s a small store,” Pham said. “So they come in, we welcome them [and] let them know they are at home so they can feel relaxed and happy.” 

    A screening of “We Need to Talk” was held Feb. 2  at Maynard Theatre. The documentary is also available for viewing on YouTube. 

  • Celebrating the Super Bowl

    Gabby Galbadis

    Joseph “Dennis” Gould has been at the New England Patriots’ most iconic moments in Super Bowl history.

    He was in New Orleans when the Patriots had their very first big win in Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002.

    He watched Malcolm Butler’s famous game-winning interception in Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 in Arizona.

    And he was there to witness the team’s overtime comeback in Super Bowl LI in 2017 in Houston.

    For the past 10 Super Bowl games that the Patriots have competed in, Gould and his wife, Janice Gould, have made the trip.

    “Every time the Patriots went to the Super Bowl, I’d look at her and tell her, ‘You know, if they go we go,’ ’’ he said in a recent interview.

    But this year the Goulds, like most of Saugus, will be watching the Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX at home. Ticket prices for the game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, are upwards of $7,000 — out of reach for the Goulds, who are in their 70s.

    Still, that won’t stop Gould and the rest of Saugus from reveling. At Kane’s Donuts, for instance, the company has been in full Patriots mania since the playoffs.

    “I’m so happy the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. It’s been a tough two years for Boston sports not being in a championship,” said Courtney Beaulieu on Saturday after walking out of the Kane’s on Route 1 with her donuts. “Couldn’t be more excited.”

    Gould has long been a Patriots fan. He’s lived in Saugus his whole life aside from his time serving in active-duty in the military from 1969 to 1973. Gould has been retired for more than 11 years from his job as a project program director at General Electric, a job he held for 40 years.

    The couple’s Super Bowl tradition began back in 1990, when Gould got Janice to join him at a Patriots’ game. She enjoyed watching the game as much as he did, so Gould began buying season tickets in 1991.

    They attended their first Super Bowl in 1997 when the Patriots played the Green Bay Packers. It was the Patriots’ second-ever Super Bowl appearance, and they lost.

    The couple stayed in a hotel near the Louisiana Superdome for about a week, since prices were much more affordable at the time. The trip cost them roughly $800 each.

    That included the game tickets, hotel, and their commute, Gould recalled.

    “We were on TV because we were one of the few Patriots fans there,’’ said Gould. “The Packers had a lot of fans, but the Patriots didn’t.”

    Gould has many highlights from his years of attending the Super Bowl.

    ​He and Janice watched the Patriots defeat the St. Louis Rams at the Louisiana Superdome in 2002. He fondly remembers hearing the Boston Pops, the Creedence Clearwater Revival, and U2 play as part of the many special tributes to 9/11.

    At Super Bowl XLIX in 2015 at the University of Phoenix Stadium, he got a “rush” from Butler’s famous game-winning play against the Seattle Seahawks.

    And in 2017, Gould stood in NRG Stadium at Super Bowl LI when the Patriots charged  back from a 25-3 deficit with 8:31 left in the third quarter to defeat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in overtime. That game became the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.

    Gould witnessed all six of legendary Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s Super Bowl wins during his 20-season career with the Patriots.

    For the vast majority of their Super Bowl trips, it was just Dennis and Janice. “We went by ourselves which was great. We loved it,” Gould recalled.

    The Super Bowl tickets were always expensive, even for a Patriots season ticket holder like Gould. He said he never had an opportunity to purchase those tickets at face value.

    Season ticket holders get the chance to enter a lottery to purchase tickets at face value, but there are few winners.

    “This year, I got about 66 chances to win, but we’ve never won the lottery in 30-something years and 11 Super Bowls now,” said Gould.

    He has had to buy the tickets at a higher price each time. On average, the Goulds would spend about $15,000, including all travel expenses for each Super Bowl trip. One time it was $18,000, he said.

    He said he was able to save up the money, thanks to his “great job” at GE and his drive to keep the tradition alive.

    But now that he’s retired and on a fixed income, traveling to the Super Bowl to see his beloved Patriots became out of reach.

    “I’m gonna miss this one, though … unfortunately,” he said.

    Even though they won’t be making the trip to the Super Bowl this year, Gould has found ways to show up for the Patriots. He attended the recent Patriots’ playoff games in Foxborough. He watched the AFC Championship last week at his house in Saugus, and even though he described it as a strange game, he said the outcome was obviously awesome.

    Other Saugus residents are displaying their passion for their home team before the game on Sunday.

    At Kane’s Donuts in Saugus the Patriots fever was on full view in the display cases where donuts, decorated with red, white, and blue had writings like “Go Patriots” or “I love Drake Maye” on them.

    One of the Kane’s Donuts owners, Peter Delios, said they have challenged Raised Doughnuts & Cakes in Seattle to a wager based on Sunday’s game. If the Patriots win, Delios said, Raised must send a dozen of their best donuts to Kane’s and vice versa.

    This bet is part of a series of “donut-football” wagers Kane’s has been making, which also challenged shops in Los Angeles and Denver during the playoffs.

    Katherine Rushfirth sat in the Kane’s on 120 Lincoln Ave. with her two sons, Benjamin, 3, and Henry, 6, who were enjoying a Patriots-decorated donut.

    “We are very excited that the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl because they haven’t been alive for a Patriots Super Bowl yet,” Rushfirth said, referring to her children.

    Rushfirth said that her sons’ grandfather is a huge Patriots fan so they will be spending the Super Bowl with their grandparents.

    Beaulieu, another Kane’s patron, praised quarterback Drake Maye and coach Mike Vrabel for turning the team around, sounding like a lot of fans in town.

    “I love Drake Maye, I love his wife,’’ Beaulieu said. “So I’m rooting for both of them.”

    Gabriella Galbadis is a student journalist in the Boston University Newsroom program. She is a student in Meghan Irons’ Reporting in Depth class.

  • Town and firefighters clash over plan to cut minimum staffing, reduce overtime

    Sam Mintz and Claire Law

    Brookline firefighters this week took to the sidewalk outside Town Hall to protest a decision by the town to reduce minimum staffing levels.

    Town leaders say the change is necessary to ease strains on the town budget caused by ballooning firefighter overtime. The firefighters union says it would increase their workload and make their jobs less safe.

    The latest disagreement marks an escalation of a dispute between the town and its firefighters that has been simmering for months over issues of overtime and staffing at the department.

    The firefighters’ latest union contract expired last June, and negotiations over a new contract, unsuccessful so far, are entering mediation with the state’s Joint Labor-Management Committee.

    What’s new?

    The escalation of the dispute began when the town’s Select Board voted to reduce the minimum number of firefighters required to be on duty on any given day from 29 to 23.

    Citing “management rights” to set staffing levels following the expiration of the contract, the town is moving to institute the new “flexible staffing” plan starting on July 1.

    The town says the change is necessary to ease strain on the under-pressure municipal budget by saving at least $1.5 million a year in fire department overtime costs, which have ballooned in recent years.

    Currently, the department schedules 36 firefighters to cover each 24-hour shift. If more than seven are absent or request leave, the department must cover those positions with other firefighters earning overtime, according to the expired contract.

    Under the new plan, which the town calls “flexible staffing,” the fire chief would have the discretion to accommodate up to 13 absences – effectively lowering the minimum number of firefighters required to be on duty.

    In practice, it would also lower the minimum number of firefighters needed to staff a truck from four to three, which has been a hotly-debated point in the protracted contract negotiations.

    “This strategic adjustment is based on longstanding staffing models that have been used in virtually every other Metro Boston community,” Town Administrator Charles Carey wrote in a detailed statement  published by the town. “It also addresses the significant challenges the Town has faced in managing escalating overtime costs, which have placed an unsustainable burden on municipal resources.”

    A graphic produced by the town laying out the planned changes to firefighter staffing. Photo courtesy town of Brookline

    The change, Carey said, will also help avoid layoffs and lay the groundwork for a future expansion in South Brookline, which has been a community priority.

    While the town says that the department can maintain its safety standards under the change, the union, which has argued that the department needs increased staffing, is crying foul.

    “Brookline Firefighters have consistently prioritized public safety and have remained open to good-faith discussions,” the Brookline Fire Fighters Local 950 IAFF union said in a statement. “This unprecedented reduction would increase firefighter workload and jeopardize firefighter safety, hampering firefighter effectiveness and endangering lives.”

    “This change will make our job unsafe,” said Justin Robinson, a lieutenant in the department and president of the union. “When you put more work on somebody, regardless of what the job is, you end up not doing things right. And in our job, seconds and minutes matter.”

    The union also sees the change as illegal, violating the terms of their expired contract, which remained in force until the town’s recent decision.

    The two sides have launched competing PR campaigns. The town published a lengthy website with graphics making its side of the argument. The union rallied its members outside Town Meeting this week and handed out lawn signs to supporters in the community.

    Carey said in an interview that he believes the two sides have maintained a “good faith working relationship” despite “a tough issue where we really stridently disagree on a lot about it.”

    Firefighter overtime a pain point for town

    In the big picture, town officials say overtime use in the department puts pressure on an already strained municipal budget.

    For the past three years, the town has paid more than double the amount it budgeted for overtime pay for the Fire Department, according to a memo  presented by Assistant Town Administrator for Finance Charles Young at a March 11 Advisory Committee meeting.

    A Flourish chart 

    This fiscal year, the town increased its Fire Department overtime budget by $300,000, but is still projecting to be over budget by nearly $1 million.

    Between receiving less federal funding, dealing with a strained school budget, and rising costs in general due to tariffs, Carey said, next year doesn’t look promising either.

    “It’s not sustainable,” Carey said. “The town cannot keep paying that much money in overtime.”

    The town declined to comment on the reason behind the increase in overtime pay. However, one reason suggested in the memo is a high rate of firefighters taking leave on weekends.

    “Overtime costs accrue quickly when several firefighters call in sick over the weekend,” it says.

    Robinson said the union believes leave has stayed largely consistent throughout the years, and that the increased overtime pay can be attributed to other factors.

    One, he said, was a 2023 decision that allows for 12 weeks of bonding time for both parents when a child is born. When firefighters are off for leave, others are required to fill in and may need overtime pay.

    “We are a young department,” Robinson said. “You have a lot of firefighters starting families.”

    Three or four person crews?

    Staffing and minimum crew sizes have also been a subject of dispute since well before the latest move by the town.

    Young’s March memo stated that the most effective way to deal with the overtime deficit would be to change minimum staffing from four firefighters per “apparatus” to three.

    The union has strongly challenged that idea, and in a report recently published by its parent organization, the International Association of Firefighters, argued that staffing levels should increase given Brookline’s density.

    Currently, the Fire Department staffs a minimum of four firefighters for each of its five engines and two ladder trucks, with a deputy chief in charge – a minimum of 29 firefighters at any given time.

    Fire Chief John Sullivan said in an email he thinks the department’s staffing is adequate, but declined to comment further.

    Robinson said that with the number of “runs” per year creeping up to 10,000, current staffing will soon be insufficient.

    Call volume, he said, has increased by 37% over the past decade and 15% in the four years between 2019 and 2023.

    “If you imagine water being poured into a cup, we’re at the top of the cup right now and starting to slowly spill over,” he said.

    The union’s report recommends that in the long term, the department should increase staffing to five firefighters per engine in some parts of town and six in the densest areas, to be in line with standards put forward by the National Fire Protection Association recommendations.

    “At the end of the day, firefighting is low tech. The work is still overwhelming numbers, and a lot of water,” Robinson said.

    According to Young’s memo, changing the minimums “would not necessarily result in all apparatus running at fewer than four, and instead the Chief would have the discretion to determine which apparatus could run with fewer than four and maintain current levels of fire safety.”

    A number of nearby communities, according to the memo, operate with a minimum of three firefighters per engine or ladder truck. Carey pointed to Newton and Cambridge as examples of other municipalities that do so. Boston, on the other hand, maintains four-person minimum crews.

    In his statement, the town administrator said that the new flexible staffing model, which in practice allows for three-person crews, is necessary to prevent layoffs.

    “The only budgetarily sustainable alternative to flexible staffing would be to close a fire company,” he wrote.

    If the minimum crew sizes were to decrease permanently, Robinson said, it would change the way the firefighters do their job and increase the time it takes to put out fires.

    “If you take one person off the piece, the job doesn’t go away,” Robinson said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t stretch a hose line, but it’s harder to do and takes longer.”

    The union’s report describes a “two-in, two-out” policy set by OSHA, the federal work safety agency, that requires four firefighters to be present before going inside a burning structure.

    A reduction to three-person crew sizes, the union contends, would mean firefighters would have to wait for another truck to arrive before entering a burning building.

    “Every tragedy starts with bad decision making, and some of that bad decision making can go back decades,” Robinson said.

    A fire burned on Craig Place in April. Photo courtesy of the Brookline Fire Union.

    What’s next?

    Robinson said throughout his 27-year career, there have been many periods where firefighters were working under an expired contract. For him, it meant having to keep up with increased living expenses, but not seeing increases in his salary.

    The union, he said, is continuing to try to raise awareness about staffing issues and is considering its legal options around the latest dispute.

    Town officials say they are expecting litigation from the union, and that case law supports their rights to set the minimum staffing outside of a new contract.

    It would be the second major lawsuit over the fire department’s overtime in Brookline in recent years after a previous dispute was settled in late 2024.

  • Labor law violations cost Marblehead employers nearly $44,000 in state fines

    The Attorney General’s office fined seven Marblehead employers for 17 state labor law violations between March 9, 2022, and Feb. 20, 2025, the Current has learned. 

    More than 80% of all employer violations — including failing to pay minimum wage or provide earned sick time, keeping inaccurate records and child labor infractions — were issued in the past two years. Since March 9, 2022, Marblehead employers have paid nearly $44,000 in fines, records show.

    The attorney general fined the Marblehead restaurant Caffé Italia more than $14,000 in 2024 for state labor law violations that included failing to keep accurate payroll records, pay minimum wage and allow the earning and use of sick time, as well as child labor infractions.

    Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s Fair Labor Division found the restaurant owner acted “without specific intent” to violate the law, and the fines included restitution to employees, the records show. In response to a public records request, Campbell’s office provided redacted complaints with the names, addresses and specifics blacked out.

    Caffé Italia owner Donna Oliviero declined a request for an interview, but in a statement sent by email on Nov. 13, she stated she was unaware the restaurant had not been in compliance with the law.

    Caffé Italia, the email states, “has administratively resolved all outstanding issues with the Attorney General’s office, made financial restitution as appropriate and is now fully compliant.” The restaurant paid all fines, the largest of which was $10,000 for failing to pay minimum wages, according to state data.

    Employers can be fined as much as $25,000 for wage violations and also potentially face prison time, according to state law. In fiscal year 2025, the attorney general’s office issued 1,562 citations and assessments against employers in Massachusetts for state labor law violations, amounting to $197 million in penalties and restitution, according to its 2025 Labor Day report.

    Caffé Italia employee Tahlia Jacques said she was surprised the restaurant was fined for violating child labor laws. Jacques said she has worked at the restaurant for more than a decade and described the owners’ relationship with young workers as “so great and so positive.”

    “Some of these kids started here at 14,” she said. “They work their way up from bussers to servers to barbacks to bartenders.”

    Ruiz Fine Carpentry, owned by Michael Ruiz, received the highest total fine of any Marblehead employer in the past four years, nearly $19,000, records show. The attorney general found the employer also acted “without specific intent” for the three violations of the state law, including misclassification of a worker as an independent contractor, failure to furnish records, and failure to pay overtime compensation. The fines include restitution to employees, the records show. Ruiz declined a request for an interview.

    In one redacted complaint against Ruiz submitted to the attorney general’s office in 2023, the complainant stated he had been categorized as an independent contractor for over a year and had not received any “benefits, overtime, mandatory holiday pay or workers comp(ensation) for injuries” and was not permitted to take breaks.

    At least 69 complaints alleging non-payment of wages and other state labor law violations against Marblehead employers have been filed with the attorney general over the past five years. 

    Nearly 33% of the complaints are lodged against the Marblehead Bank, and all were filed on Jan. 31, 2024, the records show.

    Nearly 79% of complaints against Marblehead employers were for non-payment of wages, the records show. That category, according to state law, could include a failure to pay minimum wage, overtime, sick pay or withholding a final paycheck. The Marblehead Bank was founded in 1871 and has three locations on the North Shore.

    Despite nearly two years since the complaints against the bank were submitted to the attorney general, they remain open matters. The attorney general’s office denied a public records request for the complaints, stating in a Dec. 9 letter that “they are investigatory materials related to open matters and which, if disclosed at this time, would reveal confidential investigative techniques, procedures, and/or sources of information and would so prejudice the possibility of effective law enforcement that such disclosure would not be in the public.”

    Mark Llewellyn, president of the Marblehead Bank, declined multiple requests for an interview. In response to questions about the complaints, he sent the following email on Dec. 8:

    “Marblehead Bank cannot comment publicly on personnel matters. The Bank takes all employment-related matters seriously and is fully committed to complying with federal and state employment laws. The Bank values its employees and the trust of the communities we serve. We remain focused on transparency, fairness, and maintaining the highest standards of compliance. We will provide a public statement if appropriate at a future date.”

    Over 36,810 complaints have been filed against employers statewide since January 2020, according to state data. 

    “Massachusetts is home to nation-leading labor laws,” Campbell said in a statement. “My office is committed to enforcing these safeguards to ensure workers’ rights are protected and Massachusetts has a level playing field for all employers. My office will continue to protect our workforce through robust enforcement and education, so that every employee can work in a safe, fair, and dignified environment.”

    This story was produced in Boston University Professor Maggie Mulvihill’s Data Journalism class as part of an ongoing collaboration with the Marblehead Current.