Tag: Massachusetts

  • Citizens help refine Weston’s Open Space and Recreation plan

    The town is finalizing its Open Space and Recreation Plan, which builds on the 2017 edition.
    A woodsy trail in Weston. The town is finalizing its Open Space and Recreation Plan, which builds on the 2017 edition. (Nicole Mordecai/Weston Observer)

    Joel Angiolillo has spent more than 28 years hiking the trails of Weston, and he knows change in town often comes at a walking pace. But this winter, people from more than 650 households signaled something different, voicing their hopes for the future of the town’s conservation and recreation planning.

    Weston is home to nearly 2,000 acres of protected land and more than 90 miles of public trails. Locals such as Angiolillo, who is a founding member of the Weston Observer, hope to improve access to these outdoor spaces, expand programming for residents of all ages and upgrade existing recreational facilities such as the basketball, tennis and pickleball courts.

    State law requires communities to keep their Open Space Recreation Plans current to remain eligible for state grants administered by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Division of Conservation Services. Once approved, the document serves as a 10-year framework for funding, infrastructure planning and natural resource protection.

    The most recent proposal builds on Weston’s 2017 plan, which funded development of a three-mile leg of the Mass Central Trail, the installation of the accessible Legacy Trail and connecting pathways, renovations to the town pool and efforts to control invasive species.

    “Our main priorities now are things like maintenance on fields and continuing to keep those in top working order,” said Christopher Fitzgerald, Weston’s recreation director. He said the updated plan will identify neighborhoods underserved by recreational amenities.

    “We’re going to take a hard look at that and see what, if anything, we can do,” Fitzgerald said. “Maybe it’s add a playground. Maybe it’s add a trail. Or maybe it’s provide access to a body of water.”

    While the previous plan led to visible improvements, some locals, like Angiolillo, were surprised by its initial momentum in a town often focused on preserving its history.

    “Some people might say that Weston really wants to protect its character, which can sometimes be sort of like a code word for saying we want things just like they are,” Angiolillo said. “But you’ll see the plan has a lot of character. I love the outdoors, walking, hiking, biking and skiing. So to develop those resources was very important to me.”

    To encourage participation, the Committee on Open Space and Recreation has conducted a town-wide survey and has held two public hearings. The survey was offered in English and simplified Chinese and was available online and in print. Of approximately 4,000 Weston households, 654 responded.

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

  • Lexington considers “Skip the Stuff” bylaw to cut restaurant waste

    Lexington Town Meeting Members will vote on a citizens’ petition to adopt a “Skip the Stuff” bylaw that would require local restaurants to ask customers before adding single-use plastic utensils or condiment packets to takeout orders. The vote will take place during the annual Town Meeting beginning March 30.

    “The point of the bylaw is for the restaurants to have to ask as opposed to automatically just putting this stuff in there when people don’t need it,” said Laura Swain, primary petitioner of the bylaw and a member of the Lexington Waste Reduction Task Force. 

    The “Skip the Stuff” initiative is part of a national campaign by the same name. Cities including Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C., have adopted it, with California, Washington and New York establishing similar legislation at the state level.

    In Massachusetts, a “Skip the Stuff” bill sponsored by state Rep. Michelle Ciccolo was referred to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources last February. Newton, Brookline, Wellesley and Swampscott have already passed similar laws. 

    The petition builds on the town’s Zero Waste Plan, which was adopted in 2023. Lexington began phasing out the use and distribution of single-use water bottles in 2024 and has since launched a curbside composting program and a reusable food container initiative for local restaurants.    

    When petitioners visited more than 70 percent of restaurants, they discovered that some Lexington eateries were already in compliance with the spirit of “Skip the Stuff,” with restaurants such as Avenue Deli, Royal Indian Bistro and Clay Oven publicly supporting the bylaw.

    Other restaurant owners said the change could hinder customer service and prevent customers from getting the utensils they need. 

    According to the official motion, the town’s Board of Health would enforce the proposed bylaw. A restaurant’s second violation would result in a $25 fine; a third, $50.

    “We are passionate about reducing waste, but we also don’t want to be this burdensome government bylaw,” said Alex Tsouvalas, a member of the Lexington Waste Reduction Task Force. “We want to support these small businesses. We wanted to engage them and have them be part of the dialogue.” 

    On the surface, the proposed policy may seem trivial, supporters say, but they believe “skipping the stuff” is an important step in Lexington’s commitment to reducing waste. 

    “Our Skip the Stuff” bylaw initiative, I think, folds really well into this landscape with the town,” said Janet Kern, a petitioner of the bylaw and vice president of the nonprofit LexZeroWaste. “More people are aware of this unnecessary waste cluttering their drawers at home, just being thrown right into the trash. So, I think people are ready for this.”

    If passed, the bylaw would take effect Jan. 1, 2027. 

    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.

  • Examining Marblehead school vaccine rates

    As controversy over childhood vaccinations rages nationwide, student immunization rates in Marblehead have remained steady over the past three years, with most schools reporting 90% or more of pupils have gotten all vaccines required by state law.

    Dr. Thomas Massaro, a retired pediatrician and the chair of the town’s Board of Health, said the community’s demographics likely play a key role in maintaining consistent vaccination rates.

    “Massachusetts is a pretty progressive state, and Marblehead is consistent with that,” he said. “About 77% of residents have at least one bachelor’s degree, and it’s an affluent community. People understand the benefits of vaccines, they judge them, and they decide to go ahead.”

    Statewide, the number of students with all vaccines required for school averages 94.4% for kindergarten students and 90.7% for grade 7 students. Pupils in some parts of Massachusetts are getting vaccinated less and requesting more exemptions in recent years, Department of Public Health data shows. Vaccination rates have been decreasing nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for kindergartners and as more parents question their effectiveness, though Massachusetts was recently rated by one national study as the state with the highest vaccine rates for all residents.

    State and local governments have the authority to impose vaccine requirements for students in their communities, though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has traditionally recommended a vaccine schedule for those attending school. The CDC announced this month it was dropping recommendations that school-age children get six vaccines previously encouraged for students, including those aimed at preventing respiratory infections, Hepatitis A and B, and meningitis. Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, immediately announced students in Massachusetts would still be required to get all vaccines mandated by state law, which include some of those eliminated by the CDC.

    Massachusetts children, from those attending day care and pre-school programs through those attending college in the commonwealth, are required to get a slate of vaccines as they progress through grades, including those preventing chickenpox, polio, diphtheria and measles, among others.

    In December, state officials issued an alert about potential measles exposure in Massachusetts after an out-of-state visitor contracted the disease. Since 2020, there has been only one case of a Massachusetts resident getting the measles, state records show.   

    But for the first time in three decades, the number of measles cases in the U.S. rose to over 2,000 last year, according to the CDC. All 50 states require vaccinations for students, though Republican Florida lawmakers, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have been battling to limit vaccine requirements. 

    Each year, the Massachusetts DPH surveys all day care, pre-school and kindergarten programs and middle and high schools, to gather immunization data on those in seventh and 12th grade.  Those grade levels are targeted to align with the required state-required vaccines for children of those ages. 

    Students can request a medical exemption from the vaccines if certified by their physician or a state can waive exemptions if mandated immunizations conflict with a student’s religious beliefs. Like the rest of the nation, medical and religious student vaccine exemption rates in Massachusetts have risen in the past four years, according to data shows. 

    In Marblehead, exemption rates across all programs and schools have hovered between 0% and 6% at the highest since 2022, DPH data shows. A bill pending in the Massachusetts legislature would remove the ability for a student to obtain religious exemptions, mirroring New York, Maine and Connecticut and California, which have eliminated them. 

    Massaro said the pandemic undermined public trust in government across age groups.

    “One of the long-term negative consequences of the pandemic was a loss of faith and trust in public health,” he said. “Vaccines are the prime face of public health to young people. If the pandemic caused overall questions about whether they can trust the CDC or FDA, then it’s not surprising there’s been a slight diminution.” 

    Massaro also warned that misinformation circulating at the federal level may further undermine confidence. 

    “We’re subject to a much bigger decline with all the misleading information coming out of (the U.S. Department of) Health and Human Services right now,” he said.

    Polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation show widening partisan divides over support for routine childhood vaccinations. At the same time, states have begun to diverge significantly in how they regulate school immunization requirements. New York and California eliminated nonmedical exemptions after large measles outbreaks in the past decade. Other states have moved in the opposite direction. Idaho, Oklahoma and Utah have expanded or clarified access to exemptions, reflecting the broader national debate. 

    “It is a balance between the individual and the community,” Massaro said. “People need to trust the systems that protect them.”

  • Waltham nail salon owner waits months to turn dark storefront into ‘Sun & Me’

    Melody Luo unlocks the darkened storefront alongside her Main Street nail salon every few days, stepping past bubble-wrapped manicure tables that have sat unused for nearly a year.

    She expected to open by spring of this year. Instead, the expansion of Queen Nails – a rebrand called Sun & Me – stalled for months amid miscommunication, language barriers and a permitting requirement that was lost in translation.

    “I thought it would be simple,” Luo said in an interview conducted in Mandarin Chinese. “Just prepare the space and start building. I didn’t expect every step to take this long.”

    Luo signed a lease for the adjoining commercial space in January 2025 after a driving school business closed. Her landlord offered three months of free rent, and she believed the city permitting would be finished in that time. Luo planned to add additional manicure and pedicure stations and relaunch as a consolidated business, Sun & Me.

    Originally from Guangzhou, China, Luo immigrated to Massachusetts in 2012. She first met her husband, Sunny Li, years ago in Cambridge, where she had gone to him as a customer at the nail station where he worked. Years later, they became partners in both life and business. Today, Li works most days at their established shop in Westwood while Luo manages Queen Nails full-time.

    “We thought expanding would make everything more comfortable,” he said.

    Second life for an old salon

    To avoid misunderstandings, Luo hired a Chinese-speaking contractor. But the contractor relied on a permit expediter to communicate with the city, creating a chain of translation between city staff, the expediter, the contractor and Luo.

    Trouble began in February, when the building permit application was filed. Waltham’s commercial approval guidelines require projects with increased water and sewer demands to include a design-flow worksheet, known as an I&I (Infiltration and Inflow) calculation. The requirement passed through several people before reaching Luo, with the meaning shifting in Chinese and English along the way.

    By the time the message reached Luo, “design-flow worksheet” had transformed into something she believed was a “sewer analysis report,” a term that triggered a search for the wrong craftsmen and wrong documents.

    “We didn’t really understand what the city wanted,” Luo said. “Everyone kept telling us something different.”

    Eventually, Luo asked her architect to visit the Waltham Building Department and Engineering Division with her. Speaking to staff, the intermediaries learned exactly what was needed. The permit was approved on July 10, nearly five months after the original submission.

    Consistency is the city’s goal

    Chief Building Inspector Brian Bower said the permitting system is meant to be predictable. Applicants receive a renovation checklist and are walked through each step.

    Language barriers can widen communication gaps, Bower said. The department has one Spanish-speaking inspector but no Chinese-language resources. All forms are in English.

    “People come in and say they were nervous,” he said. “When that happens, I bring them into my office and we go through everything together.”

    Since becoming chief three years ago, Bower has emphasized internal consistency so applicants receive the same guidance regardless of who helps them. Whether it is explaining zoning basics, clarifying forms or reviewing documents, he said the goal is to make the department’s guidance stable and predictable.

    More permits, more delays

    Approval of the building permit did not mean construction could begin, however. Luo still needed plumbing and electrical permits, each requiring separate applications and inspections.

    Then the communication chain broke again. Luo said the licensed expediter stopped responding.

    “He would read my messages but barely reply,” Luo said. “Sometimes I sent so many messages and got only one very short answer.”

    Her contractor found a replacement this fall and the change was immediate. Both the plumbing and electrical permits were approved on Nov. 20, allowing the contractor to build her illuminated Sun & Me sign and begin seeking city approval for it.

    Bower said that although Luo’s case did not involve zoning issues, he often sees other business owners run into preventable setbacks. He said anyone considering purchasing or renting a new commercial space should visit the Building Department before signing a lease.

    “People should come in and make sure their use is allowed in that zone,” Bower said. “I don’t want people to be afraid to come to the Building Department. My door’s open all the time for anybody.”

    Waiting for lights

    In July, Queen Nails closed for more than 20 days for repainting, the installation of new flooring and equipment upgrades. Customers now walk into a brighter, cleaner space, even though the expansion next door remains unused.

    Luo unlocks the darkened unit every few days. She points to where she hopes customers will one day choose polish colors from a wall display, wider walkways and a Sun & Me sign glowing over Main Street.

    “I’ve already invested so much time and money,” she said. “Now I just hope everything can move forward.”