Category Archives: Information

Messages below with respect to the storm from NSTAR and Verizon, with telephone #s to report problems  you may have – ====================================================

NSTAR is closely monitoring the storm’s progress and we’re prepared to respond to any damage or outages as soon as it’s safe to do so.

We’ll be activating our Emergency Response Plan, opening regional service centers as storm response headquarters and adding extra staff in our service centers and customer call center.

NSTAR is prepared to address any damage and outages resulting from the storm and we encourage customers whose electric service is affected to call us at 1-800-592-2000. As always, we strongly urge people to stay away from all down wires and to report them to us and local emergency officials.

===============================================

VERIZON

Email on Friday lists paving schedule as follows – schedule not known –

Adams Street
Dale Street
High Street and South Street
Spring Street
West Street

I just suggested to Mike Sullivan that it might behoove the town to invite all our former selectmen to meet so as to advise us on and brainstorm about solutions to town issues.  There is a lot of knowledge that one acquires from being a selectman, and if former selectmen were willing, it might well assist the town to have them meet once or twice a year to hash through the most intractable problems the town faces  so that the town could tap into their special expertise.

Nice letter I received yesterday with feedback from Jerry Cianciolo follows – it is not often someone takes the time to say thanks, so thank you Jerry!

=========================================

Dear Mr. Peterson,

As one resident of Medfield , I appreciate and applaud your monitoring the way our town spends its money.

Your evaluation of the recent town garage proposal struck me as solid.

The same with your questioning the merits of MEMO receiving town services for free, especially when it seems the group has the money to reimburse the town.

No doubt you’ ll get your share of flak for calling it as you see it – you already have. But with you as a selectman, my level of confidence is considerably raised and I not only feel you’ ll guard against excesses but yo u’ ll be reasonable and open along the way.

If all of those in town government – or state and federal government for that matler – approached their responsibility as you do, confidence and efficiency would soar.

Best wishes and proud to vote for you.

Jerry Cianciolo
Medfield, MA

Stopped by the Zullo Gallery last night and spoke with Bill Pope about the Zullo being open on Wednesday and Thursday evenings (5-11:00 PM) for the rest of the summer.  He is marketing the Zullo as the place to come for dinner, a meal taken out or delivered from elsewhere.  Bill showed off their newly donated Sam Adams umbrella tables.

Kristen and I returned with our dinners, and enjoyed Medfield’s most beautiful al fresco dining location – who would have expected that being above Rte. 109 could be so removed, so interesting, and so magical.

The Board of Selectmen has been continually told that there is not much of a practical nature that we can do to have slower traffic, except greater police enforcement.

To set an official speed limit, I have historically been told we have to do a traffic study with Mass Highway and set the speed limit at 85% of what everyone is actually driving.  However, I followed Christian’s link and now see that the state’s materials actually say we can set the speed limit 7 MPH less than the 85% level, and that extra 7 MPH may well make it work.  The danger at the 85% level mandated by Mass Highway is that the speed limit determined may actually be higher than the 30 MPH speed designated for an unposted thickly settled area – i.e. – sometimes it is better to not have a posted speed limit, because the posted speed limit will be higher.

There are a multitude of traffic calming techniques that are supposed to work – e.g – fog lines painted on the sides of roads to visually narrow the street, elevated pedestrian crossings, indentations into the street like on Rte 16 in Wellesley, round abouts like in Norfolk, and speed bumps. I am told that Ken Feeney does not like speed bumps because of the plowing issues, and I have witnessed that Mike Sullivan has generally opposed them.  I have heard Ann say several times that everyone will want the speed bumps in front of their own homes, but not where they drive, and that can be a problem.  The Chief recounts how after the speed bumps were installed in Dover the neighbors soon wanted them out because of the noise generated by the bouncing truck loads as they went over the bumps.

When the Board of Selectmen studied speeding on Indian Hill Road, the registration numbers of vehicles and their speeds were recorded, and it was determined that it was indeed we Medfield residents who were the ones doing the speeding.

In Safety Committee discussions over speeding on Knollwood Road, the suggestion was made by a resident who is a police officer in a neighboring town to post yellow, unofficial speed limit signs as they do where he works – unofficial because they have not gone through the process to determine if 85% of the drivers actually drive slower.  I thought that technique was worth pursuing.  Interestingly, the Knollwood Road speeding was solved by the Chief speaking with the headmaster of the Xaverian School.

I believe that any citizen generated issues would be best addressed via a petition to or appearance at Christian’s Safety Committee.