Category Archives: Uncategorized

This morning just before noon at the former Medfield State Hospital

The Pocket Park Steering Committee Naming Contest Continues

Deadline: Friday February 21, 2014 at 5 pm

The Town of Medfield owns a small 5,352 square foot parcel of land between Zebra’s and Starbuck’s that has affectionately been called the Pocket Park for lack of an official name. The Pocket Park Steering Committee was appointed in Oct. 2013 to initiate a public planning process to both design the park and recommend its name.

The first round of public voting received 176 entries with 52% writing in their own suggestions for a park name. “We received some really creative suggestions” said Committee Chair Jean Mineo. “Since the public couldn’t see the write-in names, and many suggested the same name, we decided to present another round of voting on just the two most popular names of Straw Hat Park and Isaac Fiske Park. They really represent two different aspects of Medfield’s history around the park property, though interestingly, their timing overlaps.” Residents are now asked to select one, and the winner will be recommended for approval at Town Meeting.

The link to cast your vote is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N9N6F7J

The relevant history of each name to the park is also included in the survey (with thanks to Richard DeSorgher).

Straw Hat Park

From 1801 until 1956, Medfield’s most important industry of straw hat making was centered in the area around the park. The industry employed highly skilled men and women seasonally, and the pay was excellent. One manufacturer recorded over $1 million worth of goods in 1875.

The Montrose School property was originally built to manufacture straw hats in 1876. Eventually, the Excelsior Straw Hat Factory employed more than 1,200 people (larger than the town’s population), producing over 2.5 million hats a year, and becoming the second largest straw hat factory in the US. In 1956, owner Julius Tofias closed the factory after workers voted to unionize, thus ending Medfield’s largest industry.

Isaac Fiske Park

Isaac Fiske was born in Medfield in 1813 and died 1883. In 1842, Fiske purchased an existing store located next to the park where Starbucks stands today. Fiske ran it for 40 years and was known as the town merchant. Fiske built a hall over the “new” Old Corner Store used for lectures, dances, and by famous abolitionists who spoke against slavery. Eventually, the hall was divided into bedrooms for rent. Fiske was also elected to the Massachusetts state legislature, and served Medfield as Town Clerk (15 years), Treasurer (40 years), and Postmaster (20 years), running the post office out of his store. The Old Corner Store continued in operation under subsequent owners until the building was torn down 1935.

I will hold my regular monthly first Friday of the month Selectman’s office hours at The Center tomorrow from 9 – 10 AM.

Jeffrey Marsden  (@JeffreyJMarsden) tweeted at 6:52 PM on Sat, Feb 01, 2014:
Click on the link below to see important budget information for next school year. http://t.co/ePUTt5iCGU       #budgetseason
(https://twitter.com/JeffreyJMarsden/status/429764142883295232)

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This today in CommonWealth Magazine –

Trying to Patch the sinking news lifeboat

Soccer is the game of the future, its deriders have long said, and always will be. After the latest news that Patch, the pet project of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, has laid off two-thirds of its remaining staff, you have to wonder if hyperlocal news sites are becoming the European football of journalism.

About two weeks ago, AOL turned over its majority stake in Patch to Hale Global, a technology investment firm specializing in turning around troubled assets. In Patch, it has its work cut out for it, as the reporting and aggregating sites have lost up to $300 million since Armstrong launched them in 2007 when he was at Google.

The ax fell on hundreds of staffers in a cold conference call by Patch COO Leigh Zarelli Lewis, whose blunt, matter-of-fact, mass-firing contrasts with the hyperlocal focus the company tried to build its foundation on. Unsurprisingly, one of the enterprising (now-unemployed) journalists on the conference call recorded it and handed it over to media blogger Jim Romenesko.

“Hi everyone, it’s Leigh Zarelli Lewis. Patch is being restructured in connection with the creation of the joint venture with Hale Global. Hale Global has decided which Patch employees will receive an offer of employment to move forward in accordance with their vision for Patch and which will not. Unfortunately, your role has been eliminated and you will no longer have a role at Patch and today will be your last day of employment with the company. …Thank you again and best of luck.”

Romenesko says as many as two-thirds of the staffers at the 900 sites in 23 states were laid off, while Fox Business says just 100 staffers – reporters, editors, and advertising reps – remain to populate and sell space on the sites. Patch officials say all the sites will remain active but it’s hard to imagine they’ll be more than zombie sites, aggregating local feeds and offering bloggers a place to write. In Massachusetts, one of Patch’s prime regions, there are at least 82 sites. But who remains where is anybody’s guess.

Patch’s problems are not surprising to anyone who has watched. Back in August, AOL laid off nearly half of the 1,100 Patch staffers and the constant hemorrhaging of money nearly cost Armstrong his job. Not only is Patch competing with hyperlocal sites that are truly boots-on-the-ground in their communities, it is butting heads with legacy media that are also trying to leverage their news-gathering organizations and lay claim to their surrounding regions.

When GateHouse Media was formed about six years ago, it bought up more than 500 existing daily and weekly newspapers around the country, including such venerable institutions as the 175-year-old Patriot Ledger in Quincy and the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln awaited word of who would be the Republican presidential nominee in 1860. But while those outlets gave the company instant access and instant credibility, the idea was to turn those assets into hyperlocal sites, which they dubbed Wicked Local. But, given the recent sale and bankruptcy of GateHouse, they, too, have yet to figure out a way to monetize their sites.

The Boston Globe also dabbled in hyperlocal content, launching the Your Town sites on boston.com. But the sites are mostly aggregators and bloggers, failing so far to live up to the hope and promise of their launch.

It’s a vexing problem, how to make a living off providing news, especially at the local level. Local media critic and Northeastern University professor Dan Kennedy examined new age journalism in his book “Wired City,” focusing mainly on the New Haven Independent. But Kennedy also spotlighted some other seemingly successful ventures at the local and national level.

And there clearly are success stories. Here in Massachusetts, Universal Hub and The Dig have been able to find their niches. Perhaps that’s the lesson for megaplayers such as Patch and GateHouse. All news is local. The operators should be as well.

–JACK SULLIVAN

Just saw my first Woodland Theatre production and it was a blast.  I am sorry I missed the earlier shows.  This one was really funny, really well done, with a real professional production feel.  You are missing something special if you have not been.

Yesterday at the Massachusetts Municipal Association annual meeting I got to hear from Governor Patrick, Speaker DeLeo, Amy Pinter of DOR, and the Secretary of Administration and Finance, Glen Shor.  Today the speakers have included Senators Markey, Warren, and Mayor Walsh.  Senator Warren was by far and away the best speaker today and Governor Patrick gets my vote for the best speech  yesterday.

I have spoken with representatives from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, who encouraged us to engage the MAPC to plan for development of the State Hospital site.  MAPC is our regional planning agency and its services are free. 

I also spoke with the DEP about increasing our water withdrawal rights if we have new development at the MSH site and whether we will need to permit anew the MSH tubular well fields once we get it transferred to us by the state as part of the mediated resolution of the MSH clean up.

I spoke with DEP about how best to increase our recycling rates.

I have information about a number of useful sounding products from the trade show vendors, including a technology that does double duty as a sponge like material that you plant with a new tree and it  reduces watering need, which material can also be installed in sheets on roofs to create a planting medium to create green roofs.  There was also a spray on roof surface that sounds like it generated  savings.  I will pass all materials along to the appropriate town personnel.

I heard at the Massachusetts  Municipal Association annual meeting from a reputable source that Gatehouse has arranged its tax credits, but has not yet been able to arrange its financing for its 40B development on West Street known as The Parc.  We will see whether the development proceeds.

The Massachusetts Municipal Association annual meeting today and tomorrow.  I always find enough useful ideas and information to make the two days exceedingly well spent.

Opening session has Jon Meacham speaking on leadership.