Greg Reibman, President of the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber has been sending a daily e-newsletter since COVID started in March, and this was in his one today –

IRS PPP ruling adds another 2020 hurdle 

I hate to spoil your appetite one day before the big event but here’s the latest on the PPP.

Earlier this year, the IRS ruled that expenses (like payroll) that businesses typically deduct from their taxes aren’t tax deductible if they used PPP dollars to pay for them.

Last week, the IRS issued new guidance prohibiting any small business that has a reasonable expectation of eventually receiving PPP loan forgiveness from deducting those expenses in 2020, even if it takes until 2021 or 2022 to be granted forgiveness, or if the business hasn’t submitted a forgiveness application yet, writes Andy Medici for the BBJ.

In other words: The IRS has just made it harder for businesses that are desperately trying to survive this pandemic by eliminating a potential strategy to defer their 2020 tax liabilities for one year while waiting for the economy to rebound.

Or as one expert tells Medici: “Without the PPP, small businesses would have laid off staff, saving on expenses and saving cash. The only reason they kept staffing levels is because of the PPP, and the IRS is effectively punishing that action by pretending it wasn’t a legitimate business expense.”

Interested in a sharp stick in the other eye (related to federal COVID relief support for our businesses)? Try this.

Email from Kristine Trierweiler –

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FYI. They are reporting to have the remaining 46 customers back on by Noon. 

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Good Morning Christine,

No, this was not a planned outage. We had a few phases come down which affected some customers in the area. Currently, we have crews on-site and there are 46 customers that remain out. The remaining customers should be picked up no later than noon today but may be restored sooner.

I’ll send you another update once I have it.

Thank you,  

Jared

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Jared M. Blandino

Community Relations & Economic Development Specialist

What Medfield personage lists his/her occupation on the official annual town census that he/she is a “RODEO CLOWN?”

Maintaining the integrity of the town records requires me to inquire, Sir/Madam, when was your last rodeo?

Noticed while using the town census to send out the Medfield Foundation’ first annual appeal.

The Medfield Foundation hopes to have 100% of the town’s rodeo clowns supporting its first annual appeal.

And in fact 100% of all of our hometown’s residents – together building our shared community – https://www.medfieldfoundation.org/give

The North South rail line through town has been getting upgraded for several months, and a resident queried Senator Feeney about what was being done. Today Senator Feeney informed the resident what he heard back from the railroad as follows:

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Below is the update we received from Mass Coastal as of yesterday. Unfortunately they are not mandated by statute or regulation to notify abutters regarding rail work. We have urged them to do so previously and will continue to ask for updates if the work is going to be prolonged. This is part of a larger project to replace older rail with “Continuous welded rail”.  I hope this update helps to understand the scope of their work.  In the meantime, we as a delegation have communicated about this issue, agree with you wholeheartedly, and will shake the trees with MassDOT and advocate for communication to the neighborhood by Mass Coastal. 
Best,-Paul
Update from Mass Coastal:

 “As information, Mass Coastal is overseeing a MBTA & MASS-DOT Rail Unit Project that is upgrading the rail along the Framingham Secondary between Framingham and Mansfield. We are changing the over 100 year old sectional-jointed rail to Continuous Welded Rail (CWR). Along with that change, the project involves spreading ballast stone and “surfacing” the rail to provide smooth alignment.

   As you are likely aware, this rail line is very active transporting freight. Consequently the operational windows that we have afforded the contractor results in erratic hours. We take every step to avoid disruption, but one of the problems with CWR is that laying it in extreme heat conditions is not conducive to the requirements. Therefore early starts and working late are necessary.

   There are a couple of weeks left before we are finished. 

I am copying the folks at the MBTA and DOT that are my direct report.“ 

I was kindly reminded of the school standard, namely to stay home for 24 hours after a fever, so I have canceled the office hours for tomorrow. Good advice. Thank you.

The School Committee just voted to have the school system discontinue the use of the warrior head logo.