Category Archives: Uncategorized

Both senators focused on opiate deaths. 80% of heroin deaths in US are people who started with a prescription for opiates. Need for money for treatment beds. Marley proposes $1 billion per year Federal spending to combat the problem. More people dying each year than died in Vietnam or will ever die from ISIS.

MMA is focused on the opiate problem.

Massachusetts is the”brain state.” We get 10% of the NIH research budget, and they fight to avoid budget cuts.

On a personal level, he reports it recently took him 5 hours to get home from the Congress when DC had one inch of snow.

Great quote he says was from President Johnson – “thank God I do not have to run something complicated like a town. ” Well received by those municipal leaders in this room.

[End]

Best,Pete

Osler L. Peterson, Esq.
PETERSON | Law
580 Washington Street, Newton, MA 02458-1416
66 North Street, PO Box, 358, Medfield, MA 02052-0358
617.969.1500 W
617.969.1501 Direct
617.663.6008 F
508.359.9190 M
Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com

Sent from my phone – please excuse any typos.

Nice to see a great local Medfield business at the MMA trade show.

Update on Federal matters. No shutdown and budget passed.

Lexington used its CPA (Community Preservation Act) funds to build its community center and a performing arts center (Carey Hall). Both looked great, and both the community center and COA were building renovations and reuse.

CPA allows one to get the state matching money that we have been leaving on the table, and yet we are still paying our share in which goes to the towns that have adopted the CPA.

Not adopting the CPA remains a missed opportunity for Medfield.

This is how Lexington staffs it facilities Department.

The Selectmen Association meeting is all about public building. Lexington had is Public Building Facilities Department lead the process, and is Building Committee is advisory. Medfield has no such facilities department, and has only just hired a facilities manager, so our Building Committee had to actually lead more of our projects. We are fortunate to have talented and experienced individuals on our Building Committee, but working them as hard as we do may not be the best model for the future.

It is really a policy question for the town whether we continue to run so much of the town on the backs of volunteer residents, or whether we need to hire more staff. Especially on expensive building projects it may well make sense to have more staff, to have more detailed oversight.

Selectmen Association annual meeting just starting. Fast trip in.

Idea#4 from the last meeting yesterday on COA issues = plan for large percentage increase in seniors. Quoted figured were that seniors will increase from 20% to almost 30% of population.

One specific idea was to switch to LED streetlights for safety reasons for the seniors.

Interestingly, our Energy Committee last week heard a presentation from Fred Davis on the cost savings benefits of buying, owning, and converting to LED streetlights and the better light quality.

Iron Mountain representative says that they store data, including the for the movies, which create vast amounts of digital data. He says the movie data is searchable, so individual scenes can be retrieved, and people can buy a picture of the scene they want.

If we stored a digital copy of a town meeting, one could search for the particular discussion of a particular issue. For example, what was that actual ATM vote on siting assisted living facilities on residential zones in 2012? You would not have to listen to whole meeting to check what was said on any one issue if the data was created and stored so it could be accessed on this way.

Trade show vendor had material for trails that was about as hard as asphalt, but less expensive. Could be a great application for surfacing the Bay Colony Rail Trail. Better for biking than stone dust.