|
SELECTMAN INCREASE TAXI RATES
DID YOU
KNOW…
The Canton
Board of Selectmen has voted to increase Canton taxi rates
effective July 1. The minimum fee for the first mile will
increase $1 to $4; each 1/5 mile thereafter will increase $.10
to $.60; and waiting time will increase $.05 to $.40 per minute.
The
selectmen also increased the sticker fee for disposing at
the Canton Yard Waste Transfer Station. Effective July 1, 2008,
the sticker fee will be $10.
As a result
of soaring food prices, the buying power of food stamps
is concurrently falling. The average monthly food stamp
allocation is $181.30; and each month, it buys less and less
nutritious food, and the weaker food stamp values are a
particular threat to children.
While we
struggle to cope with gasoline costing more than $4 per gallon,
it is currently expected that home heating oil costs will hit
record highs next winter. The National Energy Assistance
Directors’ Association recently predicted that the national
average cost to heat a home with oil this coming winter will be
$2,593, up from $1,962 last winter.
According to
the Retired State, County and Municipal Employees Association of
Massachusetts, as of January 1, 2008, the current average
salary of state employees is $53,436, which is a 31.7
percent increase from what it was in the year 2000. As of
January 1, 2008, state pensions for the average 50,495 retirees
is $23,014.
Work is
progressing on the Downtown Streetscape Project. The
project involves about 3,200 feet of sidewalk improvements, and
it looks better every day. Additionally, the gas company should
soon be through digging up Washington Street to replace the gas
lines, and shortly thereafter, 1,800 feet of Washington Street
will be repaved, probably in August.
Since the
postwar suburban boom and the rise of interstate highway
mileage, Americans have driven increasingly further. According
to the Federal Highway Administration, the average driver logged
9,949 miles in 1970. However, the number surged to
14,862 miles by 2006, the last year statistics were
available. Massachusetts has a lower average of 11,702 miles,
which is probably due to its large transit network.
Speaking of
transit systems, the Megabus Company from New Jersey, a
division of Coach USA, has announced it will start using
double-decker buses for express runs between Boston and New York
and also for the New York to Washington route. The
double-deckers hold 70 people, compared to 56 seats in a regular
bus; and the double-deckers will be the only ones in the country
involved in intercity travel.
The post
town meeting predicament that Canton has with Napleton’s plan to
tear down those two old buildings that date back to Paul
Revere’s copper works reminds MAC about the businessman who
tried to open an all-terrain vehicle rental store in a small
town in Colorado, but a local woman rallied opposition to stop
him. As a result, he was denied the special-use permit he needed
to open; so, he decided to open a porn gallery instead and named
it after the woman who mounted the campaign against him. You
can draw your own conclusions.
In some news
that surely will stir up the York Street NIMBYs again, the huge
new Target store being constructed at the intersection of
Turnpike Street (Route 139), Route 24, and Page Street in
Stoughton, is scheduled to open October 12.
The Peerless
Insurance Division of Liberty Mutual has returned to the
Massachusetts automobile insurance business. Peerless, based in
Keene, New Hampshire, stopped writing auto insurance in
Massachusetts 20 years ago, even though its parent company,
Liberty Mutual, has been a major Massachusetts insurer during
that time.
After
several years, Judy Nelson has resigned as the secretary
to the Board of Selectmen.
The
Canton High School girls’ tennis team finished its season
with a record of 11-8; and the Bulldogs won the Hockomock League
Sportsmanship Award.
The
Canton American Legion Band was scheduled to be the featured
band of the Canton Recreation Department’s first Wednesday
evening weekly summer concert series on July 9. Then the popular
award-winning True West, a premier country dance
band, will provide some modern country and western music to
appreciative Canton listeners in the Wednesday evening concert
at 7 p.m. on July 16. Bass guitarist and one of the featured
vocalists of True West is Jim Pederson of Canton who has
worked in the maintenance department of the Canton Housing
Authority for over 17 years. True West is another fine band
that MAC recommends you come to see.
There is
always a right and a wrong way, and the wrong way always seems
more reasonable.
That this is all for now folks; see you next week.
Joe DeFelice can be reached at
manaboutcanton@aol.com
Several alert
MAC readers found an obvious error in last week’s MAC column
where MAC incorrectly reported NStar’s rates for residential
and small business will increase by about 71 percent on July
1, and National Grid’s summer rates have also jumped about 53
percent under the state’s new deregulated electric system. It
appears that sneaky decimal thief was at it again. The
correct figures should have been 7.1 percent and 5.3
percent.
July 10, 2008
Return
to Past Articles Page
|
