Muni Matters: ‘Better Bottle Bill’ Backed | ‘Thriving Local Economies’ | Sleeping In

News of interest from in and around Massachusetts

Muni Matters: ‘Better Bottle Bill’ Backed | ‘Thriving Local Economies’ | Sleeping In

In a move that supporters say sends “a strong signal that cities and towns want this bill to move forward,” the Massachusetts Municipal Association and Metropolitan Area Planning Council on Wednesday both endorsed legislation updating the state’s beverage-container deposit law. The “better bottle bill,” filed by Rep. Marjorie Decker and Sen. Cindy Creem, would increase the bottle deposit from its current five cents to 10 cents and add more types of beverage containers to the program, putting a deposit on water bottles, vitamin drinks, nips and bottles for other drinks that weren’t contemplated when the initial law was adopted in the early 1980s.

“Removing more bottles from the municipal waste stream saves cities and towns money, while allowing customers to get a little money back,” MAPC Executive Director Marc Draisen said. “Many of the containers covered by this proposal didn’t even exist when I first lobbied for the Bottle Bill 40 years ago. It’s time to move this law into the 21st century.” Both House and Senate versions of the bill (H 3289, S 2149) were referred to the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee.

The panel endorsed Creem’s bill last month and advanced it to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, while it is pursuing an extension order allowing it until May 2 to vote on Decker’s. MASSPIRG announced the two municipal groups’ support for the bill, saying the MMA and MAPC join a list of 75 organizations and 16 businesses that have endorsed the policy. “Passage now would bring immediate results, with higher re-use and recycling of plastic and glass containers, cleaner roads and parks, and substantial savings for city and town budgets – the bill is a winner on every level,” MMA executive director Geoff Beckwith said. – Katie Lannan/SHNS

One Dozen Cities Eyed for Transformational Development

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito announced an expansion Tuesday of the state program that aims to speed up private investment and development in specific areas of Gateway Cities, more than doubling the size of the Transformative Development Initiative and pumping $23.7 million into it. Along with Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, and MassDevelopment President and CEO Dan Rivera, Polito announced the creation of new TDI districts in Attleboro (Downtown), Barnstable (Hyannis East End), Holyoke (South High), Lawrence (Broadway/Essex), Lowell (Upper Merrimack Street), Lynn (Union Street), New Bedford (Acushnet Ave/North End), Pittsfield (Downtown), Revere (Shirley Avenue), Springfield (Mason Square), Taunton (Whittenton District), and Worcester (Pleasant Street), and the extension of a pre-existing district in Fall River (South Main). Polito later joined Taunton Mayor Shaunna O’Connell for a walking tour of the new Taunton TDI district.

“Designation as a TDI District will allow these 13 Gateway City neighborhoods the access to financial, organizational, and technical resources that can help create thriving local economies,” Polito said. With the TDI program, MassDevelopment seeks “to engage community members, implement local economic development initiatives, and spur further public and private investment.” Each district will get a “TDI fellow,” a MassDevelopment employee who can provide on-the-ground economic development expertise, and participating municipalities have access to technical assistance, grants to support local market development and arts and cultural infrastructure, collaborative workshops, events and more.

“From new storefront signage and district branding efforts, to planning studies and vacant building activation, our Transformative Development Initiative helps Gateway City partners tackle projects that advance neighborhood goals, stimulate economic activity, and build momentum for future investment,” Rivera, a former mayor of Lawrence, said. MassDevelopment said it has invested $20 million into TDI districts since the program launched in 2015. The agency said its investment “has directly influenced over $100.2 million in public and private investments in the districts, and assisted an additional $219.9 million.” MassDevelopment has previously designated 16 TDI districts. Existing districts in Chicopee, Fitchburg, Lawrence, and Worcester will graduate from the program in June 2022. – Colin A. Young/SHNS

Start Times Shifting at Norwood Schools

Norwood high schoolers will have the chance to sleep in an extra 25 minutes starting next fall, while elementary schoolers will be starting their days 50 minutes earlier. After what Superintendent David Thomson described as a “comprehensive process,” the school committee this month approved new start times for Norwood’s eight schools, and the shift is set to be implemented next school year.

According to the Norwood Public Schools, the work to adjust school start times began in February 2017, with the goals of not shifting elementary school starts by more than an hour while aligning with Center for Disease Control and American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations that class not start before 8:30 a.m. for upper grades. Under the plan, elementary schools will start at 7:50 a.m., instead of their current 8:40 a.m., and be dismissed at 2:05 p.m. Middle schoolers will start at 8:45 a.m., instead of 7:25 a.m., and get out at 3:20 p.m. High school will begin at 8:15 a.m. — from 7:40 a.m. — and end at 2:50 p.m. Bills have been filed for years on Beacon Hill to study optimal public school start times. A resolve (H 3980) before the House Ways and Means Committee, based on legislation filed by Reps. Paul McMurtry of Dedham and Carmine Gentile of Sudbury, would convene a task force to study the issue. That task force would review science around adolescents’ sleep needs and academic performance in districts that have adopted later start times for middle and high schoolers. If its findings suggest later start times are “beneficial to student learning,” it would identify resources to help districts make the switch. – Katie Lannan/SHNS

Muni Officials Eye State House Seats

Two local officials moved ahead this week with plans to run for seats in the Legislature, one in a district where the incumbent is eyeing higher office and another who would flip a seat in favor of the Republicans with a victory. Second-term Norfolk Select Board member Kevin Kalkut, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that he will run for the 9th Norfolk House seat that Republican Rep. Shawn Dooley is vacating to run for state Senate against Democrat Sen. Becca Rausch. Kalkut, who represents the town on the Norfolk County Advisory Committee, previously served two years as Select Board chair. The Sun Chronicle reported that Dooley’s wife, CiCi Van Tine, is the current chair of the Norfolk Select Board. Kalkut said he would focus as a state rep on “the issues closest to the communities within the district,” like local aid, preserving the district’s “rural appeal,” supporting education, increasing transparency at the State House, and enhancing engagement to develop a “public-driven policy.” The district includes Norfolk, Plainville, Wrentham and parts of Medfield, Millis and Walpole.

On Monday, Agawam City Council Vice President Cecilia Calabrese, a Republican, filed papers with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to run for state Senate in the newly-drawn Hampden and Hampshire District, which is also home to incumbent Sen. John Velis, a Democrat. Calabrese was elected president of the Massachusetts Municipal Association in January 2020, having joined the MMA Board of Directors in 2017 as the District 1 representative for the Massachusetts Municipal Councillors’ Association. Her career has included stints as a bankruptcy attorney, an assistant attorney general, a member of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination’s advisory board to fight housing discrimination, a dental hygienist and a residential and commercial property manager, according to the MMA’s 2020 announcement of her election. – Colin A. Young/SHNS