Open discussion thread: Ask questions, share opinions

It’s time for another open thread. What’s on your mind this week, Southborough?

For those of you new to the blog, the open discussion thread is your place to ask questions, sound off on town issues, or share information with other readers. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

  • Ask questions about programs in town or the town itself
  • Post a note about things that you’re selling or giving away, or things that you want
  • Share notices about upcoming events (Southborough or otherwise)
  • Register your thoughts on town issues or news stories
  • Point out interesting or helpful resources

You can add comments to the thread throughout the week. Check back often to see new comments. (If you read the blog via email or RSS, you might want to check the site from time to time for new comments.)

To view past open discussion threads, click here.

(Photo by Susan Fitzgerald)

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Joyce
9 years ago

Just wanted to post a big thank you to the property manager at 106 Southville Road, who agreed to have his crews shovel more of the sidewalks in front of the businesses there than had been shoveled previously. As many of us who walk along Southville to the commuter rail know, it can be very treacherous in the winter. And while the Town of Southborough gets out and clears one side of the street’s sidewalks, sometimes that can take a few days and generally the other side stays snow-covered. So here’s to a winter full of safe walks on cleared sidewalks!

Gary D.
9 years ago

It would be great if they follow thru on clearing that sidewalk. If only the town would stop plowing in the traffic light so one could actually reach the Walk button. You have to give kudo’s to the MBTA for clearing and sanding the walkway from the station up to Fitzi’s.

Matthew
9 years ago

I feel like Jerry Seinfeld when I ask “So what’s the deal with joggers jogging in the street when there is a perfectly good sidewalk right next to the road? I mean it’s straight, clear of debris, flat…one day I thought that maybe I should be driving on the sidewalk when three joggers came at me side by side talking away as if it was perfectly OK to get your friends and go run at moving car. I mean are we trying to live longer or what?”

Sobo Resident
9 years ago
Reply to  Matthew

I just had to reply when I saw this. I cannot believe how trusting joggers/bikers and even mothers/fathers pushing baby carriages are when on Sobo roads. People…please wake up! There are teenagers and the elderly on the roads. There are mothers/fathers in a rush to get places! It would be great to say that they are not distracted, but sometimes THEY ARE. DON’T TRUST THEM. The other day I was driving to work at 6:00 in the morning. There is a jogger in the road right in the middle of my lane, coming toward me. I saw him at the last minute. What if I was a 17 year old on a cell phone or texting….the outcome would not be good. Don’t stroll down the center of a busy, Parkerville Road with your baby carriage talking to your friends, walking side by side. Wake up and be smart! This is not a good idea!

Rachel
9 years ago
Reply to  Sobo Resident

Let’s not forget the cyclists! I’ve seen them riding on the incorrect side of the road and I’ve seen them run red lights at corner of 85 and Framingham Road. Ugh! Runners and cyclists, be safe! Drivers, keep an extra eye out for others!

Resident
9 years ago

Does anyone have a dentist who they really like? I am looking for a new one for my husband and myself.

MarthaB
9 years ago
Reply to  Resident

Dr. Joan Petracca on Lexinton St. in Framingham. She and her staff are the best. Her phone is 508.872.1627, and I highly recommend her.

Wayne
9 years ago
Reply to  MarthaB

What about a pediatric dentist in the area who people like as well? I’ve gone through a few for the kids.

sl
9 years ago
Reply to  Wayne

Deborah Himelhoch at 550 Worcester Rd (Rte 9) in Framingham is excellent. She also does orthodontics. My kids have presented her with a number of interesting challenges over the years and all have ended wonderfully.

Kathryn K
9 years ago
Reply to  Resident

Dr Zaterka at sboro dental. Great office, excellent w kids. My daughter was not easy , but he won her over.

William R. Cohen, M.D.
9 years ago
Reply to  Resident

Dear Resident,
My wife and I enjoy the competence of Dr Bui whose office is on Rt 20 in Marlboro. I have been going to him for years since the retirement of his predecessor.

His staff are all pleasant and helpful and the dental hygienists are excellent as well.

Sandypo
9 years ago
Reply to  Resident

Just want to add my two cents — Deborah Himmelhoch is wonderful — not the warmest personality but an excellent pediatric dentist. Highly recommend her.

MW
9 years ago

I have noticed a mass chopping and removal of dozens of tall conifers bordering the south side of the reservoir west of Deerfoot Road and south of Rt. 30.
Any information on this? Who, why, for what reason?
Deep ruts made by large trucks did their damage, too.

John Kendall
9 years ago
Reply to  MW

I’m sure if you contact the MWRA, they will tell you that it is forest/watershed management. They did it on Framingham Road several years ago, and it sure changed the views of the reservoir.

Kris
9 years ago

I believe it’s clearing along the power lines-just happens to coincide with the resevoir. They’ve done a LOT of tree clearing well back from the waters edge along that stretch of the resevoir.

William R. Cohen, M.D.
9 years ago

I hope no one minds if I voice a concern that is not related to Southboro.

I am a history buff and have taken the trouble to read the Constitution itself which is rather brief. The history books discuss the debates that occurred during its creation and ratification. I am afraid the fears of the anti-federalists have been borne out over the years.

As I like to tell the story, when “we” beat the British at Yorktown in 1781, the thirteen former British colonies became independent, sovereign states, in the sense that they were in effect sovereign nations. They lived under an agreement called the Articles of Confederation until 1787 when representatives from each met to modify that agreement but instead decided to write a constitution instead creating a government over the states!

They had their reasons in doing so as well as concerns. One reason they did so was because states were erecting tariffs on trade among the states which might have been meant to “protect” a local business from competition, but made costs of goods more expensive for consumers.

Another reason was that some debtors persuaded their local state politician to strike out a clause in their contract so they could repay loans in paper currency rather that in the coins of gold or silver which they had borrowed and initially agreed to repay in kind.

But perhaps the main concern of some of the Founders was to try to assure that their children would never live under a tyrant again as they had just endured under King George the Third. They wisely granted only certain powers to the Congress and reserved all other powers to the states or to the people (see the Tenth Amendment)

Now one of the powers granted was the power to coin money and to regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and to fix the standard of weights and measures. They had just experienced a hyperinflation of the Continental, a paper currency created in 1775 to pay the men who joined the fight against the British and who were promised that the Continental would be redeemable in the future, but that promise was never kept.

So no power to create a paper currency was granted and in the first Coinage Act of 1792 you will discover as I did by googling it, that a dollar was defined as a coin containing 371 grains and four sixteenth of a grain of silver. In addition the penalty for debasing the currency was death.see paragraph nineteen.

In Article 1 Section 10 it states that only gold or silver coin will be tender for payment of debts. So it is evident that Constitutional money was gold and silver coins. If you wonder how we have ended up instead with Federal Reserve Notes you may enjoy reading Timberlake’s Constitutional Money:A review of Supreme Court Monetary Decisions which explores the nine such decisions which have subverted the Founder’s careful attempt to protect what would have been sound money.

Another book which explores the history of central banking in America and the secret meeting set up by the banker J.P. Morgan in which the Federal Reserve System was written in 1910 and passed into law in 1913. Since then the purchasing power of the dollar has eroded over 97%. G. Edward Griffin’s : The Creature From Jekyll Island is being widely read in the libraries across the country.

One more thing about the Founder’s attempt to keep their children free. They included an oath of office which is taken by all elected officials, Congressmen and Senators and Supreme Court Justices as well as the President. You know the one. Its right there in the Constitution itself. But so far hardly anyone thinks to ask those running for office just what the oath means to them and what specifically they intend to do to keep their oath. That is about to change.

Two organizations sprung into being in 2008 in the colleges and universities across America and the world. Even in some high schools too. One is called Students For Liberty and the other is Young Americans For Liberty. They are growing with the promise that they will continue to grow as they recruit others to join them in learning about what went wrong and what needs to be done to restore our children’s liberty and freedom in the years ahead.

http://www.studentsforliberty.org
http://www.YALiberty.org

Knowing these organizations of bright young college students exists enables me to sleep a little better confident that my grandson, who is only three, will be able to live in the kind of America we all knew years ago when we were children ourselves, before the cost of living started its rise as unconstitutional interventions by our elected leaders, who ignored the meaning of their oath, led them astray with resultant crushing national debt, weakened dollar, high unemployment, entanglement in foreign wars, failed schools which do not teach the ideas needed to understand what caused the country to go off the rails and what ideas are necessary to restore our limited constitutional Republic.

Marie
9 years ago

I am a Southborough resident looking to join, or start, a propane buying co-op. Are there any co-ops that service our town?

Propane User
9 years ago
Reply to  Marie

Do you own your propane tank? If you don’t, you are legally bound to buy your propane from the company that owns the tank. (At least that was the law 3 years ago.) I tried to purchase a tank so I could buy propane from whoever I wanted, but I could not find a company that would sell one to me. I was told that it wasn’t in my best interest to be responsible for my own tank due to the repercussions of lax maintenance.(I won’t express my belief of the reason.) In the end, I did end up switching propane companies because I believed I was being way overcharged and underserviced, but that also meant the tank had to be switched out as well. Please post if you know of a way to buy a tank.

Marie
9 years ago
Reply to  Propane User

I do own my own tank but find that it’s not easy to get a service call if you buy from multiple providers. My primary supplier refused to come out and provide service when I thought I had a leak because of a one-time fill by a competitor. (There was no leak, but I didn’t know that and was rather upset at being told to go call the other guy!) So, I have concluded that the best solution is to either start or find a buying co-op so that I can at least avoid being gouged on a regular basis.

Propane User
9 years ago
Reply to  Marie

How did you manage to buy your tank? I would like to do the same. Could you call a plumber for a suspected propane leak? I thought plumbers were certified to handle propane lines, but perhaps that is just inside the home. To save money, we prepay the entire year’s supply (at the end of July) to the company that owns the tanks. If there is money left over, it rolls to the next year. So far, we have saved money that way, but I am not sure about this year because prices have dropped a lot according to the news.

Chris
9 years ago

Anyone know if the scouts are going to be picking up Xmas trees this year? I can’t recall seeing anything posted, and, whom to contact to ‘reserve’ the pickup?

Chris
9 years ago

Thanks Beth, I also received an email from them over the weekend, as a ‘prior customer’

Sandypo
9 years ago

I’m looking for a plumber. Local would be good but reliable and competent trumps anything else. Any suggestions?

sl
9 years ago
Reply to  Sandypo

We’ve used Paul McCullough in Framingham many times for a few hot water tanks, repairing a burst, frozen pipe and other work. 508-877-0194

Another Res
9 years ago
Reply to  Sandypo

I used Belli Plumbing in Marlboro. They fit me in when I had to shut off the water due to a burst pipe (not a good day, but Chris was great.) I would recommend waiting for Chris Belli (the owner) for the service call if you can. I found him to be competent, honest, and fair. I have an “okay” opinion of the other person who worked on another small job. (It was his cousin, I believe)

John Kendall
9 years ago

I’ve never had to use them, but I hear they are good!

http://www.flahertyplumbing.com/

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