"It's a Wonderful Life" Plays On Big Screen At Park Theatre
Hobbs Jewelers sponsors the December 23 screening
image courtesy of The Park TheatreJAFFREY, New Hampshire (December 18, 2023) Few films can compete with It's A Wonderful Life for the ultimate holiday film.
Return to Bedford Falls and relive the magic and wonder of director Frank Capra's heartwarming and enchanting holiday tale, It's a Wonderful Life, as it plays on the Big Screen at Jaffrey's Park Theatre this holiday season! The completely restored 1946 classic screens at The Park on Saturday, December 23 at 7 pm. The screening is sponsored by Hobbs Jewelers of Peterborough.
After George Bailey (James Stewart) wishes he had never been born, an angel (Henry Travers) is sent to earth to make George's wish come true. George starts to realize how many lives he has changed and impacted and how they would be different if he were never there.
Despite its initially poor performance due to high production costs and stiff competition, the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences saw fit to nominate It's a Wonderful Life for five Oscars. With the considerable boost from over forty years of television screenings, the film has gone on to become one of the most inspirational and beloved movies in American cinema. It has since been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American Films ever made.
Tickets for It's a Wonderful Life are $10 ($9 for seniors, children, students, teachers, and active military). They can be pre-ordered online at theparktheatre.org or by calling the box office at (603) 532-8888. Tickets are sold at the box office before each event. Group sales are also available. The theatre will be open at 5:30 pm with live music from Bernie & Louise Watson in The Lounge.
The Park Theatre is located at 19 Main Street in downtown Jaffrey, NH, just 95 minutes from downtown Boston. The facility is completely accessible.
"Good Morning North Central" to Feature Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll
Event scheduled for January 12 at Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg
(North Central, MA)--The next edition of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce's popular Good Morning North Central breakfast series is scheduled for Friday, January 12, 2024, from 6:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at Great Wolf Lodge located at 150 Great Wolf Drive, Fitchburg, Mass. The event is sponsored by Resource Management, Inc.
The Good Morning North Central series is a high-profile, fast-paced and educational breakfast program geared towards executives, senior managers, professionals and business owners. Each of the programs has a business-oriented focus and features popular speakers to present on topics of interest to local businesses.
The featured speaker for the month of January is Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Marc Dohan, executive director of NewVue Communities, is also scheduled to present on the Fitchburg Arts Community development project.
Kim Driscoll is the 73rd Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was sworn in on January 5, 2023, joining Governor Maura Healey in an historic series of firsts, including the first all-women executive team to lead Massachusetts.
Driscoll was elected the City of Salem's first woman mayor in 2006, taking office at a time when the community was struggling with record deficits, poor financial management, and a declining bond rating. As mayor, she turned deficits into record surpluses and saved taxpayers' money by strengthening city services, revitalizing Salem's downtown, leading a vast improvement in Salem's K-12 schools, reforming city pensions and health insurance programs to protect employee benefits, bidding public contracts, and bringing transparency to City Hall.
Working collaboratively with state officials and local partners, Driscoll secured sizable public and private investments, including a new MBTA train station, a state courts complex, senior center, ferry and waterfront port at Salem Wharf, and positioned Salem as the primary marshaling port for the forthcoming Commonwealth Wind project that will serve residents across Massachusetts and New England, establishing the City as a national leader in the offshore wind sector.
From passing one of the first fully-inclusive LGBTQ non-discrimination ordinances in Massachusetts, to securing major investments in veterans' benefits, standing up for immigrants' rights, and enacting one of the first age-friendly action plans certified in the Commonwealth, under Driscoll's leadership, Salem has been--first and foremost--an inclusive community that welcomes everyone.
Prior to serving as mayor, Driscoll spent time as the City of Beverly's Community Development Director after college, served as the City of Chelsea's Chief Legal Counsel and Deputy City Manager, and also served on the Salem City Council.
Exemplified by her extensive and successful career in local government, Lieutenant Governor Driscoll is focused on working with Governor Healey to create a forward-looking Commonwealth and communities that work for, empower, and include all who call Massachusetts home, as well as those who aspire to do so.
Marc Dohan is the executive director of NewVue Communities, a position he has held since 2002. He has led the transformation of the former Twin Cities Community Development Corporation into a regional organization that serves all of North Central Massachusetts with programs in real estate development, housing and financial services, small business assistance and community organizing. Before joining NewVue Communities, Marc worked as a lawyer focusing on municipal finance. He has a degree in both law and in urban planning.
NewVue has a track record of completing the adaptive reuse of buildings in Fitchburg and Leominster, and is in the process of historically transforming older school buildings into affordable apartments. NewVue converted the former Carter School in Leominster into 39 apartments, and is in the midst of an adaptive reuse project that will create the Fitchburg Arts Community out of the former BF Brown School, Fitchburg City Stables and Fitchburg High School Annex. Next up, NewVue is planning to convert two schools in Athol into intergenerational apartments. NewVue expects that all of these buildings will be registered on the National Register of Historic Places.
The cost is just $30 for Chamber members/$45 non-members, and includes a breakfast buffet. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, please contact Kat Deal at 978.353.7600 ext. 235, kdeal@northcentralmass.com or visit www.northcentralmass.com.
A Faulty Economic Justification for Gardner's Sludge Landfill Expansion
The Coalition for a Sustainable Alternative to the Gardner Sludge Landfill Expansion (the Coalition) has found serious errors and omissions in the City's financial calculations for its proposed sludge landfill expansion.
According to Ivan Ussach, director of the Millers River Watershed Council (MRWC), which is leading the Coalition's efforts, those miscalculations favor the sludge landfill expansion at the expense of more environmentally friendly opportunities. "Some of the alternative project solutions could have a much better economic outcome for the City and its residents," said Ussach. "We think that's important for City officials and residents to know as they consider the options."
The miscalculations were identified by Coalition members after months of study and close examination, and involve the proposed landfill expansion as well as two of the main alternatives: The City of Fitchburg's plans for a "Regional Renewable Energy and Biosolids Management Facility", and a "hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) facility" proposed for Gardner by SoMax Circular Solutions of Spring City, Pennsylvania. Both projects would utilize organic waste streams, such as the sludge that goes to Gardner's landfill, as feedstock to convert waste to energy for a net economic gain.
The City's faulty financial analyses, Ussach said, are contained in a May 23rd, 2023 letter from DPW Director Dane Arnold to Mayor Michael Nicholson requesting $307,000 to prepare a detailed Environmental Impact Report (EIR) required by state officials.
In Arnold's letter, the expanded sludge landfill's annual operating cost is put at $600,000 to cover the cost of a $7 million construction loan, including interest. No mention is made of: 1) annual operation and maintenance costs, estimated by the Coalition to be $100K annually; 2) capping costs, estimated by the City consultants at between $1.7 to $3.0 million when the landfill is full--after 17 years according to the 2022 Engineering Report; or 3) the $1 million already spent on engineering and design work. Depending on whether a loan interest rate of 2.5% or 4.5% is used, the Coalition estimates that the total project cost over 17 years ranges from $12.45 to $15.29 million--an annual average cost of $732,000 to $899,000 to the City.
For the option to bring its waste to nearby Fitchburg's planned waste-to-energy project, which now has a clear permitting pathway with state and federal regulators, Arnold's letter dramatically overstates Gardner's projected beginning annual disposal cost: $1,062,500, versus around $389,000 to $435,000 according to the Coalition's calculations. The disparity results from a miscalculation in converting Gardner's output in cubic yards to wet tons, and an erroneous assumption about the "total solids" content of Gardner's sludge. These errors were documented in several communications with Tom Bintz, CEO of EQ Renewables, a partner in the Fitchburg project. Arnold's letter also states that Gardner would be “at the mercy” of tipping fee increases over time for hauling away the remaining sludge product, but fails to mention that the remaining sludge is a marketable Class A biosolids product.
As for building a SoMax HTC facility in Gardner, Arnold's letter makes no mention of the available 40% federal tax credit, which is discussed in the March 2023 Feasibility Study that Gardner paid SoMax to prepare. Unlike other options, this solution offers a return on investment in 6-11 years and an estimated positive project balance, in 20 years, of $10.9 million. The tax credit would reduce the initial $10 million capital investment to about $6 million. The letter also fails to mention the abundance of food waste and wastewater sludge available relatively close to Gardner to use as feedstock.
"In addition to the landfill expansion's many environmental shortcomings," Ussach said, "including potential contamination of nearby drinking water wells in Gardner and Templeton, Gardner officials and residents need to be able to assess the options for disposing of sludge based on complete and accurate financial information."