MCHS Hosts First Winchendon Pumpkin Roll Event in Winchendon Community Park
Let 'Em Roll!
Seen in this photo, attendees of the first ever MCHS Free Pumpkin Roll Contest show their pumpkin rolling skills as they each aim for a pumpkin target
Photo by Keith Kent
Event volunteer Tammy Woodard holds up just some of the goodie bags event attendees receive under the theme, "Everybody Goes Home a Winner!" Woodard who recently moved to Toy Town, wanted to jump right in and help
Photo by Keith Kent
It was a first-ever fall town event, for an appropriately cool and crisp New England fall day, as the Massachusetts Critical Housing Service (MCHS) sponsored its first annual Pumpkin Roll event in Winchendon on Sunday, October 24, to begin the conversation about the growing need for both a local and additional homeless shelters in the North Central Mass region.
MCHS is a grassroots volunteer group passionate about helping those in need. By volunteering and showing compassion to others, it is their hope to effect change in the state one town at a time, while also breaking the stigma of homelessness. MCHS believes that together, it can find ways to provide shelter, food and clothing to fellow humans. MCHS is proud to announce a successful fiscal sponsorship collaborative with Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts (CFNCM).
Its "Four Pillars" are described as: Mission, to help people suffering from all types of homelessness; Vision, to offer caring and compassionate solutions for helping the less fortunate; Now, being in the now and always looking for ways to pitch in and help; and Later, looking to the future so the MCHS can continue to put the less fortunate first by collaborating with local individuals, groups, non-profits, and other willing agencies.
Event organizer and town resident Theresa Suzor could not have been happier to begin the conversation of the growing need for both a local, and other area homeless shelters. "We hope to bring a homeless shelter to the town of Winchendon, to serve the people of Winchendon, and up to the thirty-two communities surrounding us if needed. Today's event is about both doing something for our community, and getting the MCHS name out there. We have to start going for grants, and I have found a grant writer! We want to get the shelter going, but if we can't at least we can get this event 'Pumpkin Roll' going every year."
Suzor also serves as the board secretary of the North Central Mass Faith Based Community Coalition, which she explained assists in feeding some 2,000 low income and homeless individuals a month, has worked with Restoration Recovery Center Inc. of Fitchburg, MA to help people stay sober, and assisted with the bringing of a homeless shelter to nearby city of Gardner under the Gardner Emergency Housing Mission.
As Suzor explained, strong support for the cause and event was demonstrated by many local businesses with donations for goodie bags and more. The GFA Credit Union, C&S Pizza, The Glen Cafe, Winchendon Furniture Company, Zoe's Restaurant and Pizzeria, Hannaford's Supermarket, McDonalds, Belletetes, Federated Auto Parts, Christo's Place, Fidelity Bank (who was at the event with their free ice cream truck), Hometown Cafe, Subway, Toy Town Treasures, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Barbers Beyond Dawn, Not Just Produced, The Toy Town Barber Shop, and even Hollis Hill Farm of Fitchburg all pitched in for the cause.
Hosted at the Winchendon Community Park soccer field which provided plenty of room, the event enjoyed sunny skies, a high of 50 degrees, and lots of happy children realizing a long-standing New England fall tradition: playing games outside with each other and picking their own pumpkins! A play area for children's free play, pick your own pumpkin display, the pumpkin roll, corn hole, and even Tarot card readings were offered. Fidelity Bank was on scene with their Frosty Flyer van handing out free ice cream to all attending.
Suzor appeared before the Board of Selectmen on October 18 for an entertainment permit for the use of the town-owned park soccer field, which was reviewed by all town department heads, and approved by the BOS and the Board of Health. Because MCHS is a non-profit and the event was open to the public free of charge, the BOS voted to waive the application fee for the permit. Nevertheless, Suzor was forced to call police to deal with persistent harassment from a park abutter before and during the event.
Suzor has strong motivation for supporting and starting a conversation about building homeless shelters. "I've been in the field of Human Services all my life. I feel the need for a homeless shelter in Winchendon, because I have been personally picking up women in this town and paying for their hotels which has been a lot on my shoulders financially. I just can't walk past it. If I see a woman crying on the side of the street who is all alone, I just have to stop. I finally decided to try and start my own agency, so that is what I am trying to do. With roughly forty years in Human Services, going back when I was eight years old I was helping get people out of ditches, and at ten years old instead of playing with Barbie dolls, we went in to the nursing homes and played there. That stayed with me my entire life, just being a kid playing in the street and seeing somebody that needs help. You never forget that."
In closing, regarding the need for homeless shelters, Suzor said, "It's a thin line. Anybody can due to unforeseen circumstances, can cross that thin line between being homed and being homeless. I want my agency to be there for the people who actually do experience homelessness which is horrible. But more importantly, for the people who don't experience homelessness you need to know bad things happen and you could cross that thin line and while hopefully not, you could need that homeless shelter someday."
The MCHS can be reached by phone at 978-413-0356, emailed at mchscontactus@gmail.com and visited on the Web at https://www.mchsusa.org/.
Event organizer Theresa Suzor of Winchendon makes sure a heart felt thanks goes out to all who assisted in hosting the 1st event.
Photos by Theresa Suzor
MPHN Nurses Honored with Citation for COVID Work
Seen in photo from left to right, Keith Kent, Chairperson, Winchendon Board of Health, Winchendon Town Manager, Justin Sultzbach, State Representative Jon Zlotnik (D-Gardner), holding her Massachusetts Statehouse Citation of Recognition, Susan Avallone, RN, viral case tracker for the Town of Winchendon and Chairperson of the City of Gardner BOH, Winchendon BOS Chairperson Audrey LaBrie, and Town of Winchendon Health Agent, James Abare. Not seen in photo unable to attend and also awarded a Statehouse Citation of Recognition for her dedicated Winchendon viral case tracking and notification efforts, RN, Sandra Knipe.
Photo by Linda Daigle
At the Board of Selectmen's meeting on Monday, October 25, Susan B. Avallone, MSN, RN, NCSN-E, and her sister Sandra J. Knipe, RN, BSN, both part of the Montachusett Public Health Network COVID-19 Response Team, were presented with citations from the Massachusetts State Legislature by Representative Jon Zlotnik to recognize and honor their work in contact tracing to help slow the spread of COVID in North Central Massachusetts. Ms. Avallone accepted the citation on behalf of Ms. Knipe who was not able to attend in person.
Board of Health Chair Keith Kent began by saying, "A couple of months ago, I spoke to our health agent, James Abare, and I reached out to State Representative Jon Zlotnik's office. These wonderful individuals, as we have present with us here this evening, we're honored to have her, have been on the front lines this entire way, helping our community with all their hearts and good work. When they have to call a complete stranger's home to try to explain to them if they're positive, what would be beneficial to them, their families, their friends, people they met with, the contact tracing aspect, shall we say to be polite, is extremely difficult at times for these wonderful individuals who are giving everybody the best they have. The responses can obviously run the gamut from 'O my lord, thank you for calling me and letting me know, we were totally unaware,' to, 'please don't call my house again.' That's putting it nicely."
Mr. Kent added that Rep. Zlotnik's office already had "something ready quite a while ago, but due to everybody's schedules and this little thing we have going on called the pandemic right now, it's been challenging at times getting everybody together in the same room at the same time."
Rep. Zlotnik thanked Mr. Kent and went on, "The contact tracing program really has been, I don't think people realize, such a crucial part of how we combatted this pandemic for the last year and a half, how their efforts have helped stopped the spread as it's moved through our community, and undoubtedly those efforts have saved a lot of lives. So with that, I have a pair of citations, from the Massachusetts House of Representatives, recognizing what they have done over the last year and a half, in this program, and thanking them, from the House, and from our community, for those efforts."
Ms. Avallone said she felt "just totally humbled that you guys would be so thoughtful, to thank us like this." She added, "We've just been doing what we've been doing because it was the right thing to do," and she and her sister would certainly continue the work because "we have a belief in public health."
Another Milestone for the Future Gateway Park on Spring Street
Newly installed sidewalks are seen still curing on Thursday, October 28, providing a first time added increase in pedestrian safety along the full length of Lake Street, as part of the upcoming Central Street Business District revitalization project. Lake Street which is now one-way only diverting traffic from the Front Street bridge at Hunt's Pond to the Spring Street bridge and Route 12, was also recently paved with a fresh coat of asphalt. The sidewalks are seen in these photos being installed by Rob Pszyk of Prestige Concrete, LLC of Rindge, New Hampshire.
Photos by Keith Kent
Railroad Street Updates in Progress Despite Supply Chain Backup
This schematic of the Railroad Street improvements project displays the placement of new parking spaces, trees, intersection improvements and more soon coming to fruition in the current reconstruction project.
Photo by Keith Kent
As part of the several-years-long, ongoing multiple street revitalization projects bringing significant infrastructural improvements to Winchendon's Central Street business district area, Railroad Street, while currently unsightly, is well on the way to realizing order where there was once chaos.
Soon to transform from a slender two-way public road on which frequent unorganized parking on both sides made it even tighter, once completed, the future revitalized Railroad Street will feature fifteen marked parking spaces--thirteen regular and two handicap--at least nine new trees, and traffic bump outs. Increased traffic safety for motorized vehicles and pedestrians alike will include one-way traffic from Railroad Street's eastern end, beginning at Central Street, to its intersection with Pleasant Street, then two-way traffic on its western half from Pleasant Street to Spruce Street.
The project, which costs $600,000, is part of a $715,510 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) - Community Development Fund (CDF) grant which also included much needed Fuel Assistance, and is the third large grant secured by the Town of Winchendon Planning and Development Office. It follows a 2017 grant for $557,336 for Chestnut Street Reconstruction, Housing Rehab, and Fuel Assistance, and a 2016 secured grant of $1,000,000 for Walnut Street reconstruction, Housing Rehab, and Fuel Assistance.
Department of Public Works Superintendent Brian Croteau explained, "The drainage previously crossed private property going underneath a bar over to Pleasant Street, and as part of this improvement project, we are eliminating that and keeping everything under the public streets now." Elaborating on the area, Director of Planning and Development Tracy Murphy continued, "As we are with this design pushing more traffic permanently towards Grove Street, it should be known that the condition at the end of Grove Street at its intersection with Central will also be improved and taken care of as part of the 2022 Central Street project, where the intersecting streets with Central along its southerly side will all also receive additional line of sight improvements. Additionally, before this project, there was technically no [legal] parking on Railroad Street, it wasn't posted. Now we are gaining all this parking with these organized parking spots as it will be much more organized. We have been working on all this dating back to the Summer of 2019."
When asked about a project completion date, Croteau elaborated, "We can't really give a hard date, because due to the shortages in the supply chain isses, we can't get confirmation on when certain items will be delivered, and that weighs heavily on what are able to make on informed decisions and what we allow them to do in terms of what parts of the project we move forward with the rest of the year. The project has six phases, with water, sewer, drainage, paving, sidewalks, and then landscaping. The water lines under the ground are done, but the sewer as an example is not, because again due to the supply chain backup, the primary sewer contractor, GEG Construction who did Walnut Street is ready to go, but is waiting on those supply structures."
The project, which began one month ago, is now more likely to miss its completion target date at no fault of either the town or the contractors. "In a perfect world this would be an eight week project, but it's clearly right now with all the supply issues not a perfect world and that is one hundred percent of the issue right now," Croteau added. Murpy followed, "We really wanted to have this closed out by winter which was the intent, but we just don't know at this point if that is going to be feasible now."
In closing, Croteau said, "Without all the funding secured by Planning and Development the project wouldn't be available to be completed. People need to know this is a thirty to forty year fix, and on some of the aspects of this project like water and sewer it's close to a hundred year fix, so it's something that is not going to have to be redone in just five to ten years."
Winchendon Experiences Welcome COVID Viral Drop in Final Report for October
The Town of Winchendon after spending a month in the low 5 to high 5 percentage viral infection range, has just experienced a large one week drop over the previous weekly reporting average dropping from 5.07 to 3.82 percent positive testing, numbers not realized in Toy Town for some time. In the past several weeks, Winchendon has dropped from 5.64, to 5.54, to 5.07, to 3.82 percent viral positivity, exiting the bottom of the October calendar month, on a welcome high note.
In other good news for the Town of Winchendon, in a conversation with our Town Health Agent, James Abare, we were happy to confirm at this time, two weeks out from the Winchendon Fall Festival, a very large outdoor public gathering, there was no spike in either viral positivity or confirmed cases. As of Wednesday, October 27, Winchendon realized an active tracking of 34 known cases, out of 10,765 residents as listed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Again those are known cases as viral effects vary per person, and some do not even know they are infected.
At the time of the early March 2020 shutdown, the United States Centers for Disease Control believed up to 10 percent of all viral infections occurred outside in the open air, prompting the Massachusetts outdoor mask mandate. The CDC has since admitted, with more scientific data available, what many of us knew, that the previously believed number was incorrect and actually less than one half of one percent of cases are now believed to be transmitted outside in the open air. As Winchendon is now well past its Fall Festival where over 2,000 people participated up close in the open air proximity of Central Street, with no spike in cases documented at this time, it backs up the modified beliefs that the majority of infections occur indoors in close proximity contact without filtrated air, and not outdoors in the fresh circulated air.
Other surrounding towns and school districts have also for most part seen a decrease, while New England's largest three cities all located in the Commonwealth have again led the way holding the highest populations, while providing through vaccinations, the lowest viral numbers. The third largest city of Springfield, MA registered this week in the October 28 DPH reports at a lower 2.70 percent. The second largest city, Worcester, MA with a population of 209,000 realized a viral positivity rate of just 1.18 percent consistent for its municipality. Massachusetts and New England's largest city, Boston, with 670,000 residents year round, and 1.5 million residents during active college and university academic periods, reached a phenomenally low 0.69 percent viral infection rate per this report.
Locally, to Winchendon's east and southeast in the joint towns of the Oakmont Regional School District, Ashburnham experienced a slight drop from 2.96 to 2.66 percent, while member Town of Westminster continues to struggle, increasing from last week's 8.65, to a current 8.95 percent. To Winchendon's south in the Narragansett Regional School District, Templeton dropped from 6.44 to 5.79 percent, while member Phillipston who the last two weeks realized a dangerously high 11.80 and 12.86 positivity, thankfully finally dropped to 6.37 percent, still high but at least in the right direction. Also to our south, the City of Gardner dropped four tenths of a point, from 5.06 to 4.61 percent. Lastly to our west and southwest in the Athol Royalston Regional School District, bordering Town of Royalston dropped from 2.34 percent to 1.77, and Athol, the largest town in North Worcester County, dropped from 5.78 to 4.75 percent viral positivity.
Still in place at this time is a mask mandate in all town-owned public buildings between employees who cannot maintain six feet of social distancing or more between each other, and for employees when approaching the public at large when they enter an office or pass an employee in any of the premises. This is per order of Town Manager Justin Sultzbach, under weekly advisement by the Chair of the Board of Health and the Town Health Agent.
Going forward, if Winchendon can realize two consecutive weeks under a viral positivity of 4.49 or less, the masks in public buildings can come off. If two consecutive weeks of 4.50 or more then happen, the masks must go back on. While some may disagree with it, there must be best practices implemented with a bench mark which can be adjusted as needed.
The Town Manager and myself would like to remind all employees, both by salary, or either elected or appointed as "full time non-compensated municipal employees" under M.G.L., that no matter what your position with the town, if you see a sign in a town public building entrance door saying "Must wear a mask" no matter what your position you must comply. It's really quite simple, if the signs say all entering must wear a mask at the door at that time, then please wear your mask while entering. If the sign says no mask necessary at this time, then no worries. Again, there has been a conversation with the Town Manager, and both he and the Board of Health are now monitoring the situation for the town.
Keith Kent
Chair
Board of Health
Town of Winchendon
To schedule a free COVID-19 vaccination at any time, go to www.mass.gov/covid-19-vaccine.
