At Last, At Last, At Last!
Central Street Getting Its Groove Back
Two layers of pavement, second layer on the left.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
In a job this size, no help is too small!
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Sidewalks will be done next. And fancy street lamps!
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Putting down the second layer in front of Cumby's.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Rolling it all down.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Walnut Street--side street junctions are also getting resurfaced.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Checking density, compaction and temperature of the new pavement.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Looking north from GFA Bank.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Rep. Zlotnik Presents Proposal for Local Opioid Settlement Collaboration to BOS
At their meeting on Monday, August 15, State Representative Jon Zlotnik appeared before the Board of Selectmen to describe plans for regional collaboration in the use of funds from the global Opioid Settlement first announced in February.
The Opioid Settlement funds are the outcome of over 3,300 individual civil lawsuits filed by local and state governments and Native American tribes since 2014 against companies that manufactured or distributed opioid medications heavily responsible for the addiction and fatal overdose health crisis. Organized into a group by the National Prescription Opiate Litigation Plaintiffs' Executive Committee, 90 percent of the plaintiffs agreed to participate in the group settlement as of February 25, 2022. $26 billion in global settlements were finalized against what are called the "Big Three" drug distributors--AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson--and opioid drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. (Johnson & Johnson has ceased manufacturing opioids. A separate settlement against Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin, and its owners the Sackler family is still being negotiated. It is expected to exceed $6 billion in payouts to plaintiffs.)
None of the companies concede to having done anything wrong.
The settlements require that 85 percent of the funds received by plaintiffs be allocated to programs that help address the ongoing opioid crisis through treatment, education and prevention efforts. The payments will be spread out over a twenty-year period beginning in April, 2022.
Rep. Zlotkin opened the discussion by explaining, "So this spring, the massive opioid settlement was announced and I saw the number and it was initially very exciting. But when you factor in that it's being spread across many different states and then many different towns and cities in those states and spread over the next few decades, the annual number that any of us will be receiving isn't too great." A chart listing the funding amount by county and town indicates that Winchendon is slated to receive $80,950 in 2022, with annual amounts after that ranging between $14,052 to $24,123. (These numbers are subject to change.) Some other communities in the region are assigned far lower amounts. (For example, in 2022 Athol is assigned $15,899, Westminster $10,026, Templeton $7,416, Ashburnham $6,198, Hubbardston $3,389 and Royalston $917.) These are not enough, Rep. Zlotkin feels, "to really do anything about the problem."
So, Rep. Zlotkin said, he was looking at how communities in his district might be able to work together, pool their settlement funds, and "work with some of the people already doing work in substance abuse and addiction and the recovery space, to see how we could spread that a little bit further and perhaps make a deeper impact than each town with their limited funds coming from the settlement, trying to do that on their own."
The primary local organization being tapped to utilize the pooled funds is Gardner-based 501(c)(3) non-profit GAAMHA Inc., which provides recovery and mental health services to North Worcester County, North Quabbin and Eastern Franklin County. Among its many programs, GAAMHA operates a residential program called Pathway House, and works in conjunction with Alyssa's Place, a peer recovery and resource center in Gardner. Founded in 1967, GAAMHA Inc. reported total revenue of $5,889,290 on its 2020 Form 990.
Unfortunately, GAAMHA Inc.'s Chief Operating Officer, Shawn Hayden, was unable to attend the meeting to provide more in-depth information about what kinds of services could be offered. Board Vice Chair Rick Ward asked Rep. Zlotnik for more information about Alyssa's Place and Pathway House.
"Alyssa's Place is named after a girl I went to high school with who died some years ago of an overdose," Rep. Zlotnik said. "Alyssa's Place is located in downtown Gardner and they coordinate a lot of recovery services out of that location, and they do group sessions, things like that. Also, I'll say 'recovery socializing,'" such as CrossFit workouts in their gym. He admitted that he was less familiar with Pathway House and what it did. "But there's, as I was saying, there's a number of both inpatient and outpatient work that GAAMHA provides and services that they provide and sort of the range of addiction services."
Selectman Danielle LaPointe asked, "So when we enter into this agreement, which sounds to me to be a great idea because you can't do much with $10,000, does that give Gardner or a specific entity kind of the final say or are we able to decide what is done, or what kind of input do we have?"
Rep. Zlotnik replied, "So the way that we're proposing that work is that each town would contract independently with GAAMHA, but obviously with the understanding that whatever towns end up opting into this would all do so under the same terms. The draft agreement that was provided to you was made by the city partners' legal department for this purpose. Once that sort of initial agreement is done, it would be between the town and GAAMHA to work out those details, but it would be GAAMHA running the day to day of that program."
To begin with, Rep. Zlotnik explained, they proposed "three to five years of an initial agreement. I think that's just to give enough time to figure out if this is worth pursuing. So we have some data to point to and some evidence to point to the impact that it is or isn't having, but then after that, it would be renewed."
He went on, "The second piece of that is that depending on how many towns end up opting in from the group that we think would be good for that. That number does fluctuate a little bit. And the actual amount that every town receives does fluctuate a little bit year to year. And I don't know why this was done this way. But this was how the settlement was laid out."
Beyond the costs of the programs would be some "remainder money" which could be used for different things at towns' discretion, Rep. Zlotnik said.
Board Chair Audrey LaBrie asked if the town would need to be tracking services and reporting on the use of funds. "I imagine that there's probably at some point going to need to be some reporting back to the Attorney General and how the money's being spent," Rep. Zlotnik said. "And that would be done by each municipality. But day to day it would be GAAMHA tracking the data that would come in and out of the program."
Ms. LaBrie asked whether "for any town that does get into the agreement, the individual town would then have discussions with GAAMHA as to how that money would be used, or is it once GAAMHA has the pot, then GAAMHA makes all the decisions about the distribution of services or whatever?"
"Well, that's all laid out in the agreement and how the money would be spent would be agreed to before the agreement took place," Rep Zlotnik said. "As far as where funds would go, I would say the service would be available to the participating communities. There'll be a little bit of ebb and flow as the need ebbs and flows over time."
Selectman Barbara Anderson said that she had some concerns. "It looks like we are relinquishing control to Gardner and [to the other towns] where they might maintain the bulk of the benefit. And without consulting with our stakeholders here in town, like the Police Chief and the Fire Chief, I'm not sure that that would be the best for Winchendon."
Rep. Zlotnik said he agreed. "I would certainly recommend that you consult with the Police Department or Fire Department, they'll be the ones who are interacting with this program and as we go forward, they already do on other programs interact with GAAMHA so they should have some kind of relationship and understanding how that goes." The benefits would go to where there was the most need for them. He pointed out that when emergency services handles a situation involving addiction or an overdose, they always provide a referral to services. With this program, people could be connected directly to the service they need and not just given a general phone number to call later.
Ms. LaBrie said that she wasn't sure how many Winchendon townspeople would actually use the kinds of "reactive" services that GAAMHA provided, such as "if someone has an overdose and you call in a counselor [to talk] with a family." She wondered if the settlement funds could be used for "proactive" measures, in the form of education and so on.
"So I would say my understanding is that the Attorney General's Office has recently or will be soon putting out guidelines and regulations around what are applicable uses of those funds," Rep Zlotnik responded. "But I think the the general guidance that I've been given is, whether it's on the service side of addiction, or for preventative measures, that seems to all be acceptable." Town Manager Justin Sultzbach added that prevention would be an allowable expense.
Mr. Ward commented that in the information they'd been given, it stated that "you must have opioid use disorder treatment, support people in treatment and recovery programs. Connections to care... and there's about four pages in here. These are massive programs, and I went to check on the CAC in town as possibly a place...we don't have any of those programs or capabilities to meet those requirements. Now, maybe we can purchase some Narcan for the police." But for more comprehensive services, Winchendon residents would have to be referred to programs in other towns.
Rep. Zlotnik said that they were hoping to have a firm idea of which towns would be participating by the end of September. So far, towns that have expressed some level of interest are Winchendon, Templeton, Ashburnham, Gardner, and Westminster. The Board agreed to place the topic on their agenda at a future meeting which Mr. Hayden could attend to answer questions in more detail.
GAAMHA and Alyssa's Place will be featured participants at the Resource Fair held by the Montachusett Veterans' Outreach Center (MVOC) on Thursday, September 15 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Monument Park (1 Cottage Street) in Gardner, for anyone who would like to meet and talk to them.
Everything you could ever want to know about the settlement:
National Opioid Settlement
Massachusetts FAQ about the State's Payments:
Frequently Asked Questions About the AG's Statewide Opioid Settlements
Charts and Numbers:
Max Municipal Abatement Payments
State Senator Jo Comerford Visits Beals Memorial Library
Senator Jo Comerford in conversation with her constituents.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Senator Jo Comerford with her friend, and member of the Winchendon Master Plan Implementation Committee, Erika Eitland.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
Beals Memorial Library became one of the stops on Winchendon's new state Senator Jo Comerford's "Library Tour" on Wednesday, August 24. Some fifteen members of the community, including representatives from the CAC, HEAL Winchendon, the Youth Changemakers, the library Trustees, the Board of Selectmen and the Master Plan Implementation Committee sat in a circle of chairs arranged in the library's second floor auditorium for an informal and intimate talk about their concerns and aspirations for Winchendon.
Sen. Comerford began by explaining how and why the central and western Massachusetts districts were redrawn when the 2020 Census revealed a population shift eastwards in the Commonwealth. In order to keep the same number of Senators in the State House from western Massachusetts, several Senators discussed swapping towns among the districts to even out their population counts. This meant that Senator Ann Gobi, who has long represented Winchendon, lost our town from her district, while Senator Comerford added it to hers--the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester District. Also added were the towns of Petersham, Athol, Ashburnham and Royalston.
As for why she was touring libraries, Sen. Comerford explained, "I come from a family of librarians. My mom was a librarian. My sister is currently a librarian. And I believe that libraries are almost like a revolutionary thing in 2022." In libraries, she said, you can explore what you're passionate about. "Where would we go to talk with neighbors and hear ideas and hear feedback, your criticism, hear anything? We should go to a library where everyone's welcome to a very accessible way. The idea is democracy, democracy in action. I do believe there isn't anything stronger in the entire world and certainly in the Commonwealth there isn't a more active and engaged electorate. I do believe that libraries are at the center of that. You're making us stronger and building the place that we want to have.
"And our office believes that we work for you," she continued. "Meaning our job is to be as accessible, as transparent, as open, as communicative as we possibly can without making you tired of us. And our ideas should come from you." She described working with Erika Eitland on getting a bill passed to make school buildings both healthier and greener in response to concerns about schools in Athol and Orange, and the lack of incentives available to larger, richer towns. "Every bill that we have currently...I could trace back to a member of our community, who told us a story, who had an experience, had an idea, who had expertise, and so we take those in and we work with constituents. I think it's the very best thing about government potentially," Sen. Comerford said.
There are great things and hard things about state government, Sen. Comerford said, but she believes in it. She also believes in accountability. "Because if I'm not doing what Winchendon people think I should be doing, I should care about it, and you should know how to find us. And if you need help, for municipalities or for individuals, you should know how to find us." She gave several examples of bills that were driven by specific constituents' situations. "We're always looking at the systemic fix to the injustice that someone's experiencing," she said.
Sen. Comerford was the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Health when the COVID pandemic hit and instrumental in guiding the Senate's response to the pandemic. She now chairs a newly-formed Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management. She takes care of the roughly 500 bills that are before her committees--about 6,000 bills a year are filed in the state legislature. She also told the group that she and other Senators in central and western Massachusetts are very concerned with issues faced by rural communities, especially schools, transportation and food access. She co-chairs the legislature's Food System Caucus and serves on the Massachusetts Food Policy Council.
Resident Molly Velasco said, "talking about rural education, that is currently also really leaving a harmful impact on our students of color. A lot of them are leaving the district and opting for a homeschool or school choice. And it's something that's really upsetting to see because I work as a youth advisor with a lot of amazing teens in town doing beautiful work, and I've gotten to really hear firsthand what their struggles are, and it's mostly our students of color and our LGBTQ. In Winchendon, I'm very proud to say that the Board of [Selectmen] unanimously voted to support Pride Month. So now we do a Pride Kickball Game and everything, but it's still a challenge in our schools, and kids are getting beat up in schools and kids are being called racial slurs in schools."
Everyone should be able to enjoy living in a small town, Ms. Velasco said, with the sense of community, clean environment, fresh grown food and so on, without feeling unwelcome. "We have the fastest growing population of diversity in the area because of the affordability, but that also is leading to a lot of these people coming here, and we're not necessarily prepared at a place where we can support those families of color. Until we find them or they reach out and say that they've been struggling or impacted, we can't bring them into the community that we have created that's trying to be more inclusive." Teachers have good intentions, Ms. Velasco said, but the DEI training is "opt in" and teachers don't have the training, experience or tools to recognize and deal with the problem.
Sen. Comerford said that in education as in other things, "the state has underfunded and disproportionately burdened small rural communities." Many of them have higher than average percentages of students with Special Education needs and a disproportionate burden of paying for services.
Attendees brought up other successes happening in town, such as the CAC enrolling 48 people who were eligible for SNAP benefits but had never applied for them before, the development of the future Makerspace and the Winchendon Farmer's Market. Camille Hart, a Youth Changemakers leader and library Trustee, said, "we have a Youth Cafe in town that's working out of the CAC to serve lemonade and iced coffee and they're ones that are helping to sign people up for SNAP and HIP. That's going to be a part of the Makerspace, not only to have the opportunity to understand how to run a business and economic development...it also gives them a space to congregate and belong to, which goes with what Molly was saying about how in our schools it's hard to find a sense of belonging for a student of color or [who] are a part of the LGBT community."
Ms. Velasco and other attendees spoke at length about the challenges of making constructive change in the town, and improving awareness in diversity, equity and inclusion and supporting people of color in town. "So many times we're just putting bandaids on things and that's not working for our community and it's not sustainable. We're all like ducks underwater paddling and not getting very far," she said.
Asked how she saw different levels of government working for her constituent towns, Sen. Comerford said, "I do think [state government] can be a line of defense for our people. I've seen this time and again." She described the Trump administration cancelling the LIHEAP heating assistance program, and the state legislature continued funding it. "Then the other thing I think we do well, is we keep the lights on in democracy. I think we can still try things that are more difficult at the federal level...so we sort of signal to each other. 'Hey, California. We're doing these things, what you doing?'"
Sen. Comerford said she didn't agree with all the state budget priorities. Some of them don't work effectively for smaller and more rural towns. As examples, she mentioned the Payment in Lieu of Taxes or PILOT program, which she felt disadvantaged smaller communities. The legislation to expand voting by mandating early voting days puts a heavy burden on small towns who may have one part-time person in the Town Clerk's office. (Dr. Maureen Ward said that she had just spent hours helping test the voting machines for the upcoming Primary Election, feeding in test ballots, and she didn't sit down once the entire time.) Requiring that all town board and committee meetings post-COVID be "hybrid" and accessible both virtually (say, on Zoom) and in-person was another idea of city-focused legislators which proved impossible for small communities to implement. That was rescinded after the legislature received dozens of letters from rural administrators describing the challenges they confronted in making their board meetings "hybrid."
Conversation turned back to the schools, with more attendees talking about the need for greater DEI awareness, and the importance of youth having a real voice. The conversation ran far past its scheduled one-hour time.
Sen. Comerford urged those present to keep in touch with her and connect her with local networks, help her learn more about the town and its needs. She passed around a sign-up sheet and a handout about her office and its work. Any resident who wants to sign up for her email updates is encouraged to do so. "I want to thank you so much for opening up so much of what you're doing and the passion and opportunity and challenges, all of it is real," she told the group. "We'll find our way together."
Senator Comerford's website is https://senatorjocomerford.org. Her email is jocomerford@masenate.gov, or she can be emailed through the contact form on her website. Her District phone number is 413-367-4656 and her State House phone number is 617-722-1532.
And if Central Street isn't enough construction for you...
The new Walgreens store is on its way up--here's the foundation.
Photo by Inanna Arthen
The new municipal parking lot on Pleasant Street. Don't let it be lonely!
Photo by Inanna Arthen
