Winchendon, Ashby Hit by Multiple Convenience Store Robberies Within Two Weeks

Suspect Arrested in Keene, NH on Jan 4

by Inanna Arthen
Police in Winchendon and neighboring Ashby have been seeking an individual who has held up several local convenience stores at knifepoint, terrorizing store employees and escaping with undisclosed amounts of cash several times.

On Sunday, January 1, at approximately 7:45 p.m., the suspect robbed Mr. Mike's Mini Mart at 234 Spring Street (across from MacDonald's) at knife point. According to the Winchendon Police Department, the suspect was wearing a black hooded jacket with an insignia on the left front side and a patch on the left arm. Under the jacket the suspect wore an orange shirt, blue jeans and boots. He had a gray winter hat turned inside-out and a black mask pulled over his lower face and nose.

The suspect fled in a white pickup truck which appears to be a newer white GMC Sierra.

Ashby Police report that earlier the same night, at approximately 7:10 p.m., a suspect of exactly the same description and driving a white truck robbed the Low Low Convenience Store on 704 Fitchburg State Road in Ashby. The suspect walked into the store, brandished a knife at the cashier and demanded money. He fled the store and was last seen heading south on Fitchburg State Road in what appeared to be a white four-door GMC pickup truck.

Low Low Convenience owner Larry Liang, who states he is a veteran of the Taiwanese army, told CBS Boston that he refused to give the suspect money and ordered him out of the store. Liang said that he "couldn't really hear what he was saying" because of the suspect's mask, and he "grabbed a stool and hit the store's panic button" as the suspect retreated. "You do something and go after him, maybe he will sue me," Liang said, adding that he hoped the suspect would get caught learn his lesson.

Ashby Police are also investigating two robberies of the Convenience Mart at 1274 Main Street in Ashby, on December 20 and December 31. The suspects in those cases are believed to be the same person and may be the same individual who committed the January 1 robberies. On December 20, the suspect told the cashier that he had a knife but did not brandish a weapon; on December 31 he brandished a knife and also claimed that he had a gun.

Ashby police believe this individual may be responsible for similar robberies in communities around the area. Ashby Police Chief Fred Alden sent out a press release asking for the public's help. Anyone with information about the Ashby robberies is asked to call the Ashby Police Department at 978-386-5652.

The Courier reached out to Lt. Kevin Wolski at Winchedon P.D. on Tuesday, January 3 for any further details. Lt. Wolski stated that he could not release any more information as this is an open investigation.

On January 5, 2023, Lt. Wolski released the following public statement: "On January 4, 2023, 35 year old Christopher Boisvert of 21 Mechanic St. Winchester, NH was arrested in Keene, NH on a warrant out [of] Winchendon District Court for armed robbery while masked and assault with a dangerous weapon that occurred at the Mike Mart in Winchendon on Sunday, January 1, 2023. Mr. Boisvert was developed as a suspect following a tip received through the Winchester, NH Police Department. Winchendon Detective Caleb Similia is investigating this case in conjunction with [the] Ashby, MA Police Department. Mr. Boisvert is a suspect in an armed robbery that occurred in Ashby that same night. Mr. Boisvert is being held in New Hampshire pending extradition to Massachusetts."

Anyone with additional information about the Winchendon robbery is asked to contact Detective Similia at Winchendon P.D., 978-297-1212.

Proposal to Reorganize Schools Evokes Concerns and Questions

by Inanna Arthen
At the December 20 meeting of the Winchendon School Committee, Superintendent Thad King presented a proposal to reorganize the Winchendon Schools in order to create a dedicated Early Childhood Literacy Center at Toy Town Elementary. Currently, Toy Town Elementary is occupied by Grades 3 through 5; Memorial Elementary is occupied by Pre-Kindergarten though Grade 2; the Middle School includes Grades 6 through 8, and the High School includes Grades 9 through 12. The Middle and High School are housed in the same building.

Under the proposed reorganization, Toy Town Elementary would be dedicated to Pre-K and Kindergarten as an Early Childhood Literacy Center. Memorial Elementary School would include Grades 1 through 4. 5th Graders would move to the Middle School, which would include Grades 5 through 8. The High School would remain as it is.

Toy Town Elementary is located at 175 Grove Street, next to the Old Murdock Senior Center and G.A.R. Park. Memorial Elementary and the Middle/High School are located on Memorial Drive off of Elmwood Road and are all part of the same complex, or campus.

Mr. King's presentation ran for 39 minutes and seemed to be anticipating objections as much as explaining rationales. No one could be opposed to an Early Childhood Literacy Center per se, but there are many concerns about changing the distribution of grade levels among buildings.

(Click here to view the presentation PowerPoint (PDF), which begins on page 8 of the agenda packet.)

"I want to be really clear that with this...what's driving this is 100 percent of focus on our students," Mr. King said. "This is focused on our most basic learners, those pre-K and K learners and their particular needs. This is not about space constraints, or that we need more room in one place or another. It's not about finances, or that we need to reduce costs or any of those types of things that are variables that often drive this type of work, that we're looking at finances or space. And tonight this is not about finances or space. This is what we believe as a team is best for our students and Winchendon."

Mr. King stated that last year teachers and specialists had been added at the elementary school level. The next step, he said, "is purely a focus on our most critical age group where actual learning begins...the proposal here is to focus and create really a premier early childhood learning center at the Toy Town school and focus on that most critical age group."

Mr. King also spoke at length about addressing the relationship between poverty and academic achievement, in the short and the long term. The poverty rate among Winchendon students has increased from 40.9 percent pre-pandemic to 55.5 percent today. "What's really clear is that the single best predictor of academic achievement is poverty rates," Mr. King said.

The remainder of the presentation was devoted to the pros and cons of moving Grades 1 though 5 to different buildings, with the 5th Grade becoming Middle School, a major transition for students which currently doesn't happen until 6th Grade. Mr. King explained that Memorial School has 20,000 more square feet than Toy Town and can better accommodate four grades. Also, Grades 1 through 12 would all be on the same campus.

Mr. King addressed, at length, other factors of the proposed move, including busing, recess and "age appropriate" playgrounds, student drop-off and pickup, curriculum and all the changes in routines and learning patterns which the reorganization would entail. (Mr. King's full presentation may be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMjjX3O8oC8&t=521s beginning at 30:20 on the video.)

School Committee member Karen Kast stated that she felt the notification to families about the proposed change "was handled very poorly." She went on, "we had a parent, a community member that if they had not posted it to Facebook, parents would not have been aware of it and could not have come and spoken tonight." (Most of the parents who reacted strongly in comments to one such Facebook post did not appear at the meeting to comment.) She was in favor of the Early Childhood Literacy Center, she said, but felt that the community as a whole and the school community should have had more chances to participate in the process. She argued that more solid data about the effects of the move should be made available. "As much as we want to make a premier facility that may draw people to us for a pre-K through K Early Learning Center, there's no guarantee that once we get them here for that, that we keep them through 12th Grade, unless we make sure that we're also enhancing our first through 12th grade," Ms. Kast said.

School Committee Chair Ryan Forsythe asked Mr. King, "What sort of a lead time would you need if you were going to get this going for the 23-24 school year?"

"There's a lot of moving parts here," Mr. King responded frankly. "We have limited time, you know, February break, spring break, and summer break to sort of exact a lot of this work. And so we're already up against it. I think the bid processes will be a big part of that and making sure that we have time to get through the bid processes and then get that work beginning, specifically on the playground. And the HVAC in order to get that up and running...if we can be efficient and when we come back from the break, we can still get this, if approved and supported, that we can still get this off the ground for next year."

A motion was made "to direct the Superintendent to do research and take a fact-based approach to the proposal by soliciting feedback from stakeholders and provide information to the school committee, so the school committee may take a vote." The motion was approved unanimously.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, before Mr. King had made his presentation, two residents rose to comment on the proposal. Lisa Barbaro, who teaches in the Winchendon school district, rose to argue that the buildings were not suited to the grade levels slated to move there. Toy Town was originally built as a high school, she said, and Memorial was built for the youngest students. Murdock Middle School is "less than suitable for our 5th graders." She raised a concern also expressed on social media, that 5th Graders should not be sharing school buses with high school students. "I feel this change would create many challenges and stress for students and staff, wasted space at Toy Town and many additional costs for necessary building changes. Perhaps instead, we could use that money to help close the gaps created by the pandemic. At the very least more time should be taken to consider the drastic change and possibly get input from stakeholders before voting on it," she concluded.

Resident Kayla Maine rose to express similar concerns, especially about playgrounds, student pickups, and busing. "Do you want 10 year olds with 17 or 18 year olds? It's not appropriate. It's not okay," she said.

Toy Town was built in 1959 as a combined Junior-Senior High School, to replace Murdock High School which was being retired from service as a school. It opened in September, 1961. In 1964 there were 692 students attending the Junior-Senior High School, out of a total 1,528 students in Grades K-12 district-wide. According to the 1960 Census, Winchendon's population in 1960 was 3,839.

The new schools on Memorial Drive were built in 1994. According to the 2020 Census, Winchendon's population is approximately 10,350. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website, the total number of students enrolled in the Winchendon School District is 1,239, grades Pre-K to 12. This breaks down as:

Memorial Elementary (grades PK-2): 391
Toy Town Elementary (grades 3-5): 294
Murdock Middle School: (grades 6-8): 269
Murdock High School: (grades 9-12): 263
Murdock Academy for Success: 22 (located in the Superintendent's wing in Toy Town).

The Superintendent's office and administration are located in Toy Town and will remain in that building. It is a separate wing from the school classrooms with a secure entrance.

If the reorganization was implemented today, the students up to Grade 8 would be distributed as follows:

Toy Town (PK-K): 186
Memorial Elementary (grades 1-4): 397
Murdock Middle School (grades 5-8): 371

In order to give parents and the public a chance to ask questions and get more information, the district is hosting two Parent and Community Member Forums specifically for them at the following times:

Monday, January 9, 9:00 a.m. in the Murdock High School Library
Tuesday, January 10, 6:30 p.m. in the Murdock High School Auditorium.

Murdock High School is located at 3 Memorial Drive. All interested residents are encouraged to attend one of these sessions. A separate forum will be held for faculty and staff at a later date.

Community Preservation Act Exploratory Committee Gives Recommendations

Over the past eight months, the Winchendon Community Preservation Act Exploratory Committee (CPAEC) has studied the potential costs and benefits associated with adoption and enactment of the CPA for the Town of Winchendon. Below is a list of the exemptions and property value formula as well as summary describing the process and data used by our committee to formulate the results and determine the potential positives and negatives of locally enacting the CPA. At the November 21st meeting of the CPAEC, the committee voted unanimously to forward the following recommendation to the Winchendon Board of Selectmen.

As a committee we have concluded that the benefits outweigh the costs of the Community Preservation Act in the Town of Winchendon. The CPAEC recommends the town locally adopt the CPA at the 3% threshold, ensuring the greatest return on our investment. While the match from the state varies from year to year, this would represent a 100% match under current determining metrics and anticipated governing body decisions. We believe that the Town can greatly benefit from this resource in meeting our various community goals. If the Board would be kind enough to accommodate, we ask that the residents of Winchendon be given the opportunity to decide whether to capitalize on this resource via a Special Town Meeting in March of 2023. If the vote passes, the matter will be placed on the Spring 2023 Ballot at the Annual Elections on May 1.

Adopting the CPA in town will allow for a dedicated funding source to support community priorities included in the 2020 Master Plan and elsewhere for identified needs in the areas of housing, ecreation, open space conservation and historic preservation. The funds disbursement would be bound by the CPA guidelines and by an independent citizen-led CPA Committee and would not be rolled into the Town's general operating budget. Further approval is required by a vote at the Annual Town Meeting. Relying on a year-to-year appropriation in the Annual Budget as has been done in the past precludes long range planning and undertaking complex projects. A dedicated funding source allows the community to earmark funds for citizen-driven initiatives in the four areas listed above and allows for predictability in project planning.

The CPAEC has also received tentative support from the Robinson-Broadhurst Foundation. While this is subject to an official vote from the RBF, this could result in a reduction from 3% down to 2%. We are grateful for their continued support of our community.

Exemption	Recommendation
1. Property owned and occupied as a domicile by a person who would qualify for low income housing or low or moderate income senior housing in the city or town (see below for these income limits listed by town). Residents must apply annually to receive this exemption.	Yes, adopt
2. Class three, commercial, and class four, industrial, properties in cities or towns with classified ("split") tax rates. Very few communities have adopted this exemption.	No, do not adopt
3. The first $100,000 of taxable value of residential real estate. This exemption is automatically applied to residential property taxes prior to bills being issued by the city or town.	Yes, adopt
4. The first $100,000 of taxable value of class three commercial, and class four industrial properties.	Yes, adopt

CPA TAX SURCHARGE FORMULA

1. Start with your Assessed Property Value
2. Subtract $100,000
3. Multiply by .01340 (FY23 Tax rate of $13.40 per thousand)
4. Multiply by .03 (3% Threshold for CPA Tax Surcharge. 2% if RBF approves a 1% award).

Regards,
David Romanowski
CPAEC Chair

The Board of Selectmen will consider the recommendations at their meeting on Monday, January 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Hall second floor auditorium, 109 Front St., Winchendon. All interested citizens may attend. The meeting will be broadcast live on Comcast cable channel 8. For information about the Community Preservation Act, see www.communitypreservation.org/. For previous Courier coverage of the CPA in Winchendon, see "Town Manager Calls for Volunteers for Community Preservation Act Exploratory Committee" in the February 10-17, 2022 edition of The Winchendon Courier and "Seven Citizen-at-Large Members Appointed to Community Preservation Act Exploratory Committee" in the March 3-10, 2022 edition of The Winchendon Courier.

Statement from Heywood Healthcare Regarding the Current COVID-19 Situation

The Chair of the Winchendon Board of Health reached out to Heywood Hospital for a statement regarding its current situation. The following statement was provided by Dawn Casavant, Vice President of External Affairs.

---

Heywood Healthcare, along with health systems across the Commonwealth, is experiencing a surge of high acuity patients, including a high prevalence of COVID-19 and influenza, resulting in a lack of inpatient beds statewide. Currently there are 23 COVID-19 inpatients in the Heywood system, and a handful of influenza patients. Wastewater data is indicating a potential peak during the month of January.

In an effort to optimize access to healthcare for residents of our community, we have to prioritize inpatient beds for those with urgent and emergent needs. There is no interruption to elective outpatient, urgent or emergent surgeries. Due to the higher volume of inpatient admissions, capacity for elective inpatient surgeries is evaluated daily. Unfortunately some patients scheduled for elective inpatient surgery had to be rescheduled. We provide as much notice as possible, understanding the considerable planning and preparation taken on behalf of our patients scheduled for surgery," stated Rozanna Penney, Vice President of Ambulatory and Perioperative Services for Heywood Healthcare.

Community members can help by contacting your primary care physician upon onset of symptoms, and by accessing the right level of care at the right place. Residents experiencing more mild symptoms may be best evaluated at an Urgent Care Center, such as Heywood Urgent Care (Gardner) and Tully Walk-In Care (Athol). Patients experiencing severe symptoms should seek emergency care. Residents can also help by avoiding public places if they are sick and by wearing a mask to avoid transmission to others.

Learn more about the Right Care at the Right Place here: https://www.heywood.org/covid-19/right-care-right-place

Dawn Casavant, Vice President of External Affairs
Executive Director, Heywood Healthcare Charitable Foundation
Heywood Healthcare

The Beals Prize for Flash Fiction

Can you tell a story in 500 words or less? Then send in a submission to the Beals Memorial Library for the Beals Prize for Flash Fiction! From January 14 - March 11, the library will be accepting entries for their upcoming, ultra-short fiction writing contest. An awards ceremony for the finalists will be held on March 30.

The Beals Memorial Library is looking to showcase the writing talents of our community through this fun, short fiction contest, open to participants in four age brackets: Children Grades 3 - 5, Children Grades 6 - 8, Teens Grades 9 - 12, and Adults Ages 18 and Over. All participants must either live or attend school in Winchendon and may enter only one previously unpublished story consisting of 500 words or less.

The top three finalists in each category will be selected to read their story at the awards ceremony, to be held on Thursday, March 30 at, at 6:30 PM. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top winners in each category!

Submissions must be sent to bealsfiction@gmail.com. Please include your name, age or grade, and home address with your entry. Microsoft Word documents are preferred.

This contest is brought to you with federal funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Visit the library's website at bealslibrary.org or call 978-297-0300 for more information.

New, Non-traditional Book Club at the Beals Memorial Library

Have you always wanted to join a book club, but find that traditional book clubs feel too much like homework? Then Reader's Choice is the book club for you! As a non-traditional book club, Reader's Choice has a monthly theme instead of a specific book, allowing participants flexibility in what they read and share with the group.

On Wednesday, January 25, at 6:00 PM, Reader's Choice will be holding their first meeting, open to teens and adults. Future meetings will be held on the last Wednesday of every month. January's theme is "Coming-of-age." Choose any book you want to read that fits that theme. Not sure what to read? No problem! The library staff have curated a list of recommendations, available to view on their website or in print at the circulation desk.

Reader's Choice is brought to you with federal funds provided by a federal Library Services Technology Act grant and by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

The Beals Memorial Library is located at 50 Pleasant Street in Winchendon. For more information, visit the library's website at bealslibrary.org or contact them at 978-297-0300.

Winter at Lake Dennison as Storms Take Their Toll

The triple punch of a foot of snow, heavy rain and record-setting low temperatures caused "ice jamming" at the lake. A short-lived 8-foot surge in water depth submerged the road and bridge by the park's beach area, along with the entrance gate, boat ramp and other features. Visitors walking the lake trails can be seen photographing "ice rings" around tree trunks left by the receding water.

---

Click Here for Community Directory

Winchendon Businesses, Organizations, Services, and Government

---