Thursday, October 13, 2011
Girls' soccer at home, flu clinic at Jenks and Planning Board sub-committee at Town Hall.
“Five Things You Need to Know Today" is a Patch column that provides readers with essential, daily information at a glance. Check back later for more and let us know what you think of the feature in the comments section. Today is Thursday, Oct. 13. Here are five things you need to know: To find out what is going on today in Winchester, check out our events listings.
42.455831
-71.135404
Winchester High School
80 Skillings Rd, Winchester, MA
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42.455495
-71.134948
The Jenks Center
109 Skillings Rd, Winchester, MA
/articles/five-things-you-need-to-know-today-october-13-8cc6cfea
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42.453143
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Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
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Friday, August 12, 2011
At Thursday night's meeting of the Winchester Planning Board, the topic of regionalization was again discussed.
The idea of regionalization has been floating around Winchester's town departments in the past few weeks. The Planning Board discussed their overall thoughts behind regionalization in conjunction with examining the potential collaborations between several towns in the area: Burlington, Reading, North Reading, Woburn, Stoneham, Lynnfield, Wilmington and Wakefield. The idea of joining town management efforts with abutting towns through reorganizing departments, coordinating to share staff with other communities on specific tasks, and privatizing certain work, could potentially save the town money. Elizabeth Cregger summed up the idea of regionalization and the proposals simply when she stated, “it's the process of assisting and identifying …
Monday, August 1, 2011
At the Planning Board meeting, the topic of regionalization came up.
Winchester has begun looking into the idea of regionalization and connecting with such towns as Lexington, Woburn, Medford, Stoneham and Arlington to combine certain tasks in order to save money. The idea of joining town management efforts with abutting towns through reorganizing departments, coordinating to share staff with other communities on specific tasks, and privatizing certain work, could potentially save the town money. Town Planner, Betsy Ware, was unsure of how regionalization would work in Winchester. “I don't know any of the area communities that have regionalized Planning Board support, master planning or any other planning efforts," Ware said. "Since my hiring in Winchester I have worked to establish communications with the …
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Planning Board discussed details on a town-wide traffic study they would like to have conducted on transportation and circulation. Their aim is to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) within the next several months to hire a Transportation Consultant.
The Winchester Planning Board met to discuss a new traffic study. Elements of this study will be used in addressing zoning and transportation issues within the town center. Other traffic studies have already identified a steady increase in traffic volumes along the major north to south arteries throughout town and east to west crosstown routes. Members noted a number of locations where they have seen increased congestion and safety risks. “The intent of this study is to assess current and projected travel demands and traffic patterns at three scales: regional (through traffic); town-wide (major traffic corridors); and town center,” said Planning Board member, Lance Grenzeback. Planning Board Chairman, Drew Bottaro, expressed his concern …
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/planning-board-to-conduct-town-wide-traffic-study
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Monday, March 7, 2011
The Planning Board is looking at trying to attain grant money from the MSGA for the project.
The Planning Board will be attending the Board of Selectmen's meeting on Monday night at 7 p.m. The two sides will be discussing a possible grant the Planning Board is applying for through a partnership with the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance (MSGA). The MSGA is an urban development group that aides various communities throughout Massachusetts by way of legislative influence, economic stimulus support, issues concerning land protection, and as with the Planning Board, acquiring these grant funds from the MSGA. The grant the board is applying for will go towards the ongoing Town Center Initiative. Just one part of the Planning Board's Master Plan, the Town Center Initiative is a multiphase project that deals with downtown area parking…
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
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1301615
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Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Part of the land the town planned on using for the new ramps falls on DCR's land.
The MBTA is looking at improving Winchester's train stations. However, in order to use the $2 million of federal money, the projects must be completed by October. The MBTA has already repaired the ramps at the Winchester Center station, and are looking to completely renovate the platforms as well as the station. Over at the Wedgemere Station, the town was looking at adding more ramps to the station, but ran into some problems with the land they had planned on using. A letter from Town Planner, Betsy Ware, to the Planning Board stated: “It was determined that the MBTA could not install the ramps as originally designed since the proposal location was partially located on Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Land, which is …
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/new-ramps-at-wedgemere-train-station-put-on-hold
1301615
/locations/3414617
42.44537
-71.14099
Ginn Field
Mystic Valley Pkwy & Bacon St, Winchester, MA
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The Planning Board held a public hearing with several construction, environmental and advocacy groups in order to discuss moving forward with the Aberjona River Widening Project.
The Planning Board held a public hearing to take in comments from the public and several groups working on the Aberjona River Widening and Flood Mitigation Project. The board announced they would be moving forward with the project by applying for a Chapter 91 Waterways License/Dredging Permit Application, a regulatory document the town needs certified by the state that will be confirmed or denied after a review process. The Board also heard a presentation by Jacob Sanantonio, a Water Resource Engineer from the AECOM Company. Sanantonio summed up the project as, “a widening and deepening project that runs from Waterfield Road to Bacon Street to create a 35-foot channel width.” Currently the river is between 10 and 20 feet wide. The widening…
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/aberjona-river-to-be-widened-by-15-feet
1301615
/locations/3411291
42.44537
-71.14099
Ginn Field
Mystic Valley Pkwy & Bacon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/aberjona-river-to-be-widened-by-15-feet
598724
/locations/3411292
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Planning Board will lose 5 percent of its funds and also received a letter warning of possible contamination of Mystic River.
The Planning Board will be facing a five percent reduction in the its overall budget equating to roughly $30K in funds in 2011. The main aspect of the budget to be cut as recommended by the Board in order to balance their budget will be professional services. Professional services entail any outside engineers, contractors or development groups brought in to aid the Board in their decision making process through studies and other means. “Other than salaries, the only line item that could be cut was the professional services account,” wrote Town Planner, Betsy Ware in a memorandum she supplied the Board. “The budget is tight, so if we have to lose something some of the professional services are less critical than other services like …
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/planning-board-budget-to-be-cut-and-possible-upper-mystic-lake-contamination
1301615
/locations/3303376
42.441286
-71.152213
Winchester Boat Club
65 Cambridge St, Winchester, MA
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Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Planning Board is contemplating joining with the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance to help with the Town Center Initiative.
The Planning Board discussed the possibility of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance (SMG), a legislation group, helping the board with the Town Center Initiative (TCI). As stated in one of the board's reports, "SMG is an initiative to establish partnerships with local entities to help create communities with a high quality of life that are affordable, diverse, and walkable." The TCI is a multi-stage operation as part of the larger, Master Plan. The TCI looks to bring big changes to the downtown area and beyond including housing development, street renovations/repairs and a host of other major and minor projects. In terms of housing, the report stated that SMG could aid by, "increas[ing] development and/or preserve a mix of housing …
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/planning-board-looks-at-town-center-initiative
1301615
/locations/2928191
Friday, December 17, 2010
The Planning Board listened to the recommendation of how the town should deal with parking.
Thursday night in the Town Hall, Mystic Valley Room, the Planning Board met with two associates, Principal Jason Schrieber and Senior Associate Ralph DenNisco, from Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates, a transportation planning group, to discuss a parking study the group conducted for the Board. "The purpose of tonight's meeting is more of a simple introduction because stores were complaining about parking downtown, the general congestion," explained Board Member Lance Grenzebeck before the meeting was passed over to Nelson/Nygaard Principal, Jason Schrieber. As Schrieber went through his presentation, he explained the goal of the parking study stating, "we wanted to figure out what's going on on the ground, so we know what we can do and …
42.453143
-71.133841
Winchester Town Hall
71 Mount Vernon St, Winchester, MA
/articles/planning-board-reviews-parking-study-with-look-at-new-parking-system
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Peggy Schleicher
10:26 am on Friday, May 6, 2011
While well-intentioned, I suggest that by the time the Planning Board completes this study, the traffic problems will have already taken over and solutions will be difficult to implement. We already know the problems and have many resources within Winchester to solve them if we want to solve them. I have a file drawer full of previous traffic studies commissioned by the Town and never acted upon… more ›