- Huge Infrastructure Needs In Massachusetts And Not Enough Money!
- Worthwhile projects shelved as local tax payers say no more!
- $1.1m sewage treatment plant likely delayed for lack of funds
- Vote scuttling sewer plan leaves officials to regroup
- Fewer tax increases are even getting on the ballot as voters say, 'Enough'
- Chatham residents reject shore study
- Residents fed up with bad water
- Property tax bills soar as services fall
Huge Infrastructure Needs In Massachusetts And Not Enough Money!
A legacy of neglect
By David Westerling and Steve Poftak | July 31, 2007
ONE HUNDRED years ago today, more than 100,000 people attended the grand opening of what is now the Longfellow Bridge, which connects Boston and Cambridge. A century later, there is little to celebrate, as this grand structure has become a symbol of Massachusetts's failure to maintain the $25 billion worth of its infrastructure assets.
Patrick Administration Pledges Renewed Focus on Crumbling Transportation Systems
$15-$19 Billion Backlog Cited in Transportation Commission Report
BOSTON – Wednesday, March 28, 2007—Following the release of the Transportation Finance Commission Report, Governor Deval Patrick and Secretary of Transportation and Public Works Bernard Cohen today called for a renewed focus on our transportation systems in the Commonwealth.
Lack of Infrastructure Spending Seen as Emerging Crisis in U.S.
The Congress Street Bridge, connecting the South Boston waterfront to Boston’s downtown area, is undergoing a $17 million overhaul. The project is expected to be completed by Labor Day.
By Thomas Grillo
Lack of spending on the nation’s infrastructure – airports, public transit, roads and bridges – is an emerging crisis that will compromise the ability of the United States to compete globally, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young.
Area sewer capacity restricts growth
By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | June 5, 2005
As populations swell and local sewer capacities approach their limits, developers seeking to build new homes in such towns as Cohasset, Weymouth, Scituate, and Marshfield are faced with a growing problem: tens of thousands of gallons of waste, and nowhere to put it.
Outlook grim on waste water
Official says septic systems deficient
By Sally Heaney, Globe Correspondent | November 21, 2004
At least two-thirds of Acton will need new ways of handling waste water in the next 20 years because home septic systems and small neighborhood treatment plants are not doing the job adequately or will fail in the future, a town Health Department official said last week.
Lewis Bay volunteers determined to resurrect 'dead zones'
Brian Braginton-Smith, executive director of the Lewis Bay Research Center, takes a sample of water from Hyannis Inner Harbor. He and a group of volunteers devote their time to restoring water quality in the bay separating Yarmouth and Hyannis. Cape Cod Times/Steve Heaslip
STAFF WRITER
July 24, 2007
Development has not been kind to the Cape's busiest bay.
An estimated 2,500 residential house lots lie within a half-mile of the Yarmouth shore of Lewis Bay. On the other side of the bay sits downtown Hyannis with its hospital, ferries, marinas and heavy traffic. Two wastewater treatment plants also lie within the bay's watershed.
Costs for sewers and other remedies are expected to run in the hundreds of millions in some towns, with the total anticipated to top $2 billion for the Southeast region.
Worthwhile projects shelved as local tax payers say no more!
$1.1m sewage treatment plant likely delayed for lack of funds
Harvard considers Still River issue
By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent | June 2, 2005
After a yearlong debate in Harvard, plans for a $1.1 million sewage-treatment plant in the Still River section are likely to be put on hold until funding sources can be identified, according to Selectwoman Lucy Wallace.
Vote scuttling sewer plan leaves officials to regroup
Lack of a clear explanation of the issue for residents seen as 'death knell'
By Calvin Hennick, Globe Correspondent | February 18, 2007
Plainville officials say they're not sure how they'll proceed with a plan to expand the town's sewer system after Town Meeting voters shot down funding for the project's design.
Fewer tax increases are even getting on the ballot as voters say, 'Enough'
By James Vaznis, Globe Staff | June 11, 2006
Chatham residents reject shore study
Vote shuts down plan to fill breach
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | August 1, 2007
Chatham residents voted overwhelmingly last night not to challenge the power of Mother Nature.
In a voice vote at a special Town Meeting that some say was both the most heavily attended and shortest in recent history, residents refused to spend $4 million to close a breach in the sandy spit protecting Nauset Beach, on the elbow of Cape Cod.
HOLBROOK
Residents fed up with bad water
The water that flows through the faucets, staining the bathtubs and sinks at many homes on Poole Circle in Holbrook, is so rusty that Tracy Loughlin won't let her two small boys bathe in it.
She bundles up Tyler, 5, and John, 7, at the end of a long day at work and drives them 12 miles to her mother's house in Hanover for their baths.
"My water is too rusty and brown and smelly to bathe them in it," said Loughlin, 32. "I don't want to risk it. It can't be too healthy."
Property tax bills soar as services fall
Levies increase despite decline in home values
By Matt Carroll, Globe Staff | September 2, 2007
Residential property taxes rose an average of $161 in cities and towns across the state in the past fiscal year, as home assessments hit historic highs despite declining market values.
The average property tax bill for a single-family home hit $3,962, up 4.2 percent from the previous year. Taxes climbed 7 percent or higher in more than 65 communities, according to data from the state Department of Revenue.
Since 2000, property taxes have shot up nearly 50 percent, from $2,679, far outpacing gains in wages, which climbed 30 percent statewide over the same period, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past seven years, the average annual property tax hikes for homeowners have ranged from about $150 to nearly $215.