Our article on the results of the March 14 Special Election (Debt Exclusions Pass – Operating Override Fails) originally stated that the override (Question 1) failed 48.2% to 52.8% and the Franklin School debt exclusion (Question 3) succeeded by 1054 votes. In fact, Question 1 failed 47.2% to 52.8% and…
Posts published in March 2023
Two weeks after the general override proposal failed, Mayor Fuller announced her plan to help fill the expected budget gaps. The plan consists of the use of FY2022 Free Cash in a “financially responsible way,” changing the pension funding plan (via a request made yesterday to the Retirement Board) and…
250 people sign up to make public comment On March 28, the School Committee convened for a special meeting, as mandated by the City Charter, to conduct a public hearing regarding the petition for an Academic Principles Advisory Committee (APAC), as described in this article by Fig City News. The…
Forty Newton residents will be running this year’s Boston Marathon to raise money for charitable causes they care deeply about, and they seek your help. Fig City News makes it easy for you to support them and their causes. Listed below are links to each runner’s personalized fundraising page. For…
On Sunday March 26, the Newton South HS debate team won the Massachusetts state debate championship at the conclusion of the 3-day tournament. Fig City News interviewed their coach, Josh Cohen, a parent volunteer who has coached the team since 2014. Josh is also Chair of Debate for the Massachusetts…
In Mayor Fuller’s March 24 Newsletter, the headline item was the residential and business water meter replacement program. In it, Mayor Fuller stated, “The lifespan of the water meters in our homes and businesses is about 10 years.” This struck me as absurd. An industrial component such as a water meter should have…
Last week, Damien Croteaux-Chonka’s letter cited Minneapolis as an example of a place where rents have gone down from building many more units and as a model for creating affordable housing elsewhere. Lacking direct evidence, he cites an article by Christian Britschgi, in the libertarian magazine Reason, who pays homage…
At its March 29th meeting, the Newton Retirement Board included two budget funding presentations: one from Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and the other from City Council Board President Susan Albright and Ward 2 School Committee member Chris Brezski. Both presentations were in response to the March 14th failed operational override. Mayor…
For over 400 years, the Charles River has been altered, controlled, and dammed to bend to the will of industry and profit. The river we know today is not free — but instead, a river radically changed by the long history of human intervention. We dammed its waters to power…
The LigerBots, Newton’s dual-high-school robotics team, won the Silver medal at the FIRST Robotics League Greater Boston District Competition last weekend at Revere High School. With two alliance partners — the Lobstah Bots and the Crusaders — the LigerBots came from behind to win the Silver Medal and a place…