I am honored to endorse Susan Stephenson for School Committee. Susan grew up in Western Pennsylvania and just recently moved to Hopkinton in August. She spent her 36-year career as a middle school/high school English teacher in the Seneca Valley district, one of the...
At Annual Town Meeting on May 1, Marguerite Concrete wishes to impose a zoning change at the corner of South Street and Hayward Street that would fundamentally damage the Lake Maspenock neighborhood. All Hopkinton residents must be at Town Meeting to vote no to this...
I just read [the Hopkinton Independent] Marathon edition and I was really impressed. Clearly, the Boston Marathon is the signature event of the year in our town. You have captured the basic character of our town and did it very well. Anyone who reads this edition will...
Article 47 on this year’s Town Meeting warrant asks the town to replace the current Upper Charles Trail Committee (UCTC) with a subcommittee of the town’s umbrella trail organization, the Trails Coordination and Management Committee. The reason for this request is...
I am writing this letter in support of Ashley Fogg running for School Committee in the 2023 election. I met Ashley many years ago when our children played tee-ball together and got to know her even better during the pandemic as we debated the challenges that the...
Representatives from Marguerite Concrete presented their proposed zoning map and plan for a three-floor building on a parcel in the Lake Maspenock neighborhood of Hopkinton. However, residents raised several concerns at the meeting on March 25, including traffic...
With our Main Street reconstruction getting underway for the third year, I can’t resist opining on a topic I know so little about. I do know the new Fruit Street bridge is planned at 32 feet wide, curb to curb, features a 5-foot-wide paved walk on one side and,...
We have heard a lot about the school budget, with many more conversations likely as we approach Town Meeting. The schools receive a significant portion of our town budget, and the growth of our school budget continues to outpace that of our town budget. Probing...
As springtime and Boston Marathon time approach, it is imperative that as a town we should focus on two of our most important downtown green spaces: the Town Common and the Center School land. The Town Common is in desperate need of more shade trees. Where is the tree...
Based on a measurement by the urban forester for northern Massachusetts, Hopkinton is home to the third-largest sassafras tree (sassafras albidum) in Massachusetts. Sassafras trees are most commonly seen as small shrubs, or as tall, relatively thin, straight trees...
As we approach our annual town meetings and decide our funding priorities, I want to make a case for fully funding Hopkinton Public Schools. Hopkinton has long held providing a top-tier public education as an essential piece of our identity. Our schools have received...
Thank you for sharing the news about the closing of Community Covenant Hopkinton. The story of a church cannot be told in just dates and numbers but must include the story of the Spirit working among them. This church at many points during its history responded to the...
At the Feb. 2 Upper Charles Trails Committee meeting, the UCTC chair made an opening statement about two citizens’ petitions seeking articles on the Annual Town Meeting warrant targeting the UCTC and its future work. As it relates to petition organizers and the timing...
On Feb. 2, the Hopkinton Independent reported on the Upper Charles Trail Committee (UCTC) meeting regarding discussion of two citizens’ petitions for Town Meeting articles. One article would reorganize the committee under the umbrella of the town’s Trails Coordination...
I support Peter LaGoy’s assessment that running the Upper Charles Trail down Hayden Rowe will be of limited usefulness. Not only will it put people’s lives in danger, it will further increase the congestion on a main thoroughfare. The proposed trail route crosses...
This time of year my favorite morning chore is firing up our old cook stove. It’s a fairly complex process, but the first step in the lighting protocol requires three newspaper pages, which I crinkle up and drop into the firebox. (We keep a random collection of...
At night the traffic pattern on Marathon Way, which includes the Doughboy triangle, is confusing and dangerous. The Doughboy triangle is not lighted, and the construction materials still remain in the area along with portable toilets in the roadway. We were told by...
[Editor's note: This letter is in response to the Year in Review column that included a summary of the School Committee controversy earlier this year.] Does it disturb only me that a local paper puts in print assumptions based on hearsay, statements the editor, upon...
Using only organic fertilizer on the Hopkinton Common is an idea long overdue. I watch children and dogs rolling on the grass and families eating sitting on the ground. Pesticides and herbicides are increasingly implicated in multiple health problems, often after...
I receive informative emails from the Audubon Society and Cornell University, both highly respected avian institutions focusing on birds and their changing populations. Apparently and alarmingly in 2022, many species are in a significant state of decline; across the...
