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Politics & Government

Peterson: Cost of Water, Bay Colony Rail Trail and Lyme Disease Study Committee

Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler "Pete" Peterson touches on several topics that were discussed at Tuesday's Board of Selectmen meeting on his blog, "Medfield 02052."

Editor's note: The following was published by Medfield Board of Selectmen chair Osler "Pete" Peterson on his blog, "Medfield 02052."

Water's a Bargain ... Relatively

Medfield’s water appears to be a bargain, comparatively speaking, when the town’s water usage rates are compared to those of Millis, Medway, Norfolk, Walpole, and Dedham-Westwood. Our water charges appear to be a fraction of what the same amount of water would cost you in those towns. At the high end, our rates for the same amount of water are less than half the Dedham-Westwood costs.

Find out what's happening in Medfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

10,000 gallon user per half year 35,000 gallon user per half year 70,000 gallon user per half year 100,000 gallon user per half year Town Billing Total Billing Total Billing Total Billing Total Medfield $28 $88 $221 $382 Medway $110 $245 $481 $735 Norfolk $98 $235 $554 $865 Walpole $59 $208 $416 $594 Dedham-Westwood $167 $305 $742 $1,185 Millis $57 $133 $346 $501

To view the graph that summarizes local town's water usage rates (Nov. 2010), click here

Medfield Board of Selectmen Support Bay Colony Rail Trail

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On Tuesday, the Medfield Board of Selectmen voted, without much discussion or issues being raised, to accept the recommendations of our town’s Rail Trail Study Committee to:

  1. Send the expression of interest letter to the MBTA – it was signed Tuesday night and should go out Wednesday.
  2. Put a warrant article forward to the annual town meeting inquiring whether the town wants to proceed with development of the Bay Colony Rail Trail and also to appropriate $1,000 for those purpose. The money was added just to avoid the lack of clear status of warrant articles without any spending attached.

Lyme Disease Study Committee Has Extremely Successful First Year

At the Jan. 17 Board of Selectmen meeting, the Lyme Disease Study Committee submitted a report on its extremely successful first year of work, and its plans for the future.

To date:

  • 27 deer culled
  • zero safety issues
  • comprehensive system of vetting the hunters created and implemented
  • professional group of hunters recruited
  • many illegal tree stands removed
  • hunters became the eyes and ears of the town in the woods, and the stewards of the Medfield forests, both alerting the town to dumping and helping to clear trails
  • education program planned for April
  • information distributed in the schools via the Thursday Packets and working with the school nurses
  • tick posters placed

The selectmen authorized the committee to continue its good work for the upcoming year. Plans include adding more lands to the areas hunted, and giving the hunters the winter to scout the best hunting spots.

To see the Lyme Disease Study Committee’s report, click here.

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