Extra, Extra!

Win-Win Initiative Supports Frontline Hospital Staff and Bedford Restaurants

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A motivated network of hundreds of Bedford residents and donors is working daily with local restaurants to prepare and deliver meals and snacks to workers at hospitals in the area as well as Boston, the Merrimack Valley and the North Shore.

“We each take at least five hospitals and make sure we get something to them at least once a day,” said local realtor Suzanne Koller. “We raised more than $14,000 in a very short time. It’s the most beautiful thing.”

Extra, Extra!

An Unexpected Return

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Like countless others, I’ve spent the past week at home. A week before, I, like countless others, watched Covid-19 begin to spread around me. For me, however, getting sent home was a bit more of a journey, and watching the pandemic unfold was from a bit more of a front-row seat. I’d been studying in Edinburgh for the past two months and was supposed to continue there until late May.

Extra, Extra!

A Plethora of Online Museums and Activities from Around the Wold

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During a pandemic, few people will be able to explore a new or favorite museum. Most museums are closed and we are asked to stay at home. However, using your computer you can still see and learn about the collections of many museums large or small all over the world.  Over the years many museums have made their collections accessible online and that investment is especially valuable now in our current situation.

Extra, Extra!

How the Business Shutdown is Affecting … Doing Your Business

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Covid-19 has changed everyone’s life, it’s scary and very disruptive.  A pandemic is not something most households really ever plan for.  One of the rather strange things happening is the run on toilet paper.  Toilet paper?  Really?  Soap, Purell, Food, Masks… these all make sense. But toilet paper?!?

Apparently the “run” (pun intended) on TP is not completely without justification.  The current scarcity of toilet paper is a residential scarcity. There seems to be a glut in the commercial market, specifically the 15 inch rolls. 

Extra, Extra!

Bedford’s All-Ages Quarantine Art Challenge

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The Getty Museum in California recently challenged its social media followers to re-create their favorite artwork with what they found laying around the house.

LET’S TRY IT IN BEDFORD!!

Collaborate with your family, do it on your own, introduce the kids to a little art history, brush off the art history books from college, and GET CREATIVE!

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Covid-19 Fraud Watch Resources

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Not a surprise but whenever there is an emergency, scammers will take advantage.  The Covid-19 crisis is no different.

People are scared and there is a lot of information out there, both good and bad.  Here are some quick links from various sources  to alert you about what to watch out for:

2020 COVID-19

Bedford’s Biotech Companies ~ Tackling Coronavirus

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Greater Boston is blessed to have a lot of Biotech companies, part of an industry key to finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, and eventually bring the disease under control. 

Bedford has its share of Biotech companies and several are involved in the current Covid-19 pandemic.  A sampling of local companies ~Bedford Research Foundation, MITRE, MilliporeSigma, Instrumentation Labs, and ThermoFisher Scientific ~  involved in Bedford’s biotech industry.

2020 COVID-19

Bedford Research Labs and Rep. Gordon Team in Responding to Need for Covid-19 Testing

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As soon as she saw the community spread of the Covid-19 virus in Washington State, Bedford Research Foundation’s (“BRF”) Clinical Laboratory Director Dr. Ann Kiessling sprang into action.  Just two weeks later, with the help of Representative Ken Gordon (D-Bedford), BRF is processing hundreds of tests each week for patients exhibiting symptoms that could be caused by the Covid-19 virus, or were directly exposed to it.

Bedford

Bedford Service, Trades, Business and Events Forum

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When life gives you lemons, some folks make lemonade. And there are a few who add a piece of grilled salmon with lemon slices and a lemon meringue pie.

Like local realtor Suzanne Schmuhl Koller, who always seems to be looking for the positive angle. A few days ago, she launched a Facebook group – Bedford Service, Trades, Business and Events Forum — to help local small businesspersons who have modified their practices to ensure social distancing and other limitations caused by the pandemic. There are already more than 500 members in the group.

Koller readily acknowledged that she got the idea from a similar project in Concord. “People are posting ingenious things,” she said. The new group is “awesome for businesses,” she added, especially since some Facebook groups specifically exclude promoting for-profit ventures. “We really needed a forum where it’s perfectly acceptable.”

Extra, Extra!

Bedford’s Young Drummer’s March Cheers Residents

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Late last week and on Saturday morning, Bedford residents were cheered by the sight and sound of a Young Drummer marching through Bedford neighborhoods.

A member of Lexington’s William Diamond Junior Fife and Drum Corps for the past four and a half years, the Young Drummer has been interested in drumming since he was four-years-old.

His interest in fife and drum music aligned with an early passion for history after watching the Colonial re-enactors gather on Bedford Common before they marched off to Willson Park during Bedford’s annual Pole Capping ceremony.

2020 COVID-19

Self-Guided Trail Walks Offered by Bedford’s Trails Committee

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The Bedford Trails Committee has been encouraged by Sarah Stanton’s, Bedford Town Manager, recommendation (during this age of social distancing) to exercise by walking our trails. Therefore, the Bedford Trails Committee is introducing a new approach—we’ll provide the description, map & directions, and you can take the trail walk at your convenience and your own pace.

This trail walk is to the new Davis Road Boardwalk ~ Click this link for a scalable map and full information. As shown in the attachment, you can drive over to Winterberry Way and Carlisle Rd./Rt. 225, park on Winterberry Way and take a 2.5 mile, 1.5-hour walk (or make it a trail run).

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People Doing Good Things in the Face of a Pandemic

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It’s often that through adversity that the best of brought out in the people around us and this pandemic that has hit our home of Bedford, MA has done just that in some of the Town’s young people.

As the country was hit hard with school and store closings, layoffs, social limitations, illness, uncertainty, and fear. Many young people would be huddled at home online talking with their friends and lamenting their losses, especially Seniors who feel robbed of their final months of milestone events and all the Senoiritis they can get away with, but not Sylvia Wolk and Cole Parks of Bedford High School.

Wolk and Parks have rallied many others to jump on board with their mission of making protective face shields and N95 face masks for healthcare workers that are in short supply.

Homepage Featured

ZOOM BOOM: The Path to Heaven May Be Paved with Free Video Conferencing Software

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The headline is tongue in cheek, but on a practical basis at least it isn’t far from the truth.  Numerous local churches and temples were contacted by The Bedford Citizen for a two-part article querying leaders about what is being done in their organizations in response to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19.

Zoom (www.zoom.us),  the free video-conferencing and messaging application that simplifies virtual meetings across any device, is being used by nearly all of the congregations (and many other local organizations) in Bedford to take the place of in-person services, programs, and even counseling sessions.  Creative videos and YouTube also figure prominently in the ways in which leaders and members are exploring how to stay in touch and be supportive of one another during this period.

Bedford and the 2020 US Census

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Announcements appear on television, mailings arrived at each residence, and yard signs are ‘blooming’ around town. Census 2020 is underway.

Now comes Bedford Television’s public service announcement, produced in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Bedford. Sarah Dorer,  interviewed by Matthew Dill and Healy Weisman, answers important questions about the census.

Extra, Extra!

Digging in the Dirt: Spring Clean-up, March 2020

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This has been one of the warmest winters I can remember, but it is New England after all, and Mother Nature could still play a nasty April fool’s joke on us.

But for now, it’s time to take advantage of the balmy days. Here are some gardening chores to get you ready for Spring.

2020 COVID-19

Covid-nineteen

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A pandemic poem by Lois Pulliam

Covid-nineteen has changed our ways,
Has emptied out our nights and days,
It’s closed the stores and stopped our fun
And has afflicted everyone.

Arts and Culture

Beethoven with Brad ~ A Bedford Lyceum via Zoom ~ Tonight at 7 pm

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Looking for something fun to do this evening?

Brad Conner, Music Director at First Parish on Bedford Common, will lead a Bedford Lyceum focusing on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven  TONIGHT, Tuesday, March 24 at 7 pm. The program is available free of charge le via ZOOM.

Extra, Extra!

Scavenger Hunts & Joke of the Day ~ Family Fun in Bedford

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As schools and workplaces have closed, it is hard for many Bedford residents to find ways to fill the day while following the guidelines of social distancing. According to Stacy Parr-Paskali, the Social Media Chair for the Bedford Family Connection, many local families have felt the impact of Covid-19. Families with young children, who the BFC support, must deal with “changes in routine”, “taking care of little ones who need more attention than an older kid might”, and “trying to step in for our irreplaceable teachers”. In order to brighten their days, the BFC and local families have created fun ideas that can be experienced while socially distancing.

Features

Exploring the Trails through Bedford’s Conservation Areas

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Moving to Carleton-Willard Village at the end of the summer, I was anxious to become acquainted with my new surroundings.  Having lived in Wayland for 56 years and taking every opportunity to enjoy local outdoor areas, I was familiar with Sudbury Valley Trustees lands, the National Wildlife Refuge along the Sudbury River, and Wayland’s conservation areas, as well as some in Weston, Sudbury, and Lincoln.  Now I could explore Bedford.

Legal Notice of Aerial Spraying for Mosquitoes Published in the Boston Globe

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The following Legal Notice describing planned aerial applications to control mosquito larvae appeared in the Boston Globe on Friday, February 14, 2020.

Publishing the legal notice and sending a copy to the appropriate Boards of Health are requirements of the notification criteria of Massachusetts Pesticide Board regulation 333 CMR: 13.04(7). The purpose of the regulation is to facilitate public notification prior to aerial applications of mosquito larvicides.

The February 14, 2020 notice will be the only legal notice published this year for aerial application notification purposes.

Press releases will be issued prior to any aerial larvicide applications over wetlands.