About nine months ago, Elizabeth Bagdonas retired after 30 years as Bedford’s conservation administrator. Since that transition, even with the limitations of Covid-19, she hasn’t been rearranging the living room furniture. “I’m a little disoriented because I’m not a very-good goal-setter,” she chuckled. “What I really want to be doing is I want to be outside more.” She knows she will need a knee replacement to maximize that goal. Still, she is working on developing a trail system in Bolton, where she lives.
The leaves fell earlier this year and the bags of leaves are piling up but they will be gone soon.
Curbside collection of yard waste begins next week.
The Department of Public Works has scheduled yard waste collection for two weeks starting November 9 and 16, then a final pick-up during the week after Thanksgiving, starting on Monday, November 30.
Buying an electric vehicle (EV) has been on my mind for one reason: human-caused climate change. I am generally slow to adopt new technology, preferring the quiet meditation of hand tools, and choosing to walk and bike as much as possible for the joy of it as well as limiting my energy consumption. Seeing my climate concerned friends jump on the EV bandwagon for quite some time, I sheepishly admit, I have had some good old fashioned ‘green’ keeping up with the Joneses envy. Now that I have been working with Bedford Mothers Out Front on transportation issues, I see the need for every one of us to transition off fossil fuel-based technologies as quickly as possible.
If you’re like most people, you spend a lot of time worrying about whether your greasy pizza box has too much grease to be recycled. Well, maybe not most people, but there are people who are concerned about such things.
As of Friday, October 16, the Dredgit crew completed the dredging operation at Fawn Lake, and removed the dewatering equipment.
The materials storage bin has been dismantled and the lawn area will be regraded, leaving a level area for a nice overlook to the lake. A total of 8,076 cubic yards of bottom sediment and 350 cubic yards of floating/submerged aquatic vegetation were removed from the site. In addition to complying with all the environmental conditions, Dredgit is also proud to report 3,060 accident-free man-hours on the project.
One more time. The Department of Public Works is holding its final recycling event of 2020 on Saturday, October 24 from 8 am until 12:30 pm, at the Compost Center, 108 Carlisle Road.
The event is open to Bedford residents only. Proof of residency is required. The Compost Center is open on October 24 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
A large fox trotted across the entire field from one side to the other, smack dab in the middle of the Bedford girls’ softball game on Monday afternoon.
Players, parents, and bystanders alike ooohed and ahhhed, but the fox paid no attention and boldly cut through, right into the game.
Perhaps he wanted to help catch in the outfield or take a swing at bat!
On behalf of Mothers Out Front, an advocacy group of over 24,000 mothers working to protect children and communities from the impact of climate change, we provide here context and background on Questions 3 & 4 that appear on the Bedford ballot.
Both have a direct impact on creating the laws that our children need from our state legislators. These two questions also appear in other MA districts, with Question 3 appearing in 19 others and Question 4 in 16 others. A webinar by 350 Massachusetts informs voters on these questions: http://bit.ly/350MassWebinar
Dr. Sam Telford, a tick expert in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, visited the Bedford Board of Health’s October 7 meeting.
He was invited to share his expertise and offer advice on the Board’s vision to provide a tick barrier around every Bedford athletic field that borders a woodland. To date, Bedford’s DPW and Parks and Recreation Department have identified the woodland side of the South Road ball field as the first location for a gravel and fence barrier, with a plan to maintain vegetation removal from both sides of the fence going forward.
A microburst that blasted through Bedford during afternoon rush hour Wednesday extended a lot of commuting times exponentially.
Downed trees blocked two arteries — Carlisle Road and Concord Road — in both directions, beginning around 5:30 pm, police reported.
Either one of those streets could serve as the prime alternate westbound route for the other. But with both blocked, the shortest route to Carlisle was via Treble Cove Road off Route 4 in Billerica. Concord-bound traffic could traverse the perimeter of Hanscom Field on Wood Street in Lexington, then head west on Route 2A.
Once in a while, that’s what happens when two state roads are squeezed between an airport and a river with flood plain.
The tree that fell near 215 Carlisle Road struck a moving car. Police said the branches smashed the windshield but the heavy part of the tree landed several feet away from the front bumper There were no injuries. When that tree was removed by officers, with the assistance of nearby landscapers, Carlisle Road was passable one lane at a time, police reported.
The Concord Road delay was more complicated. The tree that blocked Route 62 near Wheeler Drive and the Concord line was entangled in live wires, and as of 8 pm, utility crews were still on the scene.
Trees were reported down in other parts of town, a few on streets and any more on private property. There were a handful of power outages, most of them reported in the West Bedford area.
A free, community presentation on “The Climate Crisis” will be hosted via Zoom by First Parish in Bedford on Sunday, October 11 from 4 to 5 pm.
Corinne Doud, a Climate Reality Leadership Corps member, will lead a discussion and present slides developed by former Vice President Al Gore. The presentation is designed to provide a pointed review of the science, the societal changes, and the solutions necessary to curb global warming and address the effects of climate change.
The Department of Public Works is providing Bedford residents the opportunity to recycle or reuse a myriad of materials on two Saturdays, October 3 and 10. Both events are open to Bedford residents only and will take place from 9 am to 12 noon at the Compost Center at 108 Carlisle Road.
The Compost Center will be closed for yard waste drop-off on October 3 but it will be open to receive leaves and twigs, etc. on October 10.
Editor’s Note: A robocall to the town on Tuesday, September 29, noted that the Compost Center will be closed on Wednesday, September 30, due to heavy rains in the weather forecast.
The Department of Public Works has announced the fall schedule for the Compost Center.
Click to view the full-size image
Starting October 7, the Compost Center, located at 108 Carlisle Road, will be open every Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., except for Veteran’s Day (November 11) and the day before Thanksgiving (November 25).
The Compost Center will also be open on Saturday, October 10, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and then starting on Saturday, October 24, the center will be open every Saturday through December 5. Normal hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., but during November the hours will be 8 a.m. to 3 p.m
The schedule is available at www.bedfordma.gov/recycling under the Calendar tab.
Pursuant to the Town’s EPA Stormwater Permit, the DPW urges residents to properly dispose of leaves and yard waste and to not dump leaves in wetlands or waterways. Also, residents are asked to keep storm drains clear of leaf litter and pine needles. Fallen leaves are loaded with natural fertilizer and are a source of stormwater pollution.
Per state regulations, yard waste is prohibited from regular trash. Residents may either compost yard waste on their own property or bring the yard waste to the Compost Center where it will be turned into loam products for Public Works projects.
Acceptable yard waste consists of leaves, pine needles, grass clippings, garden trimmings, weeds, and tree material up to one inch (1”) in diameter. Tree limbs more than one inch (1”) in diameter can be placed in the brush pile. Only paper biodegradable bags, available at a variety of stores, are allowed to be dropped off. Residents should empty plastic trash bags or containers of yard waste and bring them home for reuse.
Compost bins are available for $45 from the DPW at 314 Great Road. Contact Ed McGrath, Bedford’s Recycling Coordinator, at emcgrath@bedfordma.gov.
The Department of Public Works is providing Bedford residents the opportunity to recycle or reuse a myriad of materials on two Saturdays, October 3 and 10. Both events are open to Bedford residents only and will take place from 9 am to 12 noon at the Compost Center at 108 Carlisle Road.
The Bedford Water Division will be flushing hydrants to ensure clean, clear water throughout the distribution system. The work will be done on weekdays between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM from September 29 to October 9. Signs will be set out the day before flushing in each specific area of Town.
Bedford’s chapter of Mothers Out Front sponsors a small sub-group to focus on transportation issues in and around Bedford. It has recently been discussing the use of electric vehicles as a necessary transition to reduce fossil fuel use. Electric vehicles are fun to drive, easy to charge, and can save you money!
The Dredgit crew continues to dredge and haul, having just completed 4 full weeks of dredge operations in the lake. This week they removed 1,012 cubic yards of sediments for a total of 3,698 yards, approximately 46% of the total amount to be cleared. This material is being sent to the Lexington facility for reuse in their compost operations. The dredge barge is working in the O – O cross-section (see construction drawings, sheet C-6), which is almost the middle of the lake. The dredged material continues to be all organic, with a few small rocks and a couple of coins mixed in at the bottom.
In spite of a few rain events, the Dredgit crew was able to dredge and haul all week, removing an additional 1,036 cubic yards of lake sediments for a total of 2,686 yards, approximately 33% of the total amount to be cleared. This material is being sent to the Lexington facility for reuse in their compost operations. The dredge barge has just about completed the P – P cross-section (see construction drawings, sheet C-6), and will be moving to section O – O in the middle of the lake after Labor Day.
The Dredgit crew continued to dredge and haul all week, removing an additional 800 cubic yards of lake sediments for a total of 1650 yards, approximately 20% of the total amount to be cleared under the contract. This material is being sent to the Lexington facility for reuse in their compost operations. The dredge barge is still working in the easterly portion of the lake, having finished the Q – Q cross-section and has moved to the P – P cross-section (see construction drawings, sheet C-6), which is about 35% dredged as of this report.
In the DPW’s filing with the Bedford Conservation Commission, they described the tick fence project: “This project is proposed to reduce exposure to ticks from the wooded area along the westerly length of the South Road Fields.
There is so much concern today about “air exchange” in buildings-particularly in school buildings-that this article is especially timely.
It’s written by a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder whose work centers on how to control the transmission of infectious diseases indoors.
It’s that time of an election year when the weeds are pulling ahead, exceeding all expectations, and the plants are literally falling by the wayside. We don’t need pollsters to predict this will happen. Things have been heated on many fronts lately, but eerily quiet in town.
In a “normal” year we might actually leave the ‘hood sometime in the summer months and by the time we get home and catch up with our friends, the thrill of the window boxes is gone and we graciously let them do as they will, yanking out the petunias and geraniums and eventually replacing them with teensy pumpkins.
Being home for the summer without the ability to even drive much of anywhere means we get a ringside seat of the yearly competition between the plants we actually put in the ground and whatever Mother Nature offers.
In February 2020, BHS Principal Heather Galante approved the Bay State Textiles “School Box Program” proposed by the Facilities Department. In the four months since textile bins arrived, over 8,000 lbs of textiles have been collected and BHS has earned over $400 in rebates! The bins are located behind the high school/library parking lot on Liljegren Way.
“The textile bins have been working well and we are thrilled to have some additional funds during a time when school budgets are tight. We will use the funds at Bedford High School to support student groups focused on environmental causes. Also, since our new back to school guidelines support classes in outdoor spaces, we will use some of the funds to beautify our courtyards and transition them into learning spaces. We are so thankful and know our students and teachers will appreciate this” says Principal Galante.
