Thursday, February 7, 2013
You asked, now Westford Patch answers.
Last Friday, an astute Westford Patch reader noticed some SCUBA divers at the bridge on Depot Street next to Stony Brook Acres and the East Boston Camps. Here at Westford Patch, our initial impulse was to assume the SCUBA divers were international secret agents looking for F-650 dump truck, but we watch too many James Bond movies. In reality, the SCUBA divers were part of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's bridge inspection unit, performing a normal bi-annual inspection of the bridge.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Welcome to our latest "You Asked, Patch Answers"
Just after last year's Fall Town Meeting, one Westford Patch reader asked us if Westford could copy New Hampshire's "SB2" or Deliberative Session style Town Meetings. Westford Patch has an answer: yes. Town Meeting voters can vote to create bylaws on how Town Meeting operates as long as those bylaws meet approval from the attorney general's office. For those unfamiliar with SB2, the name comes from 1994's Senate Bill 2, which eventually became New Hampshire RSA 40:13. The key difference between a traditional town meeting and an SB2 style Town Meeting is that in SB2 Town Meetings, Town Meeting is split into two parts: a "deliberative session," where the wording of what will be on the Town Meeting warrant is finalized by voters and an "…
Friday, January 4, 2013
What are your thoughts?
During the holiday season, one Westford Patch reader pointed out to us that near the entrance of the old Market Basket at Westford Valley Marketplace was selling what appeared to be "toy" grenades and guns marketed toward children. We reached out to Market Basket representatives for comment, and they replied the machine would be removed, which it was (see attached photo for comparison between Dec. 26 on the left and Jan. 2 on the right). Do you applaud Market Basket for this move? Is it political correctness gone too far? How much of a role did the Sandy Hook tragedy play in this, and other instances where Westford residents face guns and weapons? There are many questions, and today we want to ask for your thoughts. And if you see …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
You ask, Patch answers. When can we expect longer days?
Winter can be tough on the emotions. The cold weather can be difficult to deal with, snow can be a pain (though also fun) but what really seems to get people down is the short days. There is something about the sun going down before most people get out of work that is depressing. So when can we expect longer days? The days will begin to get longer after the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day of the year. According to timeanddate.com the December solstice occurs when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees is normally on Dec. 21, but the actual shortest day can be between Dec. 20 and 23 depending on the year. According to sunrisesunset.com, the shortest day of the year in this area will be on Dec. 22. On …
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Welcome to Patch Answers.
Recently a reader asked us what was going on with the construction down near the corner of Littleton and Tadmuck, and like our construction question a little while back, this one was also a bit tricky at first. It might seem like the new Princeton Properties 40B housing project approved by the ZBA a few months ago, but it's actually another housing project called Tadmuck Meadows. On the far righthand side of this June 2011 .pdf map from the Westford GIS Department, Princeton Properties is in purple and Tadmuck Meadows is right next to it in green.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Welcome to Patch Answers
Awhile back we got a question from a reader asking how fast the speed limit was in that stretch of Carlisle Road between the Jack Walsh ballfields and the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, close to the proposed fire station. While there are signs saying it's 30 miles per hour up at the corner Powers and Concord and Old Lowell and Carlisle, when Concord and Carlisle merge into one road near Jack Walsh, the only sign nearby is one saying "slow." (pictured) We searched and we searched for the speed limit on that stretch of road, but it was right under our nose in a state law we reported on over a year ago. Just like nearby, the speed limit down that road is 30, because if it doesn't say otherwise, on a road like that in Massachusetts, it'll …
Friday, July 20, 2012
Welcome to Patch Answers.
In this week's Patch Answers, we have a question from a reader wondering what is up with that construction near the corner of Littleton and South Chelmsford Road. We want to apologize for being slightly misleading, there's a senior living community being built just behind the trees you can see from the road but that's not what you're seeing when you're driving by. According to town officials, that construction immediately on the road is a treatment facility and leetching field for Tech Park East, the row of high tech office buildings on Technology Park Drive like Goodrich, Juniper Networks, Sonus Systems, that are almost immediately across the street.
42.5701
-71.41491
Littleton Rd & S Chelmsford Rd, Westford, MA
/articles/what-s-up-with-that-construction-at-the-corner-of-littleton-and-south-chelmsford-road
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Friday, July 13, 2012
Welcome to our latest "You Ask, Patch Answers."
Grown Ups 2 came to Merrill’s Quarry on the Westford/Tyngsboro line on Sunday for a week of shooting, and that week ends today. The cast and crew of the film will be returning to the North Shore for additional scenes, but the question lingers as to why Westford was chosen for filming. Several Westford Patch readers have asked us this, and according to site manager Mark Fitzgerald the answer was simple: it’s the closest real life location to what director Dennis Dugan saw in his head when he needed a quarry in Massachusetts. “We just got a script with a scene that says ‘quarry’, so we went out and took a look at a bunch of quarries,” said Fitzgerald. “We went to Rockport, Gloucester, Quincy, Milford, a bunch of places. But at the end of …
Friday, July 6, 2012
Welcome to our latest "You Asked, Patch Answers
Today’s “You Asked, Patch Answers” address a question surrounding the busiest intersection in town, Minot’s Corner. However, the question isn’t about traffic at the corner of Littleton, Boston and Carlisle Roads, but who exactly Minot was. If one looks closely while making a right hand turn off Exit 32, they can see the answer, but we can help out those who don’t feel like risking their life at that tricky intersection to search for the small plaque in front of the Mobil on the Run. Minot refers to the Minot family, especially Capt. Jonathan Minot. Jonathan wasn’t the first to live in the house where the Mobil on the Run now stands, as the family emigrated from England in the early to mid 1700s, and the family continued to live there until…
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Welcome to our latest Patch Answers.
Recently a Westford Patch reader saw that all the gas prices, including correlations between different kinds of unleaded gas seemed to be closely tied to other gas stations nearby. They wondered why that was, and after some research, here's what we found out after talking to a few local gas station managers. Ultimately, determination of gas prices in Westford has very little to do with Westford itself. While it varies slightly from company to company, people at the corporate level give station managers a baseline price and then ask for a set of criteria to determine the price that will appear on the sign near the road. According to the U.S. Energy Information Adminstration, over the past few years, those baseline prices are driven …
Tara Scanlon
4:34 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013
I liked your explanation better, Andy! (We watch way too many Bond movies too.) more ›