Hello, Burlington!

Happy first day of school! I hope the nerves subside and everyone has a happy day of seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and setting a strong and positive tone for the upcoming 180 days! Here’s the school calendar in digital format for people like me who lose the physical one. Be sure to bookmark it!

I’ve been meaning to share a quick rundown of last Tuesday’s Board of Health meeting for nearly a week now and finally found the time:

• Protect yourself from the sun and mosquitoes as the summer winds down by applying sunscreen, waiting five minutes, and then applying insect repellant. Also, though, while our risk level for West Nile was upgraded, this is not a very active year for the illness, and spraying for mosquitoes has been performed in the area where West-Nile-positive mosquitoes were found.

• The BoH welcomed some shared services staff who support the Tri-Ton Collaborative supported by a state grant shared by Lexington, Burlington, and Wilmington.

  • Katy Doughty, Epidemiologist, enjoys the cross-disciplinary nature of public health and turning data into programs and action. She’s eager to work more on mental health and substance abuse.

  • Jackie Messina, Public Health Specialist, provides resources and facilitates programs for the public. She has an interest in hoarding disorder and keeping residents safely in their homes while treating the disorder.

  • Tahycha Soto, Health Inspector, enjoys learning about the differences that make each community unique while recognizing all strive for the same goal. She’ll be working in enforcement, ensuring all regulations are followed.

• Pickleball courts will be put in in the green space at the corner of 3rd and 4th Ave. This was brought before the Board of Heath because there are some monitoring wells on the property and they wanted to ensure the courts wouldn’t interfere with their functioning. It’s been determined that they won’t. Nordblom, the developer in the area, gave a presentation with several updates on Northwest Park and the 3rd Ave area:

  • 3rd Ave businesses are back to pre-pandemic revenue levels.

  • 30,000 people visit Wegman’s each week.

  • Life Time is among the top 5 busiest health clubs in the country.

  • Sculptures are going to be added to the area.

  • They’ll be adding some trees that aren’t falling over like some of the shallow-rooted pine trees in the area.

  • This pickleball court will be open to the public.

• A new restaurant, Eggholic, will be going in at 10 Wall Street.

• Representatives for 111 Middlesex Turnpike (the complex where Staples, Wendy’s, etc. are located) were present to report on the “nuisance condition” (flooding) you have probably seen in that parking lot. A plan was presented to clean the area out in September (the original timeline for this was spring of 2023, but the permit wasn’t secured in time—the property’s representatives blamed a delay at the state level, but one Board member pointed out that the application wasn’t submitted until March). This process would include removing the fish from the water, removing the water, cleaning out the drainage pipes, and replacing the water/fish/etc. They proposed completing the biannual cleaning in the fall from now on.
  This area has been flooded for years, and meeting participants alluded to past issues which created this state of affairs. The Board pressed the representatives for a long-term plan to address the water issues, and they were not ready to share their solutions yet. The temporary plan is to leave the Jersey barriers up in the area to prevent slips in the colder weather, but the Board is not happy with that as a permanent solution.

• Café Escadrille appeared before the Board to provide an update on a violation regarding the sanitation temperature of their dishwashers: At three inspections, the dishwasher was not reaching the appropriate temperature for sanitation. The restaurant has implemented a process to test the temperature regularly and switch to chemical sanitation if the temperature is too low.

• Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day is September 23.

Today in Burlington

Municipal Meetings and Community Events

• First day of school, grades 1-12
• 5:30 PM - Community Dinner at the Presbyterian Church in Burlington; food provided by Youth of UCC. All are welcome to dine and get to know your neighbors!

Sports and Activities

The girls’ soccer teams meet up with Boston Latin School today at 4:30 at MSMS.

That’s all for today. Drive carefully, neighbors, and budget extra travel time if you’ll be driving during the school commute!

Nicci

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