Worcester Magazine March 29 - April 4, 2018

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Far removed from ‘Idol,’ Daughtry ready to play Worcester 22 Jim Porcella’s new release: He never intended to record again, but recent circumstances presented themselves to the lucky jazz singer. 24 The People’s Kitchen: In Niche’s group of eateries is a trio bound together by 1 Exchange Place where upstairs, you’ll find The People’s Kitchen. 28

in this issue M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018 • V O L U M E 43 I S S U E 31

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Town Trippin’: Northborough, Shrewsbury and Westborough Story on page 12 Photos by Elizabeth Brooks, Design by Kimberly Vasseur

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news Hanover rejected offer to reuse Notre Dame for brewery space A BILL SHANER

s the historic Notre Dame des Canadiens Church in Worcester’s CitySquare is set to face demolition, Worcester Magazine has learned Hanover Insurance, the property owner, rejected an offer from a group of investors earlier this year to purchase and rehabilitate the church.

A group of five investors, four from Connecticut, made two offers to purchase the vacant building and convert it into space for breweries, and possibly a restaurant and public market, according to four people familiar with the proposal.

But Hanover, working with the Bostonbased development firm Leggat McCall and the CitySquare II LLC, rejected the offer without making a counter offer or meeting in person, according to the sources. In early February, after CitySquare rejected the deal, city officials facilitated a meeting between the CitySquare developers and the investors, according to a city spokesman, but according to multiple people familiar with the meeting, it was ultimately fruitless.

Instead, the CitySquare developers pulled a demolition permit in early March without any specific redevelopment plans. The permit was approved by the city on March 14, according to the city spokesman, and the developers tentatively plan to start demolition in April.

Public comments from both Hanover and CitySquare have long indicated the company is doing all it can to spare the historic church from the wrecking ball. But preservationists say this failed deal – which, until now, had not been made public – suggests otherwise.

“They didn’t even sit down face-to-face and talk with them,” said Jeff Cronin, a planner and preservationist who worked to court the investors. “They didn’t examine all the work these people have done in other places.”

Cronin and others declined to name the investors, saying they’re respecting their wish to not be publicly associated with a failed development proposal. Cronin was one of four people who confirmed the deal was proposed.

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The Notre Dame Church in Worcester.

ELIZABETH BROOKS

The rest requested anonymity.

But the Hanover camp saw the offer differently. A spokesman for CitySquare II said the offer was “wholly inadequate,” wasn’t economically viable, and developer couldn’t prove they had the financial backing to follow through with the project.

“Simply put, we did not have confidence the offer would result in a project that would benefit the city and the surrounding area, advancing critical economic development efforts in downtown Worcester,” said Pamela Jonah, spokeswoman, in a statement sent Wednesday morning.

She also argued they did not dismiss the project, but rather diligently explored it.

A response to inquiries about the demolition from Opus Investment, the investment arm of Hanover Insurance, obtained by Worcester Magazine, characterizes the situ-

M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

ation with Notre Dame Church as a failure, despite significant investment, to find “a development project that would give a new and productive life to the property.”

“We are encouraged, however, that this decision ultimately will lead to the creation of an unencumbered parcel that we believe will attract viable development projects and help the city advance its master plan,” said Ann Tripp, president of Opus Investment, in the letter.

In the letter, Tripp makes reference to an April 15 deadline date for demolition. That’s the date a one-year demolition delay from the Historical Commission would take effect. If Hanover had not pulled the demolition permit before April 15, they would have had to apply for a delay waiver from the commission.

“In light of the city’s April 15, 2018 deadline, we are now committed to moving forward, with reluctance, to raze the building and focus

on finding a use for the property that will benefit the city and the region for many years to come,” said Tripp.

Tripp was one of several people from the Hanover group at the meeting with city officials and the Connecticut developers in early February, sources said. She was joined by Donald Birch, president of Leggat McCall, the development firm charged by Hanover with the CitySquare project, according to multiple people familiar with the meeting.

The Notre Dame Church, at 5 Salem Square, is a small parcel of the larger 22-acre CitySquare project, which includes other developments such as the AC Marriott Hotel, a 170-room project that sits directly behind the church.

The church, built in 1929, has been vacant since 2007, when it was closed by the Roman Catholic Diocese. The 1.3-acre plot is assessed by the city at $875,000, of which the land itself is worth $542,800.

Plans to demolish the church last year fell through after Roseland Construction, the firm developing 145 Front St., withdrew a proposal to build an apartment building on the site.

Now the CitySquare developers say they plan to demolish the building even though they have no development offer for the lot. The demolition, if it starts in April, is likely to be complete by August.

“The last thing Worcester needs is another empty lot,” said Cronin.

He and other preservationists have long fought to keep the structure intact, arguing it’s an irreplaceable piece of architecture, a Worcester landmark, and a link between the city’s past and present that was somehow spared from past urban renewal efforts.

“I don’t think the downtown will ever recover from the loss of Notre Dame,” said Cronin. “I think it’s an unforgivable, premature demolition. It’s unnecessary.”

That the demolition is unnecessary, Cronin said, is proved by the Connecticut investors and their pitch to rehabilitate the property. He added that the church, if filled with ameniC O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 6

news

Homelessness concerns aired to city task force BILL SHANER

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bout 40 people spoke on how they’d like to see the problem of homelessness addressed at a meeting for the Task Force for Sustaining Housing First Solutions earlier this week.

The task force, which was assembled by City Manager Ed Augustus Jr., is charged with ending homelessness in Worcester using a “housing first” strategy, which means relying less on traditional shelters and more on caseworkers and temporary homes to rapidly rehouse people who fall into homelessness.

At the forum, held in the Worcester Senior Center Monday night, residents complained of the lack of affordable housing and the rising costs of rents, as well as the difficulty to find addiction treatment and temporary shelter.

Anne Marie Hebert, a Worcester resident who struggled with homelessness for years, said those who are homeless often struggle with addiction and fall in and out of stable living situations. Just two months after she

found a place to live, she said, her son fell into homelessness.

“It just goes on and on around the merrygo-round,” said Hebert. “It doesn’t matter what you do and what you don’t do. You try to stay clean, but it’s not going to take away the homelessness.”

The Housing First Task Force was formed as chronic homelessness – meaning people who are homeless and unsheltered for months or years at a time – is on the rise. In 2017, the city saw a rise for the third consecutive year in the estimated number of chronically homeless, from 41 to 60.

On the whole, the estimated homeless population in Worcester is thought to be a little more than 1,000 people, according to a city report in 2017, but the number is constantly in flux.

The Task Force consists of 28 leaders in city government, nonprofit service agencies, state offices and religious organizations. The forum on Monday was billed as a listening session, and Task Force members in attendance did

The Task Force addressing chronic homelessness in the city held a Public Forum Monday night at the Worcester Senior Center.

ELIZABETH BROOKS

not speak. At the end, Jan Yost, president of the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts and the task force member that chaired the meeting, said the comments would be used to inform future policy decisions.

Business, nonprofit and public sector

leaders also spoke, offering suggestions for how to better deal with Worcester’s homeless population.

An employee at the main branch of the Worcester Public Library, speaking for herself C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 7

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news NOTRE DAME

have argued that the building’s condition poses considerable challenges to development. In the statement sent Wednesday ties, would itself be a destination that would morning, CitySquare officials argued rehabbenefit the whole of downtown, including the bing the space could only be completed with other CitySquare developments. “enormous, uneconomical cost.” Jonah said “This could be a huge attraction,” he said.

CitySquare didn’t feel confident the investors “Generations to come, people would be gratecould come up with what they estimate to be ful that somehow in 2018 the city would be at least $8 million. able to save that building.”

But a 1report from an engineering consulWomag Junior page.qxp_Layout 1 Hanover 1/24/18 3:52 PM Page The CitySquare developers and tant obtained by Worcester Magazine argues

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the building may be in more stable condition.

The firm, contracted by Preservation Worcester, a group that has long fought to preserve the church but would not comment for this story, outlined some structural concerns due to lack of maintenance. But, on the whole, the report made the case the building is structurally sound and fit for development.

“My general impression of the structure is that it is in relatively sound condition,” aid John Wathne, president of the firm, in the

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report, issued last September.

The building has several signs of deterioration due to age, he wrote, including shifted stairways, collapsing stonework, leaking roofs and rust.

“However, there do not appear to be any global ‘deal breakers’ that would render the building unrestorable,” he said.

The bid by the Connecticut investors would have kept much of the structure intact, and wouldn’t have involved adding any floors to the interior, according to Cronin and others familiar with the proposal.

The bid, Cronin argued, was further hampered by a request from the CitySquare group that it remain private. The investors and preservationists agreed to the request for confidentiality throughout the process, but Cronin said he decided to break it after the company had pulled a demolition permit.

“We were always at a disadvantage here. Hanover told us this all had to be confidential, that we could not share with the public,” he said.

The confidentiality barred the investors from drumming up and leveraging public support, he said.

“We would have more propulsion for this effort, more public involvement, other people who may have come forward and said they were interested,” he said.

Worcester Magazine could not independently confirm that Hanover officials requested confidentiality.

City Councilor Moe Bergman, who also serves on Preservation Worcester’s board, was at the meeting with city officials to facilitate the negotiation. The meeting, he said, was to discuss both the proposal and the looming April 15 date for the renewed demolition delay from the Historical Commission.

His impression from the meeting was that, on Hanover’s side, the offer was too low to be seriously considered, but Bergman said he felt the investors were willing to go higher. The discussion was also couched in a time crunch, he said, given the impending timeline.

Now, with the deal off the table, Bergman said his feelings are mixed. On the emotional side, he wants to believe there’s more time for an offer to come in.

“This is a spectacular historic building,” Bergman said. “No one in their right minds would want to see it go.”

Whatever replaces it, he added, would be an inferior landmark. But, he said, on the logical side, it’s going to be difficult to save the building given the time constraint.

“I’m imagining they can’t keep it for another winter,” he said, and other developers on the block may be waiting for the building to come down.

“I never want to say never,” Bergman said, “especially when dealing with such an important building, but it’s going to be extremely difficult.”

news GateHouse Media buys Gardner News WALTER BIRD JR.

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ontinuing a string of newspaper acquisitions that has expanded its footprint on the local media scene and made it one of the largest locally-based print and digital media publishers in the U.S., GateHouse Media is buying the daily Gardner News, which celebrates its 149th year in July.

In announcing the deal this week, the terms of which were not immediately disclosed, GateHouse CEO Kirk Davis praised longtime owner and publisher Alberta Bell’s paper for sticking to a “winning formula.”

“What a tremendous service this daily newspaper provides to Gardner and the surrounding towns,” said Davis, whose own group of newspapers, the Holden Landmark Corp., he sold to GateHouse last month. “We are proud to continue Alberta’s fine legacy of providing top-notch journalism to the greater Gardner community.”

The Gardner News started as a weekly newspaper on July 3, 1869 under A.G. Bushnell.

Bell has run the family-owned paper, which serves seven cities and towns in northern Worcester County and publishes every day except Sunday, since 1992, when her husband, Gordon Bell, died. She has worked at the paper more than 30 years.

In 2011, Bell was reportedly poised to sell

HOMELESSNESS

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 5

and not the library, said the main branch serves as the city’s defacto day shelter for homeless people, but employees there often find themselves unequipped to help the homeless patrons. The employee, Elizabeth McKinstry, said the task force should look at staffing social workers at the library to help the homeless people who shelter there.

“We really need someone onsite to help us do what we want to do as librarians, which is help people,” said McKinstry.

She also added she was disappointed no one from the library was included on the task force.

The Chamber of Commerce also made an appearance, advocating for measures to curb panhandling as well as homelessness. Stu Loosemore, the Chamber’s director of governmental affairs, said panhandling and homelessness are not the same issue, but may have similar solutions. He called for more outreach to panhandlers and the homeless.

“We feel strongly the purpose of this task

her paper to MediaNews Group, which owns the Sentinel & Enterprise, but that deal never materialized. Rumors of the paper being sold have swirled off and on the past several years.

Davis said he has been paying attention to the Gardner News for some time and has a “direct connection” to the community.

“We at GateHouse feel an obligation to serve the readers and advertisers the best we can in the years to come,” Davis said, adding he has gotten to know Bell personally over the past several years. “What an amazing person, and what a tribute to her, and to her family, that the newspaper has thrived throughout her decades of oversight.”

Among the Gardner News’ top competitors is the Worcester-based daily Telegram & Gazette, which GateHouse Media bought in 2014.

T&G President Paul Provost said Bell’s paper has served the area well.

“I look forward to working with the team at The Gardner News, getting to know the readers, advertisers, community stakeholders and continuing the winning ways of this great publication,” Provost said. “This market has been force to help foster and create collaboration among these social service agencies to help address the larger issue,” said Loosemore.

Some landlords attended the meeting and said they’d do what they can to help.

“I have a bunch of empty rooms and I’d like to help out,” said Chris Valeri, a landlord in Worcester.

But some of the landlords who spoke complained there are certain barriers getting in the way of providing affordable housing.

The city’s ban on more than three unrelated tenants in a unit was referenced, as was the state’s building code, which they argued makes the construction of lodging houses and small apartments cost prohibitive.

Still others made the appeal the city and state should do more to assist people in finding housing.

“What we really need is supportive affordable housing for those that are homeless,” said Worcester resident Robin Casey.

Bill Shaner can be reached at 508-749-3166 x324 or at wshaner@worcestermag.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bill_Shaner.

well served with a dedicated staff of professionals, and we are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside them.”

Acquiring the Gardner News only further swells the newspaper and online media portfolio of GateHouse, the holding company for New Media Investment Group. As of last September, GateHouse had grown to include 130 daily papers, more than 650 community publications and north of 540 local-market websites reaching more than 21 million people each week. GateHouse has publications in 36 states and 540 markets.

The company’s rapidly growing presence in and around Massachusetts includes the February acquisition of Davis’s Holden Landmark Corp. and its print and online publications baystateparent Magazine, the Grafton News, The Landmark, the Leominster Champion, the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and Worcester Magazine. All but baystateparent, a monthly publication, are weekly print products.

detail © James Dye

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news

worcesteria

#NEVERAGAIN: The March For Our Lives was a massive, massive, massive demonstration

against gun violence and for gun reform across the country. It was also massive - and peaceful - in Worcester, where it’s estimated somewhere between 3,000-4,000 people demonstrated, first at a rally and then in a march down Main Street that stretched back blocks. Think about that – 4,000 people marching in Worcester. That’s crazy, and has a lot of people saying it’s the biggest political demonstration in our city since the Vietnam War. Now, I wasn’t around for the student-led protests of the ’60s-’70s (read: student-led), but I got a note from someone who was.

Thom Ward, who was at the march Saturday, emailed to say the students speaking and leading chants Saturday filled him with the same feeling he had when he and his friends boarded a Greyhound Bus to join a protest in Washington, D.C. against the war in 1970. I’m just going to leave this quote verbatim. “We slept overnight in a very overcrowded church the night before the march. Yes, it was nasty standing there on a pee-soaked bathroom floor, but we were grateful compared to our brothers who were fighting and dying in a steamy jungle a long way from home. In 2018 we have a similar atrocity of young people again getting slaughtered because the grown-ups in their lives are sending them off to another kind of war, the war with assault weapons. The adults make the policies and decisions while the young people do the dying.”

WHERE OH WHERE: Councilor-At-Large Gary Rosen pulled an interesting bit of news out of

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City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. at City Council Tuesday, during a discussion of how to pay for a new Doherty High School. When Rosen asked where the new Doherty will go, Augustus said it’s an open question. He’s meeting with school administrators over the next few weeks to talk about it. “This is a hot topic,” Augustus said. The city is looking at all options, he said, including moving to a different location.

THE WORCESTER BATMAN: For those who haven’t yet heard, I need to make just one more

push at getting this nickname to stick. Joshua Lyford, our esteemed culture editor, was a hero last week. He laid life and limb and personal property on the line, valiantly stopping a highspeed police pursuit of a man we’d later learn was a crackhead. Of course, he did this all by accident. His car was rammed by said crackhead (alleged crackhead, I suppose, though they found a stuffed crack pipe in the car), at the corner of Austin and Oxford streets last Wednesday morning. The cops, guns drawn, arrested the man and a passenger while Lyford sat dazed in his mangled car. Just like the Worcester Batman would do. Think about it. He has no lair, no butler, no gadgets, but he does have bad luck. The Worcester Batman indeed.

THE END OF CHANDLER’S REIGN?: The big political news on Beacon Hill the past few weeks has been that a state senator from Ashland announced she has the votes to become senate president. Karen Spilka spilled the beans late last week, even though Sen. President Harriette Chandler, pride of Worcester, had earlier stated she’d be serving in the post until the end of the year. Nine months is an awful long time to keep the votes in the tumultuous 40-person body. So it appears Spilka is pushing to take the vote sooner. This from a Boston Globe profile of the Ashland Democrat: Spilka and Chandler “disagreed publicly on Thursday about when the actual transfer of power will take place. At an awkward press conference, Chandler said she wants to serve until her term expires in January, but Spilka declined to endorse that timeline, saying she wants to discuss the issue further.” Uh oh. But, for the record, Spilka taking over from Chandler isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When I covered Ashland (2016-2017) she was real bullish on fixing the state’s school funding formula, which impacts Worcester hard every year.

Of course, Chandler has been bullish on the WRTA bus cuts, so lets hope at the very least she can hold out long enough to get some bus money in the budget.

ANOTHER MCGOVERN CHALLENGER: Last week I wrote about Tracy Lovvorn, a Grafton Re-

Worcester-Boston Full Service Radio for New England 8

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M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

publican taking on Congressman Jim McGovern. This week, meet another challenger from the right: Kevin Powers, a Millville Republican, is running on a platform of term limits, jobs, social security reform, energy independence and animal welfare. Like Lovvorn, Powers has come out strong on term limits as he gears up to face the two-decade incumbent (McGovern took office in 1997). This from him: “Congress has a 13-percent approval rating, but a 95-percent re-election rate. The root of this problem is that politicians are incentivized by the political sysBill Shaner, reporter tem to care more about retaining wshaner@worcestermag.com their position than about doing Twitter: @Bill_Shaner what is best for the country.”

news PHOTO SUBMITTED

the beat

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After a little less than eight months, Worcester has a new Chief Diversity Officer, pulling from its own ranks

to replace Malika Carter, the city’s first, who let after 18 months. Suja Chacko, previously in the Human Resources department, started Monday. She’ll be responsible for making sure the city’s hiring policies are equitable as can be, among other things.

The Planning Board last week made a few tweaks to a set of regulations for recreational pot put forward by the city manager’s office. While

POT

Brookline, the department filled his deputy chief role from within. Andrew White, a 34-year veteran of the department and district chief, will take over the role. The city also announced a new public information officer, Martin Dyer.

• Antiques • Collectibles • Jewelry • Glassware • Pottery • Toys • Vintage Clothes • Furniture

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the board opted to keep most of the zoning (which would keep pot shops in mostly business parks, shopping centers and warehouses), they did suggest lowering the buffer requirement, saying it doesn’t make sense to keep manufacturing centers, cultivation centers and testing labs 500 feet from pot shops.

Quickly after John Sullivan’s departure from the Worcester Fire Department to take the top job in

Antiques Marketplace & Jeremiah’s Antiques

This week in truly bizarre news, it seems a Millbury official was caught making a fake email account to disparage another job applicant for a

finance position in Malden. Andrew Vanni, Millbury finance director, apparently made a fake email for the city council president in Malden blasting another applicant, according to a police report the Telegram got via a records request. Vanni was one of six finalists, and it seems he was ready to play dirty.

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DON’T REPLACE. REFACE

KITCHEN CABINET REFINISHING FACTORY FINISHES APPLIED IN-HOME

Trouble, trouble, always trouble at Southbridge Public Schools, where the administration recently

announced it may have to cut up to 30 staff to make up for a $650,000 budget gap. This after state receivership, high turnover at the receiver roll and languishing student performance. Makes one wonder how much more this district can take.

REFINISHING PAINTING REFACING

Amid the national push for gun reform, Mayor Joe Petty

The Cabinet

will bring an item to council soon asking the city divest any money tied up in stock related to gun manufacturers, according to the the Telegram. The city council will discuss the item at next week’s meeting.

Rehab Shop

Good news for the Worcester Development Renaissance, coming from MassLive: The Grid apartments are

now at 95 percent occupancy following a recent renovation. The Grid owners took a victory lap in the the post. Steve Carter, director of operations: “I think there’s substantial demand on the market that continues to grow, and we just came off a record-breaking February.”

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editorial

opinion

letter

Midtown Mall is Worcester’s Conundrum What’s the rush?

T

hey call it Worcester’s renaissance.

Many see what is happening in and around Worcester’s downtown core as just that: a rebirth or reawakening. Indeed, today’s downtown Worcester bears little resemblance to that of yesteryear. New buildings, new businesses and new facades dot what is known as CitySquare - a multi-faceted, multi-milliondollar attempt to both restore past glory and propel it boldly into the future. For that effort, even the grand Notre Dame des Canadiens Church, one of the most iconic buildings in the downtown area, may suffer.

The old is giving way to the new. The city has a plan authorizing the taking of properties by eminent domain if deemed necessary. City officials say it is a last resort, a tool in the toolbox, as City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. is fond of saying - one it will use if no other options remain.

Toolbox, meet Dean Marcus and the Midtown Mall. Worcester Magazine wrote in 2013 of the dilemma posed by this aged and outdated building on Front Street.

Even back then - longer than that even the mall was a headache the city did not need or want. And Marcus wasn’t about to provide the aspirin to make it go away.

“What would I do?” is how Marcus answered a reporter’s question about selling the mall at the time. He had owned it 33 years. Fast-forward more than four years and the waltz between Worcester and the Midtown Mall continues. Marcus appears no more inclined to budge than he did then, the city growing increasingly frustrated. Whether it finally reaches into that toolbox, well, just listen to Augustus.

“It’s beyond frustrating, not only for city government, but others are investing in their properties to bring up the area,” he is quoted as telling the Telegram & Gazette in a recent story on the revitalization of downtown Worcester of dealing with Marcus and the Midtown Mall. “Eminent domain is very much on the table. It’s a last resort, but for someone who has demonstrated such an unwillingness to work with anybody. I would say he is the top candidate for eminent domain.”

Marcus has not helped his case by refusing to talk at length publicly about his intentions. It has, at once, made him a sympathetic figure to some, an infuriatingly and deliberately stubborn one to others.

Some point to his ability to provide immigrant tenants the means to start pursuing their own American Dream. Others cite the less-than-pristine interior conditions they find inside the mall, and the rundown exterior - a throwback to a time long gone by.

As the city marches toward the reconstruction and repurposing of its urban center, the Midtown Mall clearly stands in its way. It is hard to envision city officials allowing this unwanted dance with Marcus to continue for as many years as it already has. The question is who bows out first. Marcus has held out this long, perhaps fancying himself the businessman refusing to cave to the wishes of city government. The city, however, has the power of popular momentum on its side - a project largely supported by its residents.

And while some have fought to save Notre Dame, it is hard to envision protests to save the Midtown Mall. However slowly, time may finally be running out.

Photographer Elizabeth Brooks x323 Contributing Writers Stephanie Campbell, Sarah Connell, Janice Harvey, Jim Keogh, Jessica Picard, Jim Perry, Corlyn Voorhees Editorial Intern Bridget Hannigan

72 Shrewsbury St. Worcester, MA 01604 worcestermagazine.com Editorial 508.749.3166 x322 editor@worcestermagazine.com Sales 508.749.3166 x333 sales@worcestermagazine.com President Paul M. Provost Publisher Kathleen Real-Benoit x331 Editor Walter Bird Jr. x322 Culture Editor Joshua Lyford x325 Reporter Bill Shaner x324

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Director of Creative Services Don Cloutier x141 Creative Director Kimberly Vasseur x142 Creative Services Department Becky Gill, Stephanie Mallard, Colleen Mulligan, Wendy Watkins Ad Director Helen Linnehan x333 Media Consultants Diane Galipeau x335, Cheryl Robinson x336, Sarah Perez x334 Media Coordinator Madison Friend x332 Classified Media Consultant Rachel Cloutier x433 M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

Notre Dame can’t be replaced To the Editor: There seems to be agreement that a City Square revitalization incorporating the old Notre Dame des Canadiens Church is more attractive than one without it. Hanover Insurance, the owner of the historical structures, considered by many to be one of the five most architecturally-significant structures in the city, had originally planned to incorporate

the structure into the project. In March 2017, Worcester’s City Council voted overwhelmingly in support of the effort to save the structure, and there is significant public support. With all of this support, there must be a creative solution to save the building.

As reported in the March 3 Telegram & Gazette, the one-year demolition delay expires April 15. Hanover Insurance must file a demolition permit with the city by that date, or it will have to restart the demolition process.

However, that is all Hanover needs to do. They do not have to start demolition. The permit can be filed and demolition can be delayed for six months, and then another six months before the demolition has to begin without starting the process again.

C O N T I N U E D O N N E XT PA G E

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opinion A step in time JANICE HARVEY

pecially since the weather wasn’t ideal. Often, people promise to take part in protests, but somehow allow “other things” to keep them ast Saturday, there was no sleeping-in away. As a union rep for teachers, I know this for me. I climbed out of the sack before only too well. As I approached the Common, I sunrise to tackle weekend chores, freesaw that my fears were unfounded: Worcester ing up the afternoon to perform a task came through for its children - for all children. infinitely more pressing than scrubbing the The crowd swelled to over 2,000 before taktub and vacuuming cat fur. By noon, I was ing to the pavement, marching under the stern searching for a parking space in downtown Worcester, finally squeezing into a spot across gaze of George Frisbie Hoar to Lincoln Square and back. Leading the way were the students from the Korean War Memorial. The lack whose lives are at stake, kids armed with signs, of parking on a Saturday was my first clue bullhorns and chants. Alongside my friend something big was happening in Wootown. I and former Worcester Magazine editor Walter walked along the Front Street “cut-through” Crockett, I slipped into the procession behind Tim Murray dreamed of, the slice that reconnected City Hall and Main Street to the rest of kids whose energy and resolve were palpable.

It was easy to see and hear they needed to the universe. I was wearing my best sneakers, be counted, that they are fully committed to the ones with good support; sturdy footwear is key when marching against the unrelenting taking life-or-death risks out of learning. In many ways, these students are being robbed slaughter of schoolchildren. of the simple joys of being kids. With April and I’ve carried more than a few signs in my May come proms and graduations, and that’s lifetime. I’m a firm believer in the power of where their heads should be, not marching to peaceful protest, and since high school I’ve marched for many causes. In truth, I was wor- demand that elected officials stop kneeling beried Worcester would fall short of my hopes for fore the National Rifle Association. Yet, despite the solemn warning they are sending to politithe “March For Our Lives” demonstration, es-

L

LETTER

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P R E V I O U S PA G E

What’s the rush? There are no plans to develop the site. Roseland Trust, the developer of 145 Front St., and Hanover Insurance invested over six months last year to hammer out a deal to demolish the building and erect a new structure, without an agreement. According to the T&G article, Notre Dame apparently has been for sale the past three to four months.

Who knew?

I encourage Hanover Insurance to take advantage of the six-month delay, put out a press release that informs the public the building is for sale, list the property with an aggressive commercial broker and set a sale price.

Encourage our city councilors to reaffirm their commitment to the salvation of this structure and empower the city manager to use city resources to assist in this effort, as was done to save and reuse the courthouse. Don’t assume the site is more marketable without the structure until we try.

We owe it to ourselves to allow developers that specialize in building reuse to create a plan that is economically feasible. Without an approved development of the site, it makes no sense to destroy the structure to create an empty lot. A six-month delay is a blink of an eye.

Regardless of the fate of Notre Dame, this should be a wakeup call to the residents of Worcester and Worcester County. Progres-

sive cities across the country have ordinances that do not allow a structure to be removed without an approved development plan. While the structure is still standing, there can be continued efforts to find economically sound alternative uses. We should expect the same for ourselves. If you agree, email your city councilor that you expect action.

cians, they were excited to sink their teeth into a cause they understand too well. Many have first-hand experience with gun violence, and they want it to stop. Not tomorrow - now.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a short but rousing pep talk. Students and educators spoke passionately for gun reform, invoking the names of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Fla. In the crowd, I recognized many teachers among those protesting, waving signs that read “BOOKS NOT BULLETS” making clear their refusal to carry arms as a solution.

Being part of a protest against gun violence wasn’t something they dreamed they’d scribble onto a desk calendar, but joining the march was not a question.

Nationwide, teachers and their unions haven’t minced words about their refusal to carry weapons into the classroom; the idea of arming teachers struck most educators as absurd and knee-jerk from the moment the plan was floated by the current occupant of the White House. Before the Parkland massacre, I experienced with my colleagues the trauma of active-shooter training, crouching behind

school equipment, listening to the crackle of a walkie-talkie as police officers acted out a harrowing scenario. Over and over, I’ve heard fellow educators utter the same words: “This is not what I signed up for.” They were referring, of course, to what it was that inspired them to teach, and how fending off murderers wasn’t part of the bargain. I couldn’t agree more, but I also know the chance to teach doesn’t have to confine itself to the classroom. The most important life lessons taught aren’t found in textbooks, and right now the crucial message teachers and parents alike need to deliver to students is this: Passivity is not acceptable.

Grab hold of your future and direct its course.

I’m grateful to the city officials and Worcester police officers who made the march not only possible, but safe. What I witnessed last Saturday was inspiring, and I’m ever so glad I didn’t let “other things” keep me from being part of a historical moment.

Janice Harvey contributing writer

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John Guastella Worcester

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M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

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feature

ELIZABETH BROOKS

TOWN TRIPPIN’

NORTHBOROUGH

If you want to go “where everybody knows your name,” as the “Cheers” song suggests, come to Northborough, a mostly residential community that offers city-like amenities, an excellent location and citizens who look out for each other.

“We retain a small-town feel in many ways,” said Selectmen Chair Jason Perreault. “Tom at Lowe’s Market gets you exactly the right cut of beef. Deb at Hats Off catches you up on the Boston team sports while cutting your hair. Mike the bartender at Romaine’s remembers which wine you drank at your last visit and asks if you’d like it again. At April town meeting, citizens can step up to the microphone and express their views on the town budget and other matters up for consideration. The September Applefest celebration features a weekend of fun, food and fireworks.

The December Tree Lighting event welcomes the holiday season, while also serving as a remembrance of Neil Ellsworth and others who lost their lives in global conflict. All of these, big and small, serve to make Northborough feel like home.”

The town was originally part of Marlborough and then Westborough, before becoming incorporated as its own in 1766. In 1775, it became a full-fledged town when it was allowed the right of representation at the Great and General Court of Boston. Like many other communities, Northborough had roots in farming and still does, while textile manufacturing and other industries developed over the years. Today, that industry is in the form of a research and development industrial park, as well as the new Northborough Crossing, a shopping plaza that opened in 2011 with the state’s first Wegmans store and other major retailers, which “brings a much-needed increase in our commercial tax base to help relieve some of the pressure on residential taxpayers,” Perreault said.

In addition to the increase in industrial and commercial sectors, Northborough has seen a great deal of residential growth over the last three decades, according to Perreault. Tom Lowe, owner, of Lowe’s Variety & Meat Market, said the town’s biggest change has been its transformation from farmland to small neighborhoods to big neighborhoods. And although a “surge of residential building in the ’90s put pressure on the school system, both in terms of budget and physical capacity,” said Perreault, he lauded the town’s setup: four “neighborhood” K-5 elementary schools, the middle school and the regional high school with Southborough.

Northborough has also benefited from a renovation to the public library and construction of a new, larger senior center, and a committee is currently researching options for fire station improvements.

Northborough wouldn’t be Northborough, however, without the people who live there. Lowe said the town has a high volunteer rate, adding, “There are so many groups of people that try to partner with other groups to benefit the community on a regular basis.”

Perreault agrees, noting the youth sports coaches, PTO volunteers, Community Affairs Committee members, Cultural Council and especially the group that organizes the junior prom post-party, held from midnight to 5 a.m. at the New England Sports Center.

“Several of the volunteers no longer have kids in the school system, but they continue to do it, year after year, because they know it’s important, both for the safety of the students and for the parents’ peace of mind,” he said.

Another huge benefit, according to Perreault, is the town’s proximity to major roadways.

“There’s the joke about the Old New Englander who, when asked for directions, thinks for a moment and says, ‘Nope, ya can’t get there from here,’” Perreault said. “For residents of Northborough, ‘here’ is a great place to be, and if you need to be anywhere else for work or play, you can get there from here.”

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POPULATION: 14,846/18.5 SQUARE MILES WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

feature HOT SPOT

During one of the recent heavy snowstorms, Chet’s Diner remained opened until its usual time of 11 a.m., serving up hot coffee and food to the snow plow drivers and regulars who stopped by. But for owner Jessica Fidrych, the daughter of former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, that’s not unusual. Said her mother, Ann Pantazis, “As long as it’s not a state of emergency and she has electricity, she’s open.”

Located at 191 Main St., the diner was built in 1931 on site by the Worcester Lunch Car Co. and was originally owned by Chet Warren, according to Pantazis. Her parents, Jim and Nancy, bought the business in the 1960s from Paul Strazero, and Fidrych, who had been working in the diner since she was 11, took over ownership in 2010.

Chet’s — the longest diner ever built by the Worcester Lunch Car Co., according to Pantazis — sees a mix of ELIZABETH BROOKS

young and old patrons and has become a “multi-generational meeting ground,” she said. “It really is a community gathering place. It’s almost like a ‘Cheers’ of diners. There’s the same group of guys who have been meeting in the morning for years and years. Multiple generations have been coming in. It’s quite something.”

And behind the counter is Fidrych, who “remembers all of her customers and their orders, what special things they prefer,” Pantazis said, adding her daughter is community-focused as well, allowing high school groups and others to hold car washes at the diner.

“My daughter embraced it,” Pantazis said of Fidrych’s chosen career. “She often remarks she was following in my mother’s footsteps. She enjoys people. She has a very energetic personality, an electric personality. People come to the diner to see Jess and have the whole diner experience.”

Number of students: 1,648 Dollar spent per student: $15,978.85 (2016) School budget: $24,395,929 (2015)

THE ISSUE

In any small town, certain expenditures will take a toll on even the most carefullyplanned budget, and health insurance is no exception. In Northborough, health care increases will continue to be what Selectmen Chair Jason Perreault called a “tremendous challenge.”

With the town budget largely consisting of employee wages and benefits, health care cost increases are difficult to absorb without affecting funding of other budget areas, according to Perreault.

“Our town administrator and school superintendent have worked together, very diligently and very effectively, to find ways to reduce or mitigate that cost,” he said.

Giving recognition to the police, fire, teachers and municipal employees unions, Perreault said, “They have worked very constructively with the administration to recognize the difficulty and take the steps needed to keep us on sound financial footing. It’s a prime example of the exceptional level of respect and trust shared among the town administration, the school administration, the employee unions and the town boards and committees.”

SIGNATURE EVENT

Like many small-town fall festivals, Northborough Applefest started when a group of downtown business owners wanted to create an event celebrating their town’s agricultural history. This year, it is celebrating its 28th anniversary and is now a four-day event packed with family fun, entertainment, fireworks, a parade, road race, street fair and, of course, apples.

Always the third weekend in September, this year’s is scheduled for Thursday-Sunday, Sept.

13-16. Applefest attracts a high participation rate from almost all of the town’s nonprofits and numerous local businesses, and the event truly does bring the community together; about 5,000 people attend all weekend long, according to Michelle Gillespie, committee president. All of it is funded strictly through sponsorships, advertisements in the Applefest guide and on banners hung along on Main Street, and donations.

Two of the town’s farms, Tougas and Davidian Brothers, donate apples for the event’s Apple Pie Café, sponsored by the Northborough Junior Women’s Club; a third farm, Berberian’s, also participates in Applefest. During the street fair, volunteers pass out apples to spectators and at the fireworks on Saturday night if any are left.

One of the newer events, Taste of Northborough, showcasing many area restaurants, will return this year. In the past, “It’s been very successful, selling out tickets in less than a week,” according to Gillespie.

Applefest is also a way for the nonprofit organizations to all host their big events all in the same weekend, benefiting from the large attendance rates. The Boy Scouts, for example, always hold their annual pancake breakfast and the Girl Scouts sponsor a family dinner, said Gillespie.

It’s one of the reasons Applefest is so important to the community, she said, adding, “It allows a forum for the community groups to go out there and have their events, raise money and promote their causes, while bringing together the community for a celebration.”

Median age: 43.2 Ethnicity (%): 84 White, 2 Black, 10 Asian, 2 Hispanic, 2 (two-plus) Percent below poverty line: 3.2 Municipal budget: approximately $67M (Fiscal 2018) Median household income: $110,147 Median house value: $379,900 Municipal property tax rate: $17.39 (Fiscal 2018)

M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

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feature ELIZABETH BROOKS

BUSINESS PROFILE

When Tom Lowe, owner of Lowe’s Variety & Meat Market, 255 West Main St., was sick a couple weeks ago, the majority of his customers looked for him the following day and asked how he was feeling. Since 1965, that’s the way it’s been at this store, where there’s always a friendly face and a welcoming atmosphere and everyone knows each other.

For Lowe, who has worked in the business since he was a teenager when his grandparents first owned a variety store in Westborough, being in the industry has been a way of life. And he truly enjoys meeting his customers and making their experience enjoyable.

“Whenever we can, we use first names, and we make it as personal as possible,” Lowe said. “We encourage the interaction to make it friendly.

People like that. And they like to say your name, too.”

Lowe bought the business from his uncle in 1986, and 20 years later, he moved it to a larger location in the Northborough Shopping Center, where it is currently located. The customers have followed; in fact, they even helped him moved to the plaza.

“They put the Heinz Ketchup and the B & M Beans in the back of their cars and moved it, found the tags on the shelves,” Lowe recalled. “That’s the kind of customers I have – dedicated, supportive.”

Lowe said the atmosphere, service and products are why his customers are loyal. The store is known for its meat selection and has a full-service counter, plus a full line of groceries, frozen food and dairy products.

“We’re a throwback to the old days, when you had a little bit of everything in your store,” he said, adding, “We see whole families, mom and dad and the kids. Then the

kids grow up, and they say, ‘Can you deliver to my mom and dad?’ You form these relationships through all the highs and lows of life. It leads to loyalty that I’m so lucky to have.”

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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

TOWN TRIPPIN’

SHREWSBURY

Median age: 40.6 Ethnicity (Percent): 74 White, 4 Black, 17 Asian, 4 Hispanic, 2 (two-plus) Percent below poverty line: 4.5 Municipal budget: $119 million (Fiscal 2018) Highest paid employee: Superintendent of Schools Joseph Sawyer, $200,380 (Fiscal 2017) Median household income: $98,790 Median house value: $385,100 Municipal property tax rate: $12.66 (Fiscal 2018) Number of students: 6,214 Dollar spent per student: $13,372.35 (2016) School budget: $69,098,331.59 (2015)

WITH JUST A CROSS OF THE KENNETH F. BURNS MEMORIAL BRIDGE COMING FROM WORCESTER, YOU’LL FIND YOURSELF IN SHREWSBURY, A FAST-GROWING SUBURB WITH EXCELLENT SCHOOLS, STELLAR COMMUNITY SPIRIT, BUSINESS-FRIENDLY DISTRICTS AND ALL THE AMENITIES OF A SMALL CITY. “Shrewsbury is a community that’s very desirable from a number of different levels,” said Town Manager Kevin J. Mizikar. “It’s vibrant. It has continued significant growth over the past 20 to 30 years. That’s led to it being desirable to live in and have businesses come to.”

First settled in 1722, the town started to be formed in 1664 from grants of land, with the 3,200-acre Haynes Farm as the largest. The earliest residents came from Sudbury and Marlborough and Shrewsbury – named after a town in England – was officially incorporated in 1727.

Through the years, the town saw growth through apple orchards, a leather industry, gunsmithing operations and sawmills.

But unlike neighboring communities of Grafton, Millbury, Westborough or Northborough, Shrewsbury did not become a mill village; its 19th-century growth was because of the town’s proximity to Worcester. In addition, the presence of Lake Quinsigamond made Shrewsbury a destination community for vacationing and recreational activities in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In many ways, Shrewsbury today is still a destination town. The lake is still a big draw, with local rowing programs and championship regattas, as are the shopping centers. White City, once a popular amusement park that was open from 1905-1960, is today a plaza with numerous stores. The location of the famous Spag’s discount department store, opened in 1934 for 70 years, now is the site of a brand-new Whole Foods. And plans are in the works to turn the former Edgemere Drive-In into a mixed-use development that would hopefully have Market Basket as an anchor, according to Mizikar.

“The Edgemere development is something we’re working on in earnest,” said Mizikar.

The “quality of the Shrewsbury public school system” also brings in families to the community, Mizikar said, adding, “We invest a lot in education. We have quality leaders with the school committee, the superintendent, everyone in administration and the teachers. The bar was set high a long time ago.”

Currently in the works is a schematic design phase for a new K-4 elementary school that would replace Beal School, which was built in the early 1900s. And just 18 months ago, an addition was completed to the library that more than doubled the facility’s size.

“Our utilization is up over 50 percent compared with the prior library,” Mizikar said.

The library also runs a Memory Café, based on a nationwide model that provides a gathering place for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caretakers to socialize. It meets on the first and third Fridays, 2-4 p.m., and is funded by a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) With high property values, but a low property tax rate, Shrewsbury continues to be a well-rounded town. Plus, it has its own cable and phone service and electric company.

“We are a full-service municipality as much as our neighboring communities,” Mizikar said.

POPULATION: 36,494/20.7 SQUARE MILES M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

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feature THE ISSUE

Approximately two and a half miles of property along Route 20 in Shrewsbury remains underdeveloped, and that is what officials hope to change in the coming year, as part of its efforts to continue economic growth in the town.

Officials will be proposing at this year’s town meeting a project that would install a sewer system along Route 20, to hook into infrastructure currently being constructed in Worcester’s section of the corridor, according to Town Manager Kevin J. Mizikar. Town funds needed for the Shrewsbury portion of the project would be approximately $6.5 million.

“It’s one of the last commercial sectors that’s not developed to its full potential,” Mizikar said.

Although there are some businesses located on Route 20, “certainly there could be more,” said Mizikar. “We think sewer is a limiting factor in bringing more business to that area.”

If approved, work would hopefully start in the fall and continue through the spring of next year, with the sewer line operational by fall 2019, according to Mizikar.

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SIGNATURE EVENT

Twenty-two years ago, three ladies — Sue Falzoi, Joyce Perreault and Sue DiLeo — got together to plan a homecoming weekend for the Shrewsbury High School Alumni Association, and it unexpectedly grew to become a full-fledged community event that is still running strong to this date. Known as the Spirit of Shrewsbury, the event truly embodies its name, as it captures the pride residents and local organizations have for their community.

Spirit of Shrewsbury has grown to become a month-long event, with various programs scattered throughout September, all leading up the major event scheduled for the last weekend, this year Sept. 29-30. Already a large lineup of activities has been planned, with more in the works.

“Shrewsbury is growing a lot, so we have pockets of different communities. What I’d like is to show how Shrewsbury is embracing different cultures, not only with the food but with the events,” said Frances Carvalho, this year’s event president.

Throughout the month, residents and visitors can attend the Cruzzin’ Dreams Car Show at Hebert Candy Mansion, Celebrate Lake Quinsigamond Day, a pancake breakfast and fishing derby at the Shrewsbury Sportsman’s Club, the 21st annual 5K Road Race and Fun Walk and the Celebrate Shrewsbury Dinner honoring the parade’s grand marshal, this year Laurie I. Hogan.

Sept. 29-30 brings the annual town expo, craft fair, food court, Taste of Shrewsbury with international cuisine, parade, family entertainment, children’s games, demonstrations, a petting zoo and the Senior Tribute Tea, a unique event that honors and celebrates Shrewsbury’s elderly residents.

All in all, the event showcases a “community that really cares about its own city,” said Carvalho, adding, “The community is so involved. Everyone is so amazing, how much they put in to make it happen.”

Carvalho would also like to see more nonprofit organizations participate and to use the event as a way to advertise their groups and services.

“I want to use Spirit of Shrewsbury as a platform for change to help more and get more people involved,” she said. “Shrewsbury has all the potential to be example for that in this area.”

M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

feature BUSINESS PROFILE

You may not realize it from looking at the outside of the building, but inside the 450,000-squarefoot facility at 334 South St., the employees at Charles River Labs are working on life-saving treatments. There, the company works with pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the early stages of drug development.

Although Charles River doesn’t disclose which drugs it has helped develop, it is one of the largest early-stage contract research organizations existing today, according to Michael Broadhurst, senior site director for Charles River Massachusetts-Shrewsbury.

“Last year in 2017, around 80 percent of all drugs approved by the FDA were worked on by Charles River,” Broadhurst said.

Named after the Charles River in Boston and founded in 1947, the company has headquarters in Wilmington with worldwide offices. The Shrewsbury facility is one of only four in Massachusetts and focuses on Safety Assessment and Discovery divisions in the pre-drug stages. In the Safety Assessment facility, more than 120 investigational new drug (IND) programs are conducted every year, while the discovery division has delivered more than 320 patents and 75-plus preclinical drug candidates to sponsors during the past 17 years.

One of the reasons the company chose to have a facility in Shrewsbury is because of its proximity to the Massachusetts headquarters. That has benefits for the town, as well. Charles River employs roughly 200 employees in Shrewsbury, according to Broadhurst.

“Most employees live within the Shrewsbury or greater Worcester area, myself included,” he said.

Added Town Manager Kevin J. Mizikar, “That’s a business that I think most towns want to have.”

Broadhurst noted the company is on a rapid growth track for hiring higher-level job positions over the next several years, with plans to more than double the number of employees locally.

“We’ll continue to recruit in this area,” he said.

HOT SPOT

With so many stores and restaurants, the “hot spot” in Shrewsbury is not just one place in town, but rather a whole section: the Lakeway Business District spans from the Kenneth F. Burns Memorial Bridge just over the crossing from Worcester, and extending down Route 9 to where it meets Maple Avenue. With White City Plaza, Quinsigamond Plaza, the Thomas Auto Parts plaza and the brand-new Lakeway Commons, residents and visitors have their pick for places to eat and shop and for service-related needs.

“The whole area is being revitalized with new businesses and restaurants popping up,” said Jay Thomas, president of the Lakeway Business District Association, which is responsible for maintaining and beautifying the area. He and his father and brother own Thomas Auto Parts, one of the many stores in the association.

ELIZABETH BROOKS Over the last 10 years, according to Thomas, the entire district has received a facelift, beginning with a state roadway project that reconstructed Lake Bridge, improved sidewalks and landscaped the area.

After completion of the roadway project, the Lakeway Business District Association formed to ensure the area would stay continually landscaped. Many of the stores and businesses belong to the association, and it is through those memberships and sponsorships funds that the area is continually landscaped.

As a result of the overall revitalization project, Thomas said, the area is friendlier for walking and store-hopping. There’s no need to get in and out of the car to drive to multiple destinations – everything is centrally located in the Lakeway Business District Area.

“The center of town is the center of town, but we are the downtown area of Shrewsbury. We are the hub of town,” said Thomas. “There are no big plazas in the center of Shrewsbury.”

OLDEST RESIDENT

At 103, ROSE RICCHUTI doesn’t drive anymore, but when she did, she loved to cruise the road. And she loved cars – so much that so that, throughout the years, she owned 23 Cadillacs and two Mercedes, among others.

“When I was 7 years old, she took me Zottoli Chevrolet in Holden,” recalled Dennis Bronzo, Ricchuti’s nephew and caretaker. “We came home in a brand-new ’55 Chevrolet. It was a beautiful – a two-door coupe, canary yellow and white. She got the hot-rod model.”

Shrewsbury’s oldest resident, Ricchuti was the third youngest child in her family and is the last one surviving. Her mother had 17 births, but only nine lived into adult years; many died in childbirth or at young ages. Even so, “They had so many kids that they had to take shifts eating,” Bronzo said.

Ricchuti was born July 27, 1914, in Boston. When she was a young girl, her father, who worked for the railroad, received a promotion, but it required the family to move to Worcester. For years, they lived on Marshall Street, off Shrewsbury Street, and she continued to live in the city when she married her husband, Gerald.

They didn’t have any children, and after Gerald passed away she never remarried. But, Bronzo said, “She took me everywhere when I was a kid. She lived two houses down. I slept over there every weekend. I’ve been blessed to have a second mother.”

Ricchuti went to Becker Junior College and worked as head secretary for Worcester Chrome Furniture Independent Plating, which was owned by her two brothers, Frank and Mike. She retired when she was 70, and the family sold the company in the 1980s. She was a longtime member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and loved spending winters in Florida, oftentimes driving herself there and back; Bronzo eventually took over transportation, as his aunt continued to travel South well into her 90s.

In 1991, Ricchuti moved to Southgate at Shrewsbury, a retirement community. “They all love her there. They all call her Aunt Rose. They’ve been very good to her,” Bronzo said, adding, “She’s had a wonderful, wonderful life. She’s been very lucky to do the things she’s been able to do.”

(Editor’s Note: Rose Riccuti died earlier this week as this issue was going to press. Worcester Magazine expresses our sincere condolences. Services will be handled

by Mercadante Funeral Home.)

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ELIZABETH BROOKS

TOWN TRIPPIN’

WESTBOROUGH

In 1717, Westborough was incorporated as the 100th town in Massachusetts, and at the time had only 27 families. Today, some 300 years later, having celebrated the milestone anniversary last year, the town is nearly 20,000 people who have remained dedicated and loyal to Westborough through the times.

“A lot of people who grow up here stay here, or they come back,” said Town Manager Jim Malloy. “It’s a really great family community.” And because so many of those families stay in town, “It really shows a lot of values as to the type of community it is, the feel of the community.”

The reasons are many for such a large following to the community – among them, its location. Even before Westborough first formed, location was always a positive factor. Nipmuc Indians, from 1200 to 1600 AD, hunted and fished near Cedar Swamp and Lake Hoccomocco, using trails in the area. Many years later, in 1633, English explorer John Oldham used those same trails, and he was followed by settlers searching for usable farmland.

Although Westborough began as mainly a farming community, the steam train came in 1824 and, with it, new industry such as boots and shoes, straw hats, sleighs and bicycles, textiles and abrasive products.

“Even 30 years ago there were still a lot of farms, but now there’s only a few,” Malloy said.

Much like the train helped the community evolve years ago, the town’s location – with access to the Mass Pike, 495 and Route 9, plus an MBTA commuter rail station – has helped shape Westborough today.

“It’s a nice community. It has a lot of advantages with location and the way it’s laid out,” Malloy said, noting the business section is close to Route 9, while the residential areas are still quiet.

That business community, said Malloy, is “very strong,” with the RK Speedway Plaza, anchored by Stop & Shop, Burlington Coat Factory and Sky Zone Sports, on Route 9, as well as the mixed-use Bay State Commons, once the site of Bay State Abrasives and now home to Roche Bros., as well as restaurants, retail shops and healthcare. Malloy also notes BJ’s Wholesale Club has its headquarters in Westborough, and the Astrellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine is planning an $80 million renovation of an office building in Technology Park. In addition, eClinical Works, a cloud-based electronic health records company used by more than 80,000 medical facilities, employs 1,300 people at its Westborough offices.

With all these businesses in town, thousands more people come into Westborough every day for work,” said Malloy, adding, “It really changes the dynamic of the community.”

But it also provides a nice tax boost for the town – 38 percent of the taxable value is commercial/industrial, according to Malloy.

Westborough’s most famous resident is Eli Whitney Jr., who was born in 1765 and who invented the cotton gin 30 years later after graduating from Yale.

POPULATION: 18,706/20.6 SQUARE MILES 18

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feature

PHOTO SUBMITTED

HOT SPOT

Median age: 40.1 Ethnicity (%): 69 White, 1 Black, 24 Asian, 4 Hispanic, 2 (two-plus) Percent below poverty line: 4.7 Municipal budget: approximately $13 million (Fiscal 2019) Highest paid employee: Superintendent of Schools Amber Bock, approximately $170,000 Median household income: $106,915 Median house value: $432,000 Municipal property tax rate: $18.46 (Fiscal 2018)

Brandon Heisler had been home-brewing for about 10 years when, one night at a Newton bar, he met Will Oliveria, who was asking for a rare beer that wasn’t on tap. Heisler made a recommendation, the two started talking, and today, the two are partners of the popular Cold Harbor Brewing in Westborough.

Named after the Cold Harbor Brook in Northborough and open a little more than two years, the family-friendly brewery specializes in crafting “balanced, honest beers,” said Heisler, who is the brewer partner in the business (Oliveria is the managing partner). They started with a small, five-barrel brew system and now brew 30 barrels a week – four times more than when the business first opened. On tap are rotating selections of Cold Harbor’s IPAs in full pints, as well as fights of four 4-ounce samples for only $8.

“We try to keep the prices as low as possible,” Heisler said. “I like to make beer more affordable because it’s supposed to be for everybody.”

For those who want to enjoy their beer at home, 64- and 32-ounce brews are available to take home, and Cold Harbor plans to can a new beer every month starting in May. The Indian Summer IPA is a crowd favorite, and the Moustache coffee oatmeal stout – a partnership with Armeno’s Coffee Roasters using its 250th Anniversary Blend – won a gold medal at the 2017 Great International Beer, Cider, Mead & Sake Competition.

Upcoming brews include an English cask series, a process that allows the beer to carbonate itself in a closed small keg so that it re-ferments itself, and Heisler has made a few samples with blackberries, pomegranates and even Earl gray tea, making for some unique flavors. Also planned for a spring release is a German Kolsch made with Maine malt and hops from Four Star Farms in Northfield. In fact, whenever possible, Cold Harbor tries to partner with area businesses, including Davidian Bros. Farm in Northborough, Lettuce Be Local in Sterling and Valley Malt in Hadley.

“Our slogan is ‘drink fresh ale.’ That’s our philosophy behind it,” said Heisler. “We’re going to stand behind everything we do.”

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feature BUSINESS PROFILE

and is one of the largest landlords in Massachusetts.

One of the reasons the company was attracted to WestborThe largest commercial landowner in town, Carruth Capital, ough was its single tax rate, “which means taxpayers are treated is a real estate firm owning more than 3.5 million square feet of fairly,” said Christopher F. Egan, president and founding space and leasing to approximately 220 tenants – with 100-plus member of Carruth Capital. “This helps attract good jobs and of those tenants located right in Westborough. businesses to town and helps the existing businesses grow.”

Carruth bought the four-building Westborough Office Park In addition, Egan noted, town leaders have been open to (1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000 West Park Drive) last fall for $40.7 new ideas on changing zoning and bringing new companies to million. With 384,000 square feet, this Class A office park has Westborough.

“We have collaborated with the town’s Zoning Board, selectmen and Planning Board many times over the last 20 years to update the town’s zoning as we work to compete with other towns in attracting businesses,” Egan said.

Carruth Capital supports the town in other ways as well, by contributing to a number of local charities and 2400 Computer Drive, Westborough, one of the Carruth Capital properties participating in the Chamber of Com46 acres of land and is 90-percent occupied, including BNY merce and I-495 Initiative. Carruth is also collaborating with Mellon, which occupies more than 300,000 square feet. The town’s police and school departments also have space owned by the town on installing a bicycle trail that will run from Southborough to downtown Westborough, according to Egan.

Carruth while their facilities are being renovated.

“We are proud to be a local family-run commercial real estate Carruth also has a building at 20 Friberg Parkway in Westcompany,” said Egan. “We know our tenants, our neighbors and borough, as well as numerous locations throughout the state our community.”

THE ISSUE

One issue facing the town currently is finalizing the sale of the former Westborough State Hospital property to Pulte Homes, according to Town Manager Jim Malloy. The Atlanta-based company plans to build a 700-unit senior living development on about 38 acres that, for the first time ever, will be privately owned.

Along with that, said Malloy, is establishing a capital stabilization fund that will be generated as a result of this private ownership.

“The property taxes estimated to be generated are between $5-$6 million and will provide a long-term funding source for future capital projects,” he said.

Although “a lot of pieces still need to come together to ensure this happens,” according to Malloy, the project “will positively impact the community for decades.”

Originally known as the Westborough Insane Hospital, the Westborough State Hospital opened Dec. 1, 1886, with the main campus located between Lyman Street and Chauncy Lake. The property was initially the site of the State Reform School for Boys, and after it closed in 1884, the buildings were renovated for the needs of Westborough State Hospital. Listed on the National Register of Historical Places, the hospital operated until 2010, when it closed due to the 2012 opening of the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital.

In July 2014, the town purchased 95 acres of Westborough State Hospital property from the state. A State Hospital Reuse Committee was formed, and in 2016 selectmen awarded the bid to Atlanta-based Pulte Homes.

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SIGNATURE EVENT

In Westborough, kids have an extra reason to look forward to summer vacation – they know shortly after the last day of school is the Fourth of July Block Party. Hosted by Westborough Recreation, it is always held the Friday before the holiday and is geared toward the town’s younger generation, says Stephen Croft, administration assistant for the department.

The block party has been running for more than two decades.

“I remember going to it as a kid,” Croft said. “I grew up in Westborough.”

A section of Main Street is blocked off for the event, which usually starts about 4:30 p.m. and runs several hours. A band sets up in front of the town hall, and sometimes a DJ follows. Attractions include horse and carriage rides, sand art and facing painting, while participating nonprofit groups and vendors set up tables.

According to Croft, the block party usually attracts about 500 people, mostly residents, throughout the event’s duration.

“The street’s pretty busy,” he said.

Number of students: 3,926 Dollar spent per student: $15,554.65 (2016) School budget: $49,232,869.30 (2015)

William Shatner: No heads in their phones when I’m in Worcester 28 New Brews at Brew Woo: Brew Woo is expected to draw 5,000 attendees to the DCU Center on Saturday, March 31. The festival falls on the same week of the release of two new brews from Wachusett Brewing Company. 27

culture

Riveras ready to make history in boxing ring: Father and son Jose Antonio and A.J. Rivera are poised to step in the ring together as fighters for the first time in August. 32

Rocco’s Doughnut Company opened this month at 238 Millbury Ave. in Millbury.

SARAH CONNELL

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culture DAUGHTRYOFFICIAL.COM

Far removed from ‘Idol,’ Daughtry ready to play Worcester WALTER BIRD JR.

C

hris Daughtry isn’t much of a snow guy, but on the latest tour with his band, he has seen plenty of it. When he was reached by phone recently, he was eager to know whether folks in Worcester, where the band plays at Hanover Theatre Saturday night, were knee-deep in the white stuff. He was told that no, despite dire predictions, none had started falling yet.

“We’re stuck in like a foot of snow,” said Daughtry, who was in Lancaster, Pa. for a gig that night.

The 38-year-old North Carolina native, like most kids, loved snow days when he was in school. Nowadays, not so much. With any luck, March in Worcester will end without snow, but then again, who knows?

“This year’s been a weird winter,” Daughtry acknowledged.

The 2006 “American Idol” contestant grew up in a small town in North Carolina, the kind with one stoplight and one gas station. He grew up around music - both his father and grandfather played - but it didn’t click with Daughtry until his junior year of high school.

“A buddy of mine brought his guitar to school and started playing Soundgarden or something,

WHAT: Daughtry WHERE: Hanover Theatre WHEN: Saturday, March 31, 8 p.m.

TICKETS: $45, $55

which was totally up my alley,” Daughtry said. “I’d always sing along to the radio and mimic stuff pretty decent, but I thought everybody could do that. I was singing with him one day, jamming, and he stopped me and said, ‘Dude, are you serious? How can you not be doing this? You need to be doing this.’ I was like, ‘Nah, it’s not my thing.’

He kept pursuing it, showed me a few chords. I took it from there and fell in love with it. Looking

back, [music] was kind of always around. It was almost inevitable.”

Still, it would have been nearly impossible to predict Daughtry’s meteoric rise to stardom.

While he played with a band in high school, at best they might draw 50-100 fans, he said. Then came “American Idol” in 2006. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I remember seeing the previews for that sea-

son, and I was still at home working my day job,” Daughtry said of his appearance on the show’s fifth season.

Auditions for that season had been done well in advance. Participants were waiting for the call to start shooting the show.

“I remember hearing me in the background,”

LIVE & LOCAL Jim Polito 22

5-9 am

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Jordan Levy 3-6 pm

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culture BAUMANN MANFRED

William Shatner: No heads in their phones when I’m in Worcester WALTER BIRD JR.

J

ust before speaking with William Shatner over the phone on The Worcester Magazine Radio Hour on Unity Radio earlier this week, I relayed the story of a weekend visit to Elm Park. We had not been there long when my girlfriend stopped and told me to look around at all the people walking through the park. Eerily enough, almost every single one of them had their head down, looking at the cell phone in their hands. It was, she noted, almost like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

When Shatner, who had been on hold briefly, was brought on the line, he didn’t miss a beat.

“Talking about people’s heads buried in their phones and not coming up to look at the life and world around them,” he said, “I do agree, and the one place you will not find that happening is in the Hanover Theatre on April 3. Their phones will be down, their chins will be up and eyes staring forward and mouth agape with wonder. Tell your girlfriend to have hope civilization’s is still there at Hanover Theatre.”

Shatner, who turned 87 March 22 and whose career spans several decades, including his role as James T. Kirk in “Star Trek” TV shows and movies, visits Hanover Tuesday, April 3 for a screening of “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan,” followed by a Q&A with the actor.

Shatner will be waiting backstage while the movie plays, and he admits he only recently just watched it from start to finish.

“I decided I better see it before I go in front of all these people who had just seen it,” he said of the first audience screening he did Saturday, March 24 in Milwaukee, Wisc. “I had never seen the movie in its entirety until several days before I was planning on doing a half dozen cities with this film.”

Asked whether he liked it, Shatner replied, “Yeah, it’s pretty good. It’s very entertaining and it’s very moving.”

Shatner said he feels good at his age.

“Imagine how shocked I was when I learned I was 87. That’s a long time,” he said. “I don’t know how that happened. I’m confused as to how much time has passed. The numbers ‘87’ are just as foreign to me as they are to you.”

As for the secret of his longevity, Shatner reference his upcoming book, “Live Long And …,” a reference to the iconic phrase uttered by his “Star Trek” colleague Leonard Nimoy in the role of Spock.

“In the book I say just keep moving,” Shatner said. “... All I can tell you is what I’ve done, and if it works for you, great, grab hold of it. Just keep moving. Keep saying yes. Get out of your house and breath. Get out of bed, mostly, and face the day with a positive spin, and something good will happen.”

The book is slated for a late-summer or earlyfall release, Shatner said.

While it has been reported he initially shunned the “Star Trek” phenomenon, Shatner dismissed those suggestions.

“I hope you’re not believing I’ve ever resented it. On the contrary,” Shatner said. “I realized from the moment it happened that ‘Star Trek’ … was a springboard for what they call celebrity. And from that celebrity has emerged all these things, including the evening with you in Worcester. It’s the springboard, it’s the genesis, it’s the engine.

“Against resenting it, I’m so lucky. I feel such awe in terms of the luck that I’ve had to be able to play that role, to have been lucky enough to have been in front of the American audience as much I have, to be able to bring people to the theater and say, ‘Look, here I am. You watched me all these years. Here I am and I’m as good as I’ve ever been. And it’s true. Physically, mentally, I don’t feel anything detrimental.”

The Canadian-born Shatner, who resides in California, honed his pronunciation of “Worcester” during the interview and joked he may even wear his Red Sox jacket. He turned serious when asked what he was most proud of professionally.

“Well, the answer I’m going to give, you may say, ‘Oh, it’s a Hollywood answer,’ but it won’t be and I’ll tell you why,” he said. “The thing I’m most proud of is the thing I’m doing at the moment.

And the thing I’m doing at the moment is coming to your theater. Take the first time I did it Saturday night. I was asked the same question.

Everything I’ve done, all the stories I’ve told, the energy I’ve been able to summon, the luck of good health, the luck of having a good mind still, is all there for that evening.

“The thing I’m most proud of is being able to make people laugh for an hour-and-a-half not knowing what was going to be coming out of my mouth. And I’ll be doing that in Worcester. I will be at the peak of my performances. I will be most proud if I can perform to the audience’s satisfaction. That will make me as proud as anything I’ve ever done.”

WHAT: William Shatner Live with “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” WHEN: Tuesday, April 3, 7 p.m.

WHERE: Hanover Theatre, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester TICKETS: $52, $62 ($250 VIP package)

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culture Jim Porcella’s love letter to the American Songbook JIM PERRY

DA U G H T RY

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 22

Daughtry said of the commercials that aired on TV. “I’d see it on TV and it was like the most surreal thing ever that they used me in the previews for that season. The whole house was just like elated. It was a very crazy, crazy time.

“I think it was even crazier for my kids. All of a sudden, people at their school were wearing teeshirts with my face on it. That’s got to be super weird for kids … seeing people walking around with their dad on a shirt. I don’t know if they were as stoked about it as I was. Obviously, I’m super grateful for it.”

With a singing style more like a growl than a natural delivery, Daughtry became an instant hit on “Idol.” As the weeks went by, it appeared he would easily win that year’s crown. Performances like his take on Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line,”

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which was itself based on a version by the band Live, showcased his natural ability as a rocker and showman. Songs like Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive,” which Daughtry performed, could easily have been his own.

He made it to the final four and, on May 10, found himself in the bottom two with Katharine McPhee. When host Ryan Seacrest announced he had been eliminated, Daughtry appeared noticeably stunned. Indeed, even host Simon Cowell had said McPhee should be eliminated.

“I definitely wasn’t prepared for it,” Daughtry said of that fateful night. One of his housemates that season, Taylor Hicks, was the eventual winner. “I almost had some eerie feeling that was going to happen, but at the same time I felt like that was a week I thought I did particularly well on with the Elvis stuff. I think that was more of a shocker to me … It was a weird feeling for sure.”

It was not, however, the end of the line for Daughtry. He was asked to audition for lead M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

J

im Porcella never intended to record again. After releasing a CD in 2001 with his swing band, Bombay Jim and the The Swingin’ Sapphires, he thought that part of his career was done. But recent circumstances presented themselves to the lucky jazz singer, and the end result is the newly-released “Dream Dancing With You,” a fine collection of American Songbook classics.

Porcella is doing a series of shows regionally to promote the recording, including a concert at Worcester’s Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St., Wednesday, April 4 at noon. Part of the Brown Bag Concerts series, the show is free.

The opportunity to record again presented itself to Porcella through a relationship that developed between him and Mike Renzi.

“It’s funny,” Porcella said. “I was kind of done with it, you know, but then I met Mike.”

Porcella was familiar with Renzi’s work as a pianist/composer/arranger with such luminaries as Mel Torme, Tony Bennett, Peggy Lee and others.

“He was kind of one of my idols,” Porcella said of Renzi. “I’ve got probably 20 records with him on it.”

Renzi bought a house in the Newport area, and the two became fast friends.

“We started hanging out, going out to dinner, having some martinis,” Porcella said with a laugh.

Eventually, it was Renzi who brought up the idea of doing an album together.

“I was like ‘Oh, my God,’” Porcella said. “I didn’t know where the money was coming from, but I said I’d love to.”

Renzi recruited musicians to round out the group, and they began recording in both Newport and New York City. The players - Buddy Williams on drums, the late Bob Cranshaw on bass and Harry Allen on saxophone - are of the highest pedigree, having worked with everyone from Dexter Gordon and Coleman Hawkins to Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder.

The CD is a traditional collection; there is not even a whisper of an attempt at anything new.

Porcella and the musicians are content with letting the songs do the talking, and their take on them is decidedly old school. In this case, it works beautifully.

The songs are classics from Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart and more. In short, it’s a love letter to the American Songbook.

Porcella’s voice floats over the music with a velvety, comfortable tone, not unlike the person he has been compared to, Mel Torme. His interplay with Renzi on the ballads is so seamless they come across as one. And the recording quality is clean and crisp.

Porcella, 70, started out behind a drum kit.

He actually had no intentions of being a singer, but was backed into it while he was in a trio. The owner of the club basically said all of the members of the group needed to sing, or else, Porcella recalled.

“If I didn’t sing, I was basically fired and they would get someone else,” he said.

A Berklee graduate, Porcella found it was easy to get gigs as a singing drummer. For 30 of the 50 years he has been a working musician, that’s basically what he did. But he is happy he moved to the front of the stage.

“I can take more freedom in my singing, you know, it’s something I have much more of a passion for,” he said.

Porcella’s CD release party will feature Renzi on piano, Gary Johnson on drums, Arnie Krokowski on saxophone and Dave Zinnow on bass.

Porcella considers himself a lucky man. The recording project, he said, was like a “bucket list” item successfully completed.

“I pinch myself when I think about the great people on this record, and the wonderful memories I have of going to New York and recording it,” he said. “It was really just unbelievable.”

Porcella speaks with pride of being able to present this collection to the public.

“It’s a little piece of myself,” he said.

vocalist of the band Fuel, but decided to form his own band. It turned out to be a good choice. The band’s self-titled debut was a smashing success, with songs such as “It’s Not Over” helping the album reach number one on the Billboard charts.

Starting in season six, his song, “Home,” became the send-off song for “Idol” contestants who were booted off the show.

Daughtry and his band have released three more studio albums since their debut, including 2009’s “Leave This Town,” 2011’s “Break the Spell” and 2013’s “Baptized” as well as a greatest hits CD in 2016. A fifth album is in the offing, with Daughtry aiming for an early-summer release this year.

It will mark roughly five years since the band’s last studio effort.

“I don’t think it was intended to take this long,” Daughtry said. “I think a lot of things just kind of worked out that way. I moved a few times. The greatest hits happened, then a tour happened.

Anytime a tour comes up, it takes away from the creative thing. It takes a while to get back into that groove.”

It was, Daughtry said, one thing after another, but in the end it was worth it.

“I think in that time it took to make it, I think it was necessary in order for us to find the direction and sound we were going for,” he said. “I think, certainly, we’ve evolved. It’s probably the most mature record we’ve ever done. I can’t wait for everybody to hear it.”

And while the new CD has not been released yet, he said, the band will perform some of the new songs in Worcester.

Daughtry, whose in-laws are from Boston, looks forward to returning to the area.

“The fans respond,” he said. “In Worcester or any of the surrounding areas, they have always been super welcoming. We love our Massachusetts crowd for sure.”

culture

Artist spotlight

Artist Amy Klausmeyer grew up outside of Boston, but calls Worcester home. Klausmeyer creates collages and mixed media assemblages with paper, using ephemera, monotype, altered images and handmade papers. The artist is intrigued by the juxtaposition of vintage images with modern techniques. She strives to create finished pieces utilizing multiple materials. Her work aims to provoke a reaction and understanding that is personal to each viewer. You can find more of Klausmeyer’s work online at Moonlightconfetti.wordpress.com and in-person at ArtsWorcester’s Aurora Gallery for the “After a Fashion” members exhibition through April 20.

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culture

Thousands of people came out to Worcester City Hall Saturday afternoon for a March For Our Lives demonstration for gun reform. The student-led march stretched for blocks down Main Street as students like Papee Paye and Denezia Fahie (top right) led chants like "This is what democracy looks like." The roughly 20 student organizers (bottom left) led and organized the march, as well as doing all the speaking at the rally.

PHOTOS/ELIZABETH BROOKS

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culture Lifestyle SARAH CONNELL

Glazed and Confused

You can count on Rocco’s Doughnut Company in Millbury to bring your wildest doughnut dreams to life. Lines have stretched out the door of this boutique doughnut shop at 238 Millbury Ave. every business day since their grand open-

Figs and Pigs’ kitchen, Bella learned to prepare quinoa, pizza and brussel sprouts for her friends and family. She aspires to open her own healthy restaurant in the city of Worcester someday.

BBQ Brotherhood

Chef Rick Araujo of Civic Kitchen & Drink teamed up with B.T.’s Smokehouse Director of Operations William Nemeroff last week for an unprecedented beer and brisket spree topped off with healthy pours from Wormtown.

Guests indulged in Nemeroff ’s double-smoked pork jowl paired with Wormtown’s African Queen Be Hoppy IPA. The use of African Queen hops offers unique notes of earth, honey, and tea, unmasked by the little plum rumtopfs prepared for the dish by Araujo. It is rare to witness such seamless collaboration in both cuisine and presentation among accomplished chefs.

Araujo and Nemeroff practically finished each other’s ...

The Fruity Pebbles doughnut, pictured with Rocco Astrella, for whom Rocco’s Doughnut Company in Millbury was named.

New Brews at Brew Woo

Brew Woo is expected to draw 5,000 attendees to the DCU SARAH CONNELL Center on Saturday, March 31.

The 80 breweries include 21st Amendment, 3Cross, Ballast ing on March 3. Most mornings, they sell out Point, Element, Devil’s Purse, Flying Dreams, of all 1,300 doughnuts before 10 a.m. Rocco’s Firestone, Founders, Jack’s Abby, Lord Hobo, is a family business in every sense of the term, Stone Cow, Two Roads, Victory, Wachusett named for the patriarch of the Astrella family and Wormtown. An afternoon session will run

who is remembered as a legendary baker. Rocco’s son Joseph and his wife Elaine were encouraged by their children to revive the Astrella family legacy with the launch of the new shop, an idea that developed casually last year. Their daughter Kerri has taken great inspiration from the building’s former tenant, Renee King of The Queen’s Cups, in her successful use of social media marketing. Joseph praises his daughter’s technical savvy, saying proudly, “I haven’t had to spend a dollar on advertising.” Word travels fast when doughnuts look as magnificent as Rocco’s.

Bella Vita

For the second year in a row, Chef Candy Murphy of Figs and Pigs has opened her kitchen to the Ascentria Care Alliance Unaccompanied Refugee Minors, free of charge. Murphy is teaching cooking classes to refugees, asylees, and trafficked young people. The workshops address more than just culinary preparation, touching on practical food shopping as well as healthy lifestyle choices. One young woman, Bella, has taken to Murphy in particular and plans to stage at Figs and Pigs following her graduation from Burncoat High School in the spring. As part of the most recent cohort to pass through

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from 1-4 p.m., followed by an evening session from 6-9 p.m. The festival falls on the same week of the release of two new brews from Wachusett Brewing Company. A tropical IPA, Mass Soul, and a session IPA, Wally Junior, will both be added to the company’s year-round portfolio.

A Sip of Service

Keeper of the Quaich and Julio’s Liquors owner Ryan Maloney raised $10,000 this year for Shriners Hospital for Children. Recog-

nition of Maloney’s efforts took place at the store’s weekly “Whisk(e) y Wednesday” meeting.

“When a great charitable cause is combined with a shared passion, it becomes more meaningful,” said Maloney. The next Whiskey Wednesday will showcase some of Maloney’s favorite selections in honor of his birthday at 7 p.m. on April 4.

Sarah Connell contributing writer

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Invitation

dence. What sets The People’s Kitchen apart from its adjacent iterations is its team’s ritual etiquette.

You can order three courses for just $42, or make your way through the menu at your own pace. I suggest starting with the sauteed mussels ($10) served in a deep bowl of fortuitous coconut

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ach time I eat at one of Niche Hospitality’s establishments, I find myself searching for a common thread. Aesthetic and culinary The sautéed mussels are served in a deep similarities can easily be traced across the restaurant group which includes, at bowl of coconut curry and topped with present, a Mexican cantina, a Spanish carrots, apples and fresh cilantro. tapas spot, a sports bar, an American SANDRA RAIN tavern, a sprawling burger joint, a pizza shop and a small cafe. The growing curry and topped with carrots, apples, and fresh number of concepts makes it easy to find comfort cilantro. The menu suggests that you pair the in familiar fonts and fixtures aligned with Niche’s mussels with a glass of Babylon’s Peak Chenin distinct brand identity.

Blanc, likely for its rounded pome palate. The Most perplexing of the group’s closely-situated People’s Kitchen’s artisan cheese selection also Worcester eateries is a trio bound together by 1 includes a few of my favorites, including Boston Exchange Place. This particular Niche complex Post Dairy’s Gisele ($8) washed in spiced apple includes three concepts that share a kitchen and cider, and Jasper Hill Farm’s fudgy Bayley Hazen offer very few menu variations, despite the fact Blue ($8). that they go by separate names. The Citizen is The oven roasted pork tenderloin ($25) is Niche’s shadowy wine bar located at street level. downright handsome, set in a mustard glaze and Across the atrium is Still & Stir, a cocktail bar hid- rubbed with fresh herbs. Roasted radishes and den within the holding cell of what was formerly whole baby carrots sit on a healthy bed of brasWorcester’s municipal building. And, upstairs, sicas. For a $10 upcharge on the prix fixe, you can you’ll find The People’s Kitchen. secure a 14-ounce t-bone served with bearnaise The staff will say there’s an ambience for butter that offers the bittersweet edge of tarragon every customer at 1 Exchange Place, but I will and pairs perfectly with the licorice notes in say having three distinct names proves a regular a grippy glass of Stickybeak Cabernet ($13.) A source of confusion. Nevertheless, this conglomsampling of Callebaut Belgian chocolates ($9) is erate is irrefutably successful in its embrace of always a fine finish if you’re planning to indulge in consistency. If you deeply enjoy at least one Niche a nightcap. But I prefer the smoked vanilla panna restaurant, you will probably care for them all in cotta ($9) for its bright blueberry compote with a one respect or another. touch of salted caramel.

For the purpose of this analysis, I have honed Among the Niche Hospitality syndicate, The my focus on The People’s Kitchen. The People’s People’s Kitchen stands out for its gallant formalKitchen is deemed the “formal dining room” ity. This eatery feels more buttoned up than its dedicated to dry-aged steaks and other wholebrethren, with all of the recognizable traits of the some entrees. Its location above a cigar bar can rest of the restaurant group. You would be hard be problematic, given the potent odor of smoke. pressed to find someone who dines out regularly The staff goes to great measures to neutralize the in Worcester and has not visited The Citizen, scent, but everytime the air moves any which but I am always surprised to hear regulars reveal way, you’re bound to get a good whiff. The winthey have never ventured upstairs to The People’s dows possess a certain foggy sheen in evidence of Kitchen. If you’re a Niche believer, I propose it’s the activity below and the smoke seems to cling worth the climb. to crevices in the drop ceiling tiles. The aroma On our last visit to the People’s Kitchen the bill begs machismo, as does the framed photos of for two came to $96.30. steaks with selective colorization to emphasize every rare crimson center. Butcher paper adorns Food: HHHH the tables, laid upon white linens, goding guests Service: HHHH to order the butcher’s cut.

Ambience: HHH Service is outstanding. The swift and courteous staff is emboldened to make recommendaValue: HHH1/2 tions and facilitate wine pairings with confi-

culture Post-Oscar blues not uncommon JIM KEOGH

I

15 years after he did his funniest stuff.” And so it came to pass one of the greatest actors of his generation — Michael Corleone himself — wound up in the Sandler-plays-twins farce “Jack and Jill.”

Another tough-guy Oscar winner, Robert De Niro, is also less than impervious to poor choices.

The man who gave us Travis Bickle (“Taxi Driver”), Jake La Motta (“Raging Bull”) and young Vito Corleone (“The Godfather: Part II”) was also a cog in the machinery of such modern-day classics as “Last Vegas,” “Little Fockers” and “Dirty Grandpa.”

Money troubles apparently drove Nicholas Cage, who took home the 1995 Best Actor Oscar for his performance as the alcoholic screenwriter

t’s easy to assume that winning an Academy Award confers magical powers on an actor, particularly the ability to choose only the finest roles in the best movies as they move forward in their career.

So why is Alicia Vikander wrestling with Walter Goggins in a haunted cave in the cheesy action picture “Tomb Raider?”

Only three years ago, Vikander was walking home with the Best Supporting Actress statuette for her delicate performance as the supportive wife of a transgender pioneer in “The Danish Girl.” Her path since then has included historical dramas (“The Light Between Oceans,” “Tulip Fever”), thrillers (“Jason Bourne,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”), and a couple of movies nobody’s seen (“Submergence,” “Euphoria”).

Clearly, the Oscar does not Nicholas Cage in “The Humanirty Bureau.” guarantee every project will be a winner. I’m speculating here, but when the “Tomb Raider” filmmakers asked in “Leaving Las Vegas,” to accept any role that her to take on the role of adventurer Lara Croft, staved off bankruptcy. In recent years, the actor several thoughts may have coursed through has treated us to such divine eccentricities as Vikander’s head: “Vengeance: A Love Story,” “Pay the Ghost” and • This could be fun.

“The Humanity Bureau.” I could name more, I’m • The money is good. already dying a bit inside. I used to be a big Cage • I might be launching a franchise. fan, so it feels tawdry to watch him starring in So why not? There’s no shame in making a popcorn movie. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a good one ridiculous paycheck movie after another.

Fingers crossed that “Teen Titans Go!” turns one. As I noted in my review, “Tomb Raider’s” things around for him. self-seriousness killed it. The “Indiana Jones” On a lark, I investigated whether our mostmovies found ways to have fun with ancient nominated Academy Award actress, Meryl curses and cobwebbed crypts, and made more Streep, has ever trafficked in schlock. She is not jokes at the Nazis’ expense than half a dozen Cage-level (who is?), but she boasts at least one Mel Brooks movies. The ever-solemn Lara approaches life with the underlying philosophy that hairy mole on her otherwise porcelain resume. chasing the ghost of an evil Japanese empress on In more than 30 years of reviewing, “Mama Mia!” a lost island is not absurd in the least.

Watching Vikander sprint through the jungle- remains one of my least to-nowhere for two hours got me thinking about favorite movies — though, horrifically, it succeeded other Academy Award winners who have made commercially and has a major-league clunkers. sequel pending. She can Al Pacino made some great films, including warble ABBA tunes while “Donnie Brasco and “The Insider,” after he won she polishes her Oscars. for Best Actor as the blind ex-military man in 1992’s “Scent of a Woman.” Then, in 2011, he said to himself, “You know what my career reJim Keogh ally needs? A role in an Adam Sandler movie, contributing writer

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culture THURSDAY March 29 The Accelerators

Vincent’s, 49 Suffolk St. Craig Rawding, Jim Perry, Glenn Ditommaso and Bill Macgillvray come together at Vincent’s for some Cream, Hendrix, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin and more.

FRIDAY March 30 Dangerous Liaisons Revisited

Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury St. An exhibition centered on WAM’s collection of Chinese golden age art and culture with art and music inspired by the Chinese Tang Court.

FRIDAY March 30 Moscow Festival Ballet Dances Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty

Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts 2 Southbridge St. The Moscow Festival Ballet returns to Worcester for a fully staged production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.

SATURDAY March 31 High Command, Video Filth, Zorn, Immortal War & Face Paint

Ralph’s Diner, 148 Grove St. Worcester’s finest crossover-thrash act, High Command, rips at Ralph’s following the release of their latest EP, “The Primordial Void.” They will be joined by Philly’s Zorn, Boston’s Video Filth and Immortal War and Worcester sleeze-lords, Face Paint.

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SATURDAY March 31 Worcester Recovers-a stand up comedy benefit

White Eagle 116 Green St. Hosted by Shaun Connolly and Addicted to Laughter founder, Eric Taylor, Worcester Recovers brings Kelly MacFarland, Orlando Baxter and Netflix and Comedy Central special star Tim Dillon together for the annual comedy event and fundraiser for Worcester recovery programs. This year, the beneficiaries include the Channing House, Alyssa’s Place and Net of Compassion.

culture Open through April 12 FEAR

Schiltkamp Gallery, Traina Center for the Arts, Clark University Artists Linda Bond, Tim Evans, Madge Evers, Ralph Ferro, Susan Fisher, Fran Krause, Ashley MacLure, Christopher Maliga, Corey Mitchell, Remi Picó, Justin Sliwoski, Robert Thurlow, Hannah Verlin, Kathleen Volp and Jill Watts offer their take on “Fear” and its place in a time of heightened social anxiety.

SATURDAY April 7 Artists who are Poets Poets who are artists

Worcester State University Library, 486 Chandler St. Artists show paintings and read poems from 2 to 4 p.m.

SATURDAY March 31 The Flock Returns to The Cove

The Cove Music Hall, 89 Green St. Fan favorites, The Flock of Assholes come home to play ’80s favorites in the way only they can.

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31

sports p Riveras ready to make history in boxing ring WALTER BIRD JR.

I

t would have been a big enough story on the boxing scene for Jose Antonio Rivera, Worcester’s former three-time world champion, to make a comeback at 45 years old.

It’s an even bigger story that he will do so on the same night his son, 24-year-old A.J. Rivera, makes his pro-fighting debut.

The Rivera duo will join the ranks of a few other father-son boxing tandems, but their respective fights, scheduled for August at The Palladium in Worcester, will also mark the first time a father-and-son promotional team has fought

on the same card. Jose Antonio and A.J. Rivera run Rivera Promotional Entertainment, through which they have staged five events.

Jose Antonio Rivera, who works as a court officer in Worcester and is the father of four children, will be returning to the ring for the first time since 2011. He has been retired since June 2012.

A.J. Rivera, meanwhile, is making his own dream come true. The younger Rivera was born with spina bifida, a birth defect resulting in an incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes around the spinal cord. He was initially expected not to walk and be confined to a wheelchair. He would also need a shunt to drain excess fluid in his brain and even use a colostomy bag.

“On top of that,” A.J. Rivera said, “[doctors] said if I did live, it wouldn’t be a long life, probably an average of 19 years.”

About a week before his son was born, however, a test confirmed “something good was going to happen,” according to Jose Antonio Rivera.

When A.J. Rivera was born, a light patch of skin was found to be covering the hole doctors had expected to find. It had kept fluid from causing nerve damage.

“It was a miracle,” his father said.

Although he said he was monitored through recurring visits to Boston Children’s Hospital, A.J. Rivera did more than overcome the odds.

While it took him longer to learn how to walk, he became an athlete and ended up following in his father’s footsteps as a boxer.

And why not? After all, he grew up watching his father enjoy the kind of success most fighters dream of. Jose Antonio Rivera became a threetime world champion, hoisting belts as an IBO welterweight, a WBA welterweight and a WBA light middleweight.

Now, seven years after his final match, A.J. Rivera’s father said he wants to fight at least two more times, which would bring him to 50 professional fights. The time, he said, is right to make a comeback.

“My son and I talked a lot about how he wanted to have a pro fight under his belt,” Jose Antonio Rivera said. “He used to say it would be cool if we could be on the same card. I liked the idea way back when, but then I retired, he went to school and we started the promotion company. He would bring it up now and again.

“I started thinking about it more so at the

Father and son Jose Antonio and A.J. Rivera are poised to step in the ring together as fighters for the first time in August.

PHOTO SUBMIT TED

end of last year. It was like, ‘Maybe we could do something with it.’

The event, which the Riveras are co-promoting with Chuck Shearns’ Granite Chin Promotions and does not yet have a set date, will help raise money for the Milford-based Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England.

For A.J. Rivera, the fight will also be a comeback. He said he stopped fighting in amateurs after his senior year in high school, before going to Johnson & Wales University. He had stopped when he was 10, then returned at 15, when he trained with Carlos Garcia at the Boys & Girls

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M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

culture Club of Worcester. When he was 16, he won a fight against an 18-year-old he said weighed 30 more pounds than he. But then he started thinking different.

“Toward the end of my dad’s career,” A.J. Rivera said, “I started noticing ... the fans weren’t really around. Don King sort of abandoned him. I started seeing, ‘Wow, this stuff is not really guaranteed. [His father] had … sacrificed everything, and when it was all said and done, he went back to his full-time job at the courthouse.

For me, it was how to stay in the sport I love, but make money. That’s when it clicked.”

During his father’s fight against Daniel Santos at Madison Square Garden, A.J. Rivera said he noticed King and other promoters and managers sitting in the front row.

“A light went off in my head,” he said. “It was like, ‘Bingo. These are the guys that really make the money here.”

The in-ring passion, however, never waned.

“Once you’re a fighter,” A.J. Rivera said, “that fire never really goes away. As I was making these shows and fights happen, the fire was still there and I was like, ‘Damn, you know, I’ve got to do it one more time before I end up being 40 and regretting I didn’t do it.”

A.J. Rivera, who said he plans to fight twice as a pro, is training with Garcia and Rocky Gonzalez at the Boys & Girls Club, his father with another of Worcester’s great fighters, Sean Fitzgerald, and Kendrick Ball Sr. at the latter’s Camp Get Right on Millbrook Street.

The thrill of stepping back into the ring and fighting on the same card with his son aside, the elder Rivera knows there’s also the actual bout itself.

“It’s my first fight in over seven years,” he said, “so we’re not going to go in there with somebody in the top 10. That wouldn’t be very smart. I’ve got to see what I’ve got left in the tank. I’ve got to go in there with somebody’s who’s very respectable and good and able to test me. I don’t think I’m going to be sharp enough to fight someone in the top 10 in my first fight in seven years.”

As they train for their big boxing moment, father and son are understandably excited.

“It’s a chance to achieve something big, and you know I’m taking it serious,” A.J. Rivera said.

“At the end of the day, not matter who I fight he has two hands ike I do. He has more of a motive than I do, like, ‘Oh, I can take out the three-time champion’s son.’ I’m treating this the way my dad would treat a championship fight.”

Added Jose Antonio Rivera: “All in all, I think it’s a feel-good story for what we’re trying to accomplish, with my son being the first person born with spina bifida to fight as a professional boxer. For me to be on the same card, on the same night together, and being part of history, Worcester being a part of it at The Palladium, it’s going to be an exciting night of boxing. It’s going to be an exciting night altogether.”

College sports Baseball

Anna Maria March 29 @ Rhode Island College, 3:30 p.m.

April 3 vs. MCLA @ NEBC, Northborough, 3 p.m.

Assumption March 31 @ Saint Anselm, 12 p.m.

April 2 @ Saint Anselm, 12 p.m., 2:30 p.m.

April 3 vs. Stonehill, 3:30 p.m.

April 4 @ Bridgeport, 4 p.m.

Becker March 31 @ Eastern Nazarene, 12 p.m., 2:30 p.m.

April 4 @ Springfield, 4 p.m.

Clark March 29 @ Nichols College, 3:30 p.m.

March 31 @ Wheaton College, 12 p.m., 3 p.m.

April 2 vs. Castleton State, 3:30 p.m.

April 3 @ MIT, 3:30 p.m.

Holy Cross March 31 @ Lehigh, Bethlehem, Pa., 12 p.m., 3 p.m.

April 1 @ Lehigh, Bethlehem, Pa., 12 p.m.

April 4 @ Dartmouth, 3 p.m.

Nichols March 29 vs. Clark, 3:30 p.m.

March 30 vs. St. Joseph’s @ NEBC, 3 p.m.

March 31 vs. Worcester State @ NEBC, 11 a.m.

Worcester State March 30 vs. Westfield State, 2 p.m., 4:30 p.m.

March 31 @ Nichols, 11 a.m.

April 3 @ UMass-Boston, 3 p.m.

WPI March 29 vs. Fitchburg State, 3:30 p.m.

March 31 @ Emerson, 12 p.m., 3 p.m.

April 3 @ Babson, 3:30 p.m.

Men’s Golf

Holy Cross April 1, 2 @ Coca Cola Invitational, Hellertown, Pa.

Men’s Lacrosse

Anna Maria March 31 vs. Lasell, 5 p.m.

April 4 @ Albertus Magnus, 7 p.m.

Assumption March 31 vs. Southern New Hampshire, 12 p.m.

April 4 vs Adelphi, 4 p.m.

Becker March 29 vs. Mount Ida, 4 p.m.

March 31 vs. Dallas, 3 p.m.

April 4 vs. UMass-Dartmouth, 6:30 p.m.

Clark March 31 @ Coast Guard Academy, 1 p.m.

April 4 vs. Plymouth State, 6 p.m.

Holy Cross March 31 @ Navy, Annapolis, Md., 12 p.m.

Nichols April 4 @ Curry, 7 p.m.

Women’s Lacrosse Assumption April 4 @ Le Moyne, 3 p.m.

Becker March 31 vs. Wentworth, 12 p.m.

April 4 vs. Mitchell, 4 p.m.

Holy Cross March 31 vs. Navy, 1:05 p.m.

Nichols March 29 @ Colby-Sawyer, 3:30 p.m.

April 3 @ Curry, 4 p.m.

Worcester State March 29 vs. Curry, 7 p.m.

March 31 vs. Framingham State, 12 p.m.

April 3 vs. Eastern Connecticut State, 4 p.m.

Men’s Rowing Holy Cross March 31 @ Alumni Cup

Women’s Rowing

Holy Cross March 31 @ Murphy Cup, Philadelphia, Pa.

Softball

Anna Maria March 31 vs. Suffolk, 12 p.m., 2 p.m.

April 4 @ Albertus Magnus, 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m.

Assumption March 30 @ Saint Michael’s, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.

March 31 @ Saint Michael’s, 11 a.m.

April 4 vs. Bentley, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.

Becker March 30 vs. Dean, 2 p.m., 4 p.m.

Clark March 30 @ Coast Guard Academy, 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m.

March 31 @ Smith College, 12 p.m., 2 p.m.

April 3 vs. Worcester State, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.

Holy Cross March 29 vs. Harvard, 4:05 p.m.

March 31 @ Bucknell, Lewisburg, Pa., 12 p.m., 2 p.m.

April 1 @ Bucknell, Lewisburg, Pa., 12 p.m.

Nichols April 4 @ Westfield State, 3:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m.

Worcester State March 30 vs. Westfield State, 2 p.m., 4 p.m.

April 3 @ Clark University, 3 p.m., 5 p.m.

WPI March 30 vs. Springfield, 3:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m.

March 31 vs. Wheaton, 12 p.m.2 p.m.

Men’s Tennis

Assumption March 31 vs. Saint Anselm, 11 a.m.

April 2 @ Post, 3 p.m.

April 3 vs. Le Moyne, 3:30 p.m.

Becker March 30 @ Albertus Magnus, 12 p.m.

March 31 @ Wheelock, 3 p.m.

April 3 vs. Wentworth, 3:30 p.m.

Clark April 3 vs. Johnson & Wales, 3:30 p.m.

April 4 @ Emerson College Holy Cross April 4 @ Regis, 4:30 p.m.

Women’s Tennis

Men’s Track & Field

Assumption March 31 @ Black and Gold Invitational, Bryant University Holy Cross March 31 @ Black and Gold Invitational Nichols March 31 @ Black and Gold Invitational Worcester State March 31 @ Tufts Snowflake Classic WPI March 31 @ Tufts Snowflake Classic Invitational, 10 a.m.

Women’s Track & Field

Assumption March 31 @ Black and Gold Invitational, Bryant University, RI March 31 Raleigh Relays, Raleigh, NC Holy Cross March 31 @ Black and Gold Invitational Nichols March 31 @ Black and Gold Invitational Worcester State March 31 @ Tufts Snowflake Classic WPI March 31 @ Tufts Snowflake Classic Invitational, 10 a.m.

The Score Worcester Railers March 22 Railers gain a point, but lose, 1-0, on the road to Wheeling Nailers.

March 23 Railers knock off Reading Royals, 4-1, in Reading, Pa. March 24 Railers blanked by Reading Royals, 3-0, to finish road trip.

(Upcoming: Railers returned home Wednesday night for three-game homestand to face Adirondack Thunder at DCU Center. Railers take on Brampton Beast Friday-Saturday, March 30-31, at home. Team back on road Sunday, April 1 to play Adirondack Thunder and Wednesday, April 4 against Reading Royals.)

Round-Up The Worcester Railers Booster Club handed out its player awards Monday night. Best Offensive Player, Barry Almeida; Best Defensive Player, Justin Hamonic; Fan Favorite, Woody Hudson; Best Single Game Performance, goalie Mitch Gillam; “Tough Guy” Award, Yanick Turcotte; Rookie of the Year, Mitch Gillam; Seventh Player Award, Connor Doherty; Most Valuable Player, Chris Langkow; Man of the Year, Frankie DiChiara.

The Railers will gain a new divisional foe in 2019 when St. John’s-Newfoundland joins the ECHL, playing in the Eastern Conference’s North Division with the Railers, Adirondack Thunder, Brampton Beast, Maine Mariners, Manchester Monarchs and Reading Royals.

Clark April 3 @ Wellesley College, 4:30 p.m.

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33

Adoption option Welcome to Adoption Option, a partnership with the Worcester Animal Rescue League, highlighting their adoptable pets. Check this space often to meet all of the great pets at WARL in need of homes.WARL is open seven days a week, noon-4 p.m., 139 Holden St. Check them out online at Worcesterarl.org, or call at 508-853-0030.

Chelsea is the definition of “catitude.” Miss Independent has strong likes and

dislikes. She wants to be petted twice; pet her a third time and she’ll whack you. She likes toys. Sometimes she wants you to play with her, sometimes she doesn’t. She isn’t a lap cat, but she wants to be near you — on the back of a couch, top of a bookcase — you wouldn’t be mistaken if you called that stalking. She hates other animals, so she lives in our offices. Despite her quirks, we love Chelsea. She is very easy to read once you get to know her. She’ll twitch her ears or stare at your hand, and you know she wants you to stop whatever you’re doing. In your home, Chelsea will explore and find things to entertain herself. She actually likes people. If she didn’t, she would have nothing to do with us. You just have to accept Chelsea on her terms. If you can, she’ll be an entertaining companion for you

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games "Go to Sleep!"--beware of snoring.

by Matt Jones

JONESIN’ Across 1 4 7 10 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 24 26 27 29 32 40 41 42 43

Fun By The Numbers Like puzzles? Then you’ll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test!

Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

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46 47 48 51 55 59 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

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classifieds NOVENA Prayer to the Blessed Virgin (Never known to fail) O most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity, O Star of the Sea, help me and show me where you are my mother. O Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech thee from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity, (make request). There are none that can withstand your power, O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (three times). Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (three times). Say this prayer for three consecutive days and you must publish it and your request will be granted to you. RMF

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An agency serving adolescents and adults on the autism spectrum is seeking energetic and creative people to fill the following positions: Registered Nurse (RN) Full time position, during the school day, M-F 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Current License Required.

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Part Time Residential Instructor positions also available to teach activities of daily living and social skills. Starting Pay is $13.50/hour

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last call Emilee Cocuzzo SGA president E

What is your history with the city of Worcester? I am from Everett. I grew up there, so I was familiar with Worcester before I came to Clark because we had friends that lived in Worcester. My first year at Clark was my first time living in the city full-time.

Can you describe your career goals? I will be graduating this May, but I will be coming back to Clark in the fall to pursue my master’s in business administration through Clark’s fifth-year accelerated degree program. After that, I hope to work in either consulting or marketing with the hopes of starting my own business in the future and working in a nonprofit.

How did you decide to partner with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau for your recent study? During the summer of my sophomore year, I conducted a research project with the Worcester Chamber of Commerce for my LEEP project. I met with Peter Dunn, who works for the city, about the Bureau’s previous college student survey conducted in 2014. We then had a larger conversation with Tim McGourthy, the executive director, about replicating a new one. Before we started our survey, we asked the Research

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Bureau for help with developing the questions. They were very generous to even allow us to utilize their Survey Monkey account.

Overall, they have been very supportive of our work and we appreciate their help.

What did the study show about the perceptions of Worcester college students? For the overall satisfaction question, the majority of students said they were satisfied living in Worcester, 55 percent, while 24 percent responded “neutral,” and 20 percent of students indicated they are not satisfied living in the city. This shows that over half of the students that answered are relatively satisfied with Worcester, and that shows huge potential.

Are their perceptions changing? I believe some perceptions are changing, while others relatively stay the same.

More students need to see the full view of Worcester, instead of staying in their “bubble” on campus in order to see the more positive parts of the city.

From the survey results, it is apparent students want to get off campus and explore Worcester, but they

M A R C H 29 - A P R I L 4, 2018

ELIZABETH BROOKS

milee Cocuzzo is the president of the Worcester Student Government Association, a student-led organization dedicated to crossing campus lines among the city’s 10 colleges and universities. Last November and December, Cocuzzo spearheaded the association’s partnership with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau in administering a 23-question survey to more than 500 local college students. Cocuzzo invites young professionals in the city to attend a networking event at The Edge Thursday, April 5, 5:30-7 p.m. The evening is intended to give student leaders a larger sense of the Worcester community, which is something survey results indicated a majority of local college students are lacking. Organizers believe students with a stronger understanding of Worcester as a community will be more likely to stay in the city after graduation. Cocuzzo hopes to see you there.

just don’t have the knowledge of the events happening, and most don’t have access to transportation readily available.

When more students have access to those opportunities to explore Worcester, then their perceptions change to my belief. Thus, it’s important to continuously push students

off campus to try different restaurants, events and activities in Worcester to truly change their perception of the city.

What is your vision for the city of Worcester? In terms of a vision for college students’ life and growth, I believe in two phases. First, as stated before, students have to get off their campuses and explore more. We learned, from the results of the survey, marketing and communication about events happening in the city need to improve along with transportation – and that’s a longer conversation. The second stage is to get students to land internships in the city before they graduate. The Chamber has been a pioneer in this, through their annual Worcester Career Fair. However, I think the one thing students need to realize is their opportunity in Worcester. I have seen many young professionals become very successful in their careers here. They found niches where they could grow and thrive. If you want to make a difference and impact community, then Worcester is a place where you can have that opportunity, and that is what students need to realize. One way we’re doing that is by hosting a networking event for students and professionals in the city on April 5 at 5:30 pm at the Edge. This will be a great, informal way for students to learn more about the stories of professionals who found their place in Central Massachusetts.

When you aren’t at Clark, where do you like to hang out in the city?

I’m a typical Clarkie, as I like to have my Saturday breakfasts at Annie’s Clark Brunch with friends, or I’ll grab a hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich at Acoustic Java over meetings. I’m a huge foodie, so I like to try new restaurants. I’m a big fan of Italian food, so I like to visit VIA for special occasions. On the more fun side, I love going to the Worcester Art Museum, and I enjoyed my first time at the Escape Room this past summer.

— Sarah Connell

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