Worcester Magazine Aug. 2 - 8, 2018 by Worcester Magazine

AUGUST 2 - 8, 2018 WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

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A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

in this issue A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018 â&#x20AC;˘ V O L U M E 43 I S S U E 49

the cover

The Recycling Dilemma: Industry changes challenge cities, towns Story on page 10 Wilson Maldonado, of Worcester, empties a recycling bin into the compactor along his morning route on Townsend Street. Photo by Elizabeth Brooks, Design by Kimberly Vasseur

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news Family mourns Worcester’s second murder victim of 2018 WALTER BIRD JR.

ith his family confirming him as the victim, 23-year-old Jovannexen Rivera has become Worcester’s second homicide victim of the year. With the May 26 shooting murder of 16-year-old Sidney Krow Jr., the city now has two more gun-related murders than all of last year, when there were none. As of Monday, July 30, according to Worcester Police, there had been 12 shooting incidents and 13 victims two of them, Krow and Rivera, dying. A second man who was also shot with Rivera early Sunday morning, July 29, was in serious condition earlier this week. While the numbers are likely of little solace to the friends and family members of victims, Worcester as of Monday was two homicides under the total at this time last year, when there were four. The number of shootings and victims were also down. By July 30 last year, there were 18 shootings and 19 victims. “So far to date, numbers for both shootings and homicides have been considerably lower than in past years,” Lt. Sean Murtha said. “The last three weeks have seen an uptick in activity, including the city’s second homicide. We continue to put pressure on known violent offenders and will remain vigilant.” In the meantime, people like Sonia Vega continue to mourn. Vega, speaking with Worcester Magazine several hours after the Sunday morning shooting, said Rivera was her son. She had been about to get into a car that had pulled up outside the apartment building on Sturgis Street where, she said, Rivera was shot and killed. Her eyes reddened as she stood near a makeshift, streetside shrine of flowers, balloons and candles, Vega said she knew little of the circumstances surrounding her son’s death. “I don’t even know exactly what happened,” Vega said of the the incident. “I was not home. Somebody called to say he was shot, that he was in the hospital.”

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A woman identifying herself as Rivera’s wife, Liselys Cruz, said the family was able to be with Rivera when he died in the hospital. According to police, officers responding to a report of shots fired around 2:30 a.m. Sunday on Sturgis Street, which runs off Lincoln Street, observed several people in the road, and found a 28-year-old man on the sidewalk suffering from a gunshot wound. That man, who police did not immediately identify, was taken to the hospital and was in serious condition. Police also had not officially identified Rivera as the murder victim as of earlier this week. According to police, officers securing the crime scene, where three parked cars had been hit with stray bullets, were told a man had emerged from the side of a nearby home and started firing shots before fleeing the scene. Police detectives and Crime Scene Unit members arrived onscene, where, police say, witnesses told them a second shooting victim had been taken by a family member to a local hospital. That victim was transferred to another hospital, according to police, where he was later pronounced dead. According to both Vega and Cruz, that victim was Rivera. Around 8 p.m. Sunday, a gathering of several people was observed outside the Sturgis Street apartment where, according to Cruz, her husband had gone with friends after going to a club Saturday night. “They came here together,” Cruz said. “The always come here

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

The memorial left on Sturgis Street, where 23-year-old Jovannexen Rivera was shot and killed. ELIZABETH BROOKS

and enjoy the rest of the night.” Both Cruz and Vega said they do not believe either Rivera or the other victim were the intended targets. “He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time,” said Cruz. “It was not for him. [The shooting] was not for him. I know and feel it, that it was not for him.” Police have released few details as of this time about the shootings. Investigators spent hours after the incident interviewing people and canvassing the neighborhood, according to police. Crime Scene Unit members also recovered and processed evidence from the scene, police said. Cruz said she and Rivera, along with their young daughter, lived with Vega in her Main Street home. “He was really good, a very friendly person,” Vega said. “He was a happy guy.” She said she did not know any of the people sitting in chairs and standing in a driveway outside the apartment where she said her son had been before he was shot. Addressing speculation of gang involvement, Cruz said her husband was not a gang member. “He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people,” she said. Police have asked anyone with information about the incident to sent an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWD, plus a message, or an anonymous web-based message to worcesterma.gov/ police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at 508-799-8651.

news

Good Chemistry opens its doors to medical marijuana BILL SHANER

rom the outside, Good Chemistry — Worcester’s first medical and possibly first recreational cannabis dispensary — is a nearly-anonymous storefront tucked between a few thrift stores on Harrison Street, part of the wider Crompton Collective network of mill buildings. The only detail suggesting what lies inside is the tastefully-decorative fog on the windows and a small, unadorned sign. Inside is a different story. Today, Good Chemistry is open for business, and the sleek interior design, the long bar not unlike a coffee shop, and bright displays laying out the price quality and characteristics of pot products, is a first look for Worcester at the new face of weed. “We’re here. I know a lot of people have been waiting for the second largest city in the state to have a cannabis presence,” said CEO Matthew Huron, while standing in the middle of the store’s main room. A waiting area leads to security doors, and on the other side, patrons are greeted with a large, blow-out portrait of Good Chemistry employees harvesting the product. A large television display stresses the company’s mission while next to it, a large graphic on the wall spells out the company’s system for potency, style and medical use. The company uses five characteristic as a guide: sight, touch, aroma, taste and sensation. The categories are a rubric of sorts, used by employees (they call them budtenders) to help people find the right product. Across the counter is a stack of small pamphlets which lay out the system, called STATS, with infographics, and leaving room at the end for users to grade rank their favorite strains. The marijuana is further divided into categories of effects: amplify, relax, relieve or sleep. Since the store is currently medical only, patrons will need a medical card, approved by a doctor, to purchase product. Tonight, the company will hold a grand opening in the Crompton Collective patio space on Green Street, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Good Chemistry, a Colorado-based company, is opening in the fifth year since cannabis became legal for medical use. It could also well be one of the first recreational dispensaries to open in the area. The

Good Chemistry Nurseries founder/CEO Matt Huron at the new cannabis dispensary opening Aug. 2 in Worcester’s Canal District. company received one of the first two community host agreements the city authored for up to 15 pot shops allowed in town. Good Chemistry and Prime Wellness, on Pullman Street, received the city’s first two community host agreements – documents that lay out conditions of approval and also substantial payments to the city coffers. The community host agreements allow the two businesses to seek final approval from the Cannabis Control Commission. If all goes well for them, they could be the first two retail pot shops to open in Worcester – and take the first two of 15 retail licenses allowed by the city, per zoning rules. If they open, each company will be required to pay a community impact fee equal to three percent of gross sales, or $60,000, whichever is more. The agreements also ask that the com-

panies do their best to hire from the community, and follow the city’s hiring guidelines for people of color and women. The agreements also ask that the companies rely, when they can, on local suppliers and vendors. The two agreements were approved separately from the process used for other applicants, because they already had medical licenses. For the rest of the applicants, the city is taking all applications at once via a request for proposals process. The city is taking applications until Aug. 24. The agreements are necessary to get final approval from the Cannabis Control Commission. Both companies are in the queue for CCC review. While they’re hoping for recreational, Huron has a strong message for customers: get your medical card, because it’s going to take a while A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

ELIZABETH BROOKS

“We really are encouraging people interested in medical cannabis to go and get your medical card,” he said. “It’s a pretty easy system.” The adult-use process, he said, could take a long time. If you want in now, it would be better to get a card. Indeed, close observers of the industry estimate it won’t be in full gear until later this year, at the earliest. A lack of growers and testing facilities has slowed the process, along with bans and partial bans in more than half of Massachusetts cities and towns. “It’s a slow process, but it’s a deliberate process,” said Huron. Bill Shaner can be reached at 508-749-3166 x324 or at wshaner@worcestermag.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bill_Shaner. WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

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worcesteria VACATION, ALL I EVER WANTED: By the time you are reading this, I will be far away from here. Well, not that far. Two or three hours. And no. I’m not telling you where. Nice try, Walter Bird, Jr. So consider this the vacation version of Worcesteria. Since this won’t feature anything even remotely newsworthy, as I am writing this almost six days before it appears in print and online, I’m going to try something different. This isn’t a Worcesteria about things that have happened, this is a Worcesteria about things that will happen. [CUE THE TWILIGHT ZONE THEME]

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THE PAWSOX will announce their intentions to move to Worcester by the end of September. The news will inspire national coverage of Worcester’s clear and evident, undeniable development renaissance. The buzz will greatly overshadow critics of the deal. Their arguments that billionaires don’t need or deserve our public dollars will slowly simmer under the surface, going nowhere but coming up every time the city needs new textbooks or fails to fix deferred maintenance on city buildings. This dynamic will carry on for 10 years, the first five of which the city enjoys a development boom in the canal district and fat city coffers. But, by year six, the PawSox will blame declining attendance numbers on the difficulty their fans have navigating Kelley Square. The city, fearing they will leave if they do not comply, will spend millions trying to fix the unfixable intersection, making all the increased revenue from the PawSox over the years prior a total wash. In year 15, the PawSox leave anyway, headed for the hot real estate market in Fall River, where city officials loudly proclaim a renaissance unlike any seen in the city for decades. THE MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM at Lincoln Square will get its time in the sun sometime this fall. Taking the advice of consultants, the city will put the building up for private sale. The building will continue to deteriorate for years as low-ball offers come and go, none attractive enough for the city to take. By year five, city officials will start to talk about demolition. After two or three years of demolition talk in which no one pays attention, preservationists will become active in the weeks following the news of a demolition order. They will form a coalition, and attempt at City Council meetings to shame the city into taking it on. They’ll offer plenty of great ideas – an extension of the Worcester Art Museum, for instance – but the city will not budge, having already thoroughly examined the prospect in the years prior, when no one was paying attention. They will be made to look like the villain when the historic building comes down in 2027. MEANWHILE, the lot that once held the Notre Dame church will be a smooth patch of land by December. By next summer, the folks behind the Grid development will announce the purchase of the building, alongside plans to erect a five-story building full of luxury condos, with several storefront spaces on the first floor. The news will be hailed as another example of Worcester’s ongoing renaissance, while critics on Townie Facebook will make plainly racist comments about downtown while predicting the building will be filled with “Section 8” within a year. But what really happens, over the course of five to 10 years, is that the development is a success, and completes the project of turning downtown Worcester into a neighborhood. The desired class of people the city seeks – young, upper middle class to wealthy professionals – move in and take over. Downtown swings quickly from a place with a terrible reputation to a place with a great one. More young professionals will want to move there, and the demand will increase the price of property. The increase will have a ripple effect throughout the city, and landlords will begin increasing the rent on their properties. The increased rent will force people out of their homes as developers knock down more buildings to put up more mixed-use Young Professional Traps. As the city becomes more and more expensive, it will lose some of the iconic restaurants, landmarks and institutions that made Worcester what it is. The new Worcester will become sterile and unrecognizable, its soul paved over for an urban playground that locks down a transient population of young professionals for a few years – before they can afford to make rent in New York or the Bay Area. This process will take about 15 years and along the way each development announcement will be hailed by officials, the media and city boosters as progress. THE WORCESTER PUBLIC SCHOOLS will enter into a lawsuit with Brockton and other Gateway Cities to get their due education funding. Mayor Joe Petty announces this sometime in the fall, and it gives the lawsuit the weight it needs to elicit full press attention from statewide

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more worcesteria media outlets. Other schools will join in, slowly, and the case will have the effect of pressuring the Legislature into reworking the funding formula so more money is invested in English Language curriculum, special needs and health care. The lawsuit itself won’t go anywhere, but it will have the intended effect, at least in the short term. Worcester and other large urban districts around the state will receive a windfall, and bring staffing levels up to adequacy. The schools will thrive for several years. But then, when no one is paying attention, lawmakers representing the suburbs will figure out a sneaky way to make sure less Chapter 70 money goes to the big districts. The inequality in funding will sneak back in through a series of these moves over a few years, and in time the funding inequality in public schools will regress to again mirror the inequality of our society.

IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS Worcester Democrat David LeBoeuf will inch past Republican Paul Fullen to take the 17th Worcester Seat on the strength of his union endorsements and the Great Blue Wave narrative that will dominate the news cycle in the weeks ahead of the election. District Attorney Joe Early Jr. will narrowly avoid defeat from challenger Blake Rubin, whose contest was aided by TrooperGate, but ultimately sabotaged by his stance as an independent, non-political candidate. DA candidates in other counties that present themselves as squarely progressive will unseat longtime Democratic incumbents. The What Difference a DA Makes campaign will be lauded across the country as a success. Republican Kate Campanale will win the Register of Deeds race easily, but the race and the result will receive little attention. She will serve in the role capably for many years. Paul DePalo will unseat Jen Caissie on the Governor’s Council, but almost everyone will continue going on not knowing what the Governor’s Council is, and the outcome will be a nearly private victory for the area’s progressive wing. IN A SPLIT VOTE the City Council will slightly narrow the difference between commercial and residential tax rates when the vote comes up in November, under intense pressure from The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and other groups. During the three-hour discussion of the issue, some of the councilors will call for a more proactive, whole-year approach to examining the tax rate issue. That won’t happen. Before and after the vote, every news item related to a business leaving or entering the city will be used as fuel in the tax rate debate, regardless of how the city’s tax schedule factored in the company’s decision. SCHOOL OFFICIALS will say they intend to build the new Doherty High School on the existing Highland Street site, and to do so, they’re going to need to take some park land. This will lead to a knock-down, drag-out fight between the school district and preservationists that will result in a lawsuit. The school will win the lawsuit and take the park land. THE WORCESTER POLICE DEPARTMENT will not implement a body camera, despite increasing calls from the community for at least a pilot program. The issue will stay locked in a stalemate between the union, department administration and city administration for years.

A NEW BIKE SHARE program, this time one with docks where bikes must be returned, will

take up residence in the city. People online will loudly complain as those who use them find a cheap and reliable method of transportation. People’s criticism of the bike share will be, for the most part, thinly veiled racism.

The GRID’s beer garden will open in April 2019 or later. UNION STATION will fail to attract enough retail business to bring it into the black, despite an increase in police presence due to the new precinct house, but it will get a small coffee shop, which the train riders will appreciate and frequent.

Bill Shaner, reporter wshaner@worcestermag.com Twitter: @Bill_Shaner

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Slow down on plastic bag ban

If they didn’t use paper, consumers would s environmental and other concerns likely be forced to buy reusable bags, which grow, there has been an increased could adversely impact lower-income call in some circles for the outright residents. banning of plastic bags. Worcester There are, of course, myriad concerns is joining the chorus of those convinced that eliminating plastic bags will lead to an over plastic. For example, a reported 100 overall cleaner, safer and environmentally- million or more marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the friendly community. But will it really? There are reasons for the city to perhaps ocean. The key word is “debris.” There have not abandon the idea of eliminating plastic been disputes over the role plastic bags, specifically, play in that problem. outright, but to at least carefully consider Plastic bags exist for a reason, conveall ramifications. In other words, look at all the facts before making a decision that will nience among them. That is not a license have lasting economical and other impacts. to harm the environment or hurt wildlife, but it raises a bigger question: Is it the Here are some issues raised about plasplastic bags or the actions of those using tic bag bans: the plastic bags that are the real problem? Plastic bags are not the huge litter A change in culture may well do more to problem some suggest. In fact, according resolving litter and other issues than an to reason.org, they make up less than 1 outright ban on plastic. percent of visible litter. When it comes to Bear in mind, Worcester might ban plasroadside trash and litter, the biggest culprit tic bags, but it also appears ready to move by a wide margin are cigarette butts. toward plastic trash bags for recycling. Paper bags take up more room in landWhat sort of message does that send? fills, up to nine times as much, according A plastic bag ban may ultimately be the to scidev.net. They also don’t break down answer, but it should not be the result of a much faster than plastic. feel-good attempt at something that ends The manufacturing of paper bags, acup causing more problems. It is also worth cording to life cycle assessments, has a heavier environmental impact than that of looking at the city’s beautification plan, plastic bags. Plastic bags have, in fact, been which has yet to be revealed. Are there are other measures that can help solve some shown to have a better carbon footprint of the problems sought to be addressed by than paper. banning plastic bags? A ban on plastic bags While grocery/retail plastic bags might should not be done right away in Worcester. be banned, other plastic bags, such as heavy-duty trash bags, might be more heavily used, leading to greater environmental concerns. Photographer Elizabeth Brooks x323 Contributing Writers Stephanie Campbell, Sarah Connell, Janice Harvey, Jim Keogh, Jessica Picard, Jim Perry, Corlyn Voorhees Editorial Interns Samantha Bratkon, Sophia Laperle

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Director of Creative Services Don Cloutier x141 Creative Director Kimberly Vasseur x142 Creative Services Department Becky Gill, Stephanie Mallard, Wendy Watkins Ad Director Helen Linnehan x333 Media Consultants Diane Galipeau x335, Cheryl Robinson x336, Sarah Perez x334 Media Coordinator Madison Friend x332

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

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opinion Barking up the right tree JANICE HARVEY

and his two children met us by the goat pen, with the oldest pushing the youngest in a stroller. Our plan was to wrap up the visit ince childhood, I’ve loved Green Hill Park. My Nana lived at the corner of Orne with a walk along the shore of the pond, and Lincoln, and we’d often climb the hill where years ago my brother caught a carp the when visiting. (Not with Nana, of course. size of a Rambler, and watched Nana take an axe to it. (I still think those fish were prehisYears of waitressing at Messier’s blew out her knee. If she were alive, she’d show you the scar toric creatures.) We’d toss some seeds and from surgery by rolling up her pant leg, just the bread to the fish and watch them surface. I seized a teaching moment by giving a handful way she did at my wedding.) The view from Memorial Grove was always of food to a kid who was throwing rocks at a family of ducks, explaining they probably a marvel to me, and didn’t disappoint my 6-year-old grandson Jack last week as we ap- preferred being fed over being stoned to death. He seemed to accept that idea; it’s too proached the crest. Front loaders and every bad the two adult males he was with didn’t imaginable kind of truck were busy tearing out the sod where plays were once performed think of it. As we walked in the shade along the in what was an open-air theater, and he was shore, two young girls, likely in their late thrilled. teens, came toward us. One held a leash in The recently-refurbished Vietnam Memoher hand, a heavy chain unattached to the rial is a fittingly-dignified and cared-for spot for reflection, and the barnyard zoo has been pit pull that walked ahead of her. My heart skipped a few beats as my son, a true lover of upgraded nicely. It would certainly impress all creatures great and small, scooped up Jack my grandfather Herbert “Red” Harvey, who and turned the stroller away from the dog’s long ago tended the buffalo where peacocks view. I asked the girls to please put their dog and llamas are now on display. My son John

on the leash. That’s when I got the “He’s really a sweet dog” story - the same one you hear on the news when some kid’s face has been mangled. While they weren’t rude, they were disinclined to meet my request. Knowing my mouth would probably lead to a confrontation, my son took over. It didn’t hurt that he’s a handsome devil who can pour on the charm. “Your dog is beautiful,” he cooed. “But the kids are afraid. Maybe you could put the leash on him while you pass us?” They complied, and he thanked them profusely. After they were out of earshot, he explained his syrupy tone. “Dogs sense tension,” he said, “and if you mouthed off to those girls, and the situation escalated, the dog would feel it, and possibly charge. When pit bulls snap, it’s not like other dogs that might bite and run. They don’t let go.” Of course, he was right, especially about tensions ratcheting up the odds of an attack. I guess my main concern was what recourse we would have if the girls ignored the request. Unthinkable damage could be done before we

could seek help. And what help is there other than a 911 call after the fact? I expect some hate mail from readers on the subject. I’ve learned over the years there are few things more sacred than sports teams and tattoos - and pets rank higher than both. I’m in deep water with a faulty floaty when I even broach the subject. Never one to take even my own sensible advice, I’m plunging into the shallow end, but here goes: Dog owners, I get that you want your beloved pet to enjoy the outdoors. I like watching my grandkids do the same. The difference is your pet isn’t threatened by an 18-monthold in a stroller or a first-grader scared to death of dogs. Please don’t let Fido run free in Worcester’s public parks. My son isn’t always around to control this old pup.

Janice Harvey contributing writer

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feature

The Recycling Dilemma: Industry KRISTINA REARDON

set them out on the curb on recycling day may bear part of the blame. Completing the full cycle of reuse is the goal f the average resident of Worcester Counfor municipal programs, of course: towns in ty is like most people, when they throw a water bottle into the recycling bin, they’ll Central Mass. have adopted recycling programs to reduce waste. Over the past few defeel pretty good about themselves. They cades, a side benefit has been that companies might imagine that bottle being melted and reshaped into a park bench, which might bear that contract with towns to collect recyclables have been able to sell them to markets across the proud stamp: made with recycled mathe U.S. and China, among other locations terials. They might imagine the bottle being repurposed into insulation, or simply reused as — unlike trash, which the city must pay to dispose of. The sale of recyclables has helped a bottle. There are many paths a plastic bottle offset the cost of collection, making recycling can take on its way to reuse. But not every a municipal program that, historically, has not bottle — or piece of recycling — in Worcester put a large financial burden on most towns. County gets to complete the romanticized “It has never been free from day one, but recycling lifecycle. it was always less expensive to deal with In the past six months, thousands of tons recycling than regular solid waste,” said Paul of recycling have been sent to landfills in the Moosey, commissioner of Public Works and U.S., mainly on the West Coast. On the East Parks in Worcester in a recent interview. Coast, many bottles and other recyclables Bob Fiore, assistant to the commissioner, sit at collection sites, waiting to be sold. And estimates the recycling program has saved despite their best intentions, the residents who proudly collected their plastic bottles and Worcester $10-$20 million over the past 20

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years. As a result, programs like Worcester’s have been touted as resounding successes. In 2017, the residential curbside recycling rate in the city was 32.15 percent. “Worcester has a very high recycling rate,” said Moosey, “one of the highest in the country.” But what residents put in their recycling bins in addition to sanctioned items like plastic bottles directly impacts the value of each ton of recycling sold. And how valuable each city or town’s recycling is has an impact on the success of its recycling program — and has the power to determine its future. Right now, the contamination levels of recycling across the U.S. are not only making the recycling less valuable, they’re causing certain countries that have historically bought tons of recyclables from the U.S. each year, such as China, to reject them outright. “We just got an audit from the transfer station which accepts recycling,” said Steve Curry,

director of Public Health in Fitchburg. “It has a high contamination rate, 60 percent at several routes in the city. Some routes are much lower, some routes are upwards of 60-70 percent contamination.” While Fitchburg’s numbers might seem high at first glance, they reflect a larger culture of wishful thinking that sees residents across the state — and the country as a whole — placing in their single-stream recycling bins any materials they hope are recyclable, or think should be. And because collectors don’t sort through the bins at the curb and reject items that cannot be recycled, residents have no incentive not to put trash items they wish were recyclable — like plastic bags, wood, electrical equipment, cell phone chargers, and Christmas lights, just to name a few — into their recycling bins. So if the proud recycler of Worcester County stuffs their recycling bin with a dirty pizza box and leftover plastic grocery bags in addition to plastic bottles,

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changes challenge cities, towns they have contributed toward a contaminated recycling stream. “Companies like us do our best to produce an end product with as little contamination as possible,” said Joe Fusco, vice president of Casella Waste, which collects recycling for several Worcester county towns, including Worcester. Casella can get its contamination down to 3 percent, which he says is, by most standards, a usable product. But meeting China’s current standard of 0.05 percent contamination is impossible right now for Casella and most other waste management companies. For decades the recycling industry, in Worcester County and beyond, moved forward, dealing with high levels of contamination in recycling, knowing materials recovery facilities, or MRFs, could sort out the vast majority of the trash after collection day and still sell many tons of recyclables domestically and internationally for a good price. For decades, that is, until now.

A SINGLE BOTTLE’S JOURNEY

hat, exactly, happens to a bottle — or any other recyclable, for that matter — after you drop it in your recycling bin and set your bin on the curb? First, the bins of recycling are hauled out by local companies and brought to one of eight materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in Massachusetts, where they are sorted. “They sort and process and they pull out all the contaminants,” said Brooke Nash, chief of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Municipal Recycling Branch. “All the trash gets pulled out there, as much as they possibly can.”

Fusco said recycling from Worcester goes to one of two recycling facilities in the area: Auburn or Charlestown. Since Worcester and most surrounding towns support singlestream recycling — where residents do not have to sort their materials at the curb — the next task is for that plastic bottle to get sorted with like materials at the MRF. “We used to collect dual stream: paper and fiber in one container, and then all cans and bottles went into another,” Nash said. “The industry really started switching over to single stream, and then they sort it. The hauler takes it to a MRF that sorts it out.” Out of eight MRFs in Massachusetts, only two are still dual-stream. The remaining six are single-stream facilities. Plastics, cardboard, and other materials are baled at the MRF and then shipped to end users, which are customers in the U.S. and around the world who then use that material to make new things. In other words, recycling is not just an alA U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

truistic activity of a single resident or group of residents in Worcester or any other town. It’s a commodity and a massive global market. “You have a great incentive as the seller of this material to offer as clean a stream as possible, with as little contamination as possible,” Fusco said. “The more you are able to produce a stream that has as little contamination as possible, the more value that material has and use, so they will pay you more for it.” While Fusco said only about 25 percent of U.S. recyclables are sold and shipped internationally — meaning the vast majority stay in the U.S. — he said there is a larger market globally for recyclables because much of what we produce in the world is made from recycled material. “So,” he said, “people who are manufacturing new things have a need and a use for these commodities.” So, when things go right, the plastic bottle dropped into the single-stream recycling bin on the curb in Worcester is collected by a WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

feature waste management company, brought to a MRF, sorted, then baled and sold domestically or overseas to someone who is able to further sort and find a use for the raw materials, which have historically been desirable because it has been less expensive to reuse certain materials than to mine for them or create them from scratch. So the plastic bottle usually ends up being reused — unless it has been placed in the single-stream recycling bin with non-recyclable items, and the recycling stream becomes too contaminated for anyone to want to buy it.

THE 0.05-PERCENT STANDARD

ast summer, China started to crack down on the level of contamination it would accept in recycling imports. It began discussing bans on certain items, as well as a cap on the percentage of contamination per ton of recycling it would accept. “Last July they notified the World Trade Organization that they intended to crack down significantly and impose very strict standards on the quality of the material that they would allow to come into their country,” Nash said. In January, the threshold was set at half of one percent. “Picture a bale of newspaper, which is 1,100 pounds,” Nash said. “If it had a couple of cans or a plastic bag in it, a medicine bottle, something like that, that could be grounds for exceeding the one half of one percent threshold.” And that number is one that is difficult, if not impossible, for most MRFs to meet right now. “It’s a threshold that our material recovery

Paul Moosey, commissioner of Worcester’s Department of Public Works & Parks, left, and Bob Fiore, assistant to the commissioner. ELIZABETH BROOKS

facilities were not designed to meet,” she said, noting the best MRFs in Massachusetts can get contamination levels down to 2-3 percent. “It’s a policy that has set the world’s head spinning.” In addition to not being able to meet the half-percent standard, Nash notes that MRFs in the Massachusetts seem disinclined to update facilities just yet. “They’re reluctant to invest in major new equipment when they don’t know whether

Cities, towns implementing the state DEP’s Recycling IQ Kit Program As towns across the state struggle to clean up their recycling streams, 16 communities have been awarded grants from the state Department of Environmental Protection to undertake public education campaigns, which includes sorting through residents’ recycling bins at the curb and tagging items that are not recyclable —and in some cases, not collecting recycling bins until they are free of trash. Below are the communities taking part in DEP public education campaigns: Dartmouth • Halifax • Lowell • Lynn • New Bedford • Fitchburg • Fairhaven • Newton Stoneham • Newburyport • Tewksbury • Shrewsbury • Everett • Chatham • Truro • Yarmouth

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China might in six months from now say, ‘Just kidding, you can bring it all back,” she said. “Half of a percent seems to be a number that China pulled out of thin air,” said Fusco. “We’d all like to get to half of a percent, but that really on a lot of levels is somewhat unreasonable, and not necessary if everybody could get to three percent.” The nonprofit group Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) released statistics in mid-June that show “these actions have caused a dramatic decline in the amount of scrap and recyclables exported from the United States to China.” This has allowed other countries — such as Vietnam, India, and Turkey — to step in. However, SWANA reports, “In recent months, several of these countries, particularly Vietnam and Indonesia, have announced measures to reduce the flow of recyclables into their ports.” China, Nash said, had been a major consumer of exported recyclables from the U.S. and around the world, from scrap to plastic to paper. New recycling standards challenge old models of business. Though China does not buy all of the world’s recycled paper, for

example, it consumes such a large share, its standards and prices can become the de facto global standards — or at least disrupt the market. “Suddenly, there’s this volume of mixed paper flooding the global market and prices everywhere have dropped,” said Fusco. “The entire value of the traditional recycling stream, not just paper, but everything, has dropped 60-65 percent this year. Some materials, particularly paper, has no value at all, meaning you have to pay to get rid of it. We used to get paid for it.” So even when markets like Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey and India, among others, began to pick up some of the recyclables China is no longer importing, they did so at a lower price. Part of this lower purchasing price, Nash said, is the result of shipping costs, too. China sends many imports to the U.S., and once shipping containers would unload goods stateside, they were filled with scrap and recycling to go back to China. This sort of relationship does not exist on such a large scale with newer markets. “The cost is being passed along, in a lot of cases, to the municipality, and that’s why

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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

feature Key Terms for Recycling Wishcycling: The phenomenon of placing items in recycling bins that residents hope are recyclable, or think should be, even though they’re not. While the intention is good, the end result is not. Susan Robinson of Waste Management wrote in an April blog post that “’wishcycling’ does no one any favors, except adding costs and reducing the amount of items that can ultimately be recycled.” Just because something is collected from a recycling bin does not mean it will be recycled. It takes time and money to weed out non-recyclables, and according to Robinson, it leads to less recycling overall. The Amazon Effect: As more and more consumers shift to online shopping, industries across the board struggle to adjust. Recycling is no different: residents are recycling more cardboard boxes and packaging materials as a result of shopping on Amazon and other online retailers. This means there is more cardboard in the recycling stream — and, in some cases, more material to recycle for the average resident. Single-Stream Recycling: In years past, residents used a dual-stream system, where they sorted glass and plastic into one bin and paper products into another bin for recycling collection each week. Rather than having residents sort their recyclables, single-stream recycling relies on materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to sort the different materials. In large part to encourage more recycling, many towns and cities have shifted to single-stream collection by the 2010s. Some say this has caused residents to become less thoughtful about what they’re throwing in their bins.

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recycling costs are going up,” Nash said.

the city’s recycling contract ($65,000), recycling commodities costs ($300,000) and the credit recycling revolving fund ($300,000). Such fees were not listed in the fiscal 2018 budget, which included a recommendation for a tax levy that was nearly $150,000 less than the previous fiscal year. Meanwhile, Leominster, which contracts with T.W. Shaw and Sons of Greenville, N.H., expects to see an increase in the price of recycling this year as well. “Prices have fluctuated wildly, and as you know China got tired of taking contaminated recycling materials,” said Christopher Knuth, director of the Leominster Health Department. “It costs more to recycle than it does to throw things in a landfill.” Knuth said Leominster is now responsible for a tipping fee on recycling. “Whatever they have to pay, they pass that cost onto us,” Knuth said, in reference the hauler. “If it goes down, it goes down for us. … It’s going to increase our cost significantly.” “We’re going to have to bear the burden of the extra cost until somebody else figures out what to do with it,” he continued, in reference to recyclables. “We’re not allowed to throw it all in a landfill, so we’ll keep recycling and we’ll hope for the best.”

The problem is towns and haulers have been collecting contaminated recycling for years, so, as Nash said, “The logical conclusion is that it’s OK.” The state DEP has developed a Recycling IQ Kit to help towns educate residents about what can and cannot go into the recycling bin. Aside from materials that push municipal recycling programs to work with their haulers to determine which routes have significant hereas Massachusetts towns contamination, the IQ Kit contains templates in the past could sell their and suggestions for public programming to recyclables to offset some of catch residents’ attention on social media platthe costs of the program, now forms and other more traditional media, such many communities are having to pay tipping as newspapers and radio. fees per ton for recyclables hauled away. This But the part of the program that perhaps all depends on the town’s contract with their makes the biggest impression on residents haulers, however. is the direct feedback it encourages towns “I’ve heard of communities paying as much to give. The DEP is offering $40,000 grants as $80 or $90 a ton for the materials that are to towns to partner with haulers to hit the collected for recycling,” said Nash, though she ground for an eight-week period along routes also noted, “Some are still paying very little or with high levels of contamination. next to nothing, including 70 towns in western Then, rather than collecting bins with conMassachusetts that are taking materials to tamination, the hauler or municipal officials Springfield.” will inspect the recycling bins of residents on These towns are in long-term contracts that that route. If they find contamination, they’ll have pre-set rates. Other towns that are renetag the bin and leave specific feedback explaingotiating contracts or which have contracts ing what did not belong in the bin. with clauses that specify the town is responThe part that has the biggest impact? sible for certain fees or the consumer price “They leave that recycling cart full at the index (CPI) for recyclables are not as lucky. curb,” said Nash, explaining the tags comIn Fitchburg, for example, Curry said their municate the message that “not only is this a hauler, Waste Management, has started imposproblem, but we can’t collect your recycling ing fees for the disposal of recycling that have bin — we’ll be back again next week.” been written into Fitchburg’s recycling conThe program was piloted two years ago in tracts since 1992, although the city was never three communities and fine-tuned in six othn most communities, residents who have ers last year. So far this year, 16 communities in billed for the fees before the last fiscal year. a desire to recycle and who have good Fitchburg pays a flat fee, plus the CPI, which Massachusetts have been awarded DEP grants intentions sometimes take things too far. together is more than $40 a ton. The result, to run the programs — among them, Fitchburg “The recycling public, you know, we’ve Curry said, was a roughly $120,000 fee from and Shrewsbury. gotten a little complacent,” said Nash. “I think July 1, 2017 to July 1, 2018. In fact, it is because of the IQ program Curry that a lot of people put things in the recycling “It was painful for the city to absorb it, but knew Fitchburg’s contamination rates were bin and they figure, ‘Hopefully they’ll figure out so high in certain areas. In mid-July, the city the city realizes it could have been double how to recycle this.’” that,” said Curry, referencing the fact that started what Curry called a robust program The term widely used across the industry Fitchburg has its own landfill, which makes re-educating residents about what can and to describe the act of placing non-recyclables the price of trash and recycling collection and cannot be recycled in Fitchburg, and the fact into their bins is “wish-cycling.” removal less than it might otherwise be. that, in Fitchburg, recycling must go in a cart Even well-informed residents engage in Worcester’s tipping fee for recycling with and cannot be bagged. Casella, according to Fiore, was approximately wish-cycling, Knuth said, citing his own son as “In our past experience in doing this an example. $25 a ton this past fiscal year, whereas no tipenforcement we discovered that it’s really “When my son comes home from New York,” confusing to residents. Recycling isn’t simple ping fee was paid the previous year. he said, “I have to go pick things out of the While the Worcester Department of Public anymore,” Curry said. “We used to go by the barrel. He things that all this stuff should be Works and Parks deals with more than just motto, ‘When in doubt, recycle,’ but that slogan recycling, therefore he puts it all int here. But recycling collection (including managing got us in trouble.” it’s not.” street maintenance and repair, trash colThe goal, Curry said, is to clean up the Wish-cyclers aside, there is another group lection, street lighting, parking garages and recycling carts in Fitchburg without discouragof individuals: those who don’t know or aren’t other surface lots, among other services), its ing residents from recycling. So they’ll focus on paying attention to local recycling regulations. the top contaminates in Fitchburg recycling: total tax levy recommended for fiscal 2019 is “The biggest impact that communities have plastic bags, and items that get tangled in the $14,018,577, an increase of nearly $1 million to control over the mid- to long-term is to over fiscal 2018 (which was $13,041,633). A machinery in MRFs that clean up the recycling really re-educate their residents about proper large part of this increase comes from the stream, such as hoses. ordinary maintenance budget, which includes recycling practices,” said Nash In Fitchburg, Curry said he plans to try

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TAKING ACTION

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

feature education first. Then, if residents who have received tags giving them feedback on the contaminated material in the recycling carts continue to put trash in their recycling, they will not collect the recycling that week and will issue tickets. First offenses start at $50, and fines could be as high as $200. In most communities, Nash said, there is little resistance to the program. “On the ground, for the most part, people are accepting it,” she said. “It does generate some phone calls to city hall, but generally for the most part there’s information that’s provided that explains why this is a problem, so it does work.” In Lynn, for example, Nash said the haulers had to tag 72 percent fewer recycling bins at the end of the eight week program than it did in the first weeks. That meant there was less contamination. In the city as a whole, the trash tonnage went up 1 percent — meaning the program was working, since there was a bit more trash, as there probably should have been already. The 1 percent figure was also low enough to signal that residents were not giving up on recycling wholesale because their bins were tagged. Moosey and Fiore said Worcester does not plan to apply for the $40,000 grant to run the DEP IQ Kit program because, Moosey said, the DPW applies for other grants from the DEP each year. The DPW, he added, plans to use funds it was already awarded to develop a city-wide reeducation strategy for recycling. Of course, the rules for what can be recycled in Worcester are printed on the side of the yellow municipal trash bags that residents are required to use for trash pick-up, but few residents read their yellow trash bags on a weekly basis.

MOVING FORWARD

f every resident put only recyclable materials in their recycling bin, the recycling stream would be less contaminated and residents, haulers, and municipalities bear some responsibility. But there are a few complicating factors on the ground. “If you don’t put a recycling bin in front of [someone] when they need it at that second, they’re not going to recycle,” said Liz Tomaszweski, associate director of sustainability at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). “So you really have to make things convenient,” she said. Further, she said shifting regulations can prove confusing for those who are not paying

careful attention. “Our waster hauler defines for us what is recyclable, and that can change during the year,” she said of WPI’s contractor, Waste Management. Ultimately, though, Tomaszweski said students at WPI are concerned with reusing materials on campus or reducing use of certain items, such as straws and plastic bags, rather than focusing solely on recycling. A few years ago, WPI started bringing food waste to local pig farmers rather than throwing it away. As town officials look to clean up local recycling streams and keep recycling financially viable, reducing consumption might have to become part of the equation, too. In part, this is because other markets also affect the demand for recyclables as a commodity, and recyclers cannot assume there will always be a demand for all of their recyclables. “Because oil went down in price so significantly,” Knuth said, “I was told by plastic people that it was cheaper to make new plastic than it is to recycle now.” Knuth said. So reducing and reusing might also become ways to clean up the recycling stream by reducing the amount of waste we produce to contaminate it with in the first place. “Reduce, reuse, recycle is the hierarchy,” said Nash. “First, try to reduce. Reuse and repair whatever you can. Recycle what you can’t reduce or reuse.” But right now, she said, the DEP is laserfocused on spreading the message about cleaning up recycling bins. “What matters most is what people are putting in,” said Fusco. “If people put in a clean stream, a better stream, that is more than half the battle in producing the kind of materials that are going to be globally in demand.” While no one has mentioned going back to dual-stream recycling — that is, pushing residents to sort their recyclables into bins — that could be another solution. “I think that part of the contamination stream comes from the fact that we now have what’s called single stream recycling,” said Knuth. “Back before 2009, recycling was paper and cardboard one week, then the next week was glass and plastic, and I think people could clean it better … Now that it’s single stream, I think people toss a lot of stuff in the barrel.” If the recycling stream is not cleaned up, it might depend on haulers and MRFs to figure out how to clean it better. But that would require building new infrastructure to sort trash from recycling, and the cost would likely be passed down to taxpayers. Ultimately, Fusco said, “If we’re not able as a collective culture to produce material that’s recyclable, then it’s going to be a lot more expensive to recycle.”

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e s v t a r H B e a e r h t T PHOTOS BY ELIZABETH BROOKS

Above, Shawn Joslyn throwns the first pitch at the Bravehearts game on July 29. Left, Walter Bird Jr., editor of Worcester Magazine; Joslyn; Ed Niser, assistant public relations manager of Digital Federal Credit Union; Darryl Diamond, Shrewsbury Street branch manager; and Dave Peterson, general manager of the Worcester Bravehearts.

It was a pitch-perfect afternoon at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field Sunday, July 29, with the Worcester Bravehearts ready to take on the Bristol Blues in Futures Collegiate Baseball League Action. One of the highlights, however, came before the first pitch was thrown well, actually when the first pitch was thrown.

multiple setbacks and other challenges in a display of what is, in his case, quite literally the bravest heart. As the Bravest Heart, Joslyn won $500 from corporate sponsor Digital Federal Credit Union, season tickets to the Bravehearts in 2019, a team jersey and the baseball he tossed as the first pitch. Representatives from DCU, the Bravehearts and contest sponsor Worcester Magazine were on-hand and on the field for Joslyn’s big moment.

Worcester’s Shawn Joslyn, sporting a fresh new Bravehearts team jersey with his name emblazoned on the back, had the privilege of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch of the game as this year’s winner of the Worcester Magazine Bravest Heart contest. Joslyn is a heart Worcester Magazine thanks and recognizes all of the entries in this year’s Bravest Heart contest. Hope to see you all at the ballpark soon! transplant recipient who battled through congestive heart failure,

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culture

It’s heating up: POW! WOW! returns JOSHUA LYFORD

hen POW! WOW! Worcester was gearing up for its inaugural run back in 2016, there was a tentative interest throughout the community and an understandable reluctance on the part of many. After all, an open-air mural festival was a brand new concept. Now entering year three, residents and visitors to the heart of the commonwealth have had a chance to see the splashes of color throughout the city. With a slew of fundraising events, including the ARTcade Tournament featuring NBA Jam & Buckhunter at simjang, 72 Shrewsbury St., on Aug. 16, POW! WOW! Worcester is hoping the community once again says, “BOOMSHAKALAKA!” POW! WOW! Worcester runs Aug. 31 through Sept. 9. “The first year, painting walls was really new for Worcester and I think really shocking to some people, now we’re nearly 60 murals in, we have the most murals of any New England city,” said PWW marketing lead Amy Peterson. “We did that in two short years, that’s a big deal. What really started off as a modest mural project has grown into a community event. We have a lot of crowdsourcing and we have a lot of input from the community and this year we wanted to do something different. We have a lot of installation artists, so people will see more art in public space.” Part of that doing something different attitude is reflected in the festival’s mantra: more than walls. That manifests itself in the previously mentioned installation art, but also in the communities engaged. Last year, 17 murals were painted on the Elm Park Community School, sharing the art and artists with Worcester public School students. This year PWW doubles down on their partnership with the school. “We just announced that we’ll be painting the basketball court at Elm Park Community School, on top of the 17 murals that are on the school,” said Peterson. “It’s just different from what people have seen from us.” Events like the ARTcade serve as more than fundraisers for the operating costs of the open air mural festival, they also serve to re-acclimate the community after a year out of the public eye. “[ARTcade serves] as a reintroduction to POW! WOW! as we lead up to the festival,” said Peterson. “Over the last few years, I think we’ve made some good headway at building a brand around

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POW! WOW!, but it’s easy to sort of forget it once the festival comes and goes. So, [it serves] to reintroduce people to what we’re doing with the festival. “In terms of audience engagement, we’re trying to diversify some of the events that we do so we can reach different audiences and different demographics. We want to make sure we’re not just tunnel-vision as to who we’re talking to. We think that the arcade reaches one demographic whereas doing the Airspray events, the graffiti party, at Electric Haze reaches a totally different demographic.” An example of the diversity of events leading up to the week of PWW, on Tuesday, Aug. 7, an open air-spray paint night will be held at Ralph’s Diner, 148 Grove St. “We’re doing a paint night with Ghostbeard, who is a POW! WOW Worcester artist alum, over at Ralph’s,” said Peterson. “He’s going to be teaching people how to paint with a Montana spray paint can. It’s different than what you think of a paint night as. Those three events leading up to POW! WOW! are totally different. It’s about audience engagement.” With the ARTcade event at simjang, the goal is threefold: bring awareness to the return of PWW, raise funds for the event and finally, to show off the second-floor event space of the KoreanAmerican restaurant. “They already have some arcade games up there,” said Peterson. “They can host private functions, it’s an opportunity to show off a new space for them and show off some new food too. They’ll put out some appetizers and they can show off their abilities.” All funds raised by the ARTcade will directly benefit PWW, helping with paint supplies, artist accommodations and other material needs. Organizing the tournament is PWW committee member Jeremy Shulkin, who has a history with similar events. “I’m a big 90’s nostalgia fan, but NBA Jam wasn’t on that list,” Peterson said. “I was more of a Nintendo, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Brothers person. I actually still have an Atari. It’s not in the box, it’s not pristine. [Shulkin] has hosted events like this before, NBA Jam bracket style tournaments on his own, for fun. That’s why he’s taking the lead on this event.” Part of the overall purpose of PWW is, as the mantra implies, more than walls. It is a way to bring community members together, as well as a driver for visitors to the city. “It’s a traffic driver, getting people into the A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

Amy Peterson, marketing committee Lead of POW! WOW!, speaks to the importance of community building. ELIZABETH BROOKS

different bars and restaurants,” Peterson said. “POW! WOW! is about more than art. It’s about getting people into the city, getting the city exposed, walking around, experiencing Worcester. Whether they’re re-experiencing, maybe they grew up here, but haven’t been downtown or to

the canal district for awhile. If it’s the first time they’ve been to Worcester, it’s for POW! WOW!” Disclosure: Culture Editor Joshua Lyford serves on the POW! WOW! Worcester committee.

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Sturbridge-a day trip more than THIS WEEKEND IN STURBRIDGE

Support the riders of the Pan Mass Challenge, August 3rd and 4th at the Sturbridge Host Hotel

kay aking

...IN CONCLUSION: Remember way, way back in the first item where I mentioned OSV

antiquing

See over 1,000 re-enactors at Red Coats and Rebels at Old Sturbridge Village on August 4th and 5th

camping

Enjoy the Miltown Car Show at the Hamilton Rod and Gun Club on August 3rd and 4th Follow us on Twitter @visitsturbridge

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A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

would be significantly funnier. Alas (or, more likely for you, luckily), you are not in the screaming riot that is my brain. Regardless, Old Sturbridge Village is back at it again with a couple pieces of exciting news. First of all, if you missed it in years past, The Sleepy Hollow Experience is returning to the living history museum. We’ve run a few stories about the production since its inception and it really is amazing. At the time of its initial run, I had never tried any sort of experiential theatre and I was blown away. It just keeps getting better. Tickets sell out fast, so scoop some up immediately. Luckily, as Worcester Magazine has announced, they go on sale Thursday, Aug. 2. Production runs from Sept. 26-Nov. 4 and the set times would take up too much space in here, just head to Osv.org. Wait. I made it this far and didn’t really explain anything for my fellow plebeians. I’m sure you’re aware of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. Well, as it turns out, OSV is the perfect home to its grim (and, frankly, fun) tale. There is singing and dancing and the crowd interacts with the actors through much of it. It’s fun, spooky (not scary, though) and the finale is just amazing. I won’t spoil it hear, but um, keep your head up.

old stilluragberidge v

had some exciting news? Well, I hope you would know by now that I wouldn’t forget about that. Actually, if you follow this column I’m sure you assumed that I did forget and already moved on. Hmm. Self awareness > self confidence. Anywho, here’s one that’s right up my alley. One of my favorite periods of time to romanticize is the American Revolutionary War. It’s been a recurring theme since I was young, when I would read all about it and my dad would take me to Fort Ticonderoga on the VT/NY line ( fun fact, did you know that Benedict Arnold, who would later become the epitome of American traitor captured Ticonderoga from the British with Green Mountain Boy Ethan Allen? Well, I did and now you do too). I have a really hard time staying on topic. Luckily, that’s on brand for me, so we’re plowing ahead. OSV is hosting “Redcoats and Rebels” SaturdaySunday, Aug. 4-5 and nnnnph does it sound awesome. For the price of daytime admission, you get to see New England’s largest military reenactment when the village turns into a military camp for the weekend. It’s taking over the Village and I just know I’m going to be busy and that’s so sad. In a previous life, in a former band, I was lucky enough to join a group of Revolutionary War reenactors in a battle recreation for a music video. If you want to see video of my swinging a sword in the American blue while blood pours out of my mouth, track it down on YouTube.

PUCKS AND PLASMA: I want you all to know that this

is probably the best subhead I have, or ever will write. I’d like to thank the Academy for its support, my family for not disowning me after those weird photos came back from the develop, my friends for renegading Busch Lights on my behalf and dog (Brisco) for eating my precious valuables. Where was I? Ah yes! The Battle of the Badges (Round 2) is headed to the DCU Center, 50 Foster St., Thursday, Aug. 2. The Worcester Railers are sponsoring the event that pits the police versus the fire department in a battle to get more blood donations. Pretty great cause and, as far as I know, none of Joshua Lyford these people are even vampires. And the winning Culture editor team gets their jerseys worn by the Railers on @Joshachusetts Guns ‘N Hoses night, Saturday, Nov. 3.

culture Lifestyle SARAH CONNELL

Week, but in exchange for much smaller New Lunchtime Cafe Agrizzi is checks due to Option Downtown open for lunch the promoCafe Agrizzi marks a strong tional prices. addition to the downtown Servers and lunchtime scene. A display case bartenders holds plenty of grab-and-go will apprecioptions while the selection of ate a generous paninis and Brazilian pastries tip, as well as beckons guests to sit and stay in the promise the bright, airy space. General that you plan Manager Robert Lilley isn’t to make a return trip. Kitchens are often crushed afraid to make adjustments to the menu as Cafe Agrizzi’s objectives become more clear on Com- during Restaurant Week, so please be patient and remember that in exchange, you’re getting a highmercial Street. quality meal at a bang-up price.”

Worcester’s Very First BYOB Pub

With a fresh twist in the Hangover Pub’s Lifetime-original-level yarn (involving a toolbox of concealed cash hidden in a local church by an estranged business partner...), Broth of the Hangover Corporation has now been granted BYOB status. Don’t get any ideas; this isn’t the Wild West. A recent Instagram post displayed the handwritten message, “Welcome! Please bring your favorite beer or wine. You knew it was coming. We reserve the right to I.D. and shut you off.” I’m pulling for this local business to get back on its feet. Lifetime, are you out there? Get Damian Lewis and John Cena on the line. This story must be told.

Rap a Tap

Cameron Crowe’s 2005 film “Elizabethtown” has been deemed the worst movie of all time by many a critic. Call it poor taste, but I count it among my favorite films for one reason alone: Susan Sarandon’s tap dance number. At Worcester Public Library on Aug. 3, you’ll have your chance to live out your own wildest tap dance fantasies as you explore the history of Tap Dance with the book “Rap a Tap Tap-Think of That!” and learn a thing or two from Amy Toedt from Worcester’s Fred Astaire Dance Studio. Before you get too excited (before I get too excited, tbh), the recommended age range is 7-12 Fun starts at 11 a.m.

The Restaurant Week Commandments

Until Aug. 11, you can score three courses at your favorite spots for just $25.18. Restaurant Week is a great opportunity to experience the ambience and service of a ‘special occasion’ restaurant with an everyday price tag. Here are a few restaurant week reminders from our dining correspondent, Sandra Rain: “It’s easiest to course out a Restaurant Week experience if everyone in your party orders at once. Don’t forget that your servers are working even harder than usual on Restaurant

Game Time Decisions

Worcester is swiftly becoming a well-known entity in the world of game design. MassDiGI, SIP18, and Petricore Games will dazzle you with demos on Thursday, Aug. 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at The Grid downtown. Free play is brought to you by The Grid District and Doorbell.

Noble Nori

Baba Sushi raised $500 for Kids in the Congo (KIC) on July 19 when owner Wilson Wang

pledged 10 percent of his receipts for the entire day to KIC, based out of St. Anne Shrine in Sturbridge. “Our children have never known peace and stability in their lifetime,” said Lynne Brouillette, president of Kids in the Congo. “For many of them, getting an education is a dream come true. It is a way out of poverty that has trapped generations of Congolese families due to war and tribal violence.” According to Brouillette, the $500 raised by Baba Sushi and the Nielsens will educate 10 children for an entire year.

Playing with Produce

Fresh and local produce, meats, eggs, honey, syrup and jams are all at your fingertips this season thanks to the REC and Main South Community Development Corporation. University Park Farm Stand is open for business every Saturday from now through October. Family programming at the community space includes lawn games, live music, nature printing with ArtReach and Worcester Family Partnerships’ play group from 10-11 a.m. Cash, credit, debit, EBT/ SNAP, WIC, and Senior Coupons are all accepted.

AUGUST 10TH 11TH & 12TH AT OUR LADY OF LORETO CHURCH FOOD PEPE’S, ANZIO’S, BOULEVARD DINER, JD SHRIMP SHACK, MADULKA’S, AND GERARDO’S BAKERY. PLUS, FOOD BOOTHS FROM OUR PARISH INCLUDING SAUSAGE, FRIED DOUGH, COOKIES, HOTDOGS AND HAMBURGERS.

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Sarah Connell contributing writer A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

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A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

Worcester Gets Wise to the Jang 72 Shrewsbury St., Worcester 774-243-7750 • simjangworcester.com SANDRA RAIN

he most sophisticated restaurant in Worcester serves $6 corn dogs. Be wary of anyone who doesn’t believe you when you tell them this. These are corn dogs grounded in sustainable agriculture, waste reduc-

Wood-grilled summer squash with garlic scapes, nectarine and mint. tion and heart. These are honorable corn dogs and they are only the beginning. Simjang is the city’s ceremonious loon, soaring high overhead and then plunging gamely into uncharted waters day in and day out. They are loony in other respects as well. In their maddening refusal to adhere to the rules of capitalization on any sort of PR literature. In the sugar cane press that churns out absurdly labor intensive (and likewise amusing) tiki cocktails. There’s a prankish bent in the atmosphere. There’s a glowing neon eggplant to denote the little boy’s room and a peach for the girls. Simjang’s contemporary American-Korean ethos goes deeper than kimchi and and barbecue. Co-owner Jared Forman spent three years with world-famous Korean-American chef David Chang at momofuku ssäm bar during the start of his career. As such, there is no shortage of heart or history at “the jang.” The oyster bar beckons to guests from the street, playing second home to briny Puffer’s Petites from Wellfleet and plump Glidden Points hand harvested from the Damariscotta River by scuba divers. Oysters ($21 for a half dozen) arrive with limes rather than lemons, a fish sauce mignonette and a gochujang cocktail sauce. The fermented condiment, gochujang, appears frequently throughout simjang’s menu, bringing a floral lift and subtle heat to a number of dishes,

including one iteration of their fried chicken. Order family style. Apply the banchan as your meal unfolds, piling little bundles of funky mushrooms and spicy cukes onto your chicken fried onion and “kimcheez” burger ($13). Take your time untangling the striper crudo ($14), which has been carefully bound up like ribbon candy and adorned with paper thin cherry rounds. Pinch at the supple bits of raw beef tartare ($15) dotted with custard like yolks and charred scallions. Somehow, the local red radishes ($7) keep pace, but it isn’t for the shrimp butter as much as it is for the greens powdered with furikake – a bold, dried fish seasoning. The chop chae ($9) cold sweet potato noodles pop with bursts of chili and mint. The blistered shishito peppers ($10) are sprinkled with pickle brine that has been dehydrated and pulverized into a fermented fairydust along with the gratings from a house cured pork loin. Simjang takes pleasure in vegetables. I could dine on the soy braised peanuts alone, plucked from their skinny green stalks of grilled yu chyoi ($9). Amidst the wood-grilled cauliflower ($16) you’ll find itsy-bitsy caramelized local Jonah crabs that I yearn to toss into my mouth like handfuls of Captain Crunch. And, the wood-grilled summer squash ($11) is downright foxy, dressed up with garlic scapes, mint and slivers of nectarine. For optimum sustenance, you’ll find smoked pork ribs ($14) that fall off the bone under the weight of pistachios and a sticky Korean black bean paste called chunjang. Relish the whole grilled dorade ($24) as you pass it around the table, each guest pulling apart pieces of tender white flesh with his or her own chopsticks and dipping them into the herbaceous green empress sauce. Be warned, the pork belly bossam ($19) may very well end you. The Arlin Graff mural, the love lock bridge, the upstairs game room, and even the black-raspberry-lemon-balm soft serve make me feel like simjang should be the hottest party in town, but more often than not, I arrive to find the dining room relatively quiet. On my last visit, the daughter of one of the most highly-regarded New York Times op-ed columnists in history sat at a nearby table. ‘How is it,’ I asked, ‘that she has caught on from so far afield and the locals have not?’ If it is for fear of exotic cuisine that the crowds have stayed away, then it’s time for Worcesterites to bite the bibimbap. If it is for fear of white men making Korean food, then I think the heartfelt note on the backside of simjang’s menu does a nice job addressing that. It reads, “This is not a take on a Korean grandmother’s idea of food, but we would love to have her over for dinner.” I hope everyone and their grandma decides to take them up on their offer. On my last visit with five friends, our bill came to $291.04 including drinks and 12 shared courses.

Food: HHHHH Atmosphere: HHHH1/2 Service: HHHHH Value: HHHHH

culture Maximum Tom JIM KEOGH

ee Tom. See Tom run. See Tom run, dodge bullets, drive fast, jump from really high places, kill men, love women, get in a fistfight near a urinal, wrestle with Superman, ram a helicopter into another helicopter, and sort of acknowledge he’s getting older while remaining more advanced than anyone else with human DNA. See Tom in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” if you want to witness him do all of the above, and do it very well. “MIF” is a punch-in-the-ribs pastiche of Tom Cruise’s sinewy career, stitching together stuff we’ve loved from his best action movies — hell, he was messing with helicopters in the first “Mission: Impossible.” It’s a propulsive, engorged cinematic experience, wired for sound and movement and demanding to be watched on as large a screen as you can get to. I lost track of the plot

somewhere, but I’ve endured greater tragedies in movie theaters. All that matters is if there’s a cliff — physical or metaphorical — Tom will hang from it. And the guy hangs like nobody’s business. The story involves a terrorist organization coming into possession of enough plutonium to blow up a good-sized chunk of the world and

the motive to do it (some blather about ushering in a New World Order). IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes the case alongside his two-man crew of gadget guru Benji (Simon Pegg) and tech savant Luther (Ving Rhames). The CIA also saddles him an unwanted third party, August Walker (Henry Cavill), a younger, stronger, brasher version of Ethan, but with a missing empathy chip (Cavill looks even meatier in a business suit than he does in his Man of Steel costume). August is all muscular hostility. As a CIA official points out, he’s the hammer to Ethan’s scalpel. Like “Mad Max: Fury Road,” the violent momentum in “MIF” approaches a kind of visual poetry. Just about the entire movie involves the simple act of getting from Point A to Point B, with director Christopher McQuarrie (who also directed Cruise in “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” and “Jack Reacher”) staging spectacular chase sequences through the streets and atop the rooftops of Paris. A helicopter joust between the mountains of Kashmir is one for the books, wonderfully implausible and as thrilling as anything you’ll see this year. The hand-to-hand combat, especially a volcanic brawl inside a men’s room, proves equally impressive. “MIF” has some fun with the Cruise filmograhy, winking at plot points from earlier MI movies and some his other films (including a

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

lifted exchange from “A Few Good Men” punctuated with the word “crystal”). There are, of course, rubber masks (and unmaskings) and double and triple crossings that turn downright giddy. Ethan, for the first time, shows the strains of saving the world. Yeah, he’s good, but the punches don’t connect with the same force as they used to, and his personal past is hampering his trigger reflex. That’s good. His armor’s got chinks. Now, Ethan’s next mission, should he choose to accept it, is to convince us he’s a man, not a superman. *** The Cinema 320 summer schedule continues this week with “En El Séptimo Día,” which follows a group of undocumented immigrants living in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, over the course of seven days. The film will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and at 1 and 2:50 p.m. Sunday in the Jefferson Academic Center at Clark University. Jim Keogh contributing writer

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calendar Thursday, Aug. 2 Out to Lunch series: The Pat Gaulin Band

Worcester Common Oval, 455 Main St. The summer concert series continues on the common with food trucks, local vendors, a farmers market and music provided by The Pat Gaulin Band.

Friday, Aug. 3 Free Fun Friday at the Worcester Historical Museum

Worcester Historical Museum, 30 Elm St. Presented by the Highland Street Foundation, the Worcester Historical Museum opens its doors free of charge on Friday.

Friday, Aug. 3 Main IDEA 2018 Friday Night Showcase

Clark University: Atwood Hall, 950 Main St. Main IDEAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eighth annual showcase. The organization benefiting Main Street youth through music and art. Event includes a live performance, tours, silent auction, youth art exhibit and hors dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;oeuvres.

Saturday, Aug. 4 Massachusetts Pirates home game

DCU Center, 50 Foster St. The Massachusetts Pirates return home to take on the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks on Saturday, Aug. 4 at 7 p.m.

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A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

Friday, Aug. 3 Worcester Bravehearts

Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field, 1 College St. The last regular season home game of the year is pitched at 7 p.m. Additionally, there will be fireworks.

calendar Sunday, Aug. 5 Gin Blossoms

The Score

Indian Ranch, 200 Gore Road Webster American rock favorites Gin Blossoms head to Indian Ranch with opener Dalton & The Sheriffs.

Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 4-5 Redcoats and Rebels

Old Sturbridge Village, 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, Sturbridge For the price of a regular daytime admission at Old Sturbridge Village, check out the largest military reenactment in New England! With over 1,000 soldiers, the village transforms into a military camp during the Revolutionary War.

Worcester Bravehearts July 25 The Bravehearts fell on the road to the North Shore Navigators, 5-1. July 26 In Brockton, the Bravehearts crushed the Rox, 12-3. July 27 Returning home to play the team they’re chasing in the standings, the Bravehearts lost a lead and fell, 8-7, to the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks. July 28 The Bravehearts and Suns got through three innings before rain forced the doubleheader to be canceled. July 29 The Bravehearts couldn’t hold onto a lead, falling to the Bristol Blues, 7-5, in a game that saw coach J.P. Pyne ejected after arguing with the home plate umpire, who had earned the fans’ ire for several questionable calls during the game. July 31 The Bravehearts, battling to secure a first-round bye in the playoffs, scored a 5-1 win over the first-place Martha’s Vineyard Sharks. (The Bravehearts were scheduled to take on the Brockton Rox Wednesday, Aug. 1 and the Nashua Silver Knights, Thursday, Aug. 2, with both games on the road. The team returns home Friday, Aug. 3 to take on the Sharks in the first of a home-andhome, finishing the regular season on the Vineyard against the Sharks Saturday, Aug. 4)

Tuesday, Aug. 7 Rainbow Supper Club with Dale LePage

Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester 90 Holden St. On Aug. 7, the weekly lunch and supper club event for LGBT Older Adults welcomes Dale LePage after a nutritious meal. Reservations are required.

MASSACHUSETTS PIRATES July 28 The Pirates, on the road in Florida, lost, 45-36, to the Jacksonville Sharks. (Upcoming: The Pirates wrap up the regular season at home Saturday, Aug. 4, 7 p.m., against the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, a team they have beaten three times already this season.

The Round-Up

The Worcester Railers added some off-ice talent with the hiring of Becker College grad Tommy Nourie as an account executive.

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

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culture

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.

EAST DOUGLAS PHOTOGRAPHY

Orange cats are mostly males with gentle natures; the rare orange females are the opposite. They are saucy – pet me twice not three times; leave me alone, I’m busy; why aren’t you paying attention to me? Quinn is the typical orange female. She doesn’t like change. She was a feisty cat for quite awhile after she came to WARL. She relaxed fairly quickly when we gave her a room to explore. You must give Quinn a room when you take her home. She will tell you when she is ready to come out. That’s what happened here. For several days she growled at us when we offered to pet her in her room, then one day she walked over to a staff member and demanded to have her head rubbed. Quinn is 6 years old, spayed and current with her vaccines.

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A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

games “Make Room”--your limbs will thank you. by Matt Jones

JONESIN’

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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Across 1 “There ___ there there” (Gertrude Stein comment on Oakland) 5 Go to the mat, slangily 11 Dog breeders’ org. 14 Unknown, as a citation (abbr.) 15 Stella ___ (Belgian beer) 16 ___ Locks (Sault Ste. Marie waterway) 17 Amorphous amounts 18 “Oh, crud!” 19 It looks like 2 in binary 20 Tootsie Roll Pop biter, in a classic ad 21 Chops into cubes 22 Word after blessed or catered 24 “Hush!” 26 Ornate 27 Bengal beast 28 Upper limit 30 Milan-based fashion label 31 Got a hold of, maybe 32 1960s campus protest gp. restarted in 2006 33 Sounding like a complete ass? 35 Tax pro 38 Bluegrass artist Krauss 39 Message on a tablet, maybe? 41 “And Still I Rise” poet 43 Shelve indefinitely 44 Larry, e.g. 45 Vacation vehicles 48 Uniform preceder? 49 Metallic mix 50 Close 52 Singer-songwriter Rita with the middle name Sahatçiu 53 Grocery sign phrase that’s grammatically questionable 55 Steve of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” 56 Elan 57 ___ bag 58 Go around 59 New Orleans-to-Miami dir. 60 Equilibrium situations 61 1990s point-and-click puzzle game Down 1 Foe of Othello 2 Part-time Arizona resident, perhaps

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 21 23 25 26 27 29 31 34 35 36 37

38 Intensely eager Xenon, e.g. 40 Ewe in the movie “Babe” Put-___ (shams) 41 Pioneering video game systems Ulnae’s neighbors 42 Generic “It’s ___ to the finish” 44 Back burner location Take advantage of room, or demonstrate what four themed 46 “Westworld” character ___ Down answers do? Hughes Beau and Jeff, to Lloyd Bridges 47 Mr. Potato Head pieces Number in a Roman pickup? 49 Seaweed plant She played one of the “Golden 51 Body shop challenge Girls” 54 Spoil Shipboard direction 55 Withdrawal site Chekov portrayer on “Star Trek” “See next page” abbr. Purchases designed to last a long Last week's solution time Null’s companion Math proof ending Sawyer’s friend “Decorates” a house on Halloween, perhaps Irish-born children’s book author Colfer El ___, Texas Provoke Jim Carrey title role, with “The” Some light beers “Cakes and ___” (W. Somerset ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) Maugham book) Reference puzzle #895

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

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(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. DMH

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LEGALS WORCESTER HOUSING AUTHORITY ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS/PROPOSALS 08/02/2018 SEALED BIDS shall be received at the Purchasing Office, 69 Tacoma Street., Worcester, MA 01605 IFBs may be picked up at the location above or may be downloaded from our website: www.worcesterha.org/, or call (508) 635-3202/3203, TTY/TDD (508) 798-4530. Bidders are responsible for ensuring they have received any/all addenda prior to submitting a bid. Separate awards will be made for each IFB. WHA reserves the right to reject any or all responses, in whole or in part, deemed to be in their best interest. Award of all contracts is subject to the approval of the WHA Executive Director or Board of Commissioners. The Operating Agency shall indemnify and hold harmless the WHA and its officers or agents from any and all third party claims arising from activities under these Agreements as set forth in MGL c.258, section 2 as amended. Bid No. Release Date Project Title Bid Opening 18-25 8/3/2018 Paint and Plastering Supplies 2:00 PM August 23, 2018 18-26 8/2/2018 Glass Replacement Materials (Dual/Triple Pane) 2:00 PM August 21, 2018 Jackson Restrepo Chief Procurement Officer Visit our website at: www.worcesterha.org

classifieds LEGALS Invitation For Bids The Worcester Housing Authority invites sealed bids for Elevator Modernization at 1050 Main St., Worcester, MA 12-15 Webster Square Tower East in accordance with the documents prepared by CBI Consulting, LLC. The work is estimated to cost $590,000. Project consists of but is not limited to: The complete modernization of (2) existing elevators including cabs, machine motors, weights, cables, other accessories, and equipment. Installing a louver in the hoistway in an existing brick masonry wall with flashings and lintel. Building a fire rated wall and door and fabricating a door sign. Replacement of dampers and installation of wall mounted cooling unit with condenser on sleepers on existing roof. One File Sub-Bid is required in the “Elevator” category. General Bidders must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in the following categories of work: General Building Construction. General Bids will be received until 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 30, 2018 at the Worcester Housing Authority, Department of Modernization, 81 Tacoma Street, Worcester, MA 01605 at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud. Filed Sub-Bids will be received until 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 16, 2018, and publicly opened and read aloud at the same address. Filed sub-bids will be taken for the following portions of work: Section 14 21 00 Traction Elevators One pre-bid conference will be held, one at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 in the front lobby of 1050 Main St. Street, Worcester, MA 01603. The Worcester Housing Authority strongly recommends attending, at which time bidders will visit the project site(s) with a Worcester Housing Authority representative. Failure to attend or visit the premises shall be no defense in failure to perform contract terms. Bids are subject to M.G.L c149 §44A-J and Davis Bacon wage rates as well as other applicable laws. General Bidders must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in the following category of work: General Building Construction. Filed Sub-Bidders must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in the following category(ies) of work: Elevators. Each bid shall be accompanied by a bid deposit in the amount of 5% of the bid price in the form of a Bid Bond, issued by a responsible surety company licensed to do business in Massachusetts, or a certified check, or a treasurer’s or cashier’s check issued by a responsible bank or trust company, made payable to the Worcester Housing Authority by bidders for the greatest possible bid amount. Bid forms and Contract Documents will be made available on the Worcester Housing Authority website (http://worcesterha.org/currentbids.html) at no cost. Hard copies will be made available on August 1, 2018 at the Worcester Housing Authority, Department of Modernization, 81 Tacoma Street, Worcester, MA 01605 and thereafter, Monday thru Friday 8:00 A.M. through 4:30 P. M. Copies of the contract documents may be obtained by depositing $50.00 in the form of a company check, made payable to the Worcester Housing Authority, for each set of documents so obtained. The amount of the deposit will be refunded to each person who returns the plans, specifications and other documents in good condition within ten (10) days after bid opening. Bidders requesting contract documents to be mailed to them should include a separate check in the amount of $40.00 for each set payable to the Worcester Housing Authority to cover mailing and handling costs. The contract documents may be seen, but not removed at: 1. Worcester Housing Authority, Department of Modernization, 81 Tacoma Street, Worcester, MA 01605 2. F.W. Dodge, 24 Hartwell Ave., Lexington, MA 02173 3. Reed Construction Data, 30 Technology Parkway South, Norcross, GA 30092 4. Project Dog, 18 Graf Road Unit #8 Plan Room, Newburyport, MA 01950 Attention is called to the following: 1. Provisions of Equal Employment Opportunity; 2. Provisions for payment of not less than the minimum wages as set forth in the Specifications; 3. Provisions of Chapter 14, Acts of 1966, Imposing a Temporary Sales Tax, Section 1, Subsection 6 (d) and (k) exempting the Authority from the operation of such a chapter; 4. Requirement to furnish and pay for a Performance Bond and a Labor and Materials Bond as set forth in the specifications, 5. Insurance certificate indicating coverage for public liability, property damage and workers compensation, in accordance with the contract requirements, must be filed by the successful bidder upon signing of the contract. The contract will be awarded to the responsible and eligible bidder with the lowest proposed contract price including the dollar amount of all accepted alternates. Questions regarding this project shall be submitted in writing 1 week prior to opening by noon time and emailed to ModBids@worcesterha.org Reference the WHA Job No. 2017-23 only in the subject line. Worcester Housing Authority Joseph P. Carlson, Chairman DATE: August, 2018

Invitation For Bids

The Worcester Housing Authority invites sealed bids for Elevator Modernization at 275 Pleasant Street, Worcester, MA 12-05 Pleasant Tower Apartments in accordance with the documents prepared by CBI Consulting, LLC. The work is estimated to cost $582,000. Project consists of but is not limited to: The complete modernization of (2) existing elevators including cabs, machine motors, weights, cables, other accessories, and equipment. Installing a louver in the hoistway in an existing brick masonry wall with flashings and lintel. Building a fire rated wall and door and fabricating a door sign. Replacement of dampers and installation of wall mounted cooling unit with condenser on sleepers on existing roof. One File Sub-Bid is required in the “Elevator” category. General Bidders must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in the following categories of work: General Building Construction. General Bids will be received until 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 30, 2018 at the Worcester Housing Authority, Department of Modernization, 81 Tacoma Street, Worcester, MA 01605 at which time and place all bids will be publicly opened and read aloud. Filed Sub-Bids will be received until 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 16, 2018, and publicly opened and read aloud at the same address. Filed sub-bids will be taken for the following portions of work: Section 14 21 00 Traction Elevators One pre-bid conference will be held, one at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 in the front lobby at 275 Pleasant Street, Worcester, MA 01609. The Worcester Housing Authority strongly recommends attending, at which time bidders will visit the project site(s) with a Worcester Housing Authority representative. Failure to attend or visit the premises shall be no defense in failure to perform contract terms. Bids are subject to M.G.L c149 §44A-J and Davis Bacon wage rates as well as other applicable laws. General Bidders must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in the following category of work: General Building Construction. Filed Sub-Bidders must be certified by the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) in the following category(ies) of work: Elevators. Each bid shall be accompanied by a bid deposit in the amount of 5% of the bid price in the form of a Bid Bond, issued by a responsible surety company licensed to do business in Massachusetts, or a certified check, or a treasurer’s or cashier’s check issued by a responsible bank or trust company, made payable to the Worcester Housing Authority by bidders for the greatest possible bid amount. Bid forms and Contract Documents will be made available on the Worcester Housing Authority website (http://worcesterha. org/currentbids.html) at no cost. Hard copies will be made available on Wednesday August 1, 2018 at the Worcester Housing Authority, Department of Modernization, 81 Tacoma Street, Worcester, MA 01605 and thereafter, Monday thru Friday 8:00 A.M. through 4:30 P. M. Copies of the contract documents may be obtained by depositing $50.00 in the form of a company check, made payable to the Worcester Housing Authority, for each set of documents so obtained. The amount of the deposit will be refunded to each person who returns the plans, specifications and other documents in good condition within ten (10) days after bid opening. Bidders requesting contract documents to be mailed to them should include a separate check in the amount of $40.00 for each set payable to the Worcester Housing Authority to cover mailing and handling costs. The contract documents may be seen, but not removed at: 1. Worcester Housing Authority, Department of Modernization, 81 Tacoma Street, Worcester, MA 01605 2. F.W. Dodge, 24 Hartwell Ave., Lexington, MA 02173 3. Reed Construction Data, 30 Technology Parkway South, Norcross, GA 30092 4. Project Dog, 18 Graf Road Unit #8 Plan Room, Newburyport, MA 01950 Attention is called to the following: 1. Provisions of Equal Employment Opportunity; 2. Provisions for payment of not less than the minimum wages as set forth in the Specifications; 3. Provisions of Chapter 14, Acts of 1966, Imposing a Temporary Sales Tax, Section 1, Subsection 6 (d) and (k) exempting the Authority from the operation of such a chapter; 4. Requirement to furnish and pay for a Performance Bond and a Labor and Materials Bond as set forth in the specifications, 5. Insurance certificate indicating coverage for public liability, property damage and workers compensation, in accordance with the contract requirements, must be filed by the successful bidder upon signing of the contract. The contract will be awarded to the responsible and eligible bidder with the lowest proposed contract price including the dollar amount of all accepted alternates. Questions regarding this project shall be submitted in writing 1 week prior to opening by noon time and emailed to Mod-Bids@ worcesterha.org Reference the WHA Job No. 2017-11 only in the subject line. Worcester Housing Authority Joseph P. Carlson, Chairman DATE: August, 2018

A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

last call Tim Pilleri and Lance Reenstierna podcasters

im Pilleri and Lance Reenstierna produce three very successful truecrime podcasts right here in the city of Worcester, including “Missing Maura Murray,” “Empty Frames,” and “Crawlspace.” The first episode of their documentary series about Maura Murray’s disappearance will be available on Amazon later this month. The duo is also eager to unearth some of Worcester’s own mysteries for a future project. Don’t be a stranger if you’ve got any hot tips.

Can you describe your career trajectories? TP: We met in 2002 doing murder mystery dinner theater. These were comedy shows that Lance was writing and directing, and I had just received an associate’s degree from Middlesex Community College for acting. I was a terrible student in high school, but I was around public access my whole life. Editing and cameras and things like that had always been common to me. We moved on to some short films. We did a feature film. I lived in LA at some point during that period for a decade trying to act. I just didn’t really like the auditioning process. Instead, I worked the production side and then got rolls that way. LR: Tim was part of a cutting-edge company back then when it comes to the start of webi-

sodes and doing the Youtube thing. TP: That was back in like 2007. And then we started this Maura Murray documentary in 2013. The idea was to document the people who were obsessed with the case.

I’m only on Episode 5 of “Missing Maura Murray,” but I can’t stop. I started listening to the podcast while I was running on the Rail Trail yesterday and I freaked myself out a little bit. LR: Don’t run outside anymore. You must be a little paranoid at this point. LR: Sure. Yeah, well we never originally thought that we could actually make a difference in the case when we first looked at it about six years ago. Especially then, it didn’t seem like it could be solved. I found James Renner’s blog. He epitomizes the obsession with Maura Murray. He lives in Ohio. TP: We’ve connected with him on a number of occasions, like at CrimeCon. I’m sorry, is that like Comic-Con for true crime? Lots of Capote-worship and seances? TP: A lot of Golden State Killer-talk this year.

Podcast hosts’ Tim Pilleri, left, and Lance Reenstierna. ELIZABETH BROOKS

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A U G U S T 2 - 8, 2018

I’m really into the podcast “My Favorite Murder,” and Karen and Georgia sign off every episode, “Stay sexy. Don’t get murdered.” Do you ever feel as if you’ve made yourselves targets? Like, you’ve put yourselves in a precarious position by getting so close to a real case? TP: We’ve definitely thought about that. LR: It has crossed my mind. TP: I think it makes us safer, actually. I think if we do what we do, we’re hyper-aware. I’m more observant now than I ever have been. If someone’s looking at me on the street I actually memorize their license plate now; things like that never happened to me before. I never thought about the world that way. LR: It doesn’t make me feel unsafe. I mean, I think you’d have to be pretty dumb to listen to a podcast and then go out and hurt the host. But then again, that’s probably me underestimating.

Do you find yourself constantly looking for Maura? Like, when you go into a grocery store? TP: Not Anymore. Not really anymore. LR: In the early days when we first got involved with the case, you did end up looking. TP: If you think she’s alive, then you will start to see her everywhere. Have you finished the documentary about Maura Murray’s obsessive following? Where can we watch it? LR: When Oxygen’s production company approached us about doing their own show, we decided that their show could do way more than we could to put eyes on the case. TP: That was when we put our documentary on hold because of the conflict of interest with Oxygen’s project about the case. Like Lance said, there was a former U.S. marshall who was working on the show and investigative journalists, too. There are a lot of resources available to a million-dollar show that we knew would be important to the case. We could have been like, “Whatever,” to the show and released our own documentary in 2016, but ultimately, I think it kind of helped us focus on what the original intent of our own project was. We had started thinking, ‘Is this an investigation documentary?’ And it really would have become that, but it would not have been as good as the Oxygen one. I think their project helped us focus on our

own thesis: a documentary about obsession that happens to deal with a very mysterious disappearance. It will be coming out on Amazon in August. Right now we have four episodes edited with probably six more to release over the next year. Do you know how many people go missing in this country every year? LR: Just for women alone, it’s 70,000 unidentified or missing. So what makes Maura’s case so compelling for so many people? LR: I think because when you first look at Maura and her family, it reminds people so much of themselves and their families. There wasn’t anything very outrageous about her and her upbringing. It was very reminiscent for a big cross-section of people in this country. She wasn’t perfect. You could look at her and say, “Oh, that could have been my sister or could have been my girlfriend.” Can you give me a brief overview of Crawlspace? TP: We cover Brianna Maitland’s disappearance. We also work on the John Giuca wrongful conviction case. Pretty wild story. His mom went undercover to try to get to know one of the jurors who sent him to jail for life and she actually got recordings of him admitting that he lied about the evidence that put John away. LR: There was a weird phenomenon in Boston where men generally between 18 and 24 years old would be pulled from the Charles River. People thought it was a serial killer. We did a couple of episodes on that. The thing I love about podcasting is that you’ve got a captive audience. People are washing the dishes or they’re out for a run or they’re driving. LR: My sister told me, “I listen to you every night and it helps me fall asleep.” Thank you again for meeting with me. TP: Did you walk here? LR: Are you sure you don’t want a ride? No thank you. Don’t worry, I’m very scrappy. — Sarah Connell

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