Reader Submitted Questions
???????????????
November 2009
Have enough people bought Ski passes through your group so that you can hold a drawing for a free Bronze Century Pass?
Yes, but you need to make sure you are in our group. We’ve officially sold ten passes so are able to raffle a free Bronze Century Pass, but we’re not sure everyone who meant to buy a pass under our group name is officially listed as part of our group. If we don’t have your name, you won’t be included in the raffle.
Apparently thanks to our newsletter being paperless with no GPS pass forms pre-filled out by me, the group coordinator (sorry WMA), our readers have signed up under a variety of group names, such as “the vine” , “community vine”, just the word “vine”, as well as “ J shenk” and “Jen Shenk” or with no group name on the application. Since the ski area is receiving between 75 – 200 online requests a day for season tickets, plus all the walk-ins or mailed in forms, it’s quite possible that people meant to sign up as part of our group but weren’t placed in that group.
Below are listed the names (in code) of who we officially have in our group, which required some detective work to even find all these names. If you bought a pass and meant to sign up for our group but aren’t listed, notify me at once via email or phone. For any of you yet to buy your pass, list the group as “Westminster Vine” with the coordinator as “Jennifer Shenk”. Don’t abbreviate, as the computer systems at the ski area requires an exact match.
People we have in our group right now, with first initial followed by the first four letters of your last name (the code is for privacy purposes).
CBAIL, DBOYA, HCOND, KCOTT, SLADU, MMCFA, MMUSC,
JSHEN, JSUTE, LSUTE, SSUTE, EWEIN, MWEIN, AWHIT
Remember, if you aren’t on the list you won’t be in the drawing, which will be held this coming Monday, in plenty of time for anyone who didn't win to purchase their other passes. JSHEN isn’t eligible to win, by the way.
October 2009
Who will be doing the babysitting at this Saturday's Grand Finale 250th Event at the Wachusett Village Inn?
We asked Peter Vynne, General Manager at the Wachusett Village Inn. He responded that three female Wachusett Village Inn employees (one of whom will be dressed as Cinderella) will be providing supervision for the kids' activities. They will be assisted by a group of Oakmont's Peer Leaders.
Is there a Halloween bonfire at the Public Safety Building this year?
According to Kyle Butterfield of the Westminster Fire Department, the traditional Town Bonfire will be held on Saturday, October 31st shortly after 7pm when Trick or Treating is over.
Three readers have asked about unknown vehicles in their neighborhoods. I asked Police Chief Sam Albert how to tell if they're working for the town.
"We have 9 different individuals out doing these assessments on homes. These people have ID’s and letters issued to them from Town Hall. We also have the names and vehicle descriptions here at the police station to verify if a complaint comes in. We have had a number of calls because these individuals drive slow and take pictures of the homes."
The non-emergency number for the police department is 978 874 2933 if you have any questions about unknown vehicles.
September 2009
Please explain why there are there so many orange arrows painted on Town Farm Road.
According to Josh Hall, Westminster DPW Director, the town is still working on cleanup due to the December ice storm. They have completed the ground debris cleanup and are now working on removing hazardous trees and hanging limbs. The arrows on the road indicate whether a tree is to be cut down or have a hanging limb removed. If the arrow has a dot at the end of it, it indicates a hanging limb to be removed. If it has an X at the end of it, the tree will be removed.
A reader noticed that when drivers are sitting on Bacon Street at the traffic lights waiting to take a left onto Main Street, they sometimes sit there at a red light for what seems like eternity. The Main Street light stays green, or it turns yellow and then back to green, meaning that the other light (coming out of Bacon Street) just stays red. This doesn't happen all the time but it seems that it's been happening more lately.
Again, we asked Josh Hall, Westminster DPW Director, to explain why this is happening. He indicated that this has been an issue for some time now. The Massachusetts Highway Department has been out multiple times to correct this. The lights are operated based on a wire loop in the pavement that detects a vehicle. If working correctly, a timer is triggered to allow the light to turn green. The times are most likely different on Bacon and Main Street (Main Street has more traffic). One issue is the parking of vehicles on the library side of Bacon Street, from Main Street down Bacon Street. This will cause the wire loop to detect the parked vehicles and possibly cause the lights to not work properly.
Note to readers: send us your specific observations about this problem when you see it happen...where were other cars (parked and/or moving), how many cycles did the lights go through, etc. Email or use the form below.