Jenn, Sad? Are you for real? I too have lived "ALL" my life in in town and I'm not sad to say I'm from Northbridge. If not having a turf field is enough to make you ashamed of living somewhere then you truely are a sad individual. If you feel your kids "deserve" a $900,000.00 turf field then by all means, go ahead and use all of your efforts and resources to accomplish that feat. Please don't cry boo-hoo-hoo and claim that you are "ashamed" to be from your/our beloved town if things don't go your way. Northbridge is a perennial Super Bowl contendor not because of it's facilities, but because of it's people. Their success doesn't depend upon wether the field is muddy, dusty, or thick lush and green............it depends on Kenny, his program, the coaches, the kids and the parents who brought them up. A plastic playing surface has no bearing on their future successes or failures. _______________________ As a side note: I feel that it wasn't about not spending the $900k on turf and feel that if they tried for $1.5 million for the roads it would have passed. It was't the amount of money, it's what it was being spent on. View Comment

Poor Northbridge...................we're stuck with Jimbo the drama queen for 3 more years. :( View Comment

Joe has got my vote! View Comment

Great project, wrong time. View Comment

perhaps......possibly.......maybe Juggy could go down and grill them some hot dogs and burgers at lunch time. ;) View Comment

Juggy, I'd respond to your statement but I'm not even sure if it is written in english. (insert cinfused/rolling eyes emoticon here) View Comment

Let's get the ball rolling on this and keep it going till it's built. Good job Mr. Shuris! View Comment

Juggy, Maybe...possibly.......potentially...........suggestively........... Douglas Rd. site is developing a piece of raw land versus the Fletcher St. site is redevelopment of a previously developed site. Ther are different giudelines for those entirely different circumstances. View Comment

Great project......wrong time. With all of the other things such as roads, DPW & Fire Depts. facilities and equipment that have been neglected for so long their time has come. Lets take care of the essential infrastructure that the town relies on rather than splurge on a "sexy" new field. What does selectman Marzec really think the financial benefit to downtown Whitinsville will be if we spend nearly one million dollars on a synthetic playing surface? The most that could be hoped for is that it would bring in a few Tournaments a year. The supposed benefit to downtown would be what? That Harry's & Subway could sell some additional sandwhiches. It will do nothing for the likes of Aubuchons, Sports Minded, The Fish Guy, Welcoming Lantern, The 87 diner, or much of the other business in the section of town Mr. Marzec speaks of. Take the $900k and add it to the $625k proposed for the roads and then we will see some real economic stimulus with the people of Northbridge spending their hard earned money on things other than front-end alignments, strut & shock replacement and new tires every other year because of the atrocious goat paths we call roads. View Comment

Way to go George!!! While you are at it send Cadillac a second letter asking him to review the way that public subsidized housing is dolled out too. Maybe ICE can put Aunt Touney on the same plane as Uncle Ony. View Comment

Juggy, It was brought up that the 09/28/11 Con Comm. meeting that the Fletcher Street may "possibly" not be able to be redeveloped as a park because of the contamination. It was suggested that redevelopment of the site as a DPW facility would likely be the best use for it. In the same meeting TM Kozak also suggested that the Prov. Rd. site was too costly to develop because of the improvements to the (your) RR Xing that would be required. Two strikes for you there..........possibly.......potentially........maybee..............."possible reality"........but no "Guuarante" View Comment

I'll take you up on that. I say it passes. If it does pass you have to take Juggy out to dinner at Feng's and you pay. If it doesn't pass you have to go to dinner with Juggy at Feng's and I'll pay for it. ;-) View Comment

The Field project is a great project and should be done but now is not the time. Get the DPW done and get the plan for the roads rolling and then do the Field project. Sal is right on target with this one. View Comment

Juggy, Possibly........potentially.............. maybe..................... Let's face it. If there aren't enough funds to get anything fixed why pay somone to compile and supervise the list of things that need to be fixed? You gotta be a Spendacrat. View Comment

LETCM, You left out his two favorite words........Plus and Possibly. Take away those two and the ones on your list and Juggy would be silenced. :-) View Comment

Juggy, These ad-hoc professionals you so highly tout aren't the same group that they were during the High School project. To the best of my knowledge Mr. Mitchell and possibly Mr. Davis are the only ones? Correct me if I am wrong. I was and am adamantly against the Providence Rd. site, nor di I care fo the Linwood Ave. location but I am behind this proposed project 100%. The proposed reconstruction at the current location is the most sensible and cost effective choice to date. View Comment

Ice, The catch basin cleaner is used throughout the year. They use it during the warmer months to clean the basins then in the winter it typiaclly was always used for plowing as well. To the best of my knowledge they haven't used it in the past to plow because it was essentially not roadworthy any longer. The advantage to plowing with the catchbasin truck versus a one ton like you suggest is that the catch basin truck is usually between 33k and 40k gvws. It is a much larger truck than a one ton and would likely be outfitted with an 11ft. wide plow that would be approximately 4ft to 5 ft tall on the discharge end. It can push far more snow than a one ton and is much better equipped to handle a winter like we had in 2010/2011 where the banks were so tall. The one tons are typically equipped with a 9 ft. wide plow with a height of 30 inches once the snow banks get about 2.5 to 3 feet tall they can no longer throw snow up out of the street any longer and the streets will get narrower and narrower. The larger truck will be much better equipped to push back the streets that get narrow by being plowed with a one ton or pick-up sized plow. In my opinion what they (DPW & Selectman) want to do with this article is a good, sound decision. I applaud Mr. Shuris for the job that he has done since being hired. IMHDAO he is much better at his position than his predecessor was. Hope this helps. JAG View Comment

I place far more faith in the numbers being thrown around by an actual architectural/engineering firm than I do i the numbers that were developed by an over anxious selectman and a group of volunteers(well intentioned). I always thought that it was very suspisious that they were using non-prevailing wage labor for construction of a new town facility. Juggy........go ahead and let loose with the suppose that's, the wells, the what ifs, and all of the other crazy scenarios you usuall come up with and don't forget the RR Xing talk too. View Comment

The people who live on the stretch of Quaker Street known locally as "Fun Road" have been waiting a heck of a lot longer than the 3 years +/- that the Friends of Lasalle Field have been waiting for artificial turf. The field project is definitely with merit and something that deserves to be done but I don't see where it should trump repairs to roads that have urgently needed it for 20+ years as well as the construction of desperately needed new facilities for the Fire and Highway Departments. I would vote for the Field, just not now. View Comment

"Their are suggestive comments potentially blaming the past DPW Supt., for maybe the potential Road and Infrastructure issues of the Town. But in reality how can you blame the past DPW Supt, when it may have been dictated to him that his Budget is 'Level Funded'?" Juggy, Nice try to attempt to shift the blame on both fronts. The past Director wasn't dealing with "level funded" budgets for the entire 17+/- years that he was in charge. The majority of the time that he was in charge was during periods of economic posperity and in spite of that there was very little done to improve the roads. He was a great guy but he had very little knowledge and experience with the majority of the things he was in charge of. The construction of the extended portion of Upton St. happened entirely under his watch, go check that beautiful piece of roadway out. He had no knowledge of the types of equipment that he was specng out and purchasing and wasted a colossal amount of money in the process. The Sewer Dept. and the costs associated with it's operation are solely the responsibility of the ratepayers. View Comment