Perkins Paper Inc. of Taunton announced Tuesday it has purchased Cirelli Food’s Inc. and signed a five-year lease for the Middleboro warehouse as part of the deal. Perkins Chief Executive Officer Gary Perkins declined to reveal the purchase price. He said the company expects the expanded customer base to increase the company’s sales to $470 million in the next year. At this writing, Perkins has no plans to leave their Taunton, Massachusetts headquarters. Get the rest of the story at WickedLocal.com.

Updated February 1, 2012: Perkins is now Gordon Food Service. After 97 years of independence, members of the Perkins family have sold the Taunton-based distributor to Gordon Food Service. The acquisition will provide a crucial entry for Gordon, the nation’s fourth-largest broad food service distributor, into the New England market. Until now, Gordon has had only a minimal presence here. The companies didn’t disclose the purchase price. Get the rest of the story at EnterpriseNews.com.

Xobni announced the results from an August online survey conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive (in U.S.) and Opinion Matters (in UK) detailing workers’ views on work email. The surveys shows that the typical 9-5 work day no longer exists as workers in America and the U.K. regularly check email outside of normal business hours, including on vacation, weekends, sick days and even when they are in bed at home, in order to stay on top of their over-flowing inboxes.

With the down economy and the advent of mobile email on smartphones, workers are overwhelmed with email and feel compelled to work longer hours to keep up with their jobs. The survey found that roughly two out of three Americans (72 percent) and Brits (68 percent) who check their email outside of regular business hours do so while on vacation, when they are taking time off, on a weekend and/or on another non-work day. But the two countries are far different when it comes to sick days: 42 percent of Americans who check work email outside of business hours shared that they check emails when they are home sick compared to only 25.8 percent of British professionals checking their email while out sick. Working men in America are guiltier of emailing during off hours with 65 percent of those who have work email sharing that they do so versus 51 percent of their female counterparts.

Workers now feel more compelled to check email outside of work to keep up and advance their careers. More than one quarter (27 percent) of Americans and a fifth of Brits (20 percent) who check email outside of business hours do so because they feel they are expected to provide quick responses, even outside regular business hours. Additionally, 37 percent of Americans, are afraid to go without checking their email because they might miss something important compared to 45 percent who have the same worry in the U.K. Many Americans who check work email outside of regular business hours (43 percent) do so in order to ease their workload and 18 percent feel the need to check email outside of work hours in order to have a successful career. Neither U.S. nor British workers emailed outside of regular business hours to impress their boss/colleagues with a mere 5 percent admitting to doing so.

Business professionals have become so overwhelmed with email that they are bringing email to the bedroom. In fact, one in five Americans (19 percent) who check work email outside of regular business hours cited that they do work email either before they get out of bed in the morning or while in bed before they fall asleep at night. Brits seem to respect the bed only a bit more, with 14 percent prepared to check work email. Of this group, American men are more likely to check email from bed with 21 percent stating that they do so compared to just 16 percent of their female counterparts. The survey also shows that checking email while in bed has a generational basis as American adults who check work email outside of regular business hours ages 18-34 are twice as likely to do so than adults ages 35-54 – 31 percent compared to just 15 percent.

Half (50 percent) of American professionals who check work email outside of regular business hours cited they checked work email while on vacation/have time off compared to only 29 percent of people surveyed in the UK. Upon returning from vacation, 26 percent of Americans who take vacation/time off of work either feel they get too many emails to respond to all of them, or are too overwhelmed by the volume of emails upon returning from vacation compared to a whopping 86 percent of Brits. Additionally, 18 percent of U.S. adults who take vacation/time off from work feel they have a hard time actually being productive after returning from holiday.

No wonder we’re all exhausted!

Source: Xobni Press Release, September 2, 2010

Further Reading:

• The Definitive Guide To Taming The Email Monster (The Grossman Group, January 2012)

In separate votes Tuesday on Beacon Hill, the House and Senate approved a compromise bill that paves the way for three resort-style casinos and a slot parlor. The Senate still has one more vote to take today, but that is considered a formality. The bill gives the governor eight months to negotiate a compact, payment in lieu of taxes, with a federally recognized tribe. The Mashpee tribe is considered the odds-on favorite because the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) waived federal rights in a 1987 land deal with the state.

What the casino bill does for the Wampanoag:

• Sets aside $5 million for the governor to negotiate a compact for payment in lieu of taxes with a federally recognized tribe. That compact will require legislative approval.

• Sets parameters for the governor to negotiate only with a tribe that has entered into an agreement to purchase a parcel of land for a proposed casino and also requires that a vote be scheduled with the host community.

• Requires a statement of financial investment rights of any individual or entity which has invested in the tribe since 2005.

• Sets a deadline of July 31, 2012, for the compact negotiations between the governor and tribe. If a deal isn’t struck and the commission determines the tribe won’t have land into trust, the gaming commission can seek bids from other developers on the Southeastern Massachusetts casino.

• Gives a federally recognized tribe a seat at the table on a 15-member gaming advisory panel that will consider gambling policy and create subcommittees to examine community mitigation, compulsive gambling and impacts on cultural facilities and tourism.
  

Source: Cape Cod Times, November 16, 2011

Further Reading

• Middleboro Officials Still Hope For A Casino
• A Look At The Demise Of The Tribe’s Middleborough Casino…
• Wampanoag Tribe Reviewing Middleboro’s Public Casino Documents
• Selectmen Seek $250,000 Wampanoags Agreed To Pay For Casino
• Middleboro Sends Letter To Federal Bureau
• Casino To Go To Fall River Instead Of Middleboro?
• Southeast Massachusetts May Get Casino After All…
• Middleboro Still Waiting For The Wampanoags…

The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services (DFS) awarded the Middleborough Fire Department with a Student Awareness of Fire Education (SAFE) grant this week in the amount of $5,265.

The SAFE program was established in 1996 in an effort to educate students about the fire and health hazards of smoking-related materials. Since the creation of the SAFE program, the average annual child fire deaths has been reduced by 66 percent.

The core of the SAFE program has been school-based. Because learning occurs at all ages, and is not limited to pupils who attend school, funds from the grant can now be used to implement community fire and life safety education programs outside of the schools. The chief said some of the funds are used for community programs such as the fire department’s annual open house and fire prevention supplies for station tours.

Source: Middleboro Gazette, December 29, 2011

Middleboro, Massachusetts Town Hall

In a synchronized series of votes recently, aimed at addressing the emergency situation surrounding Middleboro’s Town Hall cupola, the selectmen voted unanimously to transfer $25,000 from the town’s reserve fund to pay for the removal of the top portion of the structure, and the Finance Committee approved the transfer of funds. Town officials say the tilting cupola is a safety hazard. It could come crashing down onto the parking lot or a nearby road.

Middleboro’s Board of Selectment Chairwoman, Marsha Brunelle, says the entire structure does not need to be removed – just the very top. It will be detached and lowered to the Town Hall parking lot, where it will be repaired by an architect who specializes in historic buildings.

The work will be done by Murray Brothers Construction of Leominster. Their bid was $16,609.45 and has been approved the Board of Selectmen.

Charles Cristello, town manager, conducted a site inspection with Robert M. Desrosiers, a structural engineer and owner of ASAP Engineering & Design Co. Inc. of Middleboro and Frederick E. Eayrs, owner of Blackburn Building Conservation LLC of Middleboro, which provides architectural conservation services.

The town has received a $30,000 emergency grant for historic preservation to help pay for repairs to the cupola atop Town Hall, state Rep. Stephen R. Canessa, D-New Bedford, announced Wednesday. The grant comes from the Secretary of State’s Office. Town officials originally had sought $50,000 toward the costs. Restoration is critical for Town Hall, which was built in 1873 and is in a historic district listed with the National Register of Historic Places.

Updated Information: The reconstruction of the Town Hall cupola is set to begin at a cost of $189,500 five months after the deteriorating cupola was removed from the top of the historic building. Selectmen awarded the $189,500 contract to Campbell Construction Group LLC of Peabody on Wednesday, the only bidder for the reconstruction project. Town meeting authorized $200,000 for the cupola repair, but Town Manager Charles J.Cristello does not anticipate using that full amount since the town received a $30,000 grant from the Massachusetts Historic Commission for the project. To date, the town has spent $43,860 on the project, which has an estimated completion date of November.

Murray Brothers Construction of Leominster was awarded a $19,300 bid to remove the cupola. On April 7, under blue skies Murray Brothers Construction used a 135-foot crane to remove the cupola, which stood 120 feet from the ground. The cupola was placed on the Town Hall lawn, where it has remained, protected by a steel fence.

The architectural firm of Menders, Torrey&Spencer Inc. of Boston in April signed a $24,560 contract for the design of the cupola restoration and reinstallation project. The architectural firm has done restoration on the Old North Church in Boston, the 1856 Bedford Town Hall and the 1950s-era Temple Shalom in Newton.

Once the reconstruction has begun, the architects will make regular site visits to ensure the construction documents are being followed. They will also approve contractor invoices for payment and prepare a final completion report once the project is finished.

Updated Information: The reconstruction of the Town Hall cupola will cost an additional $17,199 because the contractor found additional rot in the framing. Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the additional $17,199, which brings the total reconstruction cost to $206,699. The project is below the budgeted total of $230,000 of which $200,000 was voted by town meeting and $30,000 awarded from a Massachusetts Historic Commission grant. But the additional work will not delay the December 31, 2011 completion date because the contractor, Campbell Construction Group LLC, of Peabody, will have two crews working on the project.

Updated Information: Middleboro is asking the secretary of state for a $30,000 emergency grant from the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund for the Town Hall cupola restoration project. If granted, this request would cover the estimated $28,322 the contractor is seeking to repair wood deterioration discovered within the Town Hall dome. Since August, selectmen approved two change orders for the project – one for $17,199 and another for $11,213, primarily due to unanticipated rotted wood uncovered during construction. The current change order brings the total cost of the project to $217,912.

Middleboro’s Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to authorize the town manager to sign “No Trespass” orders for Kramer Park, the Town Hall on 10 Nickerson Ave., and the Town Hall annex in the Eastern Bank Building, 20 Centre Street. Town Manager Charles J. Cristello, who asked for the authority, said he does not plan to post “No Trespass” signs at the three locations, but police would be able to arrest people who loiter in those areas. Police Chief Bruce Gates said a similar order has been issued for Peirce Playground, and it has worked out well especially during the summer carnival.

The town plans to install surveillance cameras in Kramer Park and the skateboard park, located close to downtown, behind the police and fire stations and adjacent to Peirce Playground.

Read the rest of the story at PatriotLedger.com.

State and federal officials were in town Monday to announce they’re spending $2 million to design a replacement for the Route 44 rotary, but the biggest question in people’s minds is when? Transportation officials side-stepped giving a timeline, but U.S. Rep. Barney Frank expects construction to start after the federal highway bill is passed next year.

Residents could see some relief within a few months. The design could uncover short-term solutions that could be implemented within 6-12 months, said Luisa Paiewonsky, highway administrator for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. State Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton, said the design is the first step in getting the rotary replaced and he too expects construction to begin next year. Pacheco sympathizes with people who have grown tired of the years of talk about getting the rotary fixed.

Town Manager Charles J. Cristello said the rotary impedes new businesses coming to town. Cristello and Planning Director Ruth M. Geoffroy took Frank on a road trip in July to show what a problem the rotary has become, creating backups on routes 18, 28, 44 and even Interstate 495. Read the rest of the story on Wicked Local – Brockton.

One can’t help but wonder, though, if this is simply an election year promise that will be forgotten the instant Governor Patrick and Representative Frank win in November. That is assuming they win, of course. This mid-term election seems to be the year of the “anti-incumbent” and people in both parties are seriously concerned that they may not be back for another term.

Is this an election year promise? I don’t know for sure, but it certainly quacks like one…

Updated April 30, 2011: Turns out, it was an election year promise that got forgotten as soon as election day was over. But now, Senator Scott Brown has promised to revisit the issue.

Updated December 19, 2011: The state transportation department last week rolled out a new $24 million preliminary plan to fix traffic snarls at the Route 44 rotary. Under the plan, the rotary would stay, but Route 44 would become a “flyover” to avoid backups caused by routes 18 and 28. The major difference to prior plans is a proposal to eliminate the westbound entrance on Route 44 and reroute traffic to Interstate 495 northbound, via Route 18. Drivers would take the next exit off I-495 to reach Route 44. Get the rest of the story at TauntonGazette.com.

Web 2.0 has revolutionized the education world and brought the world closer. Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them

Today, teachers are using the Web 2.0 tools to introduce lessons in their classroom. Students are collaborating with other students around the world, creating online content and displaying their work to a global world. Web 2.0 facilitates professional collaboration, networking, critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, creativity, global understanding and multicultural learning. Various tools for collaborative writing and editing, private communication, online conferencing, file sharing, and desktop sharing enable teachers to effectively collaborate with the students beyond school hours thus making optimum use of the technology available.

Google Docs: Google Docs is a free service provided by Google to its users. It serves as an excellent application for collaboration where teachers and students can use it to share documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Professionals can too collaborate with their teams and clients in real-time. Another idea is to use Google Docs as a note-taking tool while in class and lectures.

Skype: Skype is an application that allows making voice calls over the Internet (the technology is called Voice over Internet Protocol – or VoIP) that is completely free of cost. Apart from VoIP, Skype also offers in-built features for instant messaging (IM), video conferencing, and file sharing. Skype also launched Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network. Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can also search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject.

Mind Mapping Tool: A mind map is a visual tool that helps build up around a central idea by creating branches like a tree whereby each branch symbolizes a thought process of an individual using different words. A mind map provides a pictorial image of your thoughts and hence helps to assimilate them. This is especially very useful for teachers and students whereby teachers can use mind maps to evaluate students’ logical bent of mind, creativity and their thought process. For students it serves as a tool to graphically put their thoughts together. Bubbl.us, for example is a simple free online application that allows brainstorming easily by creating a mind map for any topic.

Wridea: Wridea is a brainstorming tool that enables one to collaborate and share ideas with colleagues, students, and fellow learners and organize and categorize ideas onto different pages, providing unlimited storage, and also allowing users to comment on topics and ideas. Features of Wridea are:

Diigo: Diigo is a social bookmarking site that can be used by researchers to mark and highlight pages on the World Wide Web. The can even add footnote remarks, make notes or add comments to these pages and access them later from any computer . “Diigo” is an abbreviation for “Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff”.

Audio Pal: This is a free site to create audio files where voice can be recorded by phone or microphone and uploaded as an audio file. It can also create audio from text to speech.

Gliffy: Gliffy is an online diagram software for creating professional-quality flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, technical drawings, and more. The online diagram editor makes it easier than ever to create great looking drawings. The power of graphics organizers has been verified by research in promoting strong thinking skills and comprehension for all ages. It is a free online tool for creating graphic organizers without purchasing any software. Teachers and students can create the organizers or the class can create them together, such as in a brainstorming session on any topic.

Blogs: The core tool that often gets overlooked because it’s not as glitzy and tends to be viewed as a little older.

Social Networks: Social networks do blogs one better by making the conversation between users instantaneous. That on-the-spot feedback makes social networking more suited for educators to connect and share resources with contacts outside their classroom or institution.

Synchronous live platforms: Tools like WebEx and Adobe Connect, can be referred to as live meetings, web meetings, or webinars. Whatever you choose to call them, they provide a virtual venue for online collaborative experiences that play out in real time–similar to a virtual classroom or meeting room.

SlideRocket: SlideRocket has all of the capabilities of presentation software such as PowerPoint or Keynote, but exists on the web, which gives it a great advantage in the education setting. Teachers can create multimedia presentations that supplement their lessons, share the presentation with their students via a hyperlink, and then track which students viewed the presentation as well as how long they spent looking at each slide.

SchoolFusion: A website development and hosting solution, SchoolFusion is designed for K-12 schools to use templates to build “fusion pages,” or websites, for individual classrooms, student clubs, academic and administrative departments, or other community, alumni, and faculty functions that may call for one. Web 2.0 tools are woven into SchoolFusion’s web pages, giving teachers instant access to collaborative instruments such as wikis, blogs, messaging, podcasts, and streaming video.

Smilebox: The Smilebox Teacher’s Toolbox program is a teacher’s digital companion for creative classroom communication. Teacher’s Toolbox gives teachers at all grade levels an easy and creative way to safely share photos, videos, and classroom updates to students and parents.

Edu 2.0. EDU 2.0 is a lot like online course management systems Blackboard and Moodle, but with a couple of distinct advantages. First, teachers can share their lesson plans, quizzes, videos, experiments and other resources in a shared library that currently hosts more than 15,000 pieces of content. Second, a community section allows teachers and students to network and collaborate with other members who share the same educational interests. And third, everything is hosted in the cloud for free.

SymbalooEDU. he new EDU version comes with academic subject-specific resource pages or “webmixes” and top tools like TeacherTube, Slideshare, Google Docs, Flickr and more are fully embeddable. Teachers with a “Free Plus” account can add their school logo and customize the links. The site also allows students to easily share their Symbaloo pages and projects with classmates.

Collaborize Classroom. This app gives teachers four discussion format choices. Students can either agree or disagree with a statement, answer a multiple choice question, post responses, or have the choice between adding a new response or voting for someone else’s response. Teachers can add photos or videos to their prompts and all of the discussions take place on one class page.

Edublogs. This WordPress-like blogging platform only supports educational content. Since 2005, it has hosted more than a million blogs from students and teachers. Common uses for blogs in classrooms include group projects, reflection journals, school newspapers, class web pages and parent newsletters.

Kidblog. Kidblog is a bit more specific than Edublogs. There are fewer options to adjust the appearance of the main page, and it’s hard to use the platform for anything other than as a system for managing individual class blogs. The homepage serves as a catalog of student blogs on the right with a recent post feed on the left. Having said that, if you want to introduce individual class blogs to your K-8 classroom, this is the perfect tool for it.

Edmodo. Edmodo looks and functions much like Facebook. But unlike Facebook, it’s a controlled environment that teachers can effectively leverage to encourage class engagement. The platform allows teachers and students to share ideas, files and assignments on a communal wall. Teachers can organize different groups of students and monitor them from the same dashboard. Once they’ve organized classes, they can post assignments to the wall and grade them online. They can then archive the class groups and begin new ones.

By using the above tools, the teaching learning process can be made interesting enabling both the teachers and students to collaborate, work and share together. Indeed Web 2.0 has revolutionized the education world and brought the world closer.

Related Stories:

• Rules To Stop Pupil and Teacher From Getting Too Social Online (New York Times, December 17, 2011)
• Using Social Media In School (AssociatedContent.com, September 29, 2011)
• 3 Tips For Teachers Using Social Media In The Classroom (Mashable.com, August 18, 2011)
• How Schools Can Use Facebook To Build Online Community (Mashable.com, April 26, 2011)
  

Sources:

• Digital Learning, August 1, 2010
• Technological Horizons in Education, August 1, 2010
• Smilebox Press Release, September 2, 2010
• Mashable, October 2010
  

Middleboro’s Gas & Electric commissioners have passed a $46 million budget – which is $2 million less than last year. The reduced budget, which takes effect January 1, 2012, reflects a 13 percent drop in revenues resulting from stabilized energy costs and rate reductions.

The $46 million budget includes $3.2 million in capital expenses, including $175,000 to paint the South Main Street office, which is a historic home; $26,000 for street light maintenance; $6,000 to cover the after-hours costs to turn on power that has been shut off; $95,000 for postage; $875,000 for health insurance; and $350,000 in uncollected rates.

Source: Enterprise News, December 15, 2011

On March 25, the MBTA closed down weekend services in the Old Colony Line, which includes the Plymouth/Kingston line, but more importantly, the Middleboro/Lakeville line which will remain closed until summer 2012, the anticipated completion date according to the MBTA website. No alternative services will be offered in lieu of the closures.

According to the MBTA website, the concrete cross-ties that go along these rail lines are failing; the ties are starting to crack and break apart, causing safety speed restrictions and ultimately, delays. These failures outpace the maintenance that can be done for the ties, and because of this, complete failure of the ties is imminent. To rectify this, the ties are being replaced with timber cross-ties, which are known to work better than concrete.

Update: Commuter rail service will be restored on the Plymouth to Kingston and Middleboro to Lakeville Old Colony lines and the Greenbush line beginning Saturday, December, 24, 2011. Weekend service will remain in place until next spring, when track work will resume.

Sources: The Comment, September 22, 2011 and The Patriot Ledger, December 13, 2011