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Sunday, December 17, 2017
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Massachusetts
drivers can now use their license photos for as long as 14 years.
For Sale by
Owner! Beautiful Farmland in North Westport.
Massachusetts
drivers can now use their license photos for as long as 14 years. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
December 17, 2017 Massachusetts drivers can use their license photos for as long as 14
years, lengthened from nine, under new rules announced this week by
the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV)
is taking steps to allow more customers the opportunity to renew a driver’s
license or ID card online by extending the length of time a customer can use
a license photo from 9 years to 14 years, which means more customers than
ever are eligible for online renewals. Customers will be eligible to renew their licenses or ID cards online
for two consecutive renewal periods. This will result in approximately
30,000 additional renewal transactions eligible to be processed online each
month. With thousands of additional customers now eligible to
conduct renewals online, the amount of customers who must visit a service
center will decrease, which will make in-person transactions more efficient
for customers who do need to visit RMV service
locations. “The Registry is
pleased to offer these helpful enhancements to service options that are
currently available to our customers,” said Registrar of Motor Vehicles Erin Deveney. “We encourage customers to conveniently
renew their driver’s license or MA ID card online if they are eligible to do
so, saving a trip to a service center and perhaps avoiding holiday traffic
too.” Licenses and ID cards will need to be renewed in person at RMV service centers or AAA locations (for AAA members)
every third renewal period (once every 15 years). Customers should also
know that they don’t need to wait for the RMV’s
birthday card reminder to renew. They can go online and renew up to 12
months in advance. To be eligible for online renewal, a customer’s license/ID card photo
must be less than 14 years old and must have been taken after the customer’s
21st birthday. The RMV invites license and/or ID card
holders to visit Renew
Your Driver’s License to check their license status and renew online. Effective March 26, 2018, the RMV is
changing the way customers get and renew their driver’s licenses and ID
cards. On that date, the RMV will begin
to issue driver’s licenses and ID cards which meet the federal requirement for
credentials which are REAL ID compliant. Massachusetts residents do not need a REAL ID until after October
2020, and will only need a REAL ID for air travel or to enter a U.S.
government building. On October 1, 2020, the following credentials will
be accepted where REAL ID is required: a valid U.S. or foreign
passport, U.S. passport card, military ID, or a driver’s license or ID that
is REAL ID compliant. Learn more about REAL ID.
Additional information Is available online at the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security. For Sale by Owner! Beautiful Farmland
in North Westport. All proposals are due by Thursday,
February 15, 2018. EverythingWestport.com Sunday, December 17, 2017 WESTPORT —The Westport Land Conservation Trust (WLCT) is requesting
proposals from interested buyers of the Sherman/Rulon Farm located north of
122 Blossom Road in Westport. WLCT is seeking a buyer who will continue and
enhance the agricultural operation on the farm. All proposals are due by Thursday,
February 15, 2018. WLCT and the Town of Westport
have partnered to protect this farm. The farmland is part of a statewide
program that taxes qualifying land at its farmland value – Massachusetts
General Law Chapter 61. The 32-acre Sherman/Rulon Farm is located in north Westport and
contains 16 acres of open farm fields, the majority of which are classified
as prime farmland and soils of statewide significance by the Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The property currently has no
structures, but does possess a network of fields connected by a
well-established laneway. WLCT and the Town of Westport have partnered to protect this farm. The
farmland is part of a statewide program that taxes qualifying land at its
farmland value – Massachusetts General Law Chapter 61. This voluntary program
allows property owners to enroll in exchange for granting the municipality a
right of first refusal to purchase the land if it is proposed to be converted
to other uses during a specific time period. This farmland became available
through that process and WLCT accepted the Town’s assignment of its Right of
First Refusal on February 8, 2017. WLCT purchased the Farm for $400,000 in May 2017. Westport’s
Agricultural/Open Space Preservation Trust Fund Council committed $150,000
towards the protection of the property.
Now, WLCT and the Town are working to protect the farm with a
permanent agricultural preservation restriction (APR). Their goal is to sell
the farm to a private buyer committed to agriculture. The APR, covering the entire property, will protect resources such as
prime farmland soils and wetlands, and it will require that the property be
farmed while allowing for the construction of farm buildings with approval.
It will also allow for the construction of a single family house in a
designated area near Blossom Road. WLCT purchased the Farm for
$400,000 in May 2017. Westport’s Agricultural/Open Space Preservation Trust
Fund Council committed $150,000 towards the protection of the property. All future owners must adhere to the APR. WLCT and the Town of
Westport’s Conservation Commission will hold the restriction on the entire
farm. WLCT and the Town will be responsible for the annual monitoring and
enforcement of the restriction. Bidders are asked to submit proposals with a
price range between $225,000 and $285,000. The complete Request for Proposals can be found at: http://www.westportlandtrust.org/shermanfarm.
This website will list of all important dates, details about the restriction,
deadlines, and updates throughout the proposal process. Guest View By Dianne M. Baron EverythingWestport.com Sunday, December 17, 2017 Westport Community Schools are at a crossroads, together with the
entire town that we all love. As we work together to take advantage of the
nearly $40 million in state funding to invest in a new middle-high school,
you may have questions about why this school is needed now. I’ve answered
some of the questions that have come up. The town has a one-time opportunity to receive nearly $40 million from
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to build a new middle-high school. It will
replace the contaminated former middle school and address structural issues
in the high school that will cost the town substantial money in the near
future. Only 10 percent of communities that apply for this funding receive
it. The town representatives, from the Westport School Building Committee (WSBC), to the Selectmen and the School Committee, have
approved a design to go forward to the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
So why is this the right time for this project? Cost for
restoring the existing middle school: The Massachusetts School Building
Authority (MSBA) required us to assess this in a feasibility
study. Bringing the existing contaminated building into compliance is
estimated to cost at least $52 million. Bringing the building into compliance
with these standards and restoring it as a 5th through 8th grade middle
school with the educational program approved by the MSBA
is estimated to cost more than $64 million. Just the cost to rid the school
of the contaminating PCBs is estimated to cost more than $20 million. It is
unclear whether it is actually possible to rid the school of all of the PCBS
to the level required by the EPA because they have been absorbed into all
crevices of the building. Data on the
school population, past and future: The MSBA, as
part of its process for reviewing and approving proposals for funding,
prepared an analysis of Westport population trends, beginning in 1993 and
ending in 2024. This analysis examined past population figures, past enrollment
by grade and estimated future trends. It was on that basis that the MSBA proposed, by letter of June 8, 2015, that a 5th
through 12th grade middle/high school building designed to replace the
vacated middle school should be built to accommodate 860 students. This sort of analysis is performed by the MSBA
for all communities seeking funding by the state to build a new school. They
have statisticians who take into consideration the many factors impacting
student population in communities, looking at births, females of child-bearing
age, grade to grade survival ratios, base enrollment projections, building
permits, housing sales, planned building projects, and many other
determinants to arrive at a number of students and building size that they
will fund. They adjust for construction (students who are attending school
elsewhere who might return to a newly built school), new planned housing
developments, and for enrollment growth over and beyond the forecast period.
It is a very thorough and analytic process. In our case, they looked at a 10-year
average enrollment, a 5-year average enrollment, a 2-year average enrollment,
and 5 and 10 year projections. The 10-year projection was for 555 grade K-4
students and 795 grade 5-12 students. The MSBA
increased this number by 3.3 percent (35 students for grades 5-12) to bring
the total to 860 students to adjust to fluctuations in the out-of-district
enrollment patterns. The concern was that we have had many students leaving
the school system after grade 6 or 8 and we will need to accommodate those
who now stay because of a great new school with first-class facilities. Above: Aerial view of the empty, PCB-plagued Middle
School, the site of the proposed new Jr/Sr High School
on Old County Road.. Photo |
EverythingWestport.com © 2017 Population data
past and present for the town: According to the UMass Donahue Institute,
Westport had a 1.8 percent increase in population from 2010 to 2015. They
state, “Projections by the UMass Donahue Institute anticipate a population
growth in Westport between 2010 to 2035 - the population is expected to
increase by roughly 1,500 people (9.7 percent). However, from 2020 to 2035,
population growth is projected to slow and level out, with projected growth
of approximately 1.4 percent in this period.” They further state, “Compared
with other nearby Massachusetts and Rhode Island communities, Westport is
among the three communities anticipated to experience the highest population
growth in this timeframe with Dartmouth projected to grow the most at about
21 percent.” Why now, and why a combined middle-high school: The final WSBC estimate for the town share of the project is now
$58.9 million, with a total estimated project cost of $97.5 million. The WSBC proposal to combine the high school with the middle
school frees up the existing high school building, a town asset that was
recently appraised for sale in the amount $6.4 million. These funds can be
used to offset the bond. Under the proposal, the MSBA
will also fund half the estimated cost of $5 million for demolishing and
abating the contaminated middle school. We estimate that if we had chosen to
build just a new grade 5-8 middle school now and then come back in 10 years
to replace a grade 9-12 high school, the town would pay an additional $96
million in costs (operating costs, maintenance costs, building and borrowing
costs without MSBA funding) to achieve the same
result we can have now for a town share of $58.5M.
This is a much costlier version of what happened when the town did not
replace the fire and police stations at the same time. The proposed 5-12 school will house 60 percent of our student
population under one roof, house 80 percent of our students on one campus,
and improve the campus site with a state of the art de-nitrification septic
system and new well that will each tie in the Elementary School and Library.
It will have new regulation size athletic fields, an elevated indoor
community walking track, new Diane B. Snyder memorial tennis courts and
relocated memorial garden, new efficient plumbing fixtures for the Westport
Elementary School, fire hydrants, a full sprinkler system, and improvements
to site traffic, access, egress, and parking. “The WHS
was built in 1951, with an addition in 1972, and will need to be replaced in
the near future at ever increasing building and interest rate costs, and at a
time when the MSBA may very well not be willing, as
it is now, to pay near 50% of the eligible costs of replacement. We are
estimating that each month delay in construction will cost $200,000 to the
cost due to rising building costs.” - Diane Baron On
behalf of the WSBC I thank all the residents who
have raised these questions, and encourage everyone to attend the public forum
schedule for December 6. We will be holding a public forum at the Westport
Jr/SrHigh School on Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. in
the Media Center. The WSBC and its members would be
happy to appear at any time before any community group to discuss the
building project further. There are also political action groups, Yes!
Westport, and Westport—SOS that have formed for the purpose of sharpening the
issues through public debate and can be contacted to appear before such
groups. This is our opportunity, Westport. This will not only benefit our
students, but it will enhance our community and make it an even more
desirable place to live. Please join us in moving into the future. Dianne M. Baron is chair of the Westport School Building Committee. - - - - - End -
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