Published by The Boston Globe
Karen Masterson has been knitting for most of her life, but there are times when she needs help with a project like crafting an afghan for a family friend.
So she is glad that there is a nearby place like the Iron Horse, a yarn store in Natick Center where she can talk to its owner, fellow Sherborn resident Deborah Smith, whenever her knitting projects need untangling.
“Nothing compares,’’ said Masterson. “You don’t get this kind of knowledge anywhere else. You’re in a relationship, you’re not just shopping.’’
This holiday season, Natick is among a number of area communities joining a nation-wide “buy local’’ movement, encouraging consumers to get their holiday gifts in their local downtowns instead of at the mall or online.
Masterson, however, said she has been a longtime supporter of local businesses because as the owner of an independent restaurant in Lexington, she understands the importance of cultivating relationships within a community.
She turned to the Five Crows gallery in downtown Natick for the stained-glass windows decorating her Massachusetts Avenue restaurant, Nourish. “The competitive business model is so destructive,’’ she said. “We’re supporting each other with a cooperative business model.’’
Smith said she has been running her yarn store for 12 years, first from her Sherborn farm and within the last year from the Pond Street store in Natick, where she moved to get more space. Her shop offers yarn spun from animal wool at Smith’s farm, along with knitting lessons and handmade gifts.
Smith said her customers are loyal because even though the high-quality yarn is slightly more expensive, patrons receive attention they won’t get from a chain.
“A lot of people do want to buy and support local,’’ said Smith. “After 9/11, a lot of people wanted to get back to creating basic things for their families and loved ones.’’
Though small businesses have struggled during the economic recession, Natick Center hasn’t lost any storefronts and has welcomed a couple of new businesses to its community, said Margaret Sleeper, administrative assistant at the Natick Center Associates.
The nonprofit community organization is helping promote local holiday shopping by providing free, two-hour parking downtown during December, encouraging shops to stay open later, and helping businesses decorate for the holidays, said Sleeper.
“We want to help our own,’’ she said. “There’s no reason to go to China or somewhere else to get these beautiful gifts.’’
The Natick Merchants Council voted last week to launch a new campaign, “Discover Natick Center,’’ as part of an effort to attract customers, Sleeper said.
Some stores have been successful in the center for years, however, like Five Crows on Court Street. The shop started eight years ago with works from five local artists, and now features 145 from across the area, said Ginger McEachern, one of its owners.
“We could send you out of here with a beautiful holiday gift for $25,’’ said McEachern. “In this day and age, that appeals to people.’’
Natick Center is also hosting a Holiday on the Common event Dec. 5 to bring shoppers downtown, with a tree-lighting ceremony at 5 p.m. Many other communities are hosting similar events, including Holliston, Hudson, Lexington, and Needham.
Mary Jo Bohart, executive director of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce, said her group has arranged for the Lexington Symphony to perform two holiday concerts on Dec. 3, at 4 and 8 p.m., to draw people to shops in the center of town.
Buying local “is certainly something everyone’s focusing on more,’’ said Bohart. “What better time to put it into action other than holiday season?’’
Bohart said the chamber is also promoting “Small Business Saturday,’’ an American Express-organized campaign for this weekend.
American Express Open, which provides credit cards to small-business owners, has designated the day on the biggest shopping weekend of the year, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as a way to boost its member stores, said senior vice president Rosa Sabater.
American Express Open is offering $100 worth of free advertising on Facebook to the first 10,000 small-business owners who sign up. The company is also giving a $25 statement credit to the first 100,000 cardholders who register their card and use it at a local business on Saturday.
“Our customers say, ‘We need more people walking in the door,’ ’’ said Sabater. “The only way to have the confidence to hire that new employee and invest in infrastructure is to see a demand turnaround.’’
Sabater said she thinks people are increasingly shopping local as a way to support job creation. Small businesses account for 60 to 80 percent of new jobs, and for every dollar spent in local stores, 68 cents goes back into the local economy, she said.
The Hudson Business Association is trying to get people to do more shopping downtown with a Buy Local campaign, said D.J. Collins, an administrator with the association. The town has gained 10 new businesses in the past year, but a misconception that small businesses have higher prices than chains has been a challenge to overcome in attracting customers, she said.
Still, many people have responded positively to the campaign, said Collins. Hudson’s annual Holiday Stroll to showcase its downtown will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. Dec. 4, instead of the Friday night schedule of previous years, to accommodate the festival’s growing size, she said.
Holliston is hosting its annual Holiday Stroll this weekend, from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday. Last year, about 1,400 people took part in the event, said John Drohan, president of the Holliston Business Association. Residents are trying to support the local stores to mitigate effects of the recession, he said, and keep businesses in the downtown area.
“Everyone is aware that everything’s not just perpetually going to stick around forever,’’ said Drohan.
A few stores in Wellesley, however, have had to close recently, said Demian Wendrow, director and cofounder of the Wellesley Center Merchants Association. He said local stores have had to intensify promotions and work together to keep up with growing competition.
Still, many customers appreciate local stores and prefer to shop in town centers.
“The mall doesn’t offer me anything,’’ said Marie Caradonna, who lives in Ashland and works in Natick. “I don’t like cookie cutter stuff . . . there’s a moral component to this, too.’’
Caradonna said she is planning to do her holiday shopping at Iron Horse and Five Crows because she thinks the handmade crafts offered there make better gifts than anything she could find at a mall.
“It all looks the same,’’ said Erica Dinerman, a Belmont resident who also works in Natick. “I pride myself on being able to get through the holidays without going to the mall.’’
Showing posts with label Lexington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lexington. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
In Massachusetts, our foam plastic cups runneth over
Published by The Boston Globe
Few modern conveniences induce more frustration among environmentalists, and guilt among the rest of us, than the plastic foam coffee cup.
Its insulating qualities — 2 percent polystyrene, 98 percent air — are unparalleled. The same material, twisted into bulky, nearly weightless “peanuts,’’ is perfect for cushioning breakables.
But its unbearable lightness of being (and low scrap value) also makes plastic foam too cumbersome and expensive for most communities to transport to recycling facilities.
“It’s like shipping air,’’ said Robert Beaudoin, superintendent of environmental services for Lexington.
While some environmentalists contend the best solution is to stop making the stuff — McDonald’s put an end to its “clamshell’’ burger boxes 10 years ago — some local communities and businesses are starting to make headway in the battle to keep what is commonly called styrofoam out of landfills and incinerators.
Newton began a trial drop-off program several months ago. Concord collects plastic foam at semiannual swap events, and Framingham is working to reduce the school district’s use of foam trays and food containers.
“You have to make your program so that it’s easy for people to want to do it,’’ said Thomas Daley, Newton’s public works commissioner. “Styrofoam can take up a lot of space, and in Newton, you only have a 64-gallon trash container’’ for the city’s single-stream curbside collections.
Newton began its pilot program after the city’s electronics recycler, CRT Recycling of Brockton, offered to haul away plastic foam at no extra charge, Daley said. Residents can drop off clean, white plastic foam at the Rumford Avenue Resource Recovery Center.
“We’re very pleased with the response. Feedback has been great,’’ said Daley. “We’d like for it to keep going as long as we can.’’
Trademarked “Styrofoam’’ was invented by Otis Ray McIntire, a research chemist for the Dow Chemical Co., which patented the material in 1944. It is widely used for building insulation, but not, Dow emphasizes on its website, for disposable foam products such as coffee cups and packaging.
Though both are made from polystyrene, the white stuff most people think of as styrofoam uses a different manufacturing process.
Several years ago, a company in Framingham, ReFoamIt LLC, started a pick-up service for local businesses and communities looking to recycle plastic foam.
The company sends the material to KWD Warehouse in Rhode Island to be processed into small pellets, which are then recycled into products like picture frames, children’s toys, and car bumpers, said Barbara Sherman, who cofounded ReFoamIt with her husband, Dave.
In 3 1/2 years, ReFoamIt and KWD Warehouse have recycled 1.5 million pounds of plastic foam, no small feat considering how little the material weighs, she said. ReFoamIt hosts free collection days, where the Shermans bring pellet samples to educate the public about recycling the material.
Businesses are the company’s primary sources of plastic foam, but ReFoamIt is also looking to increase its partnerships with area communities, Sherman said.
Framingham’s schools have recently started looking at recycling plastic foam lunch trays, said Brendan Ryan, director of food services for the district. The Framingham High School cafeteria has also stopped providing trays for some food stations that already serve items in wrappers, such as wraps and burgers, he said.
Ryan said that eventually the school system hopes to restore dish rooms that were converted into offices 15 years ago, and switch from plastic foam to reusable lunch trays. He said just one school can use 72,000 lunch trays in a year.
“It’s the national attitude that’s changing. . . It’s all part of sustainability,’’ said Ryan. “Change is not something that comes overnight. We’re taking baby steps.’’
From a technological perspective, recycling plastic foam is nothing new. According to the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 69 million pounds were recycled in 2008, and companies such as IKEA, Walmart and Sears have piloted plastic-foam recycling in their stores.
Still, very few communities in Massachusetts recycle the material because it is not worth the cost of transportation, said Brooke Nash, chief of the municipal-waste reduction branch at the state Department of Environmental Protection. Most towns just encourage residents to bring waste like packing peanuts to local shipping services to be reused, she said.
Cambridge tried a program to recycle plastic foam but ended it five years ago after local budget cuts, said Randi Mail, the city’s recycling director.
“The focus on styrofoam really needs to be eliminating it because it’s so hard to handle,’’ she said. “Recycling it doesn’t make sense, even if we had the money for it.’’
Ann Dorfman, interim operations manager for the Massachusetts Recycling Coalition, a Concord-based statewide advocacy organization, said finding an alternative material for polystyrene foam is challenging. Some restaurants have started using biodegradable materials for take-out, she said, but one-time use containers are wasteful in general.
“In our fast-paced, on-the-go world, what are the other options that provide the same benefits without the costs?’’ said Dorfman.
The Environmental Protection Agency does not collect specific data on polystyrene foam, because it is considered a No. 6 plastic — supposedly part of the recycling stream. But a 2008 EPA report on municipal waste generation and recycling in the United States reported that plastic containers and packaging constituted more than 13 million tons of discarded materials, about 13 percent of which was recycled.
Containers and packaging account for about 30 percent of total waste generated, according to the report.
Lexington has begun recycling rigid plastics, such as old recycling bins, but has not considered plastic foam because of the cost, said Beaudoin, the town’s environmental chief.
A few years ago, the town began collecting broken or otherwise unwanted bins because the material has a high value, and they can be recycled for the same cost as just throwing them away.
Concord collects plastic foam at swap events twice a year and sends the material to Framingham for recycling, and the town hopes to find additional ways to recycle the material, said Rod Robison, the town’s environmental services program administrator.
“Styrofoam is one of those areas that has good potential,’’ Robinson said.
The cost of transporting the material to the facility, however, is covered by an admission fee to the swap event, which is usually around $5, he said.
Newton, meanwhile, is considering a publicity campaign to encourage even more plastic foam recycling.
“We need to take a close look at how the pilot goes, but if it makes good financial sense, we’ll absolutely move on it,’’ he said.
“This is really cutting-edge stuff.’’
Globe correspondent Sarah Thomas contributed to this report.
Few modern conveniences induce more frustration among environmentalists, and guilt among the rest of us, than the plastic foam coffee cup.
Its insulating qualities — 2 percent polystyrene, 98 percent air — are unparalleled. The same material, twisted into bulky, nearly weightless “peanuts,’’ is perfect for cushioning breakables.
But its unbearable lightness of being (and low scrap value) also makes plastic foam too cumbersome and expensive for most communities to transport to recycling facilities.
“It’s like shipping air,’’ said Robert Beaudoin, superintendent of environmental services for Lexington.
While some environmentalists contend the best solution is to stop making the stuff — McDonald’s put an end to its “clamshell’’ burger boxes 10 years ago — some local communities and businesses are starting to make headway in the battle to keep what is commonly called styrofoam out of landfills and incinerators.
Newton began a trial drop-off program several months ago. Concord collects plastic foam at semiannual swap events, and Framingham is working to reduce the school district’s use of foam trays and food containers.
“You have to make your program so that it’s easy for people to want to do it,’’ said Thomas Daley, Newton’s public works commissioner. “Styrofoam can take up a lot of space, and in Newton, you only have a 64-gallon trash container’’ for the city’s single-stream curbside collections.
Newton began its pilot program after the city’s electronics recycler, CRT Recycling of Brockton, offered to haul away plastic foam at no extra charge, Daley said. Residents can drop off clean, white plastic foam at the Rumford Avenue Resource Recovery Center.
“We’re very pleased with the response. Feedback has been great,’’ said Daley. “We’d like for it to keep going as long as we can.’’
Trademarked “Styrofoam’’ was invented by Otis Ray McIntire, a research chemist for the Dow Chemical Co., which patented the material in 1944. It is widely used for building insulation, but not, Dow emphasizes on its website, for disposable foam products such as coffee cups and packaging.
Though both are made from polystyrene, the white stuff most people think of as styrofoam uses a different manufacturing process.
Several years ago, a company in Framingham, ReFoamIt LLC, started a pick-up service for local businesses and communities looking to recycle plastic foam.
The company sends the material to KWD Warehouse in Rhode Island to be processed into small pellets, which are then recycled into products like picture frames, children’s toys, and car bumpers, said Barbara Sherman, who cofounded ReFoamIt with her husband, Dave.
In 3 1/2 years, ReFoamIt and KWD Warehouse have recycled 1.5 million pounds of plastic foam, no small feat considering how little the material weighs, she said. ReFoamIt hosts free collection days, where the Shermans bring pellet samples to educate the public about recycling the material.
Businesses are the company’s primary sources of plastic foam, but ReFoamIt is also looking to increase its partnerships with area communities, Sherman said.
Framingham’s schools have recently started looking at recycling plastic foam lunch trays, said Brendan Ryan, director of food services for the district. The Framingham High School cafeteria has also stopped providing trays for some food stations that already serve items in wrappers, such as wraps and burgers, he said.
Ryan said that eventually the school system hopes to restore dish rooms that were converted into offices 15 years ago, and switch from plastic foam to reusable lunch trays. He said just one school can use 72,000 lunch trays in a year.
“It’s the national attitude that’s changing. . . It’s all part of sustainability,’’ said Ryan. “Change is not something that comes overnight. We’re taking baby steps.’’
From a technological perspective, recycling plastic foam is nothing new. According to the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 69 million pounds were recycled in 2008, and companies such as IKEA, Walmart and Sears have piloted plastic-foam recycling in their stores.
Still, very few communities in Massachusetts recycle the material because it is not worth the cost of transportation, said Brooke Nash, chief of the municipal-waste reduction branch at the state Department of Environmental Protection. Most towns just encourage residents to bring waste like packing peanuts to local shipping services to be reused, she said.
Cambridge tried a program to recycle plastic foam but ended it five years ago after local budget cuts, said Randi Mail, the city’s recycling director.
“The focus on styrofoam really needs to be eliminating it because it’s so hard to handle,’’ she said. “Recycling it doesn’t make sense, even if we had the money for it.’’
Ann Dorfman, interim operations manager for the Massachusetts Recycling Coalition, a Concord-based statewide advocacy organization, said finding an alternative material for polystyrene foam is challenging. Some restaurants have started using biodegradable materials for take-out, she said, but one-time use containers are wasteful in general.
“In our fast-paced, on-the-go world, what are the other options that provide the same benefits without the costs?’’ said Dorfman.
The Environmental Protection Agency does not collect specific data on polystyrene foam, because it is considered a No. 6 plastic — supposedly part of the recycling stream. But a 2008 EPA report on municipal waste generation and recycling in the United States reported that plastic containers and packaging constituted more than 13 million tons of discarded materials, about 13 percent of which was recycled.
Containers and packaging account for about 30 percent of total waste generated, according to the report.
Lexington has begun recycling rigid plastics, such as old recycling bins, but has not considered plastic foam because of the cost, said Beaudoin, the town’s environmental chief.
A few years ago, the town began collecting broken or otherwise unwanted bins because the material has a high value, and they can be recycled for the same cost as just throwing them away.
Concord collects plastic foam at swap events twice a year and sends the material to Framingham for recycling, and the town hopes to find additional ways to recycle the material, said Rod Robison, the town’s environmental services program administrator.
“Styrofoam is one of those areas that has good potential,’’ Robinson said.
The cost of transporting the material to the facility, however, is covered by an admission fee to the swap event, which is usually around $5, he said.
Newton, meanwhile, is considering a publicity campaign to encourage even more plastic foam recycling.
“We need to take a close look at how the pilot goes, but if it makes good financial sense, we’ll absolutely move on it,’’ he said.
“This is really cutting-edge stuff.’’
Globe correspondent Sarah Thomas contributed to this report.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Estabrook Elementary students may be shifted until PCBs cleanup is completed
Published by The Boston Globe
Parents at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington were told Tuesday night that they may have to send their children to one of seven other school buildings or even a private space if tests show a toxic chemical found at the school has not been brought below acceptable levels.
At a School Committee meeting tonight, Superintendent Dr. Paul Ash said administrators have established four options to redistribute Estabrook students if levels of polychlorinated Biphenyls, or PCBs, remain above Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
The options include moving all 455 Estabrook students and the school's staff to the Lexington High School field house, sending them to other schools by grade level, sharing one other elementary school in double sessions or finding an as-yet-to determined private space.
Estabrook closed last Thursday and yesterday to allow crews and consultants to continue a second phase of PCB removal after taking out contaminated window caulking did not lower the chemical levels. School administrators and parents will not know whether the clean up efforts over Labor Day weekend brought PCB levels below federal guidelines until a new set of test results come back Thursday or Friday, said Ash.
Tonight, Jessie Steigerwald, a school committee member, said she is concerned about costs associated with each option for distributing the students.
Ash said he did not know how much each option would cost and conceded that there are some problems with all of them. "There are a lot of awful things that could happen when trying to cram 455 kids into over-capacity buildings,'' Ash said tonight.
Parents at tonight's meeting, however, said they appreciated the school administration and staff's efforts to devise a contingency plan to use in case the PCB tests come back at unacceptable levels. "I appreciate that Plan B has been put forward . . . .Just knowing we're speaking about it,'' said Harold Payson, a father of two Estabrook kindergartners.
The EPA is also conducting a site-specific risk assessment to determine more accurate guidelines for Estabrook's situation, Ash said.
After the results are available, the superintendent will meet with a committee of parents, experts and consultants to decide how to respond.
Students will not enter the potentially dangerous building this week. Instead, they will attend educational field trips today and Friday, and school is closed Thursday for Rosh Hashanah.
Tests last spring found that the school had potentially unsafe levels of the chemicals in the building’s caulking, and plans to remove them began Aug. 24, said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.
The removal was to be completed before the first day of classes on Aug. 31, but the Lexington Health Division measured even higher levels of PCBs in some of the building’s rooms.
PCBs are believed to harm the immune and reproductive systems. Studies have linked them to cancer, according to the EPA.
Parents at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington were told Tuesday night that they may have to send their children to one of seven other school buildings or even a private space if tests show a toxic chemical found at the school has not been brought below acceptable levels.
At a School Committee meeting tonight, Superintendent Dr. Paul Ash said administrators have established four options to redistribute Estabrook students if levels of polychlorinated Biphenyls, or PCBs, remain above Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.
The options include moving all 455 Estabrook students and the school's staff to the Lexington High School field house, sending them to other schools by grade level, sharing one other elementary school in double sessions or finding an as-yet-to determined private space.
Estabrook closed last Thursday and yesterday to allow crews and consultants to continue a second phase of PCB removal after taking out contaminated window caulking did not lower the chemical levels. School administrators and parents will not know whether the clean up efforts over Labor Day weekend brought PCB levels below federal guidelines until a new set of test results come back Thursday or Friday, said Ash.
Tonight, Jessie Steigerwald, a school committee member, said she is concerned about costs associated with each option for distributing the students.
Ash said he did not know how much each option would cost and conceded that there are some problems with all of them. "There are a lot of awful things that could happen when trying to cram 455 kids into over-capacity buildings,'' Ash said tonight.
Parents at tonight's meeting, however, said they appreciated the school administration and staff's efforts to devise a contingency plan to use in case the PCB tests come back at unacceptable levels. "I appreciate that Plan B has been put forward . . . .Just knowing we're speaking about it,'' said Harold Payson, a father of two Estabrook kindergartners.
The EPA is also conducting a site-specific risk assessment to determine more accurate guidelines for Estabrook's situation, Ash said.
After the results are available, the superintendent will meet with a committee of parents, experts and consultants to decide how to respond.
Students will not enter the potentially dangerous building this week. Instead, they will attend educational field trips today and Friday, and school is closed Thursday for Rosh Hashanah.
Tests last spring found that the school had potentially unsafe levels of the chemicals in the building’s caulking, and plans to remove them began Aug. 24, said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.
The removal was to be completed before the first day of classes on Aug. 31, but the Lexington Health Division measured even higher levels of PCBs in some of the building’s rooms.
PCBs are believed to harm the immune and reproductive systems. Studies have linked them to cancer, according to the EPA.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
High PCB levels force Lexington school to close doors
Published by The Boston Globe
Students will not attend classes at the Joseph Estabrook elementary school in Lexington next week while officials deal with potentially unsafe levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in the building.
School will be canceled on Tuesday, following the Labor Day holiday, Superintendent Paul Ash said yesterday. Students will attend educational field trips on Wednesday and Friday. The school will be closed Thursday for Rosh Hashana.
Teachers will plan the field trips Tuesday.
Engineers will test for PCBs at the school Monday but the results will not be available until Thursday or Friday, Ash said. Parents have said they do not want to send their children to the school unless results indicate the levels of the chemicals are within federal guidelines.
“It allows people not to go nuts next week before the data is in,’’ said Ash. “Their concern was, ‘How can I put my kid in school without knowing the risk?’ Now, they don’t have to make that decision.’’
Ash said the School Committee would meet Tuesday night and discuss a backup plan of where to send Estabrook students if testing continues to show high levels of PCBs. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 at Cary Hall at 1605 Massachusetts Ave.
Bernie Fabricant, an Estabrook parent, said that he appreciates communication about the issue from the superintendent, adding that he would attend Tuesday’s meeting.
“The ultimate goal is to have my children and everyone else’s children at Estabrook to be in a situation where they’re learning in a PCB-free environment,’’ Fabricant said. “Whatever it takes to get there is fine with me. It must be done.’’
Angela Gharabegian, a parent who expressed concern at a meeting Wednesday, said she is grateful for the actions being taken by the town and the administration.
“I appreciate the efforts being made,’’ she said.
Estabrook closed Thursday so that workers could pump fresh air into the building in an attempt to bring PCB levels in the air to within Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. Yesterday, engineers took 20 samples from ceiling tiles, unit ventilators, and other parts of the school to try to find sources of PCBs after a project to remove contaminated window caulking failed to lower the levels, Ash said.
After the results are available next week, the superintendent will meet with a committee of parents, experts, and consultants to decide how to respond.
Tests last spring found that the school had potentially unsafe levels of the chemicals in the building’s caulking, and plans to remove them began Aug. 24, said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.
The removal was to be completed before Tuesday, but as classes resumed for the year, the Lexington Health Division measured even higher levels of PCBs in some of the building’s rooms.
PCBs are believed to harm the immune and reproductive systems. Studies have linked them to cancer, according to the EPA.
Students will not attend classes at the Joseph Estabrook elementary school in Lexington next week while officials deal with potentially unsafe levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in the building.
School will be canceled on Tuesday, following the Labor Day holiday, Superintendent Paul Ash said yesterday. Students will attend educational field trips on Wednesday and Friday. The school will be closed Thursday for Rosh Hashana.
Teachers will plan the field trips Tuesday.
Engineers will test for PCBs at the school Monday but the results will not be available until Thursday or Friday, Ash said. Parents have said they do not want to send their children to the school unless results indicate the levels of the chemicals are within federal guidelines.
“It allows people not to go nuts next week before the data is in,’’ said Ash. “Their concern was, ‘How can I put my kid in school without knowing the risk?’ Now, they don’t have to make that decision.’’
Ash said the School Committee would meet Tuesday night and discuss a backup plan of where to send Estabrook students if testing continues to show high levels of PCBs. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 at Cary Hall at 1605 Massachusetts Ave.
Bernie Fabricant, an Estabrook parent, said that he appreciates communication about the issue from the superintendent, adding that he would attend Tuesday’s meeting.
“The ultimate goal is to have my children and everyone else’s children at Estabrook to be in a situation where they’re learning in a PCB-free environment,’’ Fabricant said. “Whatever it takes to get there is fine with me. It must be done.’’
Angela Gharabegian, a parent who expressed concern at a meeting Wednesday, said she is grateful for the actions being taken by the town and the administration.
“I appreciate the efforts being made,’’ she said.
Estabrook closed Thursday so that workers could pump fresh air into the building in an attempt to bring PCB levels in the air to within Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. Yesterday, engineers took 20 samples from ceiling tiles, unit ventilators, and other parts of the school to try to find sources of PCBs after a project to remove contaminated window caulking failed to lower the levels, Ash said.
After the results are available next week, the superintendent will meet with a committee of parents, experts, and consultants to decide how to respond.
Tests last spring found that the school had potentially unsafe levels of the chemicals in the building’s caulking, and plans to remove them began Aug. 24, said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.
The removal was to be completed before Tuesday, but as classes resumed for the year, the Lexington Health Division measured even higher levels of PCBs in some of the building’s rooms.
PCBs are believed to harm the immune and reproductive systems. Studies have linked them to cancer, according to the EPA.
Estabrook Elementary likely to reopen Tuesday, after crews clean up PCB's this weekend
Published by The Boston Globe
About 100 concerned parents attended a meeting hosted by Lexington Public Schools Wednesday night in the Cary Hall Auditorium to discuss a project to remove chemicals found at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School.
The school closed this week after the removal of window caulking containing polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB), a toxic man-made chemical, failed to adequately lower the levels of PCBs in the school.
Administrators said they closed school today to begin a second phase of PCB removal, but they said the current levels would not deter them from reopening the school on Tuesday, after the long Labor Day weekend. The school system posted more information here.
Several parents demanded school be closed until administrators are sure they have eliminated the risk.
“My children will not go back,” said Angela Gharabegian, who has two daughters at Estabrook in first and third grades. “I don’t trust what is safe and what is not—it doesn’t mean anything to me at this point.”
The results won't come back til next Thursday. School Superintendent Paul Ash announced at the meeting that he would form a committee of experts, consultants and three parents to analyze the data and decide how to respond when they get the results.
Ash said that if he decided to keep the school open, children currently attending Estabrook would have to continue their education there, because the district is already tight for space. Estabrook has about 455 students; it is one of nine schools in the Lexington district and total enrollment in the town has increased by 250 students this year, Ash said.
Tuesday was the first day of school in Lexington. Many parents found out about the unsuccessful PCB removal that evening at a Lexington Board of Selectmen meeting and did not send their children to school Wednesday.
Gharabegian said at the Wednesday meeting she no longer trusts Superintendent Ash’s judgment in regard to the problem because he knowingly allowed students to enter the contaminated building this week.
"You never gave us a choice,” Gharabegian said to a panel of administrators, experts and consultants. “You did not give us the parental right to protect our children, and you withheld numbers from us.”
Ash said he did not close school because a representative of the Environmental Protection Agency for New England, Kim Tisa, said if the levels of PCBs are above certain “screening” numbers, the building should be examined but not necessarily closed. Ash also said he was under pressure to keep school open for a certain number of days under state law, and closing school this early in the year would cut into vacation time.
“Who cares about vacation?” Gharabegian said. “If it comes down to our childrens’ health?”
Tests last spring found that the school had unsafe levels of the chemical in the building’s caulking, and a plan was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the chemical began on Aug. 24., said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.
The plan was supposed to be completed before school started Tuesday, but as classes resumed for the year, the Lexington Health Division measured even higher unsafe levels of PCB's in some of the building’s rooms, said Pat Goddard, the schools’ director of public facilities.
Estabrook closed today, which would have been a half-day, so the school could begin to look for sources of PCB's other than the caulking that might explain higher levels of the chemical, said Goddard.
There is no school Friday and Monday because of Labor Day, but the holiday weekend also means the results will not be received until Thursday, said Goddard.
Many parents, however, expressed doubt that the results would demonstrate reduced levels of PCBs, and a few asked where else their children could go, or if they would be punished for staying home until Thursday.
Bernie Fabricant, an Estabrook parent, said administrators should be already working on a plan to reorganize the district.
“Parents here feel a lot of pain," Fabricant said. “I’ve been listening patiently, and the science is great, but the bottom line is that within everything, there’s still a risk. We don’t want to expose our kids to it, whether you like it or not.
“Get together with the school board, which should have been here tonight, and put pencil to paper, and get it done.”
PCB has been shown to cause cancer and other adverse health effects in animals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. The manufacture of PCB was banned in the United States in 1979, and the EPA recommended last year that buildings built between 1950 and 1978 should be examined for harmful levels of the chemical.
The town hired consultants to test various school buildings and 12 other public buildings for PCB last spring after The Boston Globe reported the EPA’s recommendation in Sept. 2009. The Town Administration Building, Clarke Middle School and Estabrook Elementary School did not pass the initial screening process and required further examination with a method developed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The second screening showed that Estabrook Elementary had unacceptable levels of PCB in the building’s caulk and soil. A plan of action was approved by the EPA Region 1 office on Aug. 17.
About 100 concerned parents attended a meeting hosted by Lexington Public Schools Wednesday night in the Cary Hall Auditorium to discuss a project to remove chemicals found at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School.
The school closed this week after the removal of window caulking containing polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB), a toxic man-made chemical, failed to adequately lower the levels of PCBs in the school.
Administrators said they closed school today to begin a second phase of PCB removal, but they said the current levels would not deter them from reopening the school on Tuesday, after the long Labor Day weekend. The school system posted more information here.
Several parents demanded school be closed until administrators are sure they have eliminated the risk.
“My children will not go back,” said Angela Gharabegian, who has two daughters at Estabrook in first and third grades. “I don’t trust what is safe and what is not—it doesn’t mean anything to me at this point.”
The results won't come back til next Thursday. School Superintendent Paul Ash announced at the meeting that he would form a committee of experts, consultants and three parents to analyze the data and decide how to respond when they get the results.
Ash said that if he decided to keep the school open, children currently attending Estabrook would have to continue their education there, because the district is already tight for space. Estabrook has about 455 students; it is one of nine schools in the Lexington district and total enrollment in the town has increased by 250 students this year, Ash said.
Tuesday was the first day of school in Lexington. Many parents found out about the unsuccessful PCB removal that evening at a Lexington Board of Selectmen meeting and did not send their children to school Wednesday.
Gharabegian said at the Wednesday meeting she no longer trusts Superintendent Ash’s judgment in regard to the problem because he knowingly allowed students to enter the contaminated building this week.
"You never gave us a choice,” Gharabegian said to a panel of administrators, experts and consultants. “You did not give us the parental right to protect our children, and you withheld numbers from us.”
Ash said he did not close school because a representative of the Environmental Protection Agency for New England, Kim Tisa, said if the levels of PCBs are above certain “screening” numbers, the building should be examined but not necessarily closed. Ash also said he was under pressure to keep school open for a certain number of days under state law, and closing school this early in the year would cut into vacation time.
“Who cares about vacation?” Gharabegian said. “If it comes down to our childrens’ health?”
Tests last spring found that the school had unsafe levels of the chemical in the building’s caulking, and a plan was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the chemical began on Aug. 24., said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.
The plan was supposed to be completed before school started Tuesday, but as classes resumed for the year, the Lexington Health Division measured even higher unsafe levels of PCB's in some of the building’s rooms, said Pat Goddard, the schools’ director of public facilities.
Estabrook closed today, which would have been a half-day, so the school could begin to look for sources of PCB's other than the caulking that might explain higher levels of the chemical, said Goddard.
There is no school Friday and Monday because of Labor Day, but the holiday weekend also means the results will not be received until Thursday, said Goddard.
Many parents, however, expressed doubt that the results would demonstrate reduced levels of PCBs, and a few asked where else their children could go, or if they would be punished for staying home until Thursday.
Bernie Fabricant, an Estabrook parent, said administrators should be already working on a plan to reorganize the district.
“Parents here feel a lot of pain," Fabricant said. “I’ve been listening patiently, and the science is great, but the bottom line is that within everything, there’s still a risk. We don’t want to expose our kids to it, whether you like it or not.
“Get together with the school board, which should have been here tonight, and put pencil to paper, and get it done.”
PCB has been shown to cause cancer and other adverse health effects in animals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. The manufacture of PCB was banned in the United States in 1979, and the EPA recommended last year that buildings built between 1950 and 1978 should be examined for harmful levels of the chemical.
The town hired consultants to test various school buildings and 12 other public buildings for PCB last spring after The Boston Globe reported the EPA’s recommendation in Sept. 2009. The Town Administration Building, Clarke Middle School and Estabrook Elementary School did not pass the initial screening process and required further examination with a method developed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The second screening showed that Estabrook Elementary had unacceptable levels of PCB in the building’s caulk and soil. A plan of action was approved by the EPA Region 1 office on Aug. 17.
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