Marble scholarships

The Board of Selectmen is seeking applicants for the town's Mabel Felton Marble Memorial Scholarships. Created by the Marble family, the scholarships provide approximately $2,000 a year to graduating female high school students who reside in town and plan on continuing their education in college or vocational school. Applications are available in the selectmen's office in the Town Offices on Linden Street and at the guidance departments at Tahanto Regional High School and Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School. The application deadline is May 12. - John Dyer

CANDIDATES NIGHT - Local candidates running for election this spring will square off at a candidates forum tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Davis Hall. The two candidates vying for a seat on the Board of Selectmen, Stan Wysocki and Connie Benjamin, have said they will attend the event, which is sponsored by the Friends of the Bolton Public Library. Bolton Access Television will televise the candidates night. - Matt Gunderson

SCHOOL OVERRIDE PROPOSED - Town Meeting voters this spring will once again consider a tax increase, as financial pressures continue to mount on the school system. The Board of Selectmen voted last week to place a proposal on the May 5 Town Meeting warrant to override the state's Proposition 2 1/2 tax cap law to permit a $624,379 tax increase. The money would cover rising costs at the Boylston Elementary School, Tahanto Regional Middle/High School, and the Assabet Regional Vocational School District. Tax overrides for the elementary and regional school districts were defeated last year, prompting the town to use $326,000 from its free cash fund. - Matt Gunderson

SERVICE FEES RAISED - The town's Municipal Light Board has raised its fees for various service charges, the first such change in 14 years, the board announced recently. The charge for after-hours service calls has increased from $65 to $185, for example. Yakov Levin, the Light & Power Department manager, said the increases were necessary to reflect the actual costs of the services. Because a very small fraction of customers use the affected services, he said, other customers were essentially subsidizing those low fees. A full list of the new charges is available at the utility's website, hudsonlight.com, under its "News" link. - John Dyer

FLOWERS AT THE MFA - Garden club members will exhibit their works at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston starting on Saturday. Floral arranger Mark Miller and assistant Joan Reals will take part in the MFA's Art in Bloom program and work with 63 other New England garden clubs to design floral arrangements that interpret a major work of art. Art in Bloom's exhibitions are free to view with museum admission. For more information call the museum at 617-369-3306. - John M. Guilfoil

NEW SUPERINTENDENT - Mary Carlson has been appointed superintendent of the city's schools for two years beginning July 1. The high school's principal, Carlson has also been serving as interim superintendent since January, when Barbara McGann resigned from the position. "Currently, 48 school-superintendent searches are underway in the Commonwealth, which results in a particularly competitive climate, making it difficult to find qualified candidates," Mayor Nancy Stevens said in an announcement on Carlson's appointment. "We had only to look internally to find a great and wonderfully qualified administrator." Carlson is a 1970 graduate of Marlborough High School, and has a master's degree in education leadership from Framingham State College, the mayor said. She has worked in the Marlborough school district since 1975, serving as high school principal the last seven years. The School Committee will launch a search in June 2009 to find her successor, according to the mayor's statement. - Lisa Kocian

TRIMMING DEFICIT - School officials are continuing to work with the town to balance next year's budget, and have whittled down the district's spending gap from $103,000 to $29,000, said Superintendent Mark Masterson. A major reason for the shortfall is a $50,000 charge for a new post-secondary school program to help graduating special-needs students get established, said Masterson. Town Administrator John Curran said the size of any potential override request this spring - if one happens at all - would largely depend on the size of the school budget. - Matt Gunderson

FIRE FUND ESTABLISHED - The Northborough Rotary Club has established a fund to aid victims of the Main Street fire that consumed O'Brien's Five & Dime and a handful of other shops on March 25. Donors can write checks to the Northborough Plaza Fire Fund and deposit them at any branch of St. Mary's Credit Union. The credit union has a Northborough branch at 100 West Main St. For more information, contact Michelle Gillespie at 508-393-1355. - John Dyer

WRITE-IN FOR SCHOOL BOARD - The official ballot for the May 12 election does not show a contested race for two open seats on the local School Committee, but that doesn't mean there isn't a campaign for them. Because current School Committee member Karen Richardson missed by minutes the 5 p.m. deadline on March 24 to submit papers for her reelection, there is only one person on the ballot to fill the two seats, incumbent board member Shirley Lunberg. But former committee member Joan Frank has announced that she intends to mount a write-in campaign for one of the three-year terms, said Town Clerk Andrew Dowd. Frank is also a member of the Northborough-Southborough Regional School Committee, which oversees Algonquin Regional High School. The Northborough panel oversees the town's elementary schools. - John Dyer

CANDIDATES TO DEBATE - Seniors for Responsible Taxation will host a debate for selectmen candidates to be aired live Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Channel 28. There are seven candidates running for two open spots. The election is May 6. - Lisa Kocian

EMERGENCY TEAM NEEDS HELP - The town's Emergency Management Agency is seeking residents to volunteer for a community response team. Participants would help police officers, firefighters, and medical workers in the event of an emergency by taking over their nonhazardous duties. The volunteers will receive training on their roles in supporting the first responders in a catastrophe. The next orientation will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the town fire station at 21 Main St. For more information, contact Neal Aspesi, the Emergency Management Agency's director, at 508-485-3235, ext. 437. - John Dyer

SCHOLARSHIP DEADLINE - The Southborough Garden Club is offering a $1,000 scholarship to a Southborough graduating senior or a college student already studying horticulture and related fields. Applicants must have lived in Southborough for at least two years and demonstrate scholastic achievement and good citizenship. Applications for the scholarship are available in the town's public library. The deadline to apply is tomorrow. Completed applications should be sent to Marjorie Lowry, Scholarship Chair, Southborough Garden Club, 35 Glen Court, Southborough, MA 01772. - John Dyer

CHINA VISIT - Hale Middle School principal Margaret Morgan is in China this month as part of an educational-exchange program involving China and the United States. Yi Zhang, vice principal of the Beijing Fengtai Experimental School, visited Hale in October as part of the program, known as the US China Principal Job Shadowing Project. Morgan will visit Zhang at his school to gain a better understanding of the curriculum. - Matt Gunderson

SPRING SPRINT TRIATHLON - The Sudbury Spring Sprint Triathlon will take place May 11 at the town's Atkinson Pool. The town is looking for volunteers to help set up and operate support and water stations for the event, a race with running, swimming and bicycling segments. This second annual event supports the pool and the town Park and Recreation Department's scholarship fund. Volunteers are asked to arrive at 7 a.m. at the pool. Call 978-433-1092 for more information. - John M. Guilfoil

CENTRALIZED DPW - Wayland will create a centralized department to handle public works operations. After two years of debate, the measure passed at Town Meeting, 382-291. The new department will consolidate town services, such as parks and recreation and trash collection. The measure has been controversial. Nearly all of the April 10 opening night of Town Meeting was devoted to discussion on the single warrant item. - John M. Guilfoil

VERIZON NOW HAS ACCESS - Cable television customers in Westborough who subscribe to Verizon's service can now see local-access channels 24, 26, and 28, said Maria Sheehan, Westborough TV's general manager. Since January, Sheehan said, Verizon had been promising it was going to provide viewers with the local access channels, which cover municipal meetings, school events, and locally produced programming. Late last month, Verizon subscribers still couldn't see the channels, so Town Counsel Gregory Franks sent Verizon a letter saying its contract to operate in Westborough would be revoked if it didn't provide the channels, as its contract stipulates, Sheehan said. Verizon had been in negotiations with rival cable provider Charter Communications on the issue. Charter owns the connections between Westborough TV and the wires that deliver the cable signal to homes. - John Dyer

AROUND THE REGION

HISTORY BOOK CLUB - The Holliston Public Library's history book club will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. to discuss David McCullough's biography of John Adams, which was recently adapted into a miniseries for HBO. The book club is open to everyone and meets monthly in the Gilman Room, on the lower level of the library. For more information, call the library at 508-429-0617. - Calvin Hennick

NO SCHOOL-CHOICE PLAN NEXT YEAR - Local officials are not looking to participate in a school choice initiative next year, even though a working group looking for new sources of revenue recommended that it at least be considered. The possibility of bringing in tuition-paying students to help offset costs has been discussed, but the School Committee's chairwoman said last week that it would not be considered for the upcoming school year. "But because of class sizes, we will continue to look at it," said Rebecca Robak. "Especially since elementary enrollment will be declining," opening seats for outside students. Hopkinton has not participated in the state initiative, which allows students to enroll in another community's school system if the district is a participant in the program and space is available. The costs are covered by the student's home district. Districts decide each year whether to take part in the program. - Michele Morgan Bolton

NEW ATHLETIC DIRECTOR - Richard Piergustavo has been hired as Milford High School's athletic director. Piergustavo will replace Nicholas Zacchilli upon his retirement July 1. Zacchilli has been athletic director for 26 years. Piergustavo, a 1983 graduate of Milford High, is serving as the athletic director and a social studies teacher at Hopedale High School. He also coached the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and Milford's American Legion Post 59 baseball team. - Anna Fiorentino

LIBRARY AUCTION SEEKS DONATIONS - The Friends of the Plainville Public Library group is seeking donations for its Summer Fun Silent Auction in June. The library's director, Melissa Campbell, said the Friends group is accepting donations of gift certificates, handcrafted items, and services such as landscaping that can be auctioned off. Those interested in donating items for the auction should contact the library at 508-695-1784, Campbell said. - Calvin Hennick

HELP WITH TROUBLED TEENS - The town's Health Department has posted a "Parent Resource Guide" directed at helping avert suicide among teenagers. The guide provides a list of phone numbers and websites to consult for help in determining whether a teenager's moods are normal or might be signaling an emotional crisis that could lead to suicide. It also lists toll-free numbers that teenagers can call to reach support from trained counselors. The guide is available on the town's website, wellesleyma.gov, under the "News & Events" link. - Lisa Keen

RENEWED DPW SEARCH - Applications for the town's superintendent of public works position are due at the end of this month, and Town Administrator Jack McFeeley said he hopes to have the job filled by the end of next month. In February, selectmen offered the post to Richard Nota, the public works director in the town of Harvard. However, Nota and selectmen were unable to agree on a contract, and the board opted to readvertise the opening. - Calvin Hennick