By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

The MBTA says riders will soon be able to receive faster, more reliable, and more informative alerts, via text and e-mail, notifying them about service delays and disruptions and planned changes.

The revamped “T-Alerts” notification system will launch June 4.

Riders can register for the new service today at www.mbta.com.

The more than 50,000 subscribers of the existing “T-Alerts” system must sign up for the new system to continue to receive alerts. The old system, which launched in 2007, will be discontinued.

The T plans to remind current subscribers that they should sign up for the new system by sending them alerts starting Friday.

Under the new system, alerts will continue to be posted to the T’s website, “with visual enhancements made to page layout and format for clarity, ease-of-use, and reader-friendliness,” the public transit agency said in a statement Thursday.

Text message and e-mail alerts will have more “reliable delivery times” through a new partnership between the T and GovDelivery, a digital communication management company.

“Service alerts and notifications will be clearer and more detailed with additional information regarding specific trip times, service schedule changes, and distinct directional, branch, and station communications,” the statement said.

Like the old system, the new T-Alerts allows riders to tailor which alerts they receive. Riders can choose to be sent alerts about a mix of subway, commuter rail, and boat lines, bus routes and elevators and escalators within the system.

Customizing is easier under the new system and allows some additional flexibility when signing up, including letting customers pick certain times of the day for when they want to receive alerts, T spokeswoman Kelly Smith said.

T officials also hope the new notification system will pave the way for third-party software developers to create new smartphone applications and websites around the “T-Alerts” system, Smith said.

Such apps could allow riders even more options for customizing how they receive alerts, she said.

Smith said the T will make new tools available to third-party developers later this month.

“Based on past experience we expect to see some innovative, useful and interesting applications of that information on smartphone apps and websites,” she said in an e-mail.

The new “T-Alerts” system “is built around data structures that enable sharing, encouraging innovative third-party development,” the T’s statement said. “It uses emerging standards introduced by Google in 2011.”

Developers interested in creating software applications around “T-Alerts,” can visit developer.mbta.com.

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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Percentage of females, 2010

By Matt Carroll, Boston Globe | May 16, 2013

Click here to see a larger, interactive version of this chart.
Additional town-by-town snapshots.

Quincy High School is one of four schools statewide nominated by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education to receive the US Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools National Award.

The school was honored May 13 in the Great Hall at the Massachusetts State House as part of the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Rick Sullivan’s annual Excellence in Energy and Environmental Education Awards ceremony, and will be presented their award at the US Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools National Awards Ceremony on June 3, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Quincy High School is among 64 Massachusetts schools and 14 districts that were announced as 2013 Green Ribbon schools nationwide honorees. The honored schools and districts were selected for their exemplary efforts to reduce environmental impact and utility costs, promote better health, and ensure effective environmental education, including civics, STEM and green career pathways.

“We are very proud of the award-winning work achieved in this collaborative effort between Planning Department Staff, Quincy High School Principals Frank Santoro and Ellen Murray, as well as the Director of Public Buildings Gary Cunniff,” Mayor Thomas P. Koch said. “I am extremely proud that their accomplishments have received national recognition for the City of Quincy. “

Quincy Public Schools Superintendent Richard DeCristofaro agreed, saying that "In order to be nominated for such a significant honor, a consistent collaboration of school and city staff is necessary. I am certain that the city of Quincy and the school system will continue to find ways to reduce environmental impact and provide students with environmental education opportunities.”

Jennifer Azevedo-Andre

A zoomed-in shot of the plane flying over Quincy shows that, despite concerns, it is not a drone.

Photos of one of the planes that have been flying over Quincy show that, despite suspicions, the aircraft is not a drone.

The Cessna single-engine airplane, which residents have captured in photos, has been flying overhead for weeks, turning circles around the Quincy and Milton air space.

Although people have gotten a better look at what the plane is, it's still unclear what it’s doing or who's doing it.

“We’ve received a couple more phone calls and the response is the same,” said Christopher Walker, spokesperson for Mayor Thomas Koch. “The FAA confirmed that it is a sanctioned flight, and there is no information beyond that.”

FAA spokespeople have said the aircraft is not a drone, but refused to elaborate on the machine’s purpose.

The tail number, N906TM, which can be seen in one photo, is registered to a company called RKT Productions. The only information that could be found on the company is a post office box in Bristow, Va.

A spokesman for the nearest airport, Manassas Regional Airport, had never heard of the company and said the plane did not fly out of that airport.

But Quincy residents say there is more than one aircraft flying overhead.

“There’s definitely more than one plane,” said Jennifer Azevedo-Andre, who lives in Merrymount. “[There’s] the one we could get a picture of. The other one has a dark blue belly. My husband is a pilot…the Cessna can only fly for seven to eight hours, so there is definitely another plane that comes to relieve it.”

Residents have not seen the tail number on the second plane.

For residents, the purpose of the plane is practically irrelevant, as it’s the noise, continuous since late April, that has been the most distressing.

“We’re very reasonable people,” said Azevedo-Andre. “There may be a valid reason for them to be covert, to explain it might undermine its purpose, but I can tolerate for so long and no one can give us a timetable of when it will stop.”

The flights have ceased during the recent rains, but Andre was concerned they might start up again soon.

Michael Gundersen, a Wollaston resident, agreed the noise was, at times, unbearable.

“It was basically every day, and … I’d notice it when I woke up in the morning. And I go to bed late and at 1 a.m., still going, 2 a.m., 3 a.m., and I want to go to sleep but I can’t. Even with the windows closed, you could hear this thing,” Gundersen said.

The noise would get louder as it made the loop approximately every six minutes, Gundersen said. “The noise was just, at some points, it was unbearable."

He said he would feel better if he were to learn that a government agency was flying the plane, "then at least there isn’t this strange plane flying overhead.”

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

The Quincy Police Department has received additional recognition from the White House, being named in a recent report on how to combat substance abuse.

Namely, the recognition stems off the department’s use of the drug Narcan, which has prevented nearly 100 potentially fatal drug overdoses since it was adopted in 2010.

Received nasally, the device knocks drug users off their high by inhibiting the receptors in the brain that typically receive the drug’s chemicals.

“With the implementation of the Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution program by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, the Commonwealth has become a nationwide leader in overdose education, prevention, and intervention,” said the report, which was released late last month.

The shout-out is only the most recent recognition Quincy has received from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Police Lieutenant Patrick Glynn received the 2012 “Advocate for Action” award from the organization for his work in reducing substance abuse.

Glenn received further recognition in the report, a photo beside a quote summing up Glynn’s mantra in this initiative.

“I believe we have spread the word that no one should fear calling the police for assistance and that the option of life is just a 911 call away,” he said in the report. “We have also reinforced with the community that the monster is not in the cruiser, but indeed the officer represents a chance at life.”

Glynn directs the Narcan program, and saw that all Quincy officers are trained to use the devices.

According to Glynn, the idea came from a local incident, when a young kid was overdosing on drugs and had to wait until the ambulance arrived to administer the Narcan.

"It started getting everyone thinking - why don’t the police carry it? We’re the first on the scene,” Glynn said.

In partnership with the Department of Public Health and Bay State Community Services, Glynn was able to receive the funding to provide Narcan to every officer in the city, and also train them to use the device.

Since October 2010, when the Narcan program was in place, Quincy Police have responded to 164 calls of a drug overdose. Of those, 158 people were able to be saved.

"We’ve had people, as soon as we pull up, they yell, 'It's an overdose, get your Narcan.' We’ve had people drive into the station with people in an overdose state, and they need narcan for a family member. Officers ran from the station, administer narcan, they went to hospital and survived. That’s significant for us," Glynn said.

White House officials said that mind set is exactly what is needed to combat substance abuse moving forward.

“As many communities see increased rates of heroin abuse, younger ages of initiation, and continuing challenges related to opioid pain reliever abuse, it is increasingly important to spread awareness that overdoses can be prevented and that simple-to-use medicines are available to reverse overdoses,” the report states. “Overdose education and naloxone availability are important parts of our efforts to decrease abuse of opiates (pharmaceutical or heroin) and save lives.”

The program has been so successful that Quincy was also named in the preface of the report, written by R. Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the National Drug Control Policy, who said Quincy is pioneering the use of Narcan and that the city should be an example for combating drug use.

Glynn said he gave a report in late April when he went down to D.C. to accept the award, and said word is spreading quickly about the program.

"Many other departments are trying to get on board, nationally, even locally, with Braintree and Weymouth," Glynn said.

In three years, the Narcan has only cost $7,000, Glynn said. For the price of 158 lives, it's a drop in the bucket, Glynn said.

"It would be great if we never had to use it again, but we’re not naïve to think that," Glynn said. "At least we’re ready to assist in the event it does.”

To view the entire report, click here.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

A small, low-flying aircraft has been causing a fuss in Quincy this week, with many unanswered questions about what the aircraft is doing and who is operating it.

“It is a sanctioned flight by the FAA,” said Quincy Police Captain John Dougan, but that’s all the information he could give.

Dougan said the Police Department had received about half a dozen phone calls in the past week about the aircraft, which was humming loudly over residents’ heads at odd hours.

Despite the resident concerns, information has been limited.

Jim Peters, a public affairs spokesperson with the FAA, confirmed they knew about the aircraft but also declined to comment on what it was. “We’re not releasing anything beyond that,” he said.

When asked if people should be concerned about the aircraft, Peters said no.

“We know who they are,” he said.

If the FAA does know the agency behind the aircraft, they are remaining tight-lipped about it. Even representatives from the Quincy Mayor’s office didn’t know much about the flights.

“We’ve gotten calls from different parts of the city,” said Christopher Walker, spokesperson for Mayor Thomas Koch.

Walker said the city was only made aware that the flights were FAA-sanctioned.

For most residents, those answers aren’t good enough.

West Quincy City Councilor Brian Palmucci said a number of residents have called him about it, saying that the low-flying aircraft have been a constant presence for the last week to two weeks

“[It is a] low humming, low flying plane that the FAA says isn’t a drone; however, I would love to get some answers,” said Palmucci. “If it’s not a drone, how is it staying in the air nearly 24 hours a day? It’s my understanding that the FAA mandates that flights last no more than eight hours.”

Palmucci said even basic questions about the flights have gone unanswered, such as whether a law enforcement agency is behind them.

“Given the events of the past month, people are on edge, and the main concern that folks have is, is there something going on that they should be concerned about?” Palmucci said. “[Is there an] event, activity, individual that they should be vigilant about? And no one is providing any answers.”

Not only is the sight of the flying object disconcerting to residents, but the noise has been bothersome.

Greg Zacchine, a Quincy resident, also complained about the noise from the plane, which he said he had seen circling overhead both day and night.

“This plane makes a low pitch humming sound that's some what of a distraction while outdoors. I would like to know its purpose and who is its owner if possible,” Zacchine said in an email to Palmucci.

Quincy resident Paul O'Malley also said the sound of the plane had kept him awake at night.

"At night, on a clear night, you can look up and think it's a single engine passenger plane," O'Malley said. "It sounds like one, has the running lights like one, and it passes my house in Wollaston, circles over Milton, Blue Hills, over Randolph, Holbrook and comes back to the same spot every eight minutes. The other night it started at 7 p.m. and was woken up all night to it till about 4 a.m."

O'Malley said his wife thinks she has heard the plane for the last several weeks.

"It's kind of weird if it’s a person flying it; that’s a long time," O'Malley said. "My guess would be its an unmanned reconnaissance. My issue with it is just the noise factor. It's low enough where a lot of people have taken notice of it."

Palmucci said people might be more understanding if they knew why the planes were there, but so far, the only thing people know is there is something going on.

“If you said it’s law enforcement…people are willing to give up some peace and quiet to know law enforcement is doing work to protect them, but we don’t know that,” Palmucci said.

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

Buses will replace train service on a portion of the Red Line for the next two weekends, according to the MBTA.

On Saturday, May 11 and Sunday, May 12 and again on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19, buses will replace service between JFK/UMass Station and North Quincy Station, the T’s website said. The shuttles are accessible for people with disabilities.

Work is planned to be done on the Columbia Junction Project, T officials said.

For more information, contact the MBTA customer communications department at 617-222-3200, TTY: 617-222-5146.

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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For the latest updates about your community, follow some of our local neighborhood, city and town Twitter accounts, here.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Two families have been displaced after a fire ripped through a two-story, two-unit home on Vassall Street early Tuesday morning.

According to Deputy Fire Chief Ed Fenby, the call came in at approximately 3:20 a.m. and grew enough within 20 minutes to warrant a second truck to be called to the scene.

“It started on the exterior of the house and burned into the eves and took over the attic,'' he said.

Police believe the fire started on the second floor balcony. Though the incident is under investigation, police do not believe the cause to be suspicious.

Five people were displaced because of the fire, including a young couple with a baby on the first floor, and an older couple who lived on the second floor.

According to Fenby, the Red Cross is providing housing for the young couple and baby. He was unsure where the other family went.

“The house is not able to be stayed in right now,” Fenby said.

Fire officials did not have a damage estimate, but said most likely the house would be a total loss.

None of the tenants were injured in the blaze, but one Quincy firefighter went to the hospital when the ceiling collapsed onto him.

According to Fenby, that firefighter has since been released.

The Fore River Railroad bridge lies near Commercial Street and used to be in place for a cattle crossing underneath.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent