Spending on police per person, fiscal year 2012

By Matt Carroll, Boston Globe | June 27, 2013

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

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

The YMCA of Greater Boston will provide free meals and snacks for children and teenagers this summer at about 20 sites across Boston and in neighboring communities, the organization announced.

The Summer Food Program will offer nutritious food at more than 10 YMCA sites as well as other community gathering places, including seven different locations in East Boston. Anyone 18 or under is eligible for the program, which will run from June 24 to Aug. 30.

In a statement, Kevin Washington, YMCA of Greater Boston president and CEO, said the program will address the needs of underprivileged families who struggle to supply extra meals through the summer.

“In order for kids to maintain good health, they need proper nourishment as well as activities to keep their minds and bodies active,” Washington said. “The YMCA’s Summer Food Program will help kids stay well-nourished, active and energized, and also provide some relief to families who need support in providing more food when school is out.”

The program is supported by a $70,000 grant from the Walmart Foundation as part of a national partnership between the foundation and the YMCA of the USA that focuses on addressing child hunger by serving children who lose access to free or reduced-price meals when school is out.

Across the country, the YMCA’s 900-plus Summer Food Program sites plan to serve 4 million meals and snacks to 100,000 young people.

The YMCA of Greater Boston also serves meals and snacks in its afterschool programs throughout the school year, the organization said.

Meals and snacks served through the Summer Food Program vary by location. For a complete list of program sites and meals served at each, visit www.ymcaboston.org/summer-food-program or contact Gail Klimas at (617) 569-9622.

Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @jeremycfox.
Follow East Boston on Twitter: @YourEastBoston.

By Dave Eisenstadter, Town Correspondent

Fed up with flights over Milton, some residents are making a plan to persuade the Federal Aviation Administration to reverse a decision to establish a departure corridor above the town.

The Milton Citizens Committee on Aviation Impacts met Thursday evening in the basement of the Town Hall, along with representatives from other communities affected by the recent change.

Sheryl Fleitman, a cochair of the committee, went through a presentation about the new flight path, which brings departures from the 33-L runway at Logan Airport above Milton.

The route is a one-mile-wide condensed flight path, which went into effect this month.

“Basically, it’s just a highway in the sky,” Fleitman said.

Two such paths already exist over Milton, according to the committee’s research – flights from runways 4 and 27. In the past two years, Milton experienced a 21 percent increase in airplane arrivals on Runway 4 alone, according to the committee’s presentation.

One of the committee’s objectives is to disperse the flights so that more towns share the burden of noise and environmental effects.

They plan to make use of the FAA’s 30- to 60-day comment period. The flight path will have a six-month trial period from June to December before it becomes permanent.

The presentation addressed grievances including increased air traffic, noise at night, environmental concerns, and a lack of monitoring for the noise.

Frank Parker, who previously was involved in a route redirection that affected Hull and Hingham, said a more effective argument was related to safety rather than noise.

“There are around 9,689 students in schools [in Milton],” he said. “The number of planes flying over such a crowded area only adds to the risk of… the possibility of a disaster taking place.”

Committee member Cindy Christiansen said she thought Curry College students were not counted in the Milton population to determine the number of people who would be affected by the route change.

Committee members asked the 30 or so people who attended the meeting to get more involved with the committee.

Philip Johenning, another committee member, said the committee also needed to make political connections.

“There are enough political people in this town… we need your help in getting political clout behind this committee,” Johenning said. “I believe the reason why Hull and Hingham were successful was leaders and state representatives and congressmen and school committees got behind them.”

The full presentation

By Dave Eisenstadtler, Town correspondent

The Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce will hold a reception for business leaders and members of the public to speak to their legislators in Dedham.

The event will be held at the Endicott Estate from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 23.

The cost of attendance is $15 for members, $25 for non-members, and $10 for Facebook fans of the chamber.

There will be no formal speaking program; instead participants can mingle and network with one another and with legislative and business leaders in the community. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine, and other refreshments will be available.

Registration is required at nvcc.com or by calling 781-769-1126.

By Dave Eisenstadter, Town Correspondent

Norfolk County’s sheriff is looking for volunteers to mentor prisoners at Norfolk County House of Correction in Dedham.

Mentors are paired with inmates while they are in prison, and they continue to meet after the release from prison, according to Sheriff Michael G. Bellotti, who began the program in 2011.

“The idea is to help the inmates stay on a productive, law-abiding path after they leave our walls,” Bellotti said.

Prospective mentors are interviewed and screened by Norfolk County Sheriff’s office staff to determine how well they will fit the program, but Bellotti said people from all walks of life could make good mentors.

About 40 mentors have been paired with inmates since the program began.

Funding in 2011 came from a US Justice Department grant received by the non-profit organization Volunteers of America, which partnered with the sheriff’s office to administer the program.

Anyone interested in becoming a mentor can contact Assistant Superintendent Patty Spataro at 781-751-3416.

By Dave Eisenstadter, Town Correspondent

Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton will celebrate its 110th anniversary at its annual gala on May 15 at Lombardo’s in Randolph.

Proceeds from the event will support the hospital’s new Center for Orthopaedic Care, which includes a joint and sports medicine specialists providing surgical and non-surgical care.

The event will feature live auction items, including Red Sox luxury box tickets, yacht sailing, and vacation getaways. There will also be a Grono and Christie jewelry shopping spree raffle, a silent auction, and a dinner.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit bidmilton.org/gala or call 617-313-1194.

By David Nyhan, Globe Staff

The late Globe columnist David Nyhan wrote the following column in 1987. Since then, it has been reprinted in the newspaper and online many times around this time of year. Nyhan died in January 2005.

THE REJECTIONS arrive this time of year in thin, cheap envelopes, some with a crummy window for name and address, as if it were a bill, and none with the thick packet you'd hoped for.

''Dear So-and-so:

''The admissions committee gave full consideration . . . but I regret to inform you we will be unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2012." Lots of applicants, limited number of spaces, blah blah blah, good luck with your undergraduate career. Very truly yours, Assistant Dean Blowhard, rejection writer, Old Overshoe U.

This is the season of college acceptance letters. So it's also the time of rejection. You're in or you're out. Today is the day you learn how life is not like high school. To the Ins, who got where they wanted to go: Congrats, great, good luck, have a nice life, see you later. The rest of this is for the Outs.

You sort of felt it was coming. Your SAT scores weren't the greatest. Your transcript had some holes in it. You wondered what your teachers' recommendations would really say, or imply. And you can't help thinking about that essay you finished at 2 o'clock in the morning of the day you absolutely had to mail in your application, that essay which was, well, a little weird.

Maybe you could have pulled that C in sociology up to a B-minus. Maybe you shouldn't have quit soccer to get a job to pay for your gas. Maybe it was that down period during sophomore year when you had mono and didn't talk to your teachers for three months while you vegged out. What difference does it make what it was? It still hurts.

It hurts where you feel pain most: inside. It's not like the usual heartache that kids have, the kind other people can't see. An alcoholic parent, a secret shame, a gaping wound in the family fabric, these are things one can carry to school and mask with a grin, a wisecrack, a scowl, a just-don't-mess-with-me-today attitude.

But everybody knows where you got in and where you didn't. Sure, the letter comes to the house. But eventually you've still got to face your friends. ''Any mail for me?" is like asking for a knuckle sandwich. Thanks a lot for the kick in the teeth. What a bummer.

How do you tell kids at school? That's the hard part. The squeals in the corridor from the kids who got in someplace desirable. The supercilious puss on the ones who got early acceptance or the girl whose old man has an in at Old Ivy.

There's the class doofus who suddenly becomes the first nerd accepted at Princeton, the 125-pound wrestling jock who, surprise, surprise, got into MIT. But what about you?

You've heard about special treatment for this category or that category, alumni kids on a legacy ticket or affirmative action luckouts or rebounders or oboe players. Maybe they were trying to fill certain slots. But you're not a slot. You're you. They can look at your grades and weigh your scores and see how many years you were in French Club. But they can't look into your head, or into your heart. They can't check out the guts department.

This is the important thing: They didn't reject you. They rejected your resume. They gave some other kid the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that kid deserved a break. Don't you deserve a break? Sure. You'll get one. Maybe this is the reality check you needed. Maybe the school that does take you will be good. Maybe this is the day you start to grow up.

Look at some people who've accomplished a lot and see where they started. Ronald Reagan? Eureka College. Jesse Jackson? They wouldn't let him play quarterback in the Big Ten, so he quit Illinois for North Carolina A & T. Do you know that the recently retired chairmen and CEOs of both General Motors and General Electric graduated from UMass? Bob Dole? He went to Washburn Municipal University.

The former minority leader of the United States Senate, Tom Daschle, went to South Dakota State. The former speaker of the US House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, went to Northern Illinois University. Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, took a bachelor's degree from Jamestown College. Winston Churchill? He was so slow a learner that they used to write to his mother to come take this boy off our hands.

I know what you think: Spare me the sympathy. It still hurts. But let's keep this in perspective. What did Magic Johnson say to the little boy who also tested HIV positive? ''You've got to have a positive attitude." What happens when you don't keep a positive attitude? Don't ask.

This college thing? What happened is that you rubbed up against the reality of big-time, maybe big-name, institutions. Some they pick, some they don't. You lost. It'll happen again, but let's hope it won't have the awful kick. You'll get tossed by a girlfriend or boyfriend. You won't get the job or the promotion you think you deserve. Some disease may pluck you from life's fast lane and pin you to a bed, a wheelchair, a coffin. That happens.

Bad habits you can change; bad luck is nothing you can do anything about.

Does it mean you're not a good person? People like you, if not your resume. There's no one else that can be you. Plenty of people think you're special now, or will think that, once they get to know you. Because you are.

And the admissions department that said no? Screw them. You've got a life to lead.

By Dave Eisenstadter, Town Correspondent

Norfolk County’s register of deeds will host a free informational seminar about using computers to research property records.

William P. O’Donnell will hold the seminar at the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds at 649 High St. in Dedham on Thursday, May 9, at 4:30 p.m.

The seminar is intended for both real estate professionals and the general public, and will include a presentation, written handouts, and hands-on exercises.

Computer assisted land records research is currently available both at the registry and on the Internet at www.norfolkdeeds.org.

The seminar is free, but anyone planning to attend should register by contacting Alicia Gardner at 781-461-6104 or agardner@norfolkdeeds.org, and providing name, address, e-mail, and a daytime phone number.

By Dave Eisenstadter, Town Correspondent

Keeping pace with an expected increase in knee and hip replacement surgeries, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton is opening an orthopedic center Monday.

The new Center for Orthopaedic Care will have 16 private treatment rooms and will house specialists in sports medicine, joint replacement, feet, ankles, hands, and wrists.

“There are more people trying to stay active longer because that is the way they lived their life,” Sports Medicine Doctor Joseph DeAngelis said in an interview. Even as other invasive surgeries have been on the decline as medical procedures become more sophisticated, demand for joint surgeries that help elderly people stay active continues to increase, he said.

The Baby Boom generation reaching the 60s is one of the major causes of growth for such surgeries, according to DeAngelis.

Previously, orthopedic doctors had been divided into different areas of the hospital, but the new center will provide a combined area for five of them, allowing for more efficient care, DeAngelis said.

A further advantage is that the center is adjacent to the radiology center, meaning that patients experiencing joint pain will only have a few steps to go to get X-rays, according to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton spokesman Jason Bouffard.

“The last thing they want to do is walk around a lot,” Bouffard said.

The space that will open Monday consists of 6,000 square feet, but that is just Phase 1 of the project, Bouffard said. Phase 2 consists of 3,000 square feet to be used for rehabilitation services, he said.

When Phase 2 is completed depends on fund-raising, he added. In the mean time, rehabilitation services are located on the Brooks Wing on the second floor.

DeAngelis said he is looking forward to the center opening.

“Monday is a big day for all of us,” he said.

The Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce has announced the participants of the 14th annual Flavors of Neponset Valley tasting event.

The event will take place on Wednesday, March 20, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Patriot Place in Foxborough. Tickets are $40 or $375 for 10.

For more information, visit www.nvcc.com or call 781-769-1126.

Restaurants and beverage companies include:

Angry Cookie
Aquitaine Bar a Vin Bistrot
Atlantic Coffee
Bertucci's – Norwood/Canton
Off the Vine Catering
British Beer Company
Burke Distributors
CBS Scene
Chili's-Walpole
Dave & Busters
Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse
Dancing Deer Bakery
Easton Country Club
Edible Arrangements of Foxboro
Ever So Humble Pie Company
Harrow's
Harpoon Brewery
HESSCO Elder Services
J&L Catering
Jalapenos Grill
JP Licks at Legacy Place
Kendall Jackson/M S Walker, Inc.
Kings at Legacy Place
Konditor-Meister
Lemate Cocktail Mix
Mayflower Brewery
Mai Pearl
Meat House
Narragansett Brewing Co./Colonial Wholesale Bev.
Norton Country Club
Olivadi
One Bistro
Quality Beverage
Raes Fresh
Raven's Nest
Salem Food Market
Showcase
Skipjack's Seafood Emporium
Summer Shack
Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro
Tavolino Resturant
Texas Road House
Twenty8 Food & Spirits
Twist Bakery