The Massachusetts Behavioral Health Help Line (BHHL) will connect you directly to clinical help, when and where you need it. Even if you’re not sure what kind of help or treatment you may need, they can help guide you.

• Text or call (833) 773-2445

• It’s free, confidential, and no health insurance is required.

• Real-time interpretation in 200+ languages.

• Deaf or hard of hearing? Dial MassRelay at 711, or use your video relay or caption provider of choice.

The Department of Mental Health, as the State Mental Health Authority, assures and provides access to services and supports to meet the mental health needs of individuals of all ages; enabling them to live, work and participate in their communities.

•DMH Adult Services:

https://www.mass.gov/department-of-mental-health-adult-services-ages-19

•DMH Youth and Family services:

https://www.mass.gov/orgs/dmh-child-youth-and-family-services

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/video/westminster-residents-worried-new-monty-tech-field-could-contaminate-water/

This is a solidarity movement to protect the anonymity of a former Cornell University student who filed a civil lawsuit which detailed that she was gang-raped at a fraternity house in 2024. There have been attempts to expose her identity online.

From Mayor Squailia:

$2.979 MILLION awarded to Fitchburg for McTaggart’s Pond Dam, plus another $133,700 for Overlook Reservoir Dam

Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper joined us in Fitchburg to tour the McTaggart’s Pond Dam and Phillips Brook restoration project and celebrate this major state investment in Fitchburg’s infrastructure, public safety and environmental future.

Fitchburg received an INCREDIBLE $2,979,000 in combined MVP and Dam & Seawall construction funding through EEA’s ECO One Stop program to move the McTaggart’s project into construction. ECO One Stop brings several state climate and environmental grant programs together through one application process, including the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness and Dam & Seawall programs. This first round awarded more than $45 million statewide for 97 projects.

And Fitchburg received a second award of $133,700 to study whether the Overlook Reservoir Dam can be safely removed in whole or in part. That is more than $3.1 MILLION in state dam and resilience funding coming to Fitchburg from this grant round.

The McTaggarts Pond dam is pretty huge... at 430 feet long and 24 feet high, and the former impoundment covered about 6.3 acres.

This has been a long road to get here... Back in 2018, McTaggart’s Pond Dam was downgraded from “Poor” to “Unsafe” after inspections found worsening seepage, loss of material beneath the dam and small sinkholes developing along the structure. The pond was drained as a public safety precaution, and the City began working toward a permanent solution.

Since then, our team has worked through years of alternatives analysis, sediment investigations, ecological assessments, engineering, design, permitting and regulatory review to get this project construction-ready.

The project will remove the unsafe dam and restore Phillips Brook through the former impoundment. This is Fitchburg's first municipally owned dam removal project, and the impact goes far beyond removing an aging structure. The restoration will reconnect approximately 5.65 miles, or 57%, of the Phillips Brook mainstem, creating 24 miles of connected aquatic habitat along a cold-water stream that supports native eastern brook trout. It will also improve water quality, restore natural sediment movement and allow the former pond area to continue transitioning into a floodplain meadow and natural habitat.

There is a direct community benefit here as well: The restored City property connects with Moran Field and its existing trail network, creating future opportunities for walking, wildlife viewing and fishing along Phillips Brook. Plans also call for preserving the old dam gate mechanism and installing signage explaining the history of the site and its restoration.

$2.979 Million coming into Fitchburg for one project is a TREMENDOUS win. This allows us to address an infrastructure liability that has been hanging over the City for years while restoring a natural resource at the same time, with the Commonwealth covering the overwhelming majority (approx. 95%) of the direct project cost ($141k City of Fitchburg direct budget funding).

This award was the result of years of teamwork between our departments. Our DPW Engineering Division and Conservation staff, along with our project partners at the Nashua River Watershed Association and Fuss & O’Neill, have stayed with this project through years of inspections, studies, design work, permitting, grant applications and coordination with state agencies. Grants of this size require an enormous amount of technical work behind the scenes, and our staff & partners put Fitchburg in a position to compete successfully for this funding.

We were honored to welcome Secretary Tepper, State Representative Michael Kushmerek, EEA staff and our project partners to Fitchburg to walk the site and see Phillips Brook firsthand.

From an unsafe dam in 2018 to nearly $3 million to finally address it in 2026... this is what years of planning, engineering and persistence can accomplish.

I added some older photos and some new ones from the site tour so you can see how this area has changed over the years.

From their page on Facebook:

We have exciting news!

Today, we received an invitation from the Commissioner of Education to submit a final application for the Ashby Evergreen Charter School! This is a huge milestone!

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has reviewed our initial application and provided us with substantial and very helpful suggestions about how we can strengthen our final application. We now have until November 4 to do the work of responding to those suggestions, gathering the evidence we need, and demonstrating that Ashby Evergreen can fulfill the objectives we have set for our students and for the communities we hope to serve.

We have a lot of work ahead of us but we are incredibly hopeful. Over the past week, we have seen an amazing increase in people submitting intent-to-enroll forms, asking questions, sharing the school with friends and neighbors, and offering to help. Every one of those conversations reminds us that this isn’t just an idea that exists on paper. There are families who are interested in this kind of education and community members who want to help make it happen.

We are excited about the possibility of bringing a Finnish-inspired, nature-based, whole-child educational model to our community. We believe there is something valuable about giving children more opportunities to learn through exploration, spend meaningful time outdoors, develop independence and confidence, and build strong connections with their community. We have a lot more to learn and a lot of work to do, but we believe this methodology is worth pursuing, and we believe the timing is right.

We are also looking for potential board members, particularly people from Pepperell, Fitchburg, and Townsend who would like to help us build a school that truly represents the entire community we hope to serve.

We know there is a tremendous amount of work between here and opening the doors of Ashby Evergreen Charter School.

We are officially one step closer! 🎉🎉🎉

Please share and help us spread this wonderful news!

Walked around a building to find a bunch just crawling around. I’ve been squishing them when I can and reported it a few times here. It’s definitely worse than last year. I’m not sure what the state’s overall plan is here. Are these bugs something they can spray for even?