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The Cooperative Bank (TCB) is finalizing its merger with Ion Bank, which is located in Connecticut, as the Massachusetts Division of Banks announced its sign off on the deal last week.

The Massachusetts approval – https://gvimes.link/mrgrtcb – is the last regulatory approval needed, according to TCB Executive Director John Battaglia, and follows approvals from Connecticut and the Federal Trade Commission.

“We signed a merger agreement with Ion Bank, out of Naugatuck, Connecticut, and they’re also a mutual bank and not stock-owned,” he said. “We can schedule a closing now which will probably be Nov. 1 or Nov. 2. We’re just finalizing that.”

Battaglia said they will not be changing their support of community organizations.

The post office closed in 2019 due to structural failure. A tree was growing into the building. A developer, Eden Properties, came and pitched a redevelopment to residents and the city. Both said fine, just so long as they keep the post office. Eden worked with the United States Post Office (USPS) to build a retail space – admitted smaller than what it had before – based on the USPS’s specifications.

After literally year of limbo, last year it looked like there was a positive end to the story with the USPS tentatively agreeing to reopen the post office in Eden’s building.

Earlier this year, the USPS announced it was not moving forward with the deal – https://gvimes.link/allstonuspsrvrs

Now, the USPS has started the process of closing down the post office, permanently, citing no other suitable locations – https://gvimes.link/pstoffcclsr

This has not gone down well with Allston and Brighton residents. Officials from the City Council, the State Legislature, the local Postal Workers Union and the U.S. House of Representatives stopped by the rally on Monday to voice their distress.

The New Brook Farm saga has taken another step forward, as last week the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) approved a “conceptual plan” for the property’s use as a farm.

But what exactly does that mean?

New Brook Farm advocates Paul Horn and Bill Tuttle have been trying to create an educational and historical farm at the site for the better part of two decades now, and the pair were pretty excited that the state has approved at least the concept of a plan.

“It’s a staged process; a rather long and bureaucratic process, but this is a major breakthrough,” Horn said. “Finally, we have a conceptual plan, a general agreement on what the uses will be and notably, this use as a professional farm.”

The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (JPNC) seems to be losing its credibility.

At its Sept. 15 meeting, the Jamaica Plain Housing Committee (JPHC), a subcommittee of the JPNC, reviewed and unanimously criticized 3841 Washington St., a five-to-seven story, 162-unit apartment building just outside Forest Hills.

But this had already been approved by the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) Board on July 16, “waiving further review.”