After a brief but vigorous discussion the Warrant Committee voted last night to recommend the zoning overlay article that will be on the Special Town Meeting warrant in February by a vote of 7-3.

Tom Hurley, chairman of the Warrant Committee, began the discussion by having Emily Innes of the Planning Board join them to answer some outstanding questions from the previous session. These pertained to how the current proposal compared to the Fruit Center Marketplace regarding the size of the commercial footprint and parking spaces. The Fruit Center is approximately 32,826 sq ft including both floors and has about 222 parking spaces.

• the overlay would also apply to two other properties in Milton;  St Mary’s (the school not the church) and St Elizabeth’s (on both sides of Reedesdale). These properties both satisfy the criteria specified
• this is the first change from commercial to residential to come before the Planning Board. The Fruit Center did not come before the Planning Board. It was handled by Board of Appeals.

Here is a video compilation on Tazjah, the Milton Animal League’s 3 1/2 year old pit bull mix who has been waiting too long for a home. She went on a home visit with a shelter volunteer – so here she is in a home setting. If you know someone looking for a wonderful, well behaved dog, please consider Tazjah. Thank you. Visit the Milton Animal League web site here for more information or call 617-698-0413.

In our round up of notable Milton events we made (at least) one glaring omission; the nomination of Milton’s Carmen Ortiz as the first woman and Hispanic US attorney from Massachusetts. She was sworn in yesterday by US Attorney General Eric Holder.

from The Boston Globe

They met 30 years ago when he was a junior lawyer in the US Justice Department in Washington and she was a George Washington University Law School student with a summer internship in his unit.

Today, Eric H. Holder Jr., the nation’s first black attorney general, officially swore in Carmen Milagros Ortiz as the first woman and Hispanic US attorney in Massachusetts. The ceremony was held at the John Joseph Moakley Courthouse before hundreds of judges, dignitaries, lawyers and supporters of Ortiz. (Read the full story here.)

from The Daily News Tribune

Sophomore Luke Westman sparked the Newton North boys basketball attack with three straight 3-pointers in the first quarter, and the Tigers added a 24-point second quarter, to pull away in their 67-49 win over Milton Friday night. (Read the full story here.)

from Wicked Local Milton

Attorney General Eric Holder is in Boston today for the installation of Carmen M. Ortiz of Milton as the new U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.

The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. at the Moakley Courthouse in South Boston. (Read the full story here.)

Special Education is expensive education.

In the 2011 budget presented to the Warrant Committee, $9 million, approximately 26% of the overall budget , is allocated to special education. As Jeffrey Rubin, who as Administrator of Pupil Personnel Services for the Milton Public Schools is responsible for special education said, “That’s a lot of money.” He was not being glib, but rather, acknowledging a financial reality. It is a reality for school districts throughout the south shore as recently reported in the Boston Globe (please see Costly Schooling).

I sat down recently with Mr. Rubin to discuss special education in Milton.

Mr. Rubin has been working in Special Education since the 70’s. It was in the mid-seventies that Massachusetts led the nation with the passage of Chapter 766, which mandated all children were deserving of a public education independent of their abilities. There are now laws at both the state and federal levels requiring school districts to address the educational needs of all their children. Among these are the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA),  MA General Law Ch. 71b, and MA Reg 603 CMR 28.

When Rubin arrived in Milton he thought, “I died and went to heaven.” In his opinion, “Milton is a great community. It is just the right size – not too small – not too large. It is hard to make headway in a large system such as Worcester.” (Rubin came from Worcester). “Everyone here works well together” . . .and Milton is “a supportive community for fixing problems.”

Read more

from The Patriot Ledger

The chairwoman of the Milton School Committee says the board does not have an obligation to discuss a member’s drunken driving case.

That may be true, but it’s not necessarily right.

When board member Christopher Huban was arrested on New Year’s Day, his blood-alcohol level registered at more than three times the legal limit. (Read the full opinion here.)

[Note: In the following essay MHS student Ben McCarthy talks about the impact of jazz on his life. MTM welcomes contributions from readers.If you have an event, passion, or interest you would like to share, please email editor@mytownmatters.com for more information.]

Guest Essay by Benjamin J. McCarthy, MHS class of 2010

It’s a cold Saturday morning.  Rain spills from the grey New England skies.  The wind cries like a saxophone, the rain its applause.  I am fourteen years old, soon to enter high school, and unbeknownst to me, soon to be the pianist in the jazz band.  I rub my eyes, tousle my hair, and prepare myself for another unexciting day.  As I lie down on the couch, my attention is drawn to my father’s record collection.  As I rummage through the cardboard covers and run my fingers through the dust, I stumble upon an old jazz piece, John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”  Intrigued, I put the record on the turntable, lift the needle and place it gently onto the record’s edge.  As it spins hypnotically, I become more and more entranced. The sounds blend surrealistically.  These musical expressions of human sentiment flow mellifluously from the speakers through my ears and into my consciousness.  I have never heard anything so sublime.  So this is jazz…

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from Wicked Local Milton

The Milton School Committee has yet to officially discuss the drunken-driving charges against one of its members.

A meeting scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled Monday because the committee was going to lack a quorum, Chairwoman Lynda-Lee Sheridan said. (Read the full story here.)

from The Milton Park & Recreation Department

The contractor has halted his work on the [Turner’s Pond] pathway for the winter season.

The north side is complete in regards to contract work. The south side has been brought to sub grade and is ready for the stabilized stonedust which will be placed in early spring. No date has been set to resume work, it is weather dependent.

Both paths will remain closed until spring. The contractor does not want the south side opened due to liability issues with the changing grades.  On the north side, although the work is complete, there are areas along the path that still are unstable and should not be walked on until the turf is established.