by Frank Schroth

As previously reported the Board of Selectmen reviewed with the town accountant capital improvement items totaling $1,200,300 to be funded by bonding. They also reviewed ~$460K in non-bonded items. Half of the bonded amount relates to two DPW items, a bucket truck and surface drains. Of the non-bonded items ~75% are for school iPADs and updated financial software for town/schools. The Capital Improvement Committee received $5.363,027 in requests from town departments. You can find a complete list of requests and items identified for funding here. Please note this list is not final and it was stated that the Selectmen’s meeting that items may be substituted for ones currently on the list. The totals are not expected change. You can find a complete list of funded and unfunded capital requests here.

The Boston Business Joural’s Data Center releases reports from time to time. They recently published a ranking of Massachusetts school districts S.A.T. ranking. Milton ranks 110 overall, 126 in reading, 123 in writing, and 87 in math.

You can find the BBJ Data Center article on S.A.T. rankings here.

Lastly, you may have missed a commercial opportunity that this weather provided. Listening to the BBC this morning I was alerted to a Boston man who is selling his snow worldwide (Ship Snow Yo).  He acknowledged that some people where left with water when the package arrived; but most were satisfied. Trust me, I am not making this up. You can buy 6lbs of snow for $89. That may not strike you as much of a deal but he has takers. As he says on his web site, “Our nightmare is your dream!” You can find his home page here. Pretty clever – he illustrates his shipping process and every order includes photos of snow before is was packaged.