Deborah Brown, Author at Natick Report

Feast & Fettle offers elegant at-home dining for Natick residents

June 7, 2020 by Deborah Brown

No need to make a reservation or wait for a table.

Feast & Fettle’s Executive Chef Maggie is here to help you enjoy the ultimate fine dining experience — right at home.

After years of providing meals to busy families through her meal delivery service, Feast & Fettle, Chef Maggie has launched a new collection of menus called F&F Select.

Available for delivery on Fridays, F&F Select menus include upscale, prix fixe courses designed to be enjoyed at home. The menu changes biweekly and consists of several options to build your own prix fixe dinner.

Each item also comes with Maggie’s specific plating instructions, so you can serve your dishes in a true high-end fashion.

Delivery is free and the order deadline is every Tuesday at noon, for delivery the upcoming Friday. The service is available in Wellesley and all its surrounding towns (Weston, Wayland, Newton, Needham, Natick, Brookline), as well as all of Rhode Island.

View the FAQ page to learn more about F&F select and place your order now.

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Natick students at demonstration demand an end to racism and bias in the schools

June 4, 2020 by Deborah Brown

Natick High School students and recent graduates gathered on the Natick Common today for a peaceful demonstration in support of their classmates of color in wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. A Minneapolis Police Department officer on May 25 knelt on Floyd’s neck for over eight minutes—assisted by three other police—after pinning the handcuffed black man to the ground during an arrest. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office on Monday released an autopsy report, which listed the cause of Floyd’s death as “cardiopulmonary arrest.”

Charges of second-degree murder have been brought against Derek Chauvin, who has been fired and is now in police custody. Also in custody are three former police officers who were on the scene and now charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. The incident has sparked protests throughout the US and around the world.

Natick students, demonstration — Natick students started out their demonstration by taking a knee at the Civil War Monument on the Natick Common.

Against this backdrop, Natick youth say they organized the demonstration as an act of solidarity to show their personal determination to demand and enact change. The two white students who put the event together didn’t want to be named or called out for special attention through a picture of themselves that would appear in the news.

In an exclusive interview with Natick Report, one of the organizers explained the big picture: “Several student activists of color in Natick have really had to do all the heavy lifting on activism when it comes to changing things in the schools. Whether it’s changes in the curriculum or in fighting racism in the schools. It always lands on the students of color to fight. What we are trying to do here is trying to take at least some of the burden off the students of color and demonstrate that we are standing with them. That we want to change things with them and take real responsibility to enact that change. They shouldn’t have to do it.”

Another student organizer noted that the intent of the demonstration is to enact change at the most local of levels — their own hometown of Natick. “With the letter, we want to demonstrate that we haven’t had school leadership of color, and we are the poorer for it.”

The letter she referenced was a major part of the demonstration, a way for students to put their names, their very identities, on paper as tangible evidence that they are not just all talk.

At a table on the Natick Common, in front of the Civil War Monument, young people lined up to sign individual copies of the letter, which was addressed to Superintendent Nolin and the Natick School Committee.

Dear white people:

The first paragraph of the letter read: “My name is _______________ and I graduated/will graduate from the Natick Public Schools in ________. In response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other black Americans at the hands of the police, and to the many protests that have followed, I have been considering the role of racial inequities in shaping my own life.

“In reflection on my time spent in the Natick Public Schools, I have realized that I was _______ years old when I had my first non-white teacher in NPS. During my entire career leading up to graduation, I had a total of _______ educators of color. Particularly relevant to this moment in time, I realized I had a total of _________ black educators.”

Natick, student demonstration — Demonstrators lined either side of East Central St. as cars passed and beeped out support.

Read the rest of the letter:

[Read more…]

Public Meeting on June 3 for Bacon Street Bridge Replacement Project

June 2, 2020 by Deborah Brown

The MBTA will hold a public meeting via Zoom on the Bacon Street Bridge Replacement project on Wed., June 3, 6pm – 7:30p. The meeting will include updates on the bridge project’s design and construction. Interested residents are invited to join the online meeting and give feedback.

Bacon Street Bridge, fall 2019

Details on how to join and participate in the meeting are available on the MBTA events page.

The existing bridge, built in 1911 and located on the Natick/Wellesley line, is being replaced as a part of the MBTA’s reliability and modernization program.

Those who travel Rte. 135 have certainly noticed that state contractors have dramatically changed the visuals in the area by removing dozens of mature trees along with shrubs and other vegetation. In December 2019, pine trees were felled and stacked up along the side of the road like Christmas trees. After they were put through the wood chipper, the scent of pine lingered in the air for a week.

MBTA trees removal, Wellesley tracks — On route 135, from Pond Rd., looking toward Wellesley Square. Felled trees lined up like Christmas trees, Dec. 2019

According to the MBTA, the main reason for removing trees and vegetation for this project is safety. Vegetation can hide train defects from inspectors and lead to equipment breakage, fire potential, and a loss of support when vegetation gets up under tracks and pushes it aside. It can also interfere with engineer visibility,

All preparation work for the Bacon Street Bridge Project took place within the railroad right-of-way.

The Bacon Street Bridge carries commuter rail service for the Framingham/Worcester Line over Bacon Street in Wellesley, between Natick Center and Wellesley Square near Morses Pond.

Bacon Street Bridge, Wellesley — A rendering of the Bacon Street Bridge upon its completion. Photo credit: MBTA

The project is expected to be completed in Summer 2022.

For questions or to report concerns, email the MBTA or call the 24-hour hotline at 617-571-7878.

Why the MBTA cut down hundreds of trees along the commuter rail

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Natick Police report “active incident” in mall area

June 1, 2020 by Deborah Brown

According to the Natick Police department on their Facebook page, “there is an active incident in the area of the Natick Mall.”

In the Monday, June 1, 10pm post, the police asked the public to use caution when traveling in the area, or avoid the area if possible.

Massachusetts State Police also are on the scene.

Management at Nouvelle condos, which is attached to the Natick Mall, has advised residents to stay inside their units.

As heard via police scanner, officers have been monitoring activity at several “staging areas” in Natick including Ben & Jerry’s on route 9, and the Cloverleaf Mall. A large number of vehicles was also reported to be heading down Speen St.

Natick houses of worship will continue to love their neighbors at a distance

May 30, 2020 by Deborah Brown

Gov. Charlie Baker earlier this month revealed the state’s re-opening plan, which included a rough timeline along which organizations in various sectors might re-open. Up first were places of worship (up to 40% occupancy), which got the OK to welcome the faithful back beginning May 18. Natick’s religions houses, however, have been in no rush to re-fill those pews. They’re all still praying on it.

Despite the new guidelines, religious organizations in town are taking a cautious approach under advisement of each of their own committees as they study the situation carefully. Services and masses, which have been online for weeks now, will continue in that vein, while baptisms, weddings, and funerals will be managed on a case-by-case basis.

Temple Israel‘s Rabbi Daniel Lieben says, “Our plan is to re-open over time and with caution. Our primary concern is the safety of our community. The bulk of what we are doing will remain remote.”

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Temple Israel, Natick — Temple Israel, Hartford St.

The rabbi, like many religious leaders in Natick, says he’s been pleasantly surprised with the success he and his team have had in creating connectivity over Zoom meetings. “We’ve even had a bar mitzvah, and we were able to create a true experience.”

Still, he acknowledges the sense of loss that has come with the enforced separation. “People gather together in synagogue to pray as a community. It’s very important to be together, and the sense of loss runs deep. But people are coming together online because it is a way to connect.”

Milestone Church’s Pastor Jay Mudd agrees that now is not the time to take COVID-related health concerns lightly. “We’re huggers at Milestone,” he says. “That’s just not going to work right now.”

Mudd notes that when services do resume, worship will look different than before. According to the Milestone website, “We will have to limit interaction and worship with only a handful of people in the room. Your overall worship experience will be much different than you expect.”

Day by day

Most church and synagogue offices are not staffed right at this time. A pastor or rabbi might stop in briefly to record a section of the upcoming online worship service. A bare-bones cleaning crew does the rounds of chores quickly and at a distance from one another. Phone calls either go to voicemail or are picked up by a staff member working from home.

When the buildings do re-open, expect to see masks on clergy and worshippers; plenty of sanitation supplies available from hand sanitizer to bleach wipes; and even plexiglass shields in some offices to protect staff as they interact with the public. All scenarios are currently up for discussion including traffic patterns throughout the spaces and a dismissal system that could look less like a meandering flock headed out in to the world and more like a military operation.

It seems likely that most sanctuaries will remain closed until fall, which could be the most sensible course given that attendance at Natick churches and synagogues already trends downward during the summer months. The closest to opening may be St. Patrick and St. Linus Churches. Weekly mass attendance is a precept of the Catholic Church, although dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation has been granted to the faithful for now. Church leadership at this time is working out a plan for resuming worship that will likely include a pre-registration process for a seat at mass and volunteer cleaning teams to take on the necessary sanitizing tasks.

Rev. Adam Tierney-Eliot at Eliot Church (no relation to John Eliot, the missionary leader who founded the church in 1651) says, “We’re not going back until September at the earliest. What we do as a congregation is care for our members, so coming back and gathering isn’t a good idea right now.”

Eliot Church, Natick — Eliot Church, South Natick

Tierney-Eliot said although he knows it’s hard for people to remain apart, it’s necessary because “we love them and care about them. It’s like an extended snowstorm, in a way. We stay closed so that people will stay home. We stay closed for now to keep the community as a whole safe.”

The commandment has been delivered loud and clear: Love they neighbor as thyself — but do so at a distance.

Where to worship online in Wellesley