Natick small businesses score nearly $800K in state grants

January 6, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Commonwealth has announced a new $67.4 million round of COVID-19 Small Business Grants, and 16 Natick businesses are among the mainly minority- and women-owned recipients. Among them are Oga’s Japanese Cuisine, management consulting firm ESS Analysis, and marketing and data analytics firm WebReply. Health care, professional service, and construction firms were also among recipients.

Oga's — Oga’s scored a $75K grant from the state

These awards follow an initial round of $49 million in grants, also for businesses hit by the pandemic, that included 11 Natick outfits.

The awards this time around go to 1,366 businesses, and for Natick companies, the grants range from $10,000 to $75,000 for a total of $785,000.

The grants are administered via the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation, which is also now accepting applications for a new Sector-Specific Small Business Relief Grant Program that will give preference to industries such as bars and restaurants, gyms, personal services, and more. The grants are to be used for payroll, rent, and other expenses.

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Natick Council on Aging scores $32K in COVID-19 funding

November 20, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

The Natick Council on Aging has been awarded $32,472 in state funding to contract with JFK Transportation to facilitate non-COVID-related non-emergency medical transportation.

Separately, MetroWest Regional Transit Authority, which serves Natick on its bus routes, received $176,842. It will use this award “to contract with Tommy’s Taxi and JFK Transportation to facilitate prescription deliveries, meal deliveries, food pantry deliveries, grocery or other essential shopping trips, non-COVID-related non-emergency medical transportation, transportation needs of the homeless, and workforce transportation for essential workers,” according to a press release issued by MassDevelopment and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

Those organizations awarded just over $1 million to 25 cities and towns, municipal agencies, regional transit authorities, and health and human services transportation providers through the Urgent COVID-19 Taxicab, Livery, and Hackney Partnership Grant Program to support transportation and delivery needs for vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. This program is funded through a portion of MassDevelopment’s allocation from the Commonwealth’s Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund.

MassDevelopment is the state’s finance and development agency, and it works with businesses, nonprofits, banks, and communities to stimulate economic growth across the Commonwealth.

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Natick Superintendent issues COVID update on a return to school

November 16, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Natick Public Schools (NPS), in collaboration with the Natick Board of Health, in response to community members’ questions about when schools will reopen for full-time in-person learning has issued an update about likely next steps, along with an update of COVID cases in the schools.

The NPS currently are running on a hybrid learning model.

Although COVID cases continue to climb across the state, schools have been getting the message from Gov. Charlie Baker that they should move toward reopening full-time for in-person instruction.

In a letter to the community, Superintendent Anna Nolin said, “Certainly, bringing all students back would improve instruction, but that was not feasible in June and it is still not feasible at this point. Positive COVID cases in Massachusetts have risen to well over 1,000 daily. To return the students would mean to relax the standard of six feet of social distancing.”

Nolan says to undo safety protocols at a time when the Center for Disease Control continues to recommend six feet of social distancing would be premature.

Additional challenges the district faces are staffing classrooms when teachers are out as they await everything from COVID-19 testing results, to taking care of more garden-variety illnesses such as the common cold, to caring for their own children when they get sick. And finding substitute teachers? Forget about it. We saw one Facebook post for an out-of-state district in which the superintendent explained that the high school would be closed for the day because there would not be enough adults in the building to staff the place.

Meanwhile, everything from testing to hand sanitizer going forward will be on the school district as the last of the CARES money is allocated.

“Please know that we recognize the immeasurable value in having all students in our schools, and it is truly our goal to see their return as soon as it is feasible and safe,” Nolan continues. “However, given the challenges that we are presently facing, I hope this letter helps to explain the reasons that are preventing a full and immediate return to school at this time. I know that this perhaps renders disappointment for those who want a full-time return, and perhaps brings relief for those who wish to carry on with remote instruction.”

You can see Supt. Nolan’s letter in its entirety here.

COVID-19 updates for NPS

Note: the State and the Governor have made changes to the leveling and metrics system for the state and to that end, the complete data that for NPS is not yet complete.

The COVID dashboard is updated weekly in conjunction with the Natick Board of Health.

The next School Committee meeting is Nov. 30. You can email the School Committee with any questions, concerns, or comments: schoolcommittee@natickps.org

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Natick goes yellow on state’s COVID-19 map

October 14, 2020 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Natick has slipped from green status to yellow on the Massachusetts COVID-19 community-level data map, which gets updated each Wednesday afternoon.

Last week Natick was in the green, which means the community has an average daily case rate of less than 4 per 100,000 residents. Natick had been at 3.58. This week Natick has been downgraded to yellow because its average daily case rate has topped 4.

The next jump up is to red, which designates an 8-plus average daily case rate. Framingham, Holliston, and Southborough are among nearby communities in the red.

Natick COVID-19 information hub

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Natick church bells toll to remember victims of COVID-19

September 28, 2020 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

First Church Natick, along with many other area churches, has started ringing their steeple bells 20 times at 10am over ten consecutive days. Listen for the bells each day through October 6th. The symbolism behind the tolling is to remember the 200,000+ Americans who have died from COVID-19.

First Congregational Church, Natick — First Church Natick, East Central St.

The ringing of the bells is also a way for churches to express their care for those grieving the loss of loved ones, friends, and neighbors, and to signal that they are not forgotten. By following the old tradition of ringing church bells when a community member dies, the dignity of each life lost is marked. As they ring, the church is called to prayer on behalf of all who have suffered because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some history

The ringing of church bells is part of an ancient tradition to mark the passing of a member of the community and to serve as a witness to loss. According to The Church Bells of England, by H.B. Walters, “The ringing of a church bell in the English tradition to announce a death is called a death knell. The pattern of striking in earlier times depended on the person who had died; for example in the counties of Kent and Surrey in England it was customary to ring three times three strokes for a man, and three times two for a woman, with a varying usage for children. The age of the deceased was then rung out. In small settlements this could effectively identify who had just died.”