Day: January 26, 2015

 CODE RED – Issued at 10:00 am on Monday, January 26, 2015

 Good morning.  This is Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken with an important message from the City of Gloucester’s code red emergency messaging system. 

 Effective at 5:00 pm today, Monday, January 26th, the city has declared a snow emergency and parking ban on all city streets due to the arriving snow storm. 

 From 5:00 pm on Monday, January 26th, until 1:00 pm on Wednesday, January 28th,  all vehicles are banned from parking on city streets.  

 Violators of this emergency declaration are subject to ticketing and towing at the owners expense.  Residents may park in all municipal and school parking lots. 

 All residents are reminded that they are responsible for clearing snow from sidewalks adjacent to their property.  Your cooperation during this parking ban is necessary for efficient and safe snow removal efforts.  Please make every effort to shovel out hydrants at or near your homes.

 During times of high tide, expect coastal flooding on various streets along the coast.

Gloucester Public Schools are closed on Tuesday, January 27th.  The Superintendent of Schools will update parents accordingly on the status of school by Wednesday morning.

 There will be no trash collection on Tuesday, January 27th.  Trash collection will be one day late.

 To repeat, the city of Gloucester has issued a parking ban on all city streets as of 5:00 pm on Monday, January 26th.  The ban shall be in effect until 1:00 pm on Wednesday, January 28th.

Updates will be forthcoming as the storm progresses. Please check the City of Gloucester website for further updates at http://www.gloucester-ma.gov

Great time to shop! Very small lines. Plenty of milk, eggs & bread available!

Hey Joey,

Attached you will find a hard copy of the Code Red message that will be going out from the Mayors Office shortly. I have some additional comments I’d like to pass onto your readers:

The coming storm is very likely to significantly impact our City. Heavy and prolonged snow and very strong winds will bring about power outages and flooding, and will make our streets dangerous and impassable for a significant period of time. Gloucester Police/Fire and Emergency Management will be opening an Emergency Operations Center this evening through Wednesday morning to coordinate emergency planning and response.

As noted in the Code Red, there is NO SCHOOL tomorrow and a decision will be forthcoming on whether school will be open on Wednesday as the storm progresses. There is a Parking Ban in effect from 5PM MONDAY to 1PM WEDNESDAY. This may be adjusted if possible, but as of now, any vehicle parked on a public street during those times will be subject to tagging and towing. School parking lots and municipal lots will be open to accommodate vehicles but you are responsible for digging out around your car. IF school opens on Wednesday, the vehicles will need to removed by 6am Wednesday. If not, they will need to be removed by 1pm.

There will be no trash collection Tuesday.

All City events, including school sports and meetings are cancelled from 8pm tonight through 3pm Wednesday.

The DPW will be working continuously to keep streets cleared. Keep in mind this storm will very likely overcome even the best efforts by DPW and that major roads will be a priority first followed by secondary roadways.

If long term sheltering is needed, contact the Red Cross. If short term warming stations are needed in an emergency, Addison Gilbert Hospital will have its café open, the Police Station will be available, as well as several other locations.

We crucially need the residents cooperation during this storm in terms of parking and staying OFF the roadways. DO NOT travel during this storm until it is safe to do so. If you have an emergency, contact 911. We want safety to be our first priority. Please check on your neighbors, especially if they are seniors or housebound and please try to keep your sidewalks clear. DO NOT shovel snow into the roadway as this impedes clearing operations and is a fineable action.

If you experience a power outage, contact National Grid at 1-800-465-1212. If you experience a natural gas issue please contact them at 1-800-640-1595.

If we can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. Please stay safe and indoors for this storm.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Respectfully,

Leonard Campanello
Chief of Police
City of Gloucester, MA

David Calvo submits-

CHILD-CENTERED FAMILY LAW BILL

On Thursday, January 15th a bill was filed call: “An Act Relative to Child-Centered Family Law” Docket number 1061. It was a two year project that started in 2010 with a meeting with Mo Cowan then chief legal counsel for the Patrick administration. Patrick then formed a working group of 18 people from a diverse group of representation in Massachusetts. It was titled Child-Centered Family Law Working Group so as to put the revision efforts focused towards the benefits to the child involved.

The Working Group consists of Probate and Family Court Chief Justice Paula Carey and now Chief Justice Angela Ordonez plus representatives of women’s groups and men’s groups, The State Office for the Child Advocate: Gail Garinger, Professor Marsha Kline Pruett and Psychologist Robin Deutsch, representatives of bars associations including Boston, LGBTQ, Massachusetts and Women’s, Community Legal Aid and staff members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committee and was facilitated by Attorney and Mediator Michael Leshin of Wellesley.

The bill drastically improves section 31 of Chapter 208 by defining the best interest of the child as the act of encouraging and supporting shared parenting in the absence of misconduct of parents of children of divorce. It redefines titles and language and replaces inflammatory words such as “physical custody” and “visitation” with parenting plans. It gives specific factors for judges to consider in defining parenting plans, and encourages parents to work out their own arrangements as best they can. It tries to support the attitude that the child is served best by having both parents involved to the best of their ability. As you can imagine there were numerous discussions amongst this diverse group over a two year period and in the end we came up with a product that we were all willing accept as a compromise between us, put our pens down and support without any minority report being filed. That was a big achievement.

This revision if voted into law will recast the family probate court with a new protocol and updated understandings in inclusive not exclusive definition of gender roles without any bias toward any parent. Facts be told: This revision will affect about 20,000 children each year. That is a lot of kids whose fate is being decided by the court system unbeknown to them and setting a trajectory for each of their lives.

The bill was filed after the swearing in of the new administration, Representatives and Senators and under the deadline of the 16th of January. We now only have two weeks to get co-sponsors on this bill. The more co-sponsors garnered the more support for the Bill whose eventuality and fate is decided when brought to a vote in the Senate and House.

We need to let the citizens of Massachusetts know that they have less than two weeks, until the end of the month according to the legislative calendar, to let their respective Representatives know that they are in support of this bill and petition them to co-sponsor it. To make this easy i have uploaded the Child Centered Family Law Bill Docket #1061 on my internet server along with the Report of the Working Group sent to the Governor’s office. Citizens can download both, read through them and bring them to their representative with the hopes of them acting on their behalf and co-sponsoring the Bill.

I was an appointed member of this Working Group. If you have any questions please let me know. This is a real turning point for how the court defines how children are raised in the Commonwealth when parents have divorced. It is an important positive change that will affect you, your children and your grandchildren if they choose to raise their family in Massachusetts and find themselves in unforeseen circumstances.

I have included the website for the download of the Bill and Report below. If you need anymore information please call me. Tel. 978-281-3227
Again, we only have until the end of the month to get co-sponsors.

www.davidcalvo.com/ccfl