In today’s daily 5 Things You Need to Know feature, ThisWeekinWorcester.com explores five important items and stories that Worcester and Central Massachusetts residents should keep a close eye on.
These five things can cover a whole range of subjects and issues that we feel are pertinent to understanding what’s going on in the city and the cities and towns surrounding Worcester.
In today’s edition – Tuesday, December 7 – new parking meters and rates start on January 3, Holy Cross names its next athletic director, Sheriff Lew Evangelidis delivers over 3,000 coats this week, the Worcester Bravehearts promote from within to name their new assistant general manager, and gas prices drop two cents since last week.
New Parking Meters, Rates Starting January 3 in Worcester
The City of Worcester announced today that it will complete a city-wide parking conversion from single space meters to multi-space meters by January 3, 2022.
Worcester introduced a pay-by-plate and pay-by-phone parking system in the Canal District in April 2020. The system eliminates single parking meters and replaces them with Flowbird Strada smart kiosks, which enable better management of parking turnover and enforcement.
The City will begin removing single space meters throughout the remainder of the City on Monday, December 6. The process is expected to take two weeks, with 120 on-street and surface lot pay stations to be installed before the end of the month. Effective January 3, 2022 parking rates will change from $1.00 per hour to $1.50 per hour and both pay-by-plate and pay-by-phone methods will be available.
With the Passport application, parkers will get notifications of time expiring and have the ability to extend parking from the convenience of their phone. The Passport Parking app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play. Users can also manage their parking online at passportparking.com.
To assist parkers in the first two weeks of the transition, LAZ Parking, the City’s parking vendor, will deploy street ambassadors to help with the technology and hand out collateral.
See Park Worcester for more information.
Holy Cross Announces New Athletics Director
College of the Holy Cross President Vincent D. Rougeau announced Monday that the College has hired Christopher ‘Kit’ Hughes, an experienced athletics administrator and former student-athlete as its new director of intercollegiate athletics.
Hughes, 42, is currently the deputy athletic director at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He will start his role at Holy Cross in January and will be formally introduced on Thursday, December 9.
While at Bowling Green, Hughes helped lead day-to-day operations of the Falcons’ athletic department, and was responsible for administration of its men’s basketball and football teams. He came to Bowling Green after seven years at North Carolina State University.
Annual Coat Drive Distribution in Worcester
Coat for a Cause, the annual coat drive distribution by the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Lew Evangelidis, will distribute 3,200 coats to charitable organizations across Worcester Country on Wednesday, December 8.
Evangelidis will visit the following locations:
- St. John’s Food for the Poor Program at 44 Temple Street in Worcester at 9:00 AM
- Abby’s House at 52 High Street in Worcester at 10:15 AM
- Hector Reyes House/ LIFT: 27 Vernon St., Worcester, MA 01610 at 11:00 AM
- Net of Compassion/ Hotel Grace at 44 Vernon Street in Worcester at 11:30 AM
- Yes We Care at 55 Illinois Street in Worcester at 11:50 AM
Bravehearts Name New Assistant General Manager
The Worcester Bravehearts announced today they have promoted Nate Gonelli, of Baldwinville, to Assistant General Manager.
Gonelli joined the Bravehearts in 2017 after graduating from Franklin Pierce University. He began as Group Experience Coordinator before being promoted to Director of Sales in 2019.
In Gonelli’s first season as a member of the Bravehearts, he became the top salesperson on staff and helped increase both total and average attendance more than 5% from the previous season. The Bravehearts also ranked first in New England in 2017 and seventh nationally in attendance among all summer collegiate teams in the country. The team’s attendance continued to trend upwards, and in 2019 with Gonelli leading the ticketing office, the Bravehearts had their most successful season at the box office in franchise history.
Gas Prices Down Two Cents in Massachusetts This Week
AAA Northeast reports changes in gas prices across the region on a weekly basis.
Massachusetts’s average gas price dropped two cents from last week, averaging $3.40 per gallon. That price is the same as a month ago and $1.30 higher than December 6, 2020 ($2.10).
Massachusetts’s average gas price is five cents higher than the national average.
Pump prices fell as fears of a possible COVID-19 global economic slowdown pushed oil prices into the mid $60s per barrel—a price not seen since August. Also helping to ease upward pricing pressure was the decision by OPEC and its oil-producing allies not to cut production.
“Consumers may be catching a break at the pump right now, but it’s not for a very good reason,” says Mary Maguire, Director of Public/Government Affairs. “A potential COVID-19 induced economic slowdown hurts everyone and could prompt OPEC to slash production if oil prices drop too low.”
AAA Northeast’s November 29 survey of fuel prices found the current national average to be four cent lower than last week, averaging $3.35 a gallon. Today’s national average price is seven cents lower than a month ago ($3.42) and $1.19 higher than this day last year ($2.16).
Comparison to neighboring states, according to AAA Northeast:
