WORCESTER – The Worcester City Council meets tonight, Tuesday, June 18.
Each week, ThisWeekinWorcester.com [TWIW] will provide a preview of the upcoming meeting to help keep readers informed of the on-goings of the city’s governing body.
Each preview will highlight items from the City Council agenda for that week that haven’t already been covered by TWIW.
This week’s preview consists of freshman sports being removed from Worcester Public Schools, three new streets will be added to the City’s map in the Canal District area, and mosquito control returns in 2019.
No Freshman Sports in Worcester Next Year
Students starting high school next fall in Worcester won’t have the opportunity to participate in freshman sports.
According to a communication from Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Maureen Binienda to the City Manager, the superintendent said the school system is not providing freshman sports for the 2019-2020 school year.
Freshman students enrolled in public high schools in the city will need to earn a spot on the junior varsity or varsity teams available at their schools.
“One of the reasons for middle school sports was to create an athletic pipeline to secondary sports,” Binienda said in the communication.
According to Binienda, over the past several years freshman sports funding has come from Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early.
All is not lost for freshman sports, however. The communication from Binienda further read: “The current budget provides the current amount of $70,000 for middle school sports. If the Senate version of the school budget is passed, the WPS would allocate an additional $130,000 from those funds to be used to provide freshman sports and middle school sports.”
City Councilor At-Large Khrystian King filed an agenda item that supported the City’s decision to allocate $100,000 of that additional money towards middle school sports if the school budget is approved.
King’s item also requested that the additional $30,000 be allocated to freshman sports programs when funds become available.
Three New Streets Coming to Worcester’s Canal District for Polar Park Development
Three new roadways will be constructed to complete the network of roads that will accommodate and service the future Polar Park and the developments around the stadium.
The three roads include Green Island Boulevard which will run from the intersection of Hermon Street and Lamartine Street to Madison Street; Summit Street which will run from Ash Street to Plymouth Street [a portion of which is an existing private street on the City’s Official Map], and Canal Street which will run from the intersection of Plymouth Street and Summit Street to Green Street.
The City’s DPW is requesting that these streets be decreed public ways and added to the City of Worcester’s official map.
For a layout of the new roads, click here and scroll to page 54-61.
Mosquito Control Plan for 2019 Laid Out
The City of Worcester joined the Central MA Mosquito Control Project [CMMCP] in 2018 and will continue to take part in the program this summer.
CMMCP is a program that provides scientific approaches to tracking, monitoring and mitigating mosquitoes that can carry diseases such as West Nile Virus [WNV] and Eastern equine encephalitis [EEE].
Here are the 2019 Goals for the Mosquito Control Project in Worcester:
- survey and treat wetlands for mosquito larvae as needed
- continue catch basin treatments throughout the summer
- trap and test mosquitoes collected in surveillance traps
- locate and clean abandoned tire piles, and increase outreach to city residents on this program
- continue and build upon our educational programs
- reach out to DPW personnel to determine if drainage issues exist that we can assist with
- respond to citizens requests for service
- increase outreach to city residents on mosquito biology, mosquito‐borne diseases and prevention, and other available services
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