The Weekly Current: Oct. 19 to 24. Manchester's senior center vote, Gloucester's tax split, and Essex sets its warrant

0:00 Kerry Jane: Manchester's Finance Committee finally voted on the senior center. Three in favor, four against.

0:06 Mateo Daniel: Gloucester field hockey is fifteen and oh, and the football team won a game nobody played.

0:11 Ana Lucia: And the oil truck came to my house this week. I'm not telling you what I paid. I will tell you what the state says.

0:18 Kerry Jane: It's all coming up on The Weekly Current.

0:21 Kerry Jane: Good morning, Cape Ann. This is The Weekly Current from the Cape Ann Current, a free source of public information for Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea. I'm Kerry Jane. It's Sunday, October 25, and this is episode two.

0:36 Kerry Jane: Every Sunday we go through the week. What we covered, why, what it means for you, and what gets decided this week, before it's decided. Ana Lucia is here. Waterfront, business and history.

0:49 Ana Lucia: Good morning.

0:50 Kerry Jane: And Mateo Daniel. Sports, schools and community, and the police and fire logs every morning.

0:57 Mateo Daniel: Let's go. Week two.

0:59 Kerry Jane: All right. Before the week, your week.

1:02 Kerry Jane: Ana Lucia. You first, because you teased it.

1:05 Ana Lucia: So. The oil truck came Wednesday. First delivery of the season. And I know what everybody wants to ask.

1:12 Mateo Daniel: What did it cost?

1:13 Ana Lucia: I'm not telling you what I paid. That's between me and Rui and the man with the hose. But the state's weekly survey came out Monday. The average for heating oil in Massachusetts is six dollars and twenty three cents a gallon.

1:26 Kerry Jane: It was six eighteen when you wrote the story.

1:29 Ana Lucia: Six eighteen. A nickel more in a week. And 75 percent above this time last year, when it was three fifty five. Fill 150 gallons at that average and it's about 935 dollars. The calculator on the site does the math for your tank.

1:46 Mateo Daniel: Wait. Did Rui know the truck was coming?

1:49 Ana Lucia: Rui was at work. Rui found out when he got home and the radiators were on. He said, and I'm quoting, it's October. And Sardinha was on the bathroom radiator, judging the harbor. So two votes to one in my house.

2:03 Ana Lucia: And yesterday Carla had to work, so I took the kids to ClamFest in Essex. Lucas, Bea and Tomás. Shepard Memorial Park. It was 36 degrees when I picked them up, and sunny, and by noon it was fine.

2:16 Mateo Daniel: You were in Essex and you didn't text me.

2:18 Ana Lucia: Farnham's is in Essex too. I'm just saying.

2:21 Mateo Daniel: Woodman's is in Essex. I'm just saying.

2:24 Kerry Jane: I don't care. Onion rings. Moving on. What did the kids like?

2:27 Ana Lucia: The police dog. The Essex police did a K-9 demonstration at eleven, and Tomás, who is five, stood as close as they would let him and did not blink. Bea wanted to know if the dog gets paid.

2:40 Kerry Jane: That's the age.

2:42 Ana Lucia: And Avó's saying this week. Em outubro, sê prudente: guarda pão, guarda semente. In October, be careful. Save bread, save seed. Put things away before the cold. We're making massa sovada this morning, the sweet bread, because she says the dough rises slow in a cold house.

3:01 Kerry Jane: Mateo Daniel.

3:03 Mateo Daniel: Okay so. My Friday night got canceled. Gloucester was supposed to play football at Saugus, and Saugus called it off Monday. Safety concerns and not enough players, the Gloucester athletic director said. So it's a forfeit, and I had nowhere to be.

3:19 Ana Lucia: So where did you go?

3:21 Mateo Daniel: Newell Stadium. Field hockey. Gloucester and Saugus, senior night, five o'clock. Clear, that north wind finally dying, 37 degrees by the time we left. Tito was outside the fence in his spot by the end line.

3:36 Kerry Jane: Did he bark at the seagulls?

3:38 Mateo Daniel: He barked at the Saugus bus. Full bark. Then they read the seniors' names, and he sat down and didn't make a sound. That dog knows. I get quiet at senior nights too.

3:49 Ana Lucia: And they won.

3:50 Mateo Daniel: Four to nothing. Fifteen wins, no losses. The other thing. Thursday the wind was ridiculous, gusts to 35 on land, a gale warning on the water that night. And I ran anyway, because the 5K is Thanksgiving morning and I've been stuck at two and a half miles for three weeks.

4:09 Kerry Jane: And?

4:10 Mateo Daniel: Three miles. No stopping. From my place in Rockport out past Front Beach and back. Into the wind going out, which was a mistake, and the wind pushing me home, which I'm counting.

4:21 Ana Lucia: The wind counts as a player.

4:24 Mateo Daniel: And Sofia was on nights all week, so we talked at seven in the morning, her coming in, me going out. But she's off next weekend. So next Saturday I'm taking her to Woodman's.

4:34 Ana Lucia: So.

4:35 Kerry Jane: No. We did this already. My week. Last Sunday, the Halloween party at Stage Fort Park. Owen went as a harbormaster, as promised. And he told every adult who would listen that the traps have to be off St. Peter's Landing by November 15.

4:50 Mateo Daniel: He learned that from us.

4:52 Kerry Jane: He listens. And Maggie came, and stood exactly ten feet away from us the entire time. She took one picture of her brother. I saw it. I will never mention it to her.

5:02 Ana Lucia: And the week?

5:03 Kerry Jane: Wind. All week. Here's the thing about our house. The bulkhead door leaks when it rains sideways. It did not rain. So for the first storm in three years the bulkhead was dry, and Dan walked around like he'd fixed it.

5:17 Mateo Daniel: Ha. Did he?

5:19 Kerry Jane: He did not.

5:20 Ana Lucia: Plum Cove?

5:21 Kerry Jane: Saturday, first light, 36 degrees, flat calm after all that wind. Nobody there. Chowder read every rock. And Friday night Dan and I went up to Halibut Point for the sunset. It was 37. We checked in on the app. That's 36 this year.

5:38 Kerry Jane: Dan said, we could watch it from the car. We did not watch it from the car.

5:43 Mateo Daniel: Okay, the question. One week to go. Is the heat on?

5:47 Kerry Jane: The heat is not on. Dan's rule is November 1, and that's next Sunday. The kitchen thermometer said 58 Saturday morning. I had coffee in a hat.

5:58 Ana Lucia: And Ma?

5:59 Kerry Jane: Ma called Friday night and said, turn the heat on, and I said, Ma, it's a rule, and she said, it's a dumb rule. She's right. I'm holding anyway.

6:10 Mateo Daniel: The landlord turned mine on two weeks ago. I have no notes.

6:14 Ana Lucia: Mine's been on since the 16th. I have a delivery.

6:17 Kerry Jane: One more week. Then we talk. All right. The Three.

6:23 Kerry Jane: Every week we pick the three things that matter most. A decision got made, or it's about to. It costs money or changes a rule. And it touches the most households. Ties go to the nearest vote. Number one is Manchester, and it's mine.

6:38 Kerry Jane: Thursday night the Manchester Finance Committee voted on whether to recommend the senior and community center borrowing for the November 16 special town meeting. Three yes, four no. So the warrant book, the booklet voters get, will say the committee does not recommend it.

6:53 Mateo Daniel: Explain it to me like I'm at the game. What's the article?

6:56 Kerry Jane: It lets the town borrow up to 7 and a half million dollars for a senior and community center at the former Masonic building. Two locks on it. Nothing can be borrowed until voters pass a debt exclusion at the ballot box on December 10, and until 3 million dollars in gifts or donations is committed in writing or paid.

7:14 Ana Lucia: And last week the fight was over one word.

7:16 Kerry Jane: Grants. The committee wanted it out, so any grant lowers the town's borrowing instead of counting toward the 3 million. The Select Board took it out Monday. The committee still voted no Thursday.

7:28 Mateo Daniel: Why?

7:29 Kerry Jane: The members who voted no said the town should wait until spring, that the cost is high, and that a big capital bill is already coming.

7:37 Ana Lucia: And the other side?

7:39 Kerry Jane: A Select Board member who was there said the board had rewritten the article to meet the committee's concerns and called the result disappointing. He said the no vote makes raising the 3 million harder. We don't take a side. The committee chair will explain the vote at town meeting.

7:54 Mateo Daniel: Why did we cover it?

7:56 Kerry Jane: Because the finance director handed out a draft debt schedule the same night. Town debt payments, not counting the schools, are 2.38 percent of the operating budget this year. They climb to 6.89 percent in fiscal 2031. Town policy says stay under 10.

8:13 Ana Lucia: What does it mean for you?

8:14 Kerry Jane: If you live in Manchester, you decide this twice. At Memorial School on November 16, where the book says the Finance Committee says no and the Select Board says yes. And at the ballot December 10 if it passes.

8:27 Mateo Daniel: Anything before that?

8:29 Kerry Jane: A public forum and open house on the center at the Masonic Hall this Tuesday, October 27, at 6:30.

8:35 Mateo Daniel: What did we learn?

8:37 Kerry Jane: The same meeting fixed the explanation of the Essex school article. It says the state pays up to 36.84 percent of eligible costs. But the grant the district expects is about 20.9 million dollars, closer to 22 percent, because the state only counts construction up to 605 dollars a square foot. The book now says so.

8:58 Kerry Jane: Number two. Gloucester. Ana Lucia, it's yours, because it's every tax bill in the city.

9:05 Ana Lucia: So. Every fall the City Council decides how to split the property tax between homes and businesses. The total doesn't change. It's the same pile of money. The vote decides who carries more of it. Thursday, the council's Budget and Finance Committee recommended the same split the city has used for ten years. Three to nothing.

9:24 Mateo Daniel: Explain it to me like I'm at the game.

9:27 Ana Lucia: The city can raise at most 113 million, 667 thousand, 604 dollars in property taxes this year. The committee backed a small shift onto business, a factor the assessors call 1.03. Homes pay about 9 dollars and 3 cents. Businesses about 9 dollars and 33 cents.

9:48 Kerry Jane: What does it cost?

9:50 Ana Lucia: For a 750 thousand dollar home, the shift saves about 15 dollars a year compared with one rate. A business worth the same pays about 210 dollars more. Both rates are down from this year, 9 31 and 9 61, because values rose about 7 percent.

10:07 Mateo Daniel: Wait, so my taxes go down?

10:10 Ana Lucia: The rate goes down. Your value probably went up. The median single family home in Gloucester is now 775 thousand, 500 dollars. Single family values rose 7.37 percent on average. So most bills go up a little even with a lower rate.

10:26 Kerry Jane: Why did we cover it?

10:28 Ana Lucia: Because homes are now 91.7 percent of all taxable value in Gloucester. In 2014 it was 88.8. One councilor said he'd have liked a bigger shift onto business, back toward the old 90 to 10 split, but had no support.

10:43 Kerry Jane: And the chair?

10:44 Ana Lucia: The chair said a single rate would be fairest to the small business base. The mayor said keep 1.03. They kept 1.03.

10:52 Mateo Daniel: What does it mean for you?

10:53 Ana Lucia: Tuesday night. The full City Council holds the public hearing and the vote Tuesday, October 27, at 6:30. People who came Thursday were not allowed to speak, because the committee only recommends. Tuesday is where you speak.

11:07 Kerry Jane: What did we learn?

11:09 Ana Lucia: The same committee backed a 132 thousand dollar state grant for more downtown wayfinding signs and new HarborWalk signs, two to one. The no vote came with a statement that the first signs cost 33,800 dollars each, and that the sign and art projects are part of a pattern pushing out the fishing industry.

11:27 Mateo Daniel: And?

11:28 Ana Lucia: Another councilor asked what signs had to do with a hoist. That's the record.

11:33 Kerry Jane: Number three is Essex, and it's Mateo Daniel's, because it's the school.

11:41 Mateo Daniel: Okay so. Monday night, Essex selectmen signed the warrant for a fall town meeting on Monday, November 16, at 6:45 at Essex Elementary. Nineteen articles. And they set the special election on the school for Thursday, December 10, 7 to 8, at the Public Safety Facility.

12:03 Kerry Jane: What's the number?

12:04 Mateo Daniel: The warrant lists the whole project at 95 million, 351 thousand, 985 dollars. The state grant at about 21 million. The Essex share at about 24.8 million. Manchester's share at about 49.6 million.

12:21 Ana Lucia: What does it cost, per house?

12:23 Mateo Daniel: The town administrator said the district's financial adviser ran it two ways. If the payments stay level every year, the new cost is about a dollar eighteen for every 100 thousand dollars of property value in Essex. In Manchester, about 84 cents.

12:38 Ana Lucia: Why the gap?

12:40 Mateo Daniel: Manchester homes are worth more, so the same house has more hundred thousands to spread it over.

12:46 Kerry Jane: And the other way?

12:47 Mateo Daniel: Pay more up front, less every year after. That drops the peak to about 95 to 99 cents in Essex and about 70 cents in Manchester, and you pay less in total. Nothing's decided. The district picks after the December 10 votes.

13:01 Ana Lucia: Why did we cover it?

13:03 Mateo Daniel: Because now it's real. There are dates. Two thirds at town meeting, a majority at the ballot. The Finance Committee chair said six of her seven members backed the project in a straw poll, and that fixing the current school would cost about 53 million with no state money, about 7 million less for the town. That's her saying it.

13:25 Kerry Jane: And the rest of the warrant?

13:27 Mateo Daniel: Six zoning articles. Wednesday the Planning Board recommended all six, six to nothing each, and nobody spoke at the hearing. Nobody, in the room or online.

13:38 Ana Lucia: What are they?

13:39 Mateo Daniel: New wetlands district lines, because the current ones use maps from April 1974. Definitions for battery storage and data centers. A special permit for battery storage. A moratorium on data centers until January 1, 2028. Ten percent affordable in any project of six or more homes. And the top zoning fine goes from 20 dollars a day to 200.

14:04 Kerry Jane: Twenty dollars.

14:05 Mateo Daniel: Hold that, it's my one thing. And article 8, a full time fire chief. Essex runs its fire department through a Board of Fire Engineers, a group of fire officers. The article adopts a state law so the selectmen can hire a full time chief starting February 1, 2027.

14:25 Ana Lucia: How do they pay for it?

14:26 Mateo Daniel: By moving 50 thousand dollars inside the department's own budget, mostly from training salaries and administrative hours the new chief takes on. The Finance Committee chair said these are reallocations, not cuts.

14:38 Kerry Jane: What does it mean for you?

14:39 Mateo Daniel: If you live in Essex, November 16 is a long night and a big one. The selectmen meet November 2 at 6 with time for questions about the warrant. The last community meeting on the school is November 4 at 6 at the school. And the Finance Committee chair said she hopes to avoid another override next year.

14:57 Kerry Jane: What did we learn?

14:59 Mateo Daniel: The building inspector caught something. As written, the battery rule means a house with solar panels and a backup battery would need a special permit. The warrant is signed and can't change. So the board is asking town counsel whether it can be fixed on the floor of town meeting. If not, it waits for spring.

15:14 Ana Lucia: One line of history. Those wetlands maps are from April 1974. Fifty two years. Essex is retiring a map that's older than Mateo Daniel.

15:26 Mateo Daniel: Older than Kerry Jane.

15:28 Kerry Jane: Thank you for that. The Desk.

15:31 Kerry Jane: Quick ones. Ana Lucia, business.

15:34 Ana Lucia: State spending. Massachusetts agencies paid 592 and a half million dollars to Cape Ann over the last six budget years. Only 26 and a half million of that bought things from Cape Ann businesses. That's about 5 cents of every 100 dollars the state spent on goods and services.

15:52 Mateo Daniel: What did it buy?

15:53 Ana Lucia: A quarter of it, 6.6 million, was plowing state roads.

15:57 Kerry Jane: And people can look that up.

15:59 Ana Lucia: The State Spending Explorer is live under Business. Any payment, any year. Also the Rockport Public Library lent 18.4 items per resident last year, the most on Cape Ann. The state median is 10.4. And the Gloucester Cultural Council has about half its usual money to give this year, 10,175 dollars, because grants promised last year were never set aside.

16:23 Kerry Jane: Mine. Rental registry. Gloucester landlords who still haven't renewed got one last letter. About 32 properties were left as of October 8, down from 394 notices in September. If they don't register, the city files in district court and asks for fines of up to 500 dollars a day. A judge decides, not the board.

16:44 Ana Lucia: Cable.

16:45 Kerry Jane: The four towns are starting talks with Comcast on new cable licenses, and the regional committee heard a survey. 202 people answered. 89 don't subscribe to Comcast at all. More watch local meetings on YouTube, 105 mentions, than on cable, 66.

17:01 Mateo Daniel: Okay, roads. The big one from Wednesday. We matched four years of police crash reports, about 2,500 crashes across the four towns, to the state's pavement ratings. Washington Street in Gloucester had 266 crashes since January 2023, the most of any road on Cape Ann. Route 128 through Gloucester, 196. Grant Circle, 22, the most of any intersection.

17:24 Kerry Jane: Outside Gloucester?

17:26 Mateo Daniel: Rockport, Main Street, 51. Essex, John Wise Avenue and Eastern Avenue, 32 each. Manchester, mostly Route 128. And Gloucester, Rockport and Essex each had about one mile in five of their numbered routes rated poor by the state. The Gloucester report is next.

17:45 Kerry Jane: Scores.

17:46 Mateo Daniel: Gloucester field hockey. Six to one over Swampscott Tuesday, four to nothing over Saugus Friday. Fifteen and oh. Football gets the forfeit over Saugus, so they're six and one, and play at Beverly Saturday the 31st at 11.

17:58 Mateo Daniel: Gloucester boys soccer beat Peabody three to two and lost to Salem two to one. Volleyball swept Georgetown and Whittier. Girls soccer beat Whittier four to nothing Friday after losing to Peabody and Salem.

18:10 Ana Lucia: Rockport.

18:11 Mateo Daniel: Rockport boys soccer. Two to one over Amesbury Tuesday, two to nothing over Lynnfield Thursday at home. Girls soccer beat Amesbury three to one, then lost to Lynnfield eight to one. Field hockey lost to Amesbury and Lynnfield, and hosted Essex Tech yesterday at one. That score wasn't posted when we recorded, so check the scoreboard.

18:32 Kerry Jane: Manchester Essex.

18:34 Mateo Daniel: Boys soccer beat Mystic Valley two to one and Georgetown four to one, then lost to Essex Tech one to nothing. Girls soccer tied Georgetown two two and Essex Tech one one. Field hockey beat Essex Tech two to nothing.

18:48 Kerry Jane: And the football score?

18:49 Mateo Daniel: Finally posted, from the Friday before. Triton 48, Manchester Essex 8. Every game is on the site, from the MIAA. Win or lose.

19:01 Kerry Jane: Tito's game report?

19:03 Mateo Daniel: Tito reports the Saugus bus received a full and fair bark, and the seniors received silence. He also reports Essex Tech is in Danvers, which confuses him every time.

19:15 Ana Lucia: It confuses everyone. One from the water. Little River is open for clamming as of October 15. The upper Mill River stays closed for high bacteria. And a Liberty ship. Hold that.

19:30 Kerry Jane: One thing we learned. Ana Lucia.

19:33 Ana Lucia: So. At low tide off Rockport, on the ledges called Flat Ground, a piece of machinery breaks the surface. It's the steam engine of the Charles S. Haight. A Liberty ship, one of more than 2,700 the United States built to carry cargo in the war. Built in Georgia in October 1944.

19:53 Ana Lucia: By spring 1946 the war was over. It had carried coal to Newport in England and was coming home to New York empty. Southeast wind, poor visibility, rough seas. It hit the ledges at 12:07 in the morning on April 2, 1946, and never left.

20:12 Mateo Daniel: Where's that from?

20:13 Ana Lucia: Federal maritime records and the state's underwater archaeology board. I've kayaked past that spot and never knew.

20:21 Mateo Daniel: Mine is the 20 dollars. The top fine for breaking the zoning rules in Essex is 20 dollars a day. The building inspector said it hasn't changed in all his years there, and a board member said it's more like a fee than a fine. If voters say yes, it's 200.

20:37 Kerry Jane: Twenty dollars.

20:39 Mateo Daniel: A rule can sit there for decades with a number nobody looks at.

20:43 Kerry Jane: Mine is a process thing from Manchester. Once the warrant is posted, the words can't change. So when the Finance Committee votes no, that no gets printed in the book next to the article. But the motion made on the floor of town meeting can be worded tighter than the article. The town administrator will ask legal counsel how tight.

21:01 Ana Lucia: So the article is the ceiling.

21:03 Kerry Jane: The article is the ceiling. The motion can come down under it. All right. Know Before It's Decided.

21:12 Kerry Jane: This is the part where we tell you what gets decided this week, before it's decided. Monday, October 26. The Gloucester Licensing Board, 6:30, hybrid on Zoom. The city's last annual all alcohol license, two restaurants asking, Mehfil on Washington Street and Rocky Neck Lobster Company II on East Main Street.

21:30 Mateo Daniel: Tuesday.

21:31 Kerry Jane: Tuesday, October 27. The Gloucester City Council, 6:30. The public hearing and the vote on the tax split. This is the one where you can speak. And Manchester's senior center forum and open house at the Masonic Hall, 6:30.

21:45 Ana Lucia: Wednesday.

21:46 Kerry Jane: Wednesday, October 28. Manchester Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m., four hearings, including the Essex County Club's request for a restroom building on the golf course. Thursday, October 29, the Gloucester Zoning Board of Appeals holds a full hearing on the Maplewood Avenue housing project, where the stormwater tanks went in about 4 feet too high.

22:08 Ana Lucia: And after that?

22:09 Kerry Jane: Monday, November 2, Essex selectmen, 6 p.m., with time for questions about the warrant. Wednesday, November 4, the last Essex school community meeting, 6 at the school, and the Gloucester Conservation Commission at 5:30 with the Wingaersheek dune and Kondelin Road back.

22:27 Mateo Daniel: And then.

22:28 Kerry Jane: November 9, the Manchester sign bylaw hearing. November 16, both town meetings. December 10, the ballots.

22:38 Mateo Daniel: How do people take part?

22:40 Kerry Jane: Go. Every one of these is public. Watch, because the towns post video and we link it. Write, because boards take written comment and the agenda says where. And the Meeting Finder on the site has them all by town. Tuesday in Gloucester is the one with the microphone open.

22:56 Kerry Jane: The week ahead. Mateo Daniel.

22:59 Mateo Daniel: Today, Gloucester competitive cheer has an event at noon. The MIAA doesn't say where, so check with the school. Monday, Saugus at Gloucester boys soccer, Newell, 4:30. Triton at Gloucester volleyball, 5:45. Gloucester at Saugus girls soccer, 6:30. Triton at Manchester Essex field hockey, 7.

23:21 Mateo Daniel: Tuesday, Rockport girls soccer hosts Essex Tech at 4, Gloucester field hockey hosts St. Mary's at 4:30, Manchester Essex girls soccer hosts Triton at 6:30. Saturday, Gloucester football at Beverly, 11 a.m. Times from the MIAA and the school calendars. Check before you go.

23:37 Ana Lucia: Weather. Today is sunny and near 57, the warmest day in a week. Monday near 64. Then the north wind comes back Monday night, 15 to 20 knots on the water. No advisories on the bays as of yesterday morning. And Cape Ann Symphony musicians play a string program at Crowell Chapel in Manchester at 3 this afternoon.

23:58 Kerry Jane: Voting. Early voting runs through Friday, October 30. Rockport is open today, 8 to 2. Gloucester, Monday through Thursday 8:30 to 4, Thursday until 6:30, Friday 8:30 to 12:30. Rockport's weekday hours and the Essex and Manchester hours are on your town clerk's page and in our write-up.

24:16 Kerry Jane: Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, polls 7 to 8. The ballot is two cards. Campaign shirts, stickers and signs stay 150 feet from the polls. The voter guide is on the site, with the three state rep candidates side by side and every ballot question.

24:33 Mateo Daniel: Halloween. Saturday the 31st in Manchester. Party at Memorial School, 5 to 6:30, trick or treat in the village 5:30 to 7:30.

24:43 Ana Lucia: And next Sunday the clocks fall back. The Dunkin' poll on the site closes that night at 11:59. It is not scientific, and the results show right away.

24:52 Kerry Jane: And November 15. Traps off St. Peter's Landing. Owen says so.

24:57 Kerry Jane: That's the week. Ana Lucia, how's the bread?

25:00 Ana Lucia: Avó says I knead like I'm angry at it. She says the bread can tell.

25:04 Mateo Daniel: Can it?

25:05 Ana Lucia: I'm not going to argue with an 84 year old woman about bread.

25:09 Kerry Jane: Mateo Daniel, the Revolution. One line.

25:13 Mateo Daniel: Okay so. They clinched a playoff spot on the 14th with a 3 to 2 win at Cincinnati. Last Saturday they beat Chicago one to nothing at Gillette, Matt Polster scored. They played at Philadelphia last night, and we recorded this before kickoff, so no score from me. Playoffs start November 18. The scarf stays out.

25:30 Kerry Jane: And Mami?

25:31 Mateo Daniel: One o'clock. She'll ask if I ate. I ran three miles this week. I earned a breakfast sandwich.

25:37 Kerry Jane: And I have one week left in a cold house, by choice. Everything we talked about today comes from public records and government data. The meeting videos, the agendas, the posted warrants, the assessors' packet, the state's crash records and fuel survey, the MIAA.

25:55 Kerry Jane: The sources are on the website at capeanncurrent.com, with every write-up we mentioned. If we missed something, or got something wrong, send it to [email protected]. And if you have a question for next Sunday, send that too.

26:08 Mateo Daniel: Let's go.

26:09 Ana Lucia: See you next week.

26:11 Kerry Jane: I'm Kerry Jane, with Ana Lucia and Mateo Daniel. This has been The Weekly Current. Keeping Cape Ann current.