The work will continue for about a month or so, although the streets involved will be passable after each workday, for the most part.
Fortunately, both Mayfield Street and Randall Road have relatively light traffic volumes.  Along with Brooks Street, they lead into an area of Maynard known as "the maze," with a varitey of intersections, unusual curves, and dead ends.  The area is purely residential and does not provide a way through to any other major route in town.

The work is being conducted based on a cooperation between Maynard's Public works department and Eversource Gas, as underground utility upgrades must be completed before the street above can be repaved.  Without this coordination, there would be the risk that newly paved streets would have to be dug up too soon, resulting in an uneven surface, cracks, pot holes, and accelerated deterioration.

(this is a developing story; stay tuned for further details in this report.)

Maynard, MA - On August 7th, Maynard residents who signed up for notifications from Town Hall received a message regarding a survey on health needs in the town. The Public Health department initiated the alert to ask residents to fill out the survey as soon as possible.

When I talked with Maynard's Public Health Nurse, Moira Carter, she explained that a link to the Public health page of the town's web site was supposed to be included in the notification broadcast, but was accidentally omitted by the time the message went out.

identifying future priorities, existing strengths and assets upon which to build, and areas for further collaborative efforts."  Public Health Director, Ivan Kwagala adds that the survey will also help us understand the problems people are facing in town and the strengths to prioritize needs and advocate for resources.

Ms. Carter explained that she divides her time between Maynard and Concord, as both towns employ her part time.  Thus, the survey is designed to gather information for both towns, but is posted and will be tallied separately for each town.
Using the same set of questions for both towns saves time and taxpayer funds.  The project involves developing the survey questions, creating the web based form (and the printed paper version), and analyzing, the entries to summarize the results.

I filled out the survey, which took me about 15 minutes, although most people are likely to go a bit faster than I did.  When I got to the end, a web page of "Community Resources" appeared.  It had a list of  organizations that are ready to help with various health and mental health concerns.  I recommend taking a screen shot of that page to save for later.  If you save a "web archive" of the page, it may save a copy of the whole survey, so a screen shot is a better alternative.  Otherwise, if you accidentally close your browser window before recording the information, you can contact someone at the Public Health Division to obtain a copy.  There are more links to resources on the Public Health Nurse page, as well, if you scroll all the way down to the last section on that page.
If you fill out the paper version of the survey, the last page has this same list of community resources, so be sure to tear it off and keep it, before dropping your completed survey in the collection box.

Both employees in the Public Health Department in Maynard are relatively new.  The director, Ivan Kwagala has been in the position less than two years, and Moira Carter, the public health nurse, started only last fall, in 2023.
As no true health assessment had been done for quite some time, they wanted to get a better assessment of community needs, along with residents' health priorities.
The project has not received any grant funding, however, they are getting help from an intern, referred to the town by the Massachusetts Department of Health, Local Health Internship Program.
Both towns are part of shared public health groups, each of which covers a group of towns and supports their public health departments in various ways.  Maynard is part of Metro West Shared Public Health Services, and Concord is part of the Great Meadows Public Health Collaborative.  Both groups cover specific geographic areas, which is why the two towns happen to be covered by two separate groups.

When people think of "democracy," we often think first of elections and the candidates who are running for public office.  But there is a lot more too it than just that. This is just one example of how we all can have an impact on what government does for us, without waiting for election day to come around.
True, it takes a little time and effort to make our priorities known, but in order for government departments such as this to serve us, it makes sense for us to have a voice in what they do.

It's common for people with health issues to hesitate to speak up or ask for help.  It's easy to feel alone or isolated with problems that are hard to talk about.  Since this survey is anonymous, this is a good opportunity to open up about your concerns.  The more the town understands what's going on for residents, the better it can act to help out where help is needed and offer resources that may be useful.

I urge you to find a few minutes to fill out the survey.  If you have questions about the survey or other issues relevant to public health, the Public Health Division web page has a "Contact Us" list in the right hand margin, with names, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers.
If you know of anyone who does not have good access to the internet, or may not see notifications of this news story on Facebook or other social media, please help by letting them know how they can participate, either by using computers at the library or by visiting the department to complete the survey on paper.