Cold Snap

by Glenn C. Koenig, Webmaster at Town Wide Mall

Maynard, MA - Residents of the town have had to make some adjustments recently, as current weather conditions have been unusually severe.

Some changes have been minor, such as the unattended Christmas Tree drop off at the Maynard Public Works Yard last Saturday (as stationing an employee there to collect the fee would have risked them suffering a cold injury!) In their place was a sandwich board sign saying to drop your tree off "Free of Charge."

More important to all of us is the Town's offer of a warming center, open to anyone who needs to get warm, perhaps because of a heating system or electric power failure at their home.

The location of the center is the training room in the Fire Department at 30 Sudbury Street. Details of this offer are on the Town's web site, here:  https://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/474

After the storm passes, temperatures are forecast to remain extremely cold, even for this time of year.  I have received word from the Town's Planning Director, Bill Nemser, with advice for residents to help manage the economic impact of the weather. 

He sent a link to a web page maintained by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a group that supports cities and town governments in the greater Boston Area and metro west.

The MAPC web page, https://www.mapc.org/resource-library/winter-price-spike-communications/ is written for an audience of local officials, but if residents scroll down a bit, there is a list of options which can be expanded to see details on topics such as:
• Support for paying utility bills
• Utility Customer Advocacy Resources (from the state's Attorney General's office)
• Tips for reducing Utility Costs
• Municipal Aggregation (electricity at bulk rates, arranged by the town).
(On that last one, see my previous story "Power to the Households" for a description)

Commentary

I think it is important to consider the bigger picture of the impact of these utility costs on families and individuals, many of whom are facing rising costs across the board, including medical insurance cost increases that started on January 1st as well as a continuing increase in food prices.  Even though we may think of each of these types of costs separately, many families and individuals are stuck trying to balance their budgets on the whole.
Although it might seem unrelated, we could see an increase participation in food pantry visits, as people shift their available funds to pay these other bills.  As the weather gets milder as we get into Spring, and utility costs ease somewhat, we may get some relief, at least temporarily.

I want to emphasize that I do not say these things to implicate any particular public official, political party, or utility comany as the primary cause.  I firmly believe that all this is due to many complex factors that have been building for decades by now.  It's easy to point the finger of blame on one another, but I believe that it's a significant challenge for anyone to dig deeply enough into our governmental and economic systems to understand more than just a tiny part of the causes.  My approach has been to avoid blaming anyone, no matter how tempting, and instead seek ways to collaborate and resolve some of our differences so that we can move forward to make changes that will benefit everyone, and yet not continue to destroy planetary resources in the process.

Oh, and one more minor side note.
You may have noticed that I use the term "medical insurance" rather than "health insurance."  That's because the insurance we buy is actually "medical indemnity" insurance.  That means that it can only "indemnify," or protect us, from the cost of medical services and medications.
It cannot, and will never, be able to actually insure that you have good health!  Health is the responsibility of each of us to maintain good care for ourselves, seek medical care as appropriate, and, at the same time, work to reduce factors in the environment that threaten to sicken or kill us.

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