A weekly quality of life check-in of Worcester 

Icy rain delayed flights into Worcester and Boston over the weekend, leaving Thanksgiving travelers in the cold. Whether or not Direct Air’s cancelled flight into Worcester was Worcester Regional Airport’s “fault” or not was being debated through midweek, but the incident marks the first time a single flight cancellation garnered two news stories, a city council discussion, state level discussions with the airline, and a Woo Town index item. -3

20,000 trees coming down because of the freakin’ beetle? In just the Greendale/Burncoat area? Seriously? In year-one of the eradication effort? Oh, man. Help us. -4

Worcester makes the Boston news again. Last week, FOX did a story on our empty airport. This week, Channel 5’s Chronicle came to town to talk beetles, mere days after the New York Times caught wind of the situation. On the surface it all sounds sort of grim and news-touristy (what next, an expose on our brownfields?). But hey, you know the adage: there’s no such thing as bad publicity. +1

The city and the Greater Worcester Land Trust team up to secure funding that will preserve 10 acres on Crow Hill and 20 acres on Moreland Hill, sparing them from development. Let’s hope there are some trees left for them to actually preserve. +4

Seriously, are we really talking about 20,000 trees before the frost has even set in? Our new favorite band: Pavement. -3

The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the economy officially entered into a recession last December. In breaking news, we’re still at war in Iraq. -2

Patriots fans last week: trade Brady, start Cassel. Patriots fans this week: ignore what we said last week. -2

After months of wrangling, the WPD releases the (redacted) Mark Rojas records. A minor victory for open public records advocates. +2

The records still contain 1500 pages of complaints, disciplinary actions, and other internal affairs items. -3

Newly acquired Claude Lemieux scored his first goal for the Sharks during a 4-1 victory over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Sunday. After five years away from pro-play, the 20-year NHL veteran has decided to start anew in the AHL. With a career total of 1,756 penalty minutes, challengers beware. +2

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy becomes the first institution to agree to a PILOT program after over two decades of ever-increasing prodding by activists and some city councilors. The money will go directly to the public library, and will be paid out for the next 25 or so years in ever increasing figures totaling between $1.25 million and $1.5 million. Everyone wins. +2

-2 for the week. Damn you beetles.

How the credit crunch stalls some college building plans

By Owen Skoler

Two weeks ago, Northeastern University announced a decision to delay construction on a new dormitory due to the credit crunch. Now, Clark University is also holding off on major building projects as a result of the same economic hard times.

Jim Collins, Vice-President for Planning and Finance at Clark, says that the university had hoped to install elevators in Wright and Bullock Hall over the summer to make all floors handicap accessible. The renovation would have cost $3 million.

But, like in the case of Northeastern, Collins says bank loans have dried up.

“With the residence hall projects, there’s a stream of revenue over time with student room rates, but we need to borrow money to pay for [the renovations] similar to a home mortgage that you pay off over the life of building improvements,” Collins explains. “It’s harder to obtain capital. The debt market is not as free with money.”

The second major Clark project that’s been put on hold is the construction of a visitor center across the street from the campus’ main gate. Paul Bottis, Jr., Director of Facilities for Clark, says there was talk the center could house the school’s bookstore, campus police department and a new parking garage to be shared with St. Peter’s Church. Unlike renovations to the residence halls, Bottis says the visitor’s center was so far in the preliminary planning stages that a price tag or timetable was never set.

At an October meeting, the school’s board of trustees voted to delay plans for both building projects due to the credit crunch, according to Collins. However, he says the delays don’t impact Clark as much as those at Northeastern.

The difference, Collins says, is that unlike Northeastern, building plans at Clark were never approved, only discussed.

“It wasn’t as if we were planning to start construction on projects and then delay them,” Collins says. “We’re only at the point of looking at further analysis, programming and design.”

Collins says that while the board of directors nixed funding for residence hall renovations this summer, he hopes money for the new elevators will be available for summer 2010.

Clark is still moving forward with smaller, streetscape projects, Bottis says.

Other local colleges seem to be surviving the economic downturn without a delay in construction so far.

The College of the Holy Cross will begin major construction on a $65 million Science Complex in January. According to Ellen Ryder, Director of Public Affairs, projects in the planning stages have not been cancelled.

Anna Maria College is 50 percent done with a new athletic field, according to Paula Green, Director of Marketing and Community Relations. Green says that the school plans to move forward with Phase Two construction in January. At that time the college will decide how to proceed on other building projects.

And at Worcester State College, Public Relations Director Lea Ann Erickson says the economy has yet to impact building projects as they continue to be approved. However the college has felt the economy’s sting in other ways like cuts to administrative expenses, a hiring freeze and voluntary reductions from division leaders. o

By Scott Zoback

For a police department administration not given to drama or public displays of emotion, Police Chief Gary Gemme’s crusade against the Telegram & Gazette over the past few weeks has been something of a revolutionary experience.

Facing allegations that he was delaying the release of records to the Telegram containing citizen complaints against Officer Mark Rojas, the chief went on The Jordan Levy Show on November 19 to defend himself. After his appearance — and a followup call by T&G columnist Dianne Williamson – a member of the police administration called back to challenge the Telegram to a debate.

Last week, the chief was defended by City Manager Michael O’Brien at City Council, who said the department was working to be transparent as always, and in no way had purposely delayed the records’ release.

This week, the squabble came to a head when the department released three pages of Rojas’ records, coupled with a statement accusing the Telegram of “misrepresenting” the department. Hours after the statement was released, Gemme went on with Levy, once again accusing the paper of “polarizing” the issue.

“Unfortunately, the T&G in this case was not the most accurate medium for dissemination of an honest and justified explanation. The T&G interest was to polarize the debate as they minimized the complexity and challenges faced by the police department and the reality of the so-called 10-day deadline for producing a public record. The reporting in this case clearly misrepresented the efforts of the WPD to comply with the public records request,” the statement reads.

Essentially, it comes down to a fundamental disagreement between the police and the Telegram. The police insist they have stuck to the letter of every law, responding within reasonable timelines considering the fact that they are pursuing a massive internal investigation in the court overtime abuse scandal. The Telegram claims the department has repeatedly delayed or thrown up roadblocks since the initial request in April. Those alleged delays include the high initial cost estimate, legal wrangling between the parties that reached the state Supervisor of Records, a month delay before starting the records process after cashing the paper’s $1,500 check, and a total three-month process between receipt of the check and the expected release of the records this week.

In the WPD’s release earlier this week, Gemme reiterated the difficulties the department is facing, and used the three sample records pages to show what kind of redactions we can expect later this week.

Two pages in particular show the heaviest level of redaction: On a description of an alleged incident involving Rojas, the names of all witnesses and a victim are redacted, as is the date. On a separate form, the entire sheet, save for City of Worcester letterhead, is blacked out, leaving half of three words visible in separate places (“-alf, -ing, the”).

As for what’s on those heavily redacted pages, Police Spokesman Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst speaks in generalities. “When you get that page that’s fully redacted it’s probably had a lot of [private] information on it.” That includes items covered under witness protection laws, CORI, HIPAA, ongoing investigations, or final disciplinary actions against Rojas.

Of course, lost in the discussion is what exactly is in the records. Police and city sources have repeatedly confirmed that a 1,500-page internal affairs file is extraordinary. The implication is that Rojas’ file clearly contains an unusual number of citizen complaints or internal affairs actions. o