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St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church will hold a drive through Blessing of the Animals on Sunday, October 11, at 1:30 PM, in the main St. Mary’s Church parking lot.

The Governance Committee (GC) met remotely Thursday afternoon, 4PM, in an open meeting when they conversed with Town Administrator (TA), Travis Ahern, in another information-gathering session. Chair Sam Tyler reviewed the direction of the Committee’s work with Ahern prior to eliciting his knowledge of Holliston’s Finance and Fiscal Procedures.

It seems like just yesterday that my office sent the first issue of this COVID-19 update. In fact, it’s been over 6 months since this daily update has been arriving in your inbox. During this time many of you have sent notes and suggestions for how we can improve content and delivery and your feedback has been great and appreciated.

Each Month, Give Back to Givers honors a “Volunteer of the Month” to highlight his/her service and dedication to the town of Holliston, and to show how important volunteerism is to the town. This month we honor Jack Winston.

As we enter a new month, I wanted to provide a brief snapshot of where we are in the Commonwealth’s experience with the pandemic. In the last 6 months, a lot has changed in the way we track and respond to the COVID-19 virus, but there are certain key metrics we can track over time to get a sense of the “curve.”

Under the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Management Act Permit to the Town of Holliston, the Holliston Water Department is mandated to impose a Water Ban every year on nonessential outdoor water use; the Water Ban is effective May 1st to September 30th. This year due to the drought conditions the restrictions are extended through November 1, 2020.

Each Wednesday, the Department of Public Health releases community-level numbers of COVID-19 testing and positive case totals, which in turn inform the risk category each community in Massachusetts is assigned and the recommended learning model for each school district.

Tuesday’s Select Board meeting was convened jointly with the Finance Committee to hear a financial update on State Local Aid for FY 21. Each Board / Committee Chair called their meetings to order at 7:00pm. Select Board Chair, John Cronin welcomed Senator Spilka and Representative Dykema to the meeting. He went on to thank them for their ongoing support and their time at this meeting.

The ambulance crews handled twenty-four calls for service during this reporting period and HFD firefighters backed up Hopkinton during their big fire on Sunday the 20th.

Today, the Governor announced that consistently lower-risk communities will enter “Phase 3, Step II” of reopening on Monday, October 5th. As we gather significantly more public health data on a community level than we have before, we’re able to better tailor statewide guidance to a smaller scale.

Bryan Perkins joins the Senior Center as Assistant Director in September with the departure of Linda Sottile, whose move to South Carolina to enjoy her grandkids left a vacancy in the Center’s staff. But Perkins has the drive, experience and enthusiasm to assume the challenging role.

COMMENT attached to this article

One of the most successful programs to launch as many of the Commonwealth’s businesses and industries reopen is the Shared Streets and Spaces grant program, which allows cities and towns to make rapid changes to streets, sidewalks, and public spaces to improve social distancing, outdoor recreation, and small business operations to keep communities safe and thriving.