On Monday, a Lewiston, Maine man was sentenced for the July 29, 2020 stabbing death of a New Bedford man in a McDonald’s parking lot in Auburn, Maine.

22-year old Trai LaRue had been initially charged with murder in the death of his friend, Roger Cornell, 21, of New Bedford but later pleaded guilty on manslaughter charges under terms of a plea agreement. He was sentenced in an Androscoggin County court by Justice Harold Stewart to 19 years in prison, 4 years probation and 1 year suspended.

Sean Stackhouse Twitter photo.

The stabbing stemmed from alleged inappropriate conduct by Cornell towards a woman earlier in the day. The two friends agreed to meet in the fast-food restaurant’s parking lot to discuss the allegations. LaRue told police he intended to stab his friend but didn’t intend to kill him.

After the stabbing, LaRue left Cornell on the ground bleeding from his stab wounds. Cornell was later found by an unnamed party who called 911 services. Cornell was rushed to the Central Maine Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.

The case was bolstered by surveillance video from the McDonald’s restaurant that showed LaRue stabbing Cornell in the chest.

Maine State Police photo.

The City of New Bedford has roadwork sites for the upcoming week of March 28, 2022 – April 1, 2022, and they are as follows:

Eversource will be working on the gas main relays and services at:

• No work scheduled

Other:

• Contractor (KR Rezendes) will be working at the MassDOT project, Hathaway Triangle, for intersection improvements at Hathaway Rd, Nauset St and Mt Pleasant St.
• Contractor (PA Landers) will be working at the MassDOT project, Kings Highway, for road and sidewalk reconstruction along portions of Kings Highway and Tarkiln Hill Rd.
• Contractor (SCR Constructors) will continue site work at the future South Coast Rail station platform locations in the city. (Church St at Carlisle St and Wamsutta St at Acushnet Ave.) If you have questions, please email the project team at SouthCoastRail@dot.state.ma.us
Union St. Phase II Sewer Separation Project:
• Contractor (C. Naughton Corp.) will continue replacement of the Union St sewer service connections between Sixth St and County St.  During working hours, Union St will be closed between County St and Sixth St.  Union St westbound traffic will be detoured at Sixth St to School St.  Union St eastbound traffic will be detoured at County St to Spring St.
• Access to local business will be maintained, construction/detour signs will be posted, and police details will be on-site to assist with traffic management.

** Please note: Contractors will continue to follow guidelines and protocol regarding COVID-19 social distancing while conducting work in construction zone.

The City of New Bedford Police Department is warning residents about a recent upsurge in post office boxes being broken into and mail – primarily checks – are being stolen. The U.S.P.S. recently stated that the uptick in such cases is not a local issue, but a nationwide one.

What thieves are specifically attracted to are personal checks because they can then alter the amounts handwritten onto the checks.

“We have seen an increase of checks being fished out of U.S. postal mailboxes and then fraudently cashed after being altered for higher amounts than originally written.” said a New Bedford Police Department spokesperson.

What can one do to prevent becoming a victim of this scam?

• Leave your check in your own mailbox close to the time your mail carrier would arrive;
• Bring your mail directly to the post office and give it to an associate;
• Use online banking

“Governor Charlie Baker swore in Jeanne Pinado as Chair of the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MassHousing) Board of Directors. Pinado brings over three decades of experience in real estate development, asset management, sales and debt financing. Pinando currently serves as Executive Vice President at Colliers International. Prior to that role, she served as Madison Park Development’s CEO for over 20 years.

Pinado is the first woman of color to serve as Chair of the MassHousing Board of Directors. 

“Jeanne Pinado’s decades of experience in real estate development and asset management make her well qualified to serve as Chair of the MassHousing Board,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “MassHousing’s successful record of increasing affordable housing options is critically important to addressing the Commonwealth’s housing challenges. Jeanne’s depth of knowledge and proven leadership in these areas will help create more homeownership opportunities throughout Massachusetts.”

“Our Administration is pleased to designate Jeanne Pinado Chair of MassHousing’s Board, where she will play an instrumental role in expanding housing opportunities across the state,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “Jeanne brings years of expertise in real estate and community development to this role, and we are appreciative of her willingness to serve.”

About Jeanne Pinado

Jeanne Pinado currently serves as an Executive Vice President at Collier International. She previously served as CEO of Madison Park Development, a multifamily real estate owner/developer with annual revenues of more than $20 million, from 1998-2019. Prior to Madison Park, she served as Senior Equity Investment Officer of Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation. Pinado began her career in the financial services industry in New York City and worked as a project manager for developer Metropolitan Structures.

Pinado is also a mayoral appointee to the Boston Zoning Board of Appeals as well as a former gubernatorial appointee to chair the Multifamily Advisory Board of Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency. She is an executive board member of A Better City and serves as board President of NeighborhoodWorks Capital Corporation, a national community development finance institution. Pinado is a past president and current Policy Leadership Council member of CHAPA (Citizen’s Housing and Planning Association). Pinado earned her Bachelor’s in Arts in Economics from the University of Virginia and her Master’s in Business Administration in Finance from Columbia University. She resides in Boston with her family.

About MassHousing

MassHousing (The Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency) is an independent, quasi-public agency created in 1966 and charged with providing financing for affordable housing in Massachusetts. The Agency raises capital by selling bonds and lends the proceeds to low- and moderate-income homebuyers and homeowners, and to developers who build or preserve affordable and/or mixed-income rental housing. MassHousing does not use taxpayer dollars to sustain its operations, although it administers some publicly funded programs on behalf of the Commonwealth. Since its inception, MassHousing has provided more than $24.3 billion for affordable housing.” -Mass.gov.

The Baker-Polito Administration today announced the start of distribution of the first round of $500 payments for low-income workers under the COVID-19 Essential Employee Premium Pay Program. The payments will be mailed to approximately 500,000 people over the next week.

These payments were previously announced last month and represent the first round of a $460 million program passed by the Massachusetts Legislature and signed by Governor Baker as part of a $4 billion spending plan for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Under this program created by the Legislature, the Administration was provided flexibility to design the program and develop eligibility parameters to ensure this critical support is provided quickly to workers across the Commonwealth.

Massachusetts residents will be eligible for first round payments if, based on filed 2020 Massachusetts tax returns, their income from employment was at least $12,750 – the equivalent to working 20 hours/week for 50 weeks at minimum wage as of 2020 – and their total income put them below 300% of the federal poverty level.

Individuals who received unemployment compensation in 2020 will not be eligible for the first round of payments, nor will Commonwealth executive branch employees who received or will receive a one-time payment from the state as their employer. Eligible individuals will receive the payment in the form of a check mailed to them. Checks will be mailed in batches in the coming days.

Click here for more information on eligibility.

For questions about eligibility, a dedicated call center is available at (866) 750-9803 and is open Monday through Friday, 9am – 4pm.

Click here to view answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).

The legislation creating the Premium Pay program included $500 million in total for low-income essential workers; this $460 million program comprises the majority of those funds, and $40 million was allocated to fund previous agreements with state employee unions. This first round of payments, worth $250 million, will be made based on 2020 returns. Following the 2021 tax filing season, the next round of payments will be made using information from 2021 returns.

Information on plans to disburse subsequent rounds of funds will be released in the future.

“Dear Editor:

I am not originally from Dartmouth and I did not go to Dartmouth High. However, I have friends from Dartmouth, and I CHOSE to move here and raise my family. Dartmouth is a beautiful community full of great people! I now have three daughters in Dartmouth Public Schools. One child in elementary, one at the middle school and one at the high school.

They are great kids, who don’t have a prejudiced bone in their bodies. Not once have they, or me and my wife, ever thought of the Dartmouth High Indian logo as racist or inappropriate. We think of it as a symbol of strength, which it has been for many decades and I’m sure is a source of pride for many alumni.

So why is this an issue now after decades and decades of community pride and unity? Like many people, I work out of town and don’t have the opportunity to follow local school committee meetings as much as I’d like. So, I was very surprised to learn recently that there was a subcommittee looking into removing/changing the Dartmouth Indian logo! Why? Who’s offended by it? Who is leading this charge? What’s their motivation?

Honesty, I’m frustrated and annoyed by this new sense of self-induced outrage. The Indian logo hasn’t been deemed offensive for the past 10, 20, 30, 40 + years. So why now? The logo hasn’t changed, has it? To me it’s still the same respectful symbol of the strong indigenous people from our community and region…. that’s it. It’s pretty straightforward. Like most everything in life, things usually aren’t complicated, people make them complicated.

Unfortunately, there are always going to be people that want to make every molehill into a mountain, constantly looking for new things that offend them personally, so they can try to change our culture and feel somehow morality superior. It’s exhausting! If this topic hasn’t been a problem in Dartmouth for decades, then it shouldn’t be now. This also shouldn’t be a political issue. The Indian logo has been a symbol of cultural strength in Dartmouth for many decades, and no one needs to change it.

I am thankful for Selectman John Haran’s leadership and the Select Board’s support to allow Dartmouth voters to have input (via a non-binding referendum) on the spring election ballot this April 5th.

I encourage other parents that agree that this effort to remove the Indian logo is completely unnecessary
to join me in voting YES to preserve the Dartmouth Indian as a symbol of strength and unity!

Respectfully,
Michael Mattos.”

Food waste makes up approximately 20% of the waste that residents generate in their homes. Composting fruit and vegetable scraps saves space in your trash bags and the landfill, while providing nutrient rich material for gardening.

The Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District is pleased to offer two types of compost bins for sale to New Bedford and Dartmouth residents. The Earth Machine and the New Age Composter are available at the discounted rate of $25 each (including tax). Starting April 9, 2022, the first 10 residents from each community (New Bedford and Dartmouth) who purchase a compost bin, will receive a free stainless steel kitchen counter bin to collect compostable material.

“Composting makes taking out the trash easy! Even with a large family, our trash is light since we compost all our banana peels, apple cores, and eggshells. Once you start composting, it becomes a part of everyday life. And we have free compost to add to our garden beds,” notes Marissa Perez-Dormitzer, Waste Reduction Manager.

Benefits of composting include:

• materials such as fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, eggshells, leaves, grass, hay, and twigs placed in a compost bin turn into free compost (that you do not have to buy in a plastic bag).
• returns nutrients to the soil to grow nutritious food, and healthy plants, flowers, and shrubs.
• reduces greenhouse gases such as methane.
• reduces trash and reduces plastic bag use – material that was going in your trash now becomes nutrient-rich soil amendment.

To purchase a compost bin, go to the scale house at the Crapo Hill Landfill located at 300 Samuel Barnet Blvd., New Bedford. The scale house is open Monday through Friday 7:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Saturday 8:00 to 10:45 a.m. Cash or check only. Proof of residency required.

Which compost bin is best for you?

The Earth Machine:

• 10 cubic foot capacity, great for smaller families, gardens, or yards.
• made of rigid recycled plastic – twist lid to lock, unlock, and allow for ventilation.
• comes with two halves for the body, a lid, and a perforated base plate. Easy to assemble in a few steps.
• sliding door at the base that allows for compost removal. Or the entire bin can be picked up to harvest the finished compost at the bottom.
• rodent prevention: keep meat, bones, fats, oil & dairy out of the bin. Comes with a perforated base plate that helps keep rodents out.
• add water to keep the contents as damp as a wrung-out sponge (leftover cooking water can be used). It is possible to drill • holes in the lid and body to allow in rainwater.

The New Age Composter (made in New Bedford):

• 24 cubic foot capacity, great for larger families, bigger gardens, yards with more leaves.
• made of flexible recycled plastic so the diameter can be adjusted during setup.
• cone-shaped base continually aerates contents from below, turning is not necessary.
• comes with the body, a base, a lid, and clips to hold it together. Easy to assemble in a few steps. Video with instructions for assembly:

• to access the finished compost, push aside fresh material on top and shovel out compost underneath. Or pick up the entire bin to access the finished compost. Using 2 or 3 bins in rotation makes harvesting compost easy from oldest bin.
• rodent prevention: keep meat, bones, fats, oil & dairy out of the bin. The sides and bottom cone may be secured to the ground with stakes to keep rodents out.
• holes in the lid allow in rainwater. During dry spells, add water to keep contents as damp as a wrung-out sponge.

The cost of each compost bin is being subsidized by the two communities to encourage backyard composting.

If you have questions about how to compost, visit http://gnbrrmdistrict.org/about-us/, contact the waste reduction office by phone at (508) 979-1493 or by email at Marissa@gnbrrmdistrict.org. For additional tips, visit the New Bedford Recycling or the Dartmouth Recycling Facebook page or follow New Bedford Recycling on Instagram or @NBRecycling on Twitter.

UMass Dartmouth Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Ora M. DeJesus Gerontology Center Andrew Revell will compete as the only adaptive skier from the Northeast region in the first Paralympic-style race for complex physical challenges, occurring in Eden, UT on March 25.

Revell and other competitors will utilize the world’s only joystick-controlled ski unit called the Tetraski and the French-designed SnowKart by Tessier. The racecourse and competition were designed by Tanja Kari, a 12-time Paralympic Nordic Skier and Gold medalist now based at the University of Utah Health Rehabilitation System.

Revell has been involved in adaptive alpine skiing since 2018 as part of the Adaptive Sports Partners of the North Country (ASPNC; Franconia, NH). The alpine program is based at Cannon Mountain and serves all ages. For Revell, discovering the joy of skiing led to exploring other adaptive sports, including his now regular participation in the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) cycling events.

“One of the main goals for the Ora DeJesus Center for Gerontology is to advance practical approaches for adults and older adults to improve their health and well-being,” said Revell.

Exercise and recreation can benefit all, including adults and older adults who may not have full mobility. Participating in events such as this also promotes social support, as participants share expertise as they train and share in a common goal.

More information on the ski event can be found here: https://www.tetraskiexpress.us/

“City Councilors Shane Burgo (vest), Ian Abreu (red shirt) and Brad Markey prepare meals for Meals on Wheels.

In addition, they presented a City Proclamation to Justin Lees, CEO of Coastline Elderly Services at the Buttonwood Park Warming House.

The event celebrated the 50th anniversary of federal legislation that supported community-based programs like Meals on Wheels nationwide. Coastline has been serving seniors in Greater New Bedford for 42 years, and prepares 1,500 meals a day.” -City of New Bedford.

City of New Bedford photo.

“We are saddened to announce the passing of former Deputy Chief Robert Vital.

He started as an officer for the New Bedford Police Department on November 12, 1967, and retired over 30 years later on July 7, 2002.

We send our love and prayers to his family and friends. His wake will be held on Saturday, March 26 from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. in the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals. May he rest in peace ??” -New Bedford Police Department.

New Bedford Police Department photo.