“A former dispatcher for the Lincoln Police Department was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston on charges of child pornography.

Spencer Hughes, 33, of Randolph, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper to five years in prison and five years of supervised release. On Jan. 6, 2022, Hughes pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor or a minor who had not attained 12 years of age.

A search of Hughes’ residence in October 2020 resulted in the recovery of multiple electronic devices and external hard drives. An on-site preliminary forensic examination revealed multiple folders saved to the Hughes’ external hard drive under what appeared to be female names. One folder contained approximately 19 digital files depicting child pornography, including images and videos. This folder included a prepubescent minor female who appeared to be younger than the age of 12 engaged in sexual conduct, among other things. Further analysis of the Hughes’ electronic devices revealed more than 2,200 images and approximately 68 videos of child pornography. Prior to the search, Hughes was employed by the Town of Lincoln Police Department as a dispatcher.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Matthew B. Millhollin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Mackenzie Duane of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.” -Massachusetts Department of Justice.

The City of New Bedford has roadwork sites for the upcoming week of May 23, 2022 – May 27, 2022, and they are as follows:

Eversource will be working on the gas main relays:

• Main relay on Phillips Rd from Holly Tree Lane to Route 140

Other:

• Contractor (PA Landers) will be working on the Union Street-Phase II road reconstruction project. The project limits are Sixth Street to County Street. Contractor will be working on drainage installation. Detours and block closures may be required, signage and police details will be in place.
• Contractor (PA Landers) will be milling the following roadways in preparation for repaving: Orchard Street (Union St to Arnold St), Weld Street (Summer St to Myrtle St), Gifford St (Morton Ct to terminus), and Valentine Street (intersection of Brock Ave and intersection of W. Rodney French Blvd).
• 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 (JH Lynch) will continue work at MassDOT project, intersection improvements at Rockdale Ave and Allen Street. Detours may be in place at times. Signage and police details posted for detours.
• Contractor (PA Landers) will be working on sidewalk reconstruction along a portion of Cove Road from Padanaram Avenue to Orchard Street.
• Contractor (PA Landers) will be working on various streets, citywide, completing minor repairs and installations.
• Contractor (INDUS) will be crack sealing various roadways city-wide.
• 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

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

“Thank you to the New Bedford Fire Department for helping the New Bedford Police Animal Control with retrieving a cat off of a roof yesterday morning on Summer Street! Your assistance is appreciated ???” -City of New Bedford Police Department.

New Bedford Police Department photo.

New Bedford Police Department photo.

Mayor Jon Mitchell presented his Fiscal Year 2023 City Budget to the New Bedford City Council on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Cautious, Conservative Spending Blueprint

Mayor Mitchell noted that the new City budget, the third developed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflects continuing impacts on City revenues and expenditures that require a “cautious, conservative approach to budgeting.”

The Mayor also expressed cautious optimism about the City’s financial outlook, noting:

The City has been able to successfully manage the fiscal emergency of the past few years because of willingness to make tough decisions that are in the interest of the City’s long-term fiscal health. Working together with the City Council, the City has taken a surgical approach to expenditure reductions that has not jeopardized public safety or decimated essential services relied on by residents.

Federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding has provided the City with resources to support one-time costs and other key needs that otherwise could have drawn from the City budget or gone unfunded.

The local economy continues to hold its own. The City’s unemployment rate has fallen significantly from its highest point during the early days of the crisis and continues to decline. Unemployment now stands at 5%, having further declined from 6.6% in January. Similarly, single-family home prices are trending upward, and commercial real estate investment opportunities are drawing attention from developers.

New Inflationary Concerns

New to this year’s budget is the necessity to cover significant cost increases associated with sizeable inflationary trends in energy and materials. Gasoline, diesel fuel, electricity, and natural gas prices have all skyrocketed in the past six months, as the global economy is facing inflationary pressures, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical instability that bear directly on New Bedford.

Mandates Consuming Three Quarters of Budget

Unrelenting growth in non-discretionary, mandated items such as pension obligations, other post-employment benefits, and health insurance costs continue to crowd out available revenues for essential municipal services. Mandated portions of the budget now account for more than 75% of all spending in the General Fund Budget, including:

• Health insurance, pension, and other insurance programs will increase in total more than $2.9 million, due to projected claims expenses and growing pension funding requirements.

• Funding for the School Department is projected to increase by $22.6 million, or 11.9%, to comply with the Commonwealth’s minimum Net School Spending requirements. This is one of the largest annual increases in memory.

• Funding for charter schools continues to consume an increasing share of City resources. The City’s contribution to Charter School Sending Tuition has risen from $22.8 million in FY22 to $26.9 million in FY23. Charter school expenses have significantly reduced the funding available to address needs in New Bedford Public Schools.

Call for Council to Act on Employee Health Care

In his remarks, Mayor Mitchell noted how employee health insurance has become a substantial driver of cost increases in the budget, and as such, is a major contributor to the property tax burden on our residents.

Since 2012, employee health insurance costs have risen from $35.2 million to $45.7 million, or nearly $1 million per year every year. The cost of employee health insurance will increase by 7% in FY23. Total spending on employee health care now accounts for more than 10% of the General Fund. And the return of inflation to the broader economy suggest that these trends will not let up anytime soon.

Mayor Mitchell used the occasion to again ask the City Council to implement a reform that virtually every other local government in southeastern Massachusetts has already implemented. Specifically, the Mayor called on the council to adopt Sections 21-23 of Chapter B of Massachusetts General Law. The adoption of these Sections equalizes the negotiating positions of the Administration and employee unions when negotiating health insurance benefits, by introducing a neutral arbiter.

A Commitment to Effective Partnership

Mayor Mitchell said the City will meet these challenges by relying on the cautious, deliberative approach and effective partnership with the City Council that long have served the City and residents well.

Read Mayor Mitchell’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Address here.

The FY2023 budget totals nearly $471.5 million, of which the General Fund is the largest component, at about $420.9 million.

FY 2023 General Fund Appropriations by Category $420,859,991.

At approximately 11:50pm Wednesday night the New Bedford Fire Department responded to reports of smoke and fire coming from ABC Disposal, Inc. at 1245 Shawmut Ave, New Bedford.

Upon arrival, firefighters discovered smoke emitting from inside one of the main buildings and a small fire. The fire was quickly extinguished. No injuries have been reported.

Carlos Pimental Felix photo.

Carlos Pimental Felix photo.

Carlos Pimental Felix photo.

Carlos Pimental Felix photo.

Carlos Pimental Felix photo.

Video by Carlos Pimental Felix:

By Chris Lisinski
State House News Service

The public sector is feeling the strain of soaring inflation, too: officials now expect that a once-in-a-generation infrastructure overhaul in Allston will cost $300 million more than estimated, and the price of replacing the Cape Cod bridges could more than double.

Outlining a series of projects that will feature in an upcoming application for competitive federal grants, Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler presented the Department of Transportation’s board with a $2 billion price for highway, rail and pedestrian work in Allston, up from the $1.7 billion estimate offered in the fall.

Similarly, a 2019 projection that it would cost $1.4 billion to $1.65 billion to demolish and replace the Bourne and Sagamore bridges — which the Baker administration expects will be fully paid by the federal government — has been driven up by inflation and a changing construction outlook.

Tesler told the board that the Baker administration and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which today owns and manages the bridges, expect the price will “likely be in the range or possibilities from close to $3 billion to close to $4 billion.”

“When you include additional time for construction and the start of construction and the rate of inflation that we have to project, as we are seeing inflation on a lot of our work and a lot of our bids and in the overall economy, there is going to be a significant increase in what we collectively thought the cost estimates would be for this project,” Tesler said.

The 85-year-old Bourne and Sagamore bridges play a critical role connecting the Cape’s nearly 230,000 residents to the rest of Massachusetts and bringing millions of visitors to the region annually, but they have been functionally obsolete and eyed for replacement for years.

In July 2020, MassDOT and the Army Corps signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the Army Corps to retain ownership and management of the bridges while they are removed and while successor spans are built, then transfer control of and responsibility for the new bridges to MassDOT once complete.

The Baker administration publicly said the federal government will cover the costs of demolition and construction while also disclosing at the time that the memorandum did not officially bind Washington to foot the bill.

A MassDOT spokesperson said Wednesday that the department committed funds to cover work on the bridge approaches and connecting highways, which the state owns, while the federal government remains expected to pay for replacing the bridges.

Tesler said Wednesday that the projected bottom line referenced in grant applications will vary based on whether it accounts for additional inflation that will take place between now and the midpoint of the project, whose ultimate timeframe is unclear but expected to last several years.

“The range of possible cost is growing,” he said. “In the long run, this will be determined when it is funded, when it is in construction and what the actual rate of inflation will be.”

Tesler said Massachusetts is eligible to compete for a share of roughly $110 billion in grants available under the new bipartisan infrastructure law.

Gov. Charlie Baker has been pressing lawmakers to approve a roughly $9.7 billion bond bill that he says would position Massachusetts to take advantage of additional federal dollars on the table. The Transportation Committee advanced a $9.75 billion version late last week. Additional committee review is expected and legislative leaders have not said when the measure will emerge for a vote in either chamber.

Applications are due Monday, May 23 for the competitive Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant Opportunity, which will make $2.85 billion available in its first round of funding for states and transportation entities.

MPDG is one of the first grant options available under the new infrastructure law, and it allows applicants to throw their hats in the ring for three different programs with a single application.

The Army Corps will be the lead agency on the grant application for funding to go toward the Cape Cod Bridge Program, according to Tesler, while MassDOT will file applications for four projects, including a massive overhaul of highway, train and pedestrian routes in Allston.

That project could be the most impactful — and most challenging — in a generation, calling for replacing the aging, highly traveled Massachusetts Turnpike viaduct near Boston University and a commuter rail line.

Last fall, the department embraced a design for the project that would place side-by-side at roughly the same grade: four rail tracks, eight lanes of the Massachusetts Turnpike, four lanes of Soldiers Field Road, and a pedestrian boardwalk over the Charles River.

At the time, the department said preliminary estimates pegged the likely cost at $1.7 billion over the eight to 10 years of work required.

“MassDOT refined and updated the project cost estimate as part of the grant application process,” spokesperson Kristen Pennucci said in a statement Wednesday. “The increase in the estimate is due to inflation applied to the midpoint of construction.”

Administration officials have targeted a combination of federal funding, turnpike toll revenue and payments from other entities such as the city of Boston and Harvard University, which owns land near the project site, to cover the costs.

“We see federal funding and competing (for grants) as a critical component of funding this project long-term,” Tesler said Wednesday. “The Metropolitan Highway System is limited in the resources it can contribute to this project, so seeking federal funding and working closely to share responsibility with the city, with the universities, is a critical part to make sure that this full program achieves its goals and is able to be funded.”

The Baker-Polito Administration today will file a Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) supplemental budget that proposes investments in transportation, housing, environmental infrastructure, economic development, child care and education initiatives.

The legislation includes approximately $1.7 billion in spending, supported by state tax revenues that exceed FY22 benchmarks through April by $4.23 billion (14%). The current surplus also prompted the Administration to formally upgrade the FY22 tax benchmarks today, increasing the total fiscal year projection to $37.666 billion.

Governor Charlie Baker made this announcement today in Salem at the site of what will be Massachusetts’ second offshore wind port. The supplemental budget would direct $100 million to ports in Salem, New Bedford and Somerset. These funds will support infrastructure to ensure Massachusetts becomes a global leader and a hub in the offshore wind industry.

“Unprecedented Fiscal Year 2022 revenues afford us this opportunity to make targeted investments in some of the Commonwealth’s most pressing areas of need,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “With rising prices due to inflation, ongoing supply chain issues, and other pandemic-related delays impacting both the time and cost it takes to complete projects, it is critically important that we act quickly to ensure that we are able to maximize the impact of these surplus tax dollars for the citizens of Massachusetts and expedite our response to critical needs.”

“This spending plan proposes initiatives that will benefit residents and communities across the state, with a focus on expanding opportunities for disadvantaged populations,” said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “The bill would increase the availability and quality of housing, build business opportunities in underserved communities, support transportation and environmental projects, and strengthen education and child care systems.”

The legislation includes funding to support a variety of transportation and environmental infrastructure projects, including $235 million for transportation projects, $200 million for Cape Cod water and sewer initiatives, and $100 million for ports in Salem, New Bedford, and Somerset. It also builds in funds necessary for the implementation of more than $9.5 billion provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) over the next five years, as well as funding that will allow Massachusetts to access additional federal funding through matching grants. These funds complement investments proposed in the pending MassTRAC infrastructure bond bill and recently announced in the FY23-27 Capital Investment Plan.

Continuing the Administration’s focus on addressing housing availability and building on the recently filed economic development legislation, An Act Investing in Future Opportunities for Resiliency, Workforce, and Revitalized Downtowns (FORWARD), this bill would provide $310 million for housing development. It proposes $200 million for workforce housing, $100 million for public housing redevelopment in Boston, Cambridge, Salem, and Worcester, and $10 million to increase permanent supportive housing for individuals and families experiencing chronic homelessness.

A further $180 million is allocated to targeted economic development initiatives, including $80 million to support efforts to improve small businesses’ options for purchasing commercial real estate, $50 million to provide financial assistance to socially and economically disadvantaged developers, particularly those owned by women and people of color, who are seeking to undertake large housing construction projects and $50 million to de-risk lending to small business owners in underserved markets where access to capital is otherwise limited.

“The unprecedented nature of Fiscal Year 2022 revenues will allow the Commonwealth to continue building our stabilization fund balance while making the critical investments proposed in this supplemental budget to fund infrastructure and spur economic development,” said Secretary of Administration and Finance Michael J. Heffernan. “We look forward to working with the Legislature to deliver on the important investments laid out in this responsible and thoughtful bill.”

“The Baker-Polito Administration continues to take a forward thinking approach to achieve the Commonwealth’s clean energy and environmental goals,” said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Beth Card. “The filing of this FY22 Supplement Budget will deliver important funds to several ports, which serve critical roles in advancing and supporting the Commonwealth’s offshore wind projects.”

A number of other initiatives are supported in the supplemental budget proposal, including:

• $150 million for higher education campus physical infrastructure primarily at Mass College of Art and UMass Dartmouth;
• $55 million for child care, including $45 million for a new family child care home ownership and improvement program, which seeks to increase child care capacity while establishing financial security for family child care providers, and $10 million for innovative and flexible models of child care delivery;
• $55 million for nursing pathways programs;
• $30 million for schools and colleges to modernize science and biotechnology labs; and
• $28 million for other costs, including $5 million for the USS Constitution park, $10 million for miscellaneous legal settlements and judgments, and $13 million for collective bargaining agreements authorized in an outside section.

The legislation also includes several policy proposals, including:

• A re-filed outside section that would update chapter 70, the school finance law, to establish early college and innovation pathways as an enrollment category in the Foundation Budget, to provide sustainable and predictable support for the growth of these pathways, which are demonstrating success in expanding access to college and careers for underrepresented students;
• A section that would temporarily allow school districts to reserve some of their state chapter 70 funding for future years without facing state financial penalties, thereby helping them to spend time-limited federal funds;
• A section that would permit youth to voluntarily access a broader range of department of youth services (DYS) supports beyond the current timeframe of 90 days after discharge from a DYS facility; and
• A section that would continue a department of public health standing order that facilitates insurance coverage for over-the-counter COVID tests and treatments beyond the COVID-19 public health state of emergency.

New Bedford police detectives have arrested a man for trafficking 156 grams of Fentanyl.

On Tuesday, May 17, at 7 p.m., detectives were in the area of Foster Street and Maxfield Street when they conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for a motor vehicle infraction. A short while later, the driver of the car and the passenger, identified as Paul Koller, 45, of Yarmouth, were asked to step out of the vehicle. During a pat frisk on Koller, detectives located three plastic bags of fentanyl weighing 54.3 grams.

Detectives also did an additional search of Koller’s house and vehicle where they located 102 grams of Fentanyl.

Koller was arrested and charged with trafficking in 36 grams or more of Fentanyl, and trafficking in 100 grams or more of Fentanyl.

A 26-year-old New Bedford fentanyl trafficker who while out on bail committed another fentanyl-related crime last year was sentenced recently to serve three-and-a-half to five years in state prison, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.

Andre Daniels pleaded guilty in Fall River Superior Court to indictments charging him with trafficking in fentanyl, distribution of fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and unlawful possession of a firearm.

On March 11, 2021, New Bedford Police executed a search warrant at the defendant’s home on Court Street. The defendant was the target of the warrant. Police recovered four bags of fentanyl, which were tested by the lab and weighed at a total of 69.79 grams; two bags of cocaine, which were tested by the lab and weighed at a total of 11.98 grams. Police also located a Smith and Wesson M&P Shield .45 caliber firearm, loaded with seven rounds of .45 caliber ammunition; packaging materials, digital scales, cutting agent, diaper bags, $1,500 in cash and blenders with white powder residue.

The defendant was released on bail with GPS home confinement. While on release, the defendant, on April 23, 2021, sold a bag of fentanyl, weighing just over 10 grams, to an undercover Massachusetts State Police Trooper.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gillian Kirsch and the state prison sentence was imposed by Judge Thomas Perrino.

“The defendant was in possession of a firearm to facilitate his trafficking in fentanyl. While out on bail, he continued to sell drugs. This sentence is necessary to protect the public,” District Attorney Quinn said.

Michael P. Norton
State House News Service

Proposals dealing with an open container law for marijuana, expanding access to cannabis for veterans, and host community agreements are among the 23 amendments pending to a bill on the House agenda Wednesday.

House Democrats are poised to pass the bill, which aims to provide a way for cities and towns to authorize marijuana cafes, increase equity among the businesses in the growing sector, and add a layer of oversight to guard against unfair host community agreements.

The Senate has already approved its version of the bill, and Democratic legislative leaders appear serious this year about passing a version of the bill, which includes a number of the Cannabis Control Commission’s priorities. Full Text: H 4791 and 23 Amendments</strong>.