Gardner MA

Gardner MA Local News and Community Information

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• Mother’s Day 2025

  

  Happy Mother’s Day

  May 11, 2025

  Gardner Magazine Releases original “Mother’s Day” for May 11, 2025 – Mother’s Day 2025

  “What a joy to be loved so much, be embraced with my mother’s touch, entering the world with so much love, I was the miracle from God above.”

  Listen to any version on any device. CLICK PLAY.

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• Editorial – Blake

  

  

  Editorial: Blake on an Island of Few – Up to Old Tricks?

  This week Kimberly Blake announced she was running for Mayor instead of Gardner City Council. Weeks before, Blake arranged this Publisher’s re-admittance into the DeMeo Facebook Group. I’ve been posting a few things including a very positive post about the 4 years of perfect audits achieved by the Nicholson Financial Team. False Attacks began again, against me, against the Mayor, even against the State Representative, some using anonymous accounts. Of course I corrected the record and asked Blake via private Facebook message to honor her promise of not allowing false or personal attacks in that group. – Her response: “Comments like those should be made using the persons real name, not anonymous.” In other words, she would not honor her word, but did take down a few anonymous attacks. I spent many minutes on Saturday, May 3rd responding to the most salacious and ridiculous posts with facts, not attacks against anyone. This upset the liars and false mud slingers who reported me to Paul DeMeo.

  The Group did a Poll and almost Nobody Cared

  A self-serving poll was attempted in that group stating “With nearly 17k members in this group, I have to ask, who has your vote for mayor? Only 232 group members responded (almost all for Blake) but only 1.4% of the group even cared to respond in 18 hours. That means 98.6% of the group didn’t care during that time. In light of the goings on of last time, it is very clear, Blake’s candidacy is on an island of the very few. In my opinion, given Blake’s past actions, demeanor, and varied concerns on the part of many, it would be a sad day if that person was ever elected Mayor of Gardner. Why would you not rehire Michael Nicholson who by all objective data has done an excellent job since he took office in July 2020? UPDATE: 5-4-25 9:30PM – Interest rose slightly to 1.5% with 36 more participants.

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  In my opinion, DeMeo Threw a Fit

  In my opinion, Paul DeMeo was just not having it. People would be called out on false attacks and/or false statements. That just couldn’t be. He was losing the narrative. So, once again this Publisher was removed from that Facebook Group. For a brief time, he actually posted a poll “your vote will decide Werner Poegel’s fate.” When I had some fun and added an option for me to become an admin and some members voted for that, well that was it for the poll. The poll itself disappeared and so did me from the group. Some have commented to me that I was only made a member again so that Blake could use me for the vast platform Gardner Magazine has – my opinion agrees with that sentiment. What they didn’t count on is Gardner Magazine is about facts and you will always get the truth reported here. We only hope that other local media will not be manipulated to spread what in my opinion is often nonsense.

  Hope for a Positive Campaign

  Gardner Magazine is hoping that Blake will opt for a positive campaign without dirty tricks. However, should it be otherwise, we will call out any false statements in the event they occur. Maybe a song will dissuade bad behavior. So just for fun, we have an original song called “Dirty Tricks” available in 3 versions. Play on any device. CLICK PLAY.

  Facts matter…

• Solutions 5-2-25

  

  Trained in history, political science, and with a Doctorate in the Law, Gardner Mayor Nicholson has approached the job with a “to do list.” With the experience of actual daily employment with politicians of both parties, and the ability to juggle multiple roles to give visibility to Gardner (President of MA Mayors Assoc.), the Mayor faces challenges with a goal “to solve problems”. This interview explores just some of those challenges & solutions.

  Challenges and Solutions – Questions and Answers in an Interview with Gardner Mayor Michael Nicholson

  Some of the challenges included: Turning around the Economic Development Department – Plans for the School Street School – The Rome Building – Waterford Community Center – Board of Health and the staffing of Boards and Commissions – Antiquated City Ordinances – School Curriculum – Increasing Transparency to the public – Staffing DPW, Fire, and PD – Long-needed renovations and repairs to Municipal and School Buildings – Ever-changing Technology – the Sludge Landfill – Rising Costs – Veterans Support – City Charter Update – Holding the City to a Higher standard of sound fiscal management —– Listen to the interview on any device, CLICK PLAY.

  Page with complete text of interview with all questions and all answers, CLICK HERE.

  PDF Text of entire interview, CLICK HERE.

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• Audit 4

  

  Details of Federal and 3rd party AUDITS in the packet for the May 5th City Council meeting, CLICK HERE.

  They did it again! – 4 years running!

  
  In a communication to the Gardner City Council for the May 5th meeting, Mayor Michael Nicholson thanked his financial team of Auditor John Richard, Treasurer Jennifer Dymek, Purchasing Director Joshua Cormier, and Assessor Christine Kumar for their work throughout the year that has allowed the City to continue its trend of a clean financial audit with no findings or reports for the last few years.

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• Projects 5-2-25

  

  Projects May 2, 2025

  Rear Main Street

  (LEFT) – Rear Main Street – View shows construction has begun.

  Willow and Main

  (RIGHT) Willow and Main – With measures in place to protect the nearby property, the building was razed, debris was loaded in to a semi, and hauled away. It was a tidy mess.

  CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

  

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• 25 Main 5-2-25

  

  Awaited Transformer to “Jumpstart” stalled 25 Main Street Project

  The wait for a transformer had put certain aspects of the 25 Main Street project on hold. A relieved Jon Bombaci posted about the recent development in the long process “The transformer is finally here! Our 25 Main Street in Gardner project has been sitting in limbo—intentionally delayed because we didn’t have enough power to turn it on. After 18 months of radio silence and vague timelines, I got a call two weeks ago that the transformer was going in on 4/30. Honestly, I didn’t believe it… but here we are. Now it’s time to go full send and bring this project back to life. “

  

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• This Week 5-2-25

  

  A Jam-Packed with Gardner MA News – This Week in the Chair City for May 2, 2025

  Listen to “This Week in the Chair City” on any device, CLICK PLAY.

  News Items: Graduation – Gateway Fiber – Women’s Circle of Giving – Central Mass Dental – Anthony’s Liquor – Monty Python – Farmer’s Market – South Gardner Hotel – Yard Waste – Greenwood Pool – Board of Health – Power Outage – Levi Heywood Memorial Library – Election – Demos – Surgical Pavilion – Garbose Metal site – Election

  Events: Light the Town Purple – Farmer’s Market – Alyssa’s Place 10th Anniversary – Gardner Festival – GAAMHA Golf – Food Truck Festival

  Meetings in the Chair City including the City Council – packet for May 5th meeting click here. – and more meetings.

• Circulation 5-1-25

  

  Gardner Magazine Surpasses 25K in time for 25 years

  As of May 1, 2025 you will see the unique circulation posted on our home page has changed to 25,000+ due to 14 consistent months surpassing that figure. Daily circulation ranges from 3000 to 4800. Monthly pageviews are 300,000+. Monthly Downloads are 180,000+. We use 1.5 to 2 TB of bandwidth monthly to run Gardner Magazine.

  Gardner Magazine will officially be 25 years old on August 4, 2025.

  Thank you for your readership and your listenership. As always, email News@GardnerMagazine.com.

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• BOH April ’25

  

  The first 50 minutes of the meeting was a discussion regarding Private Well regulations. To listen to only the Board of Health Updates, listen on any device, CLICK PLAY.

  Gardner Board of Health Welcomes Member, Meets for an Hour

  New member Emma Chaitin (pictured far left) stated she has lived in Gardner for 4 years and works for Mass General Hospital. The City Council expanded the maximum number of members to 5 in December 2024. Chaitlin brings total to 4.

  The Board of Health undertook a review and the Board discussed the draft regulatons for private wells for the first 50 minutes of the meeting. Listen to the entire meeting on any device, CLICK PLAY.

  BOH rehired a former inspector who worked for the Department about 20 years ago and is coming back — Erosion control project is on hold “because we really never had concrete funding for that.” as far as the leachate pumps, “working with purchasing to get the bid process started”, As far as the ground water monitoring wells, they are on the schedule to be repaired May 13^th so that the wells can start to be sampled once again. BOH Consultant CEC will be there to make sure work is done according to requirements. CURRENT REGULATIONS, CLICK HERE for pdf. —- DRAFT REGULATIONS, CLICK HERE for pdf

  Later in the near future BOH will have new software which will help with inspections.

  Super 8 is winding down operations. However, there was an issue in Westminster with a lodging faciity there, so some additional families have had to be relocated to Gardner. Super 8 is expected to return to normal operations. BOH does not expect any issues.

  Next meeting of the BOH will be Monday, May 19^th.

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• Power 4-29-25

  

  Power Out Briefly in Several Towns in Greater Gardner MA – Cause a Mystery

  For some it was 5 minutes, others a few seconds, but the power went out in the Greater Gardner area including the City of Gardner, Templeton, and Westminster just after 8pm on April 29, 2025.

  As of this story, power was still out in the Phillipston – Royalston area to a few hundred customers. Gardner Dispatch told us power had gone out briefly in most of Gardner, but no cause was known.

  Gardner Magazine will provide more details when we have answers to the mystery.

  Update 4-30-25 11:45am: Templeton Municipal Light informed us that a problem with a High voltage line in Vermont was behind the issue, but there still is no explanation as to cause of that problem. Note that the line is over 100 years old and work is planned within the next year or so to replace a transmission line which goes from Vermont, through Gardner, to Leominster. You’ll see it referenced in meetings as the A1/B2 transmission line.

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