Autumn in the North Cemetery.

Sixty miles west of Boston, Massachusetts there is the small New England town of Sturbridge. Located at the junction of I-90 (The Mass Pike), and I-84 it has become known as the "Crossroads of New England". The town was first settled over 300 years ago, and like other small New England towns it has grown just enough over the years to be in a difficult place today. How do we embrace the future without forgetting how we got to our present? How do we attract the right kind of growth, and maintain who we are? And, what about our culture out here in Central Massachusetts?



These pages will cause one to think about how to protect what we have, our future direction, and how to move on in the very best way.


Those thoughts, and other ramblings, will hopefully inspire more thought, conversation, action, and occasionally a smile...

...seems to be working so far

Saturday, January 23, 2010

No, No You Can't Take That Away From Me...



It's the little things in life that can mean a lot.

I was on the new Massachusetts Department of Transportation website a few weeks back. I was checking out the new web cams the DOT put up at different traffic trouble spots in the state, and I naturally went to the map, and looked for Sturbridge.

What can I say? It was a slow day.

Well, Sturbridge wasn't listed as having a web cam, but Charlton was. Yep, right there in the middle of I-84, smack dab atop the toll booths at the Pike was a web cam icon with the label, " Interchange 9, I-84 and I-90, Charlton, MA".

Say what?

"Charlton"?

When did we loose some of our eastern border to Charlton?

I know Exit 9 on the Pike is infamous for traffic backups, but they are our backups. Our exit, not Charltons.

So, I wrote to the MassDOT and asked them what was up with Exit 9 becoming Charltons. Below is the reply I received.


Dear Mr. Hersee:

You are correct, camera #207 is in Sturbridge. We will have the website corrected. Thank you for taking the time to let us know.

Michelle Maffeo

Statewide Operations Engineer



Sweet. That infamous exit is once again ours.

Thank you, Michelle, as you can see, we are a possessive lot out here at Exit 9.











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