The Next Episode

Welcome back!

We have an exciting edition for you this week, and it’s being delivered on an all-new newsletter platform. (We’re just hoping this edition actually gets to you!)

There isn’t a ton of Town news to report given the holidays. Roads are opening and closing faster than pop-up shops in the TJ Maxx plaza, so all we could tell you is to either A) buy a canoe or B) build a raft or C) pay attention to the road signs. (We strongly recommend option C.) Whatever you choose, you’re better off following the Town’s official updates on the website here to get the absolute latest information. You can also follow the Sudbury Department of Public Works on Facebook here and the Sudbury Police Department here.

Here’s what we have for you this week:

1. Sudbury Weekly Adds News Website, Newsletter Updates

2. Six Major Positions on Town Election Ballot

3. Eversource Gets Extension From Conservation Commission

Let’s get into it!

Sudbury Weekly Adds News Website, Newsletter Updates

By Kevin LaHaise

Yesterday afternoon, www.SudburyWeekly.com became the home of a news site dedicated to covering all things Sudbury. The new publication has dedicated sections for News, Feature Stories, Sports, Events, and Obituaries. There is also an Opinion section for members of the Sudbury community to share their perspective on Sudbury-specific issues.

To get a running start, we’ve published articles from several weeks of the Sudbury Weekly Newsletter to the new site. We also included the larger feature stories from the past year.

Moving forward, the Sudbury Weekly Newsletter will continue to publish each Friday. It will include a digest of the top stories from the main site, newsletter-exclusive stories, as well as early delivery of stories that will publish to the main site at a later time. You can subscribe here. The original newsletter was published using a service called TinyLetter. That service is being shut down in early 2024, prompting a shift over to Beehiiv.

Here are key points for subscribers to know:

Subscription Cost:

• Subscriptions to the newsletter will remain free for all subscribers.

• The new site will also be free to all readers.

How to Subscribe to the Newsletter

• You can subscribe and/or manage your subscription any time by clicking the link in the footer at the bottom of the newsletter.

• You should keep an eye on your inbox for the next few Fridays to see if your email client sorts/filters the newsletter differently. The sender may look different because it is now being sent by Beehiiv.

• We recommend finding the first edition you receive via the new service and adding the “sender” email address to your Contacts.

• If you have any trouble, just reach out to [email protected]

Navigating the Sudbury Weekly Site

• Since a subscription is not required, you can visit the site anytime and have full access to all the stories.

• Our home page surfaces the latest news in chronological order, with one featured story at the top.

• If you click into the sections, you will see a chronological feed of stories within that section only. Not all sections publish all of their stories to the main feed on the home page, so it’s a good idea to peruse the sections from time to time.

• Newsletter subscription links can be found throughout the new site.

• Our About and Contact pages offer additional information and will be updated from time to time.

Where We Are Headed Next

The Sudbury Weekly Newsletter launched soon after the Sudbury Town Crier announced that it would no longer publish a print edition in early 2022, but the trend in local news predates that announcement by decades. Consumer preference, social media, and advertiser-dependent business models have all contributed to the decline of local news. Doom and gloom aside, there are signs of hope all around for local news, and for good reason.

Since launch, we learned a lot about what hyper-local news means to a community. What we learned was nothing nearly as dramatic as the Washington Post’s “Democracy dies in darkness” campaign. What we heard instead, was that truly local news helps people feel connected to their community. It’s a simple, but poignant insight. And it gives meaning and purpose to this entire endeavor.

We think of local news a little differently as a result of what we learned over the last two years. Rather than modeling Sudbury Weekly on failing business models, we just opted out of business models altogether. Instead, we think of hyper-local news as something a community can co-create.

Within a framework of carefully-designed editorial policies, which are all made available to readers on our About page, we think it’s possible to build a local news operation that is sustained by the community itself. The alternative is a combination of mortgaging the whole thing to giant companies that own both the digital distribution channels and the tools for monetization, and charging for subscriptions. That sounds like planned obsolescence more than anything else. Freeing Sudbury Weekly from the financial constraints of traditional local news opens up more doors than it closes and keeps us focused on our mission. That focus gives us a lot of optimism for the future.

So please visit our About page and look at the various opportunities that community members have to participate. If you are hosting an event and want to get the word out, we have an entire section dedicated to events. Just write up a blurb in email, attach an image, and submit it to us. If registration is opening for a youth sport league, we’d be happy to run an announcement in our dedicated Sports section. If you would like to notify the public about the passing of someone in the community, we will publish obituaries free of charge. If you aren’t sure if you have a relevant submission, we’re always happy to take a look.

One small ask: if you spot any bugs or errors on the new site, please drop us a note and let us know? We’re still tinkering with some of the settings and will continue to evolve the site ongoing. But we’re at that point where lots of fresh eyes on the site will help us take it the last mile.

Whether you contribute something, suggest a story idea, read every article, or just peruse the site occasionally, we’re happy you’re here. Our aspirations are simple: we hope to provide high-quality local news that is useful to you in your daily life.

Six Major Positions on Town Election Ballot

Submitted by the League of Women Voters of Sudbury

Voters will fill 17 town and school committee seats, including six major positions, in the annual town election Monday, March 25.

On the ballot will be two seats on the Select Board, and two seats each on the Sudbury Public School Committee and on the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Committee, all for 3-year terms.

The other open positions for the town election are: Moderator, one 3-year term; Board of Assessors, one 3-year term; Goodnow Library Trustees, two 3-year terms; Board of Health, one 3-year term; Park and Recreation Commission, two 3-year terms and one 1-year term to fill a vacancy; Planning Board, two 3-year terms; and Sudbury Housing Authority, one 5-year term.

Nominating papers and packets for the town offices and SPS committee will be available starting Thursday, Jan. 4, at the Town Clerk’s office. Nominating papers for the Lincoln-Sudbury school committee are available at the high school from the district clerk. The deadline to take out papers is Wednesday, Jan. 31. Candidates must return their completed papers on or before Friday, Feb. 2. Additional information is on the Town Clerk’s website.

Any registered voter in Sudbury has the right to run. Boards and committees do not choose who may run. Learn more about your right to run on the LWV website.

An LWV program on how to run for office is available on Sudbury TV here.

Eversource Gets Extension From Conservation Commission

By Kevin LaHaise

On December 18, the Sudbury Conservation Commission voted unanimously to extend the order of conditions for the Eversource Transmission Line Project and Mass Central Rail Trail for one year.

The order of conditions on the combined projects was quite robust, and so far the Town of Sudbury has reported that Eversource has been in compliance.

Residents can review the order of conditions here. Weekly environmental compliance packages are available on the Conservation Commission's page here. Construction updates are available on the Town's project page here.

During the meeting, the discussion was concise, but Sudbury's Conservation Coordinator, Lori Capone, provided some helpful updates on the project including:

• Most of the Eversource infrastructure is already in the ground.

• Eversource needs more time to do plantings and other mitigations.

• The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is lined up to come in for paving and finish work on the Mass Central Rail Trail after Eversource is done, but they are expected to need another extension to complete their portion of the work.

• Capone expects DCR to ask for an additional year extension at a later date.

Mere months ago it was less clear which rail trail would be finished first in Sudbury. Today, it seems certain that the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (BFRT) will open before the Mass Central Rail Trail (MCRT). But the next phase of the BFRT, which takes it from the intersection with the MCRT near Union Ave and Station Road all the way to Framingham, is currently in the early design phases. That sets Sudbury up for a series of trail section openings in the coming years. The trails remain active construction sites right now, and public use has been discouraged by Town officials in Sudbury.

Parting Thoughts

Next week looks to be a fairly quiet start to the new year. There are a few committee meetings, the most noteworthy being the Community Preservation Committee. We’ll have a full report on the project applications the Committee has been reviewing next week. They’ll spend time in January putting together warrant articles. Which reminds me…

Next week we begin the countdown to the January 31 deadline for warrant articles. Soon thereafter we’ll know what’s coming at the Annual Town Meeting in May 2024.

But that’s not all that’s happening in January. As the League of Women Voters reported, candidates for the Annual Town Election in March can begin pulling papers next Thursday, January 4.

2024 is, of course, a Presidential election year. Naturally, that means everyone is going to be in a super good mood for the whole year, and social media is going to be a great place to spend our collective time.

Yes, 2024 is likely going to be an interesting year. But Sudbury Weekly is very grateful at this particular moment that we don’t have to cover the ins and outs of national politics. We’ll stay fully focused on Sudbury news, thank you very much!

And you know what? If we learned anything about this town in the last year, it’s that there’s plenty of interesting news to cover right here in Sudbury. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

Onward!