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Your community. Your news. Your paper. Vol. 50 | No. 46 | November 15, 2024
Shrewsbury · Westborough · Northborough · Southborough · Marlborough · Hudson · Grafton
MBTA zoning, DPW facilities to go before Town Meeting
Frank Brown: WWII veteran, business owner, unlikely artist
By Evan Walsh Reporter
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SHREWSBURY – MBTA zoning, local government reform, and Department of Public Works facility upgrades are set to be discussed on Nov. 18, when Shrewsbury’s elected body of 240 representatives will gather at Oak Middle School for a Special Town Meeting. The Select Board signed the warrant on Oct. 22, and the Finance Committee voted on Nov. 7. Here’s an overview of some of the night’s biggest topics. Article 6 would appropriate around $2 million to fund the design of a proposed renovation of the town’s 207-211 South St. DPW facilities. In April, the
The Ground Round will return to Shrewsbury
shrewsbury | 6 Three Habitat for Humanity duplexes proposed for Boundary St.
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Library repair project currently estimated at $13.6 million
Northborough resident Frank Brown sits at Dunkin’. (Photo/Evan Walsh)
By Maureen Sullivan Assistant Editor
By Evan Walsh Reporter
WESTBOROUGH – The Westborough Public Library repair project is currently estimated to cost $13.6 million — a reduction of the amount presented earlier this year. Director Kate Coraccio made her first appearance at Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 21. She was there with Bob Petrocelli, vice chair of the Library Building Committee, to present an update on the library repair project. They said that design development goals were “on target,” with final cost estimates to be ready before year’s end. Bids are expected to be announced
NORTHBOROUGH – Frank Brown grew up in a small town in Vermont 10 miles from Montpelier. The son of a wood-chopper, Brown was educated in a one-room schoolhouse. He went to high school for all of two weeks before he’d had enough. At 15, he came by train to Worcester to live with his mother. His love of movies made the decision to move easy — there were few theaters in the wilderness of Vermont — but he was motivated by something deeper. World War II was raging, and 17-year-old Brown decided to join the U.S. Navy — he wanted to see more of the world. “I never saw anything but Vermont,” Brown told the Community Advocate at
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Dunkin’, where he eats every morning. “I never saw the ocean and I couldn’t swim, either. My brother joined the Navy, so I figured that was a good place, so I went into it. I didn’t know anything at the time.” He imagined traveling the world and sailing the high seas on a brand-new warship. But Brown’s far-flung dreams of exploration were squashed when, after finishing bootcamp, he was ordered to a tugboat in Boston. The in-state assignment wasn’t exactly the adventure he envisioned. However, Brown’s ironic twist of fate would foreshadow what the rest of his life would look like. Through sheer happenstance and several strange coincidences, Brown entered the television industry, started an iconic Northborough busiFrank Brown | 11
A fourwheeled history of World War II
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