Category: Opinions and Analysis
-
What Middleborough’s tax-break filings didn’t mention: thousands of gallons of fuel
Read More →: What Middleborough’s tax-break filings didn’t mention: thousands of gallons of fuelThe Select Board’s Monday agenda also may bring a sobering financial-conditions update tied to the FY2025 audit By John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — It has not been a quiet summer at…
-
BREAKING: Republican Attorney General Candidate Michael Walsh Joins The GOAT Podcast
Read More →: BREAKING: Republican Attorney General Candidate Michael Walsh Joins The GOAT PodcastLynnfield attorney says the state’s top law enforcement office has drifted from its constitutional role By John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — Republican candidate for Massachusetts attorney general Michael Walsh sat down…
-
Bridgewater rated its town manager 4.4 out of 5. Then the Inspector General’s letter arrived.
Read More →: Bridgewater rated its town manager 4.4 out of 5. Then the Inspector General’s letter arrived.Every recorded council vote on business Justin Casanova-Davis introduced has been unanimous. Now the council has broken its own meeting calendar twice, hired outside counsel, and told residents nothing. By…
-
School Committee returns Thursday with a vacant seat, a closed-door contract session, and a superintendent search still ahead
Read More →: School Committee returns Thursday with a vacant seat, a closed-door contract session, and a superintendent search still aheadBy John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — The School Committee opens its Thursday meeting behind closed doors, and reopens it to a full plate: an empty seat at its own table, the…
-
Middleborough Planning Board Advances Battery Storage Bylaw, Bracing for a Fight With the State
Read More →: Middleborough Planning Board Advances Battery Storage Bylaw, Bracing for a Fight With the StateBoard would confine new energy systems to a single 150-acre district, an approach the attorney general has struck down elsewhere; separately, REXA’s occupancy permit stalls over missing bollards By John…
-
The audit will say Middleborough’s controls failed. The missing paperwork said it first.
Read More →: The audit will say Middleborough’s controls failed. The missing paperwork said it first.It began in 2024 with eighteen months of capital planning minutes that weren’t there. It ends with a town rolling over its debt while auditors trace revenue errors by hand.…
-
Middleborough’s FY25 audit won’t be done in time for bond rating call, interim manager warns
Read More →: Middleborough’s FY25 audit won’t be done in time for bond rating call, interim manager warnsAuditors say the finished report will identify material weaknesses; financial advisers recommend rolling over short-term debt as state deadlines for free cash and the tax rate close in By John…
-
COMMENTARY
Read More →: COMMENTARY“Point of order.” Then: show us the whole list. The objection produced a motion, the motion reached the Select Board, and Middleborough learned its town manager search had been narrowed…
-
The Grove Street Standard
Read More →: The Grove Street StandardA Middleborough shop the Fire Department trusts with the equipment that shows up when it matters By John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — There is a particular sound a diesel shop makes…
-
Carver Planning Board digs in against state solar mandate — even as it waits it out
Read More →: Carver Planning Board digs in against state solar mandate — even as it waits it outMembers approved a subdivision, a warehouse expansion, and rejected buying landlocked woods, but the real fight was over Beacon Hill telling them how to run their own board By John…
-
100 Days In: Middleborough Select Board Chair Teresa Farley Backs a Forensic Audit — ‘One Hundred Percent’
Read More →: 100 Days In: Middleborough Select Board Chair Teresa Farley Backs a Forensic Audit — ‘One Hundred Percent’By John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — When Teresa Kelly Farley took over as chair of the Select Board this spring, she inherited a town still reeling from the discovery of a…
-
125 Jobs Planned, Zero Guaranteed — and REXA Isn’t Answering Questions About It
Read More →: 125 Jobs Planned, Zero Guaranteed — and REXA Isn’t Answering Questions About ItBy John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — A stretch of West Grove Street is becoming home to one of the more significant private investments in the town’s recent history: a $33 million,…
-
Getting to Know Dr. David Thomson, Middleborough’s New Interim Superintendent
Read More →: Getting to Know Dr. David Thomson, Middleborough’s New Interim SuperintendentBy John Barrella MIDDLEBOROUGH — When the School Committee voted unanimously this summer to bring in Dr. David L. Thomson as interim superintendent, they weren’t hiring a stranger to the…
-
Who’s Checking the Wetsuits? A Casual Question at Middleborough’s Surf Park Hearing Exposes a Regulatory Blind Spot
Read More →: Who’s Checking the Wetsuits? A Casual Question at Middleborough’s Surf Park Hearing Exposes a Regulatory Blind SpotBy John Barrella August 7, 2026 MIDDLEBOROUGH — It came up almost as an aside. Nearly an hour and thirteen minutes into the Zoning Board of Appeals’ July 23 hearing…
Latest Updates
-
Bridgewater rated its town manager 4.4 out of 5. Then the Inspector General’s letter arrived.
Every recorded council vote on business Justin Casanova-Davis introduced has been unanimous. Now the council has broken its own…
-
Middleborough Planning Board Advances Battery Storage Bylaw, Bracing for a Fight With the State
Board would confine new energy systems to a single 150-acre district, an approach the attorney general has struck down…
-
COMMENTARY
“Point of order.” Then: show us the whole list. The objection produced a motion, the motion reached the Select…
Middleborough’s neighborhood newsroom
Get the Daily Newsletter
Independent local reporting, clear facts, and the stories your neighbors are talking about.