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May 19, 2010 - 3:26pm

A Powerful Message About Teen Drinking

by Dave Atkins

Last week, Westwood resident Virginia Lester met with students at Westwood High School to tell the story of her son Albert's tragic death by teenage drunk drivers. Westwood Community Access Television (WestCAT) and the High School worked together to record the presentation which will eventually be telecast on cable TV when WestCAT has obtained control of local origination programming. For now, check out the video, embedded here from the WestCAT website:

To watch the video above, you may need to click the play arrow, then pause it, then play again to get it started.

January 27, 2010 - 6:00am

Fixing a Zoning Glitch

by Dave Atkins

Two petitioner articles will be included at town meeting to deal with the unforeseen complication that resulted when it was discovered that Lambert's Market is in a residentially-zoned neighborhood. Part of the great compromise of 2008--to allow a future Wegmans in Westwood Station to obtain a beer and wine license--was to grant additional licenses so that Roche Brothers and potentially Lambert's and High Street Market could also apply for licenses someday. Only problem is Lamberts, being in an "Single Residence A" district, cannot actually get a license...because...well...MOST communities don't plan for liquor stores being THAT integrated into the community.

If you don't believe me about the zoning, check out the town zoning map. That's right, the little strip mall on Route 1 containing the dollar store, Jade Chinese restaurant, and The Dog House, is all zoned dark green residential, although Google maps indicates the area being "O'Toole."

If anyone has more specific information, feel free to post it here or send it to me. I don't have the text of the articles--my information on this is just from talking to several people familiar with the process.

September 24, 2008 - 10:35pm

Alcohol Problems at High School Football Games

by Dave Atkins

Today's Boston Globe reminds us of the reality of underage drinking, regardless of whether Westwood is "dry" or not. According to the Globe, several students at last Friday's high school football game were intoxicated, prompting principal Emily Parks to send a letter to parents today describing measures the school will take to stop underage drinking at games: disciplining two students and adopting new game-day policies banning outside beverages and ordering all students to enter through one gate.

November 30, 2007 - 8:50pm

Be a parent, not a pal...

by Dave Atkins

This Monday, Westwood Cares will host this provocatively titled forum about teen drinking and parental liability. There is at least a perception that some parents feel it is better to host and supervise their teenagers' weekend parties (with alcohol) than to leave them to their own devices.

I don't think anyone believes the issue of teen drinking is new--don't we all remember  high school? Maybe not clearly. But I can't imagine what it would have been like to drink in front of my parents' friends...it kind of takes away the rebelliousness of it all. We'd have found something else to do when the parents were gone.

Westwood Cares has put together a helpful resource booklet that can answer a lot of questions parents might be embarassed to admit they need to ask. And this forum should be a great opportunity to talk about what is really going on--not just react to media stories and sensationalized extreme cases.

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