Bridge deck repairs on Mass Pike to begin Monday, July 23
Becket — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced Friday that a work zone will be set up on the Massachusetts Turnpike/I-90 westbound bridge deck in Becket at mile marker 17.4 starting Monday, July 23, and continuing on select weekdays for approximately the next month. Travel will be maintained on I-90 westbound at all times, however, there will be a restriction on wide-load vehicles.
The bridge carries I-90 westbound traffic over Route 20. MassDOT crews will be doing scheduled maintenance in the center lane of the bridge between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. daily on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for the next several weeks.
Message boards are currently in place to announce the wide-load restriction and provide information on the alternate routes that are temporarily being permitted for these vehicles. The schedule for this work is weather dependent and subject to change without notice.
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Municipal police training fund legislation heads to governor
Boston — Sen. Adam G. Hinds, D-Pittsfield, has announced that H.4516, “An Act relative to the municipal police training fund,” was enacted Wednesday by the state House of Representatives and Senate on to create a dedicated revenue source for the Commonwealth’s Municipal Police Training Committee. The bill has been forwarded to Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk for his review and consideration.
The MPTC is responsible for the development, delivery, and enforcement of training standards of municipal, University of Massachusetts, and environmental police officers serving the Commonwealth.
This is the third time the Massachusetts Senate has attempted to create a dedicated funding stream for this critical public safety need during the 2017-2018 legislative session. This matter was passed twice earlier by the Senate, both as an amendment to a Senate fiscal year 2018 supplemental budget bill and the Senate’s FY19 budget. Hinds was a co-sponsor of those amendments, which were introduced by Senator Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and unanimously passed by the Senate each time they were offered.
H.4516 calls for up to $10 million in annual revenue for police officer training that will be provided by adding a $2 fee per rental car transaction in the Commonwealth. The legislation also allows for three other additional sources of revenue to be used for the fund: money from the Marijuana Regulation Fund; legislative appropriations designated to the municipal police training fund; and revenue from private sources such as grants, gifts and donations.
The dedicated funding stream will allow the MPTC to maintain critical services and expand training, including:
- First aid/CPR in-service training;
- First-line supervision training;
- Field training;
- Sexual assault investigator training;
- First-line supervision leadership training;
- School Resource Officer training;
- Instructor trainer courses including firearms, defensive tactics, first aid/CPR and health and wellness; and
- Fair and impartial policing, procedural justice and implicit bias training
This funding, when fully implemented, will allow the MPTC to administer ample resources to effectively reduce or altogether eliminate the costs municipalities currently incur for recruit training.
This legislation will fund an implicit bias training mandate that Hinds helped secure in the criminal justice reform package signed into law in April, which directs the MPTC to establish and implement an in-person unconscious or implicit bias training program for municipal, metropolitan and state police, as well as bias-free policing techniques. Developed in consultation with the NAACP – Berkshire County Branch, Hinds’ original amendment was filed with the purpose of ensuring that law enforcement officers do not make policing decisions on the basis of stereotyping.
The Senate debated criminal justice reform in October 2017; the House debate followed in November. During the House debate, Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli, D-Lenox, sponsored a similar implicit bias training mandate amendment that was adopted by the House.
The governor has 10 days to review and act on the bill.