My house/intersection is a high traffic bus stop; I’m bagging my leaves and bringing them to dropoff

This is incorrect in many ways. I am sorry. Not trying to be rude. I speak from direct knowledge and experience. None of them have EVER worked a "well over" 40-hour week as a councilor. This is not true. Maybe Janice Nadeau did, (district councilor prior to Sarai Rivera and Barbara Haller) but she was retired. Maybe Thu Nyguen puts in a lot of hours, seems like that would be the case.

Most of the current councilors have full-time jobs. Khrystian King is a social worker for DCF. Sean Rose runs a nonprofit for kids with needs in Marlborough. Petty works for one of the state employee union pension funds out of Boston. Etel works for Central Mass Housing Alliance. Etc. etc etc. These folks are not working 45+ hours a week on their council jobs. I can assure you that. It doesn't take that long anyway unless you really want to put in the hours just for the sake of it.

Bottom line it can be a 15 hour a week gig at most and maybe a little more if they need to hit a few extra ribbon cuttings and rubber chicken dinners to get more campaign contributions so they can run again next time.

The council USED to be a low-paying gig at about $15K, but now it pays nearly $35,000. Plus they and their family get on the city's health plan if they want or need it (ever notice how many lawyers with their own shingle run for council? They need the health coverage). It's a gold-plated plan last I knew.

Also:

People on the council accrue time according to the amazing state law that allows public employees to get 80 percent of their best-earning three years as a fixed pension. You need at least 20 years of "public service" to get a good pension, so what you see is many people starting out on part-time public boards, maybe get on the council if they can, and then shoot for a department head job or anything that pays decently to get those 'best three years' in. Boom, nice pension that pays out alongside whatever 401K and such they developed on their own through their regular job. It's a good system for those who can work it. Like Ray Mariano did, to name just one.

MAYBE some councilors run for the purest reasons. But for most it's a hybrid of wanting power and influence, along with potential for financial reward over time.

I'm not going to even talk about your bribe allegations. Lol. Worcester is a lot of things but it's not Tammany Hall.

I’ve had the same issue. What worked for me was spraying the attic with peppermint essential oil and throwing a bunch of dryer sheets around. It worked for about 6 months, I’m actually due to do that again now since they’re back

I think it’s the same with ppl putting their recycling in plastic bags. One person does it, so others do..unaware the first person was in the wrong and their stuff doesn’t get picked up.

I had one in my attic. I covered the place with dryer sheets. It was gone in a day. Maybe I got lucky but I’ve done this w boats and campers. Keeps all kinds of rodents away. Maybe you get lucky and the $4 solution works while you look for pros

If you're going to Marlborough, go to Lalo's instead.

Very valid. I'm going to do a deeper dive this weekend before committing to a service.
Being a new home, I'm not 100% against them checking every nook and cranny for entry points. If it's glaringly obvious, I'll certainly do myself.

Yeah, super annoying. My sister had to park over a small pile of leaves and unbeknownst to her, there was a small brown bag filled with leaves hidden in the pile. The air smelled like a nice fall fire until the car caught fire on the way to my bday dinner. Luckily we all got out right before the whole car was engulfed.

I do love din sum as well, miss Windsor din sum house when I lived in Quincy

Well you could go to Cabellas and get a cage/trap and do it yourself for less than $50

It won't believe me. I'm part of a different town's cable committee and despite wanting to bring up internet, the contract is about nothing but cable TV.

This is our town's last agreement - https://www.mass.gov/doc/douglas-charter-1113/download Nothing but cable.

I also find it hilarious that people think the people were bribed or something. It's a forced marriage. It's going to be Charter/Spectrum until the company gets bought out by Comcast or some other company thinking otherwise is just foolish thanks to the collusion of these companies.

Based on the other current thread sounds like Worcester could use a Dim Sum place 🤷‍♀️

Same

I'll give them a try. Thank you.

Looking on their site, it seems like monthly rodent control which hopefully isn't the only option. Ty.

Really good to know. Thank you.

I'm really only interested in better internet too, though it would be good to have access to local network tv stations that are too far to pick up via antenna.

I checked their website and they make it seem like the "TV Select" plan is the only option ($59.99/month for 125+ channels). I chatted with customer service and there is one other option - Streaming TV Choice, which requires an app (no cable box) and still costs $44.99/month for local channels plus 15 others that you can choose.

Xfinity (in other areas) has a Limited Basic plan with just local channels and a few other random channels for $30/month. Spectrum should have something similar.

The real reason is its so low on the priority list unfortunately. It drives me nuts too, a guy up the street from me pushed his out into the street and the edge of the curb this past weekend even though we are literally the very last week of the collections.

I've used the bug bully for all critters in my attic and basement

We called Ford's when we had squirrels nesting in our soffit, which turned out to be kind of useless. They trapped 2 in humane traps, but didn't do anything about remediating the issue of how they got in in the 1st place. I ended up having to patch the soffit myself, so it was a semi-expensive move of 2 squirrels

We used Colonial when we bought our house. They had to do roach, flea, and carpenter ant treatments. That was almost a decade ago and no problems since. They do rodents as well, but I can't speak to those services specifically.

Because they have a million other things to worry about. If they're busy going up and down streets handing out civil citations, how are they going to keep up with all of that evidence that needs to be concealed or fabricated?

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The car coming in the opposite direction IS the speed bump.

I ordered an old fashioned there, and the bartender had no idea how to make one and failed massively