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Boston's Morning Newsletter
The government shutdown is over, but thousands in Mass. are still waiting on heat assistance
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It's Monday. A quick reminder that the partial Red Line closure between North Quincy and Braintree continues this week through Sunday, Nov. 23. The MBTA is urging riders to instead take the commuter rail's Fall River/New Bedford, Kingston or Greenbush lines — which will be free between Boston and Braintree. There are also free shuttle buses stopping at each closed station, but the T says commuters should expect a trip downtown to take "at least" an extra 35 minutes if they use the buses.
Now, let's get to the news:
The shutdown's lingering LIHEAP effect: Temperatures are expected to drop just below freezing overnight this week in Boston. However, as WBUR's Amy Sokolow reports, nearly 160,000 Massachusetts households that rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to heat their homes are still waiting for benefits in the wake of the government shutdown. Sharon Scott-Chandler, the president of Action for Boston Community Development, which is one of the nonprofits that administers LIHEAP in Massachusetts, said the delay could force people into difficult decisions.
- Catch up: LIHEAP funds are usually distributed to states in October, before benefits kick in on Nov. 1. As WBUR's Miriam Wasser recently reported, the 43-day shutdown pushed back the timeline for that process. While the government reopened last week, it could still take several weeks before states get the money.
- What's missing: Massachusetts LIHEAP recipients typically get a few hundred to just over a thousand dollars a year to heat their homes for the winter months, according to Scott-Chandler. Last winter, Massachusetts got a total of $144 million for LIHEAP, which partially or fully covered the heating costs for 159,000 homes in the state. Of those households, more than half of the recipients were senior citizens, and 10% had a child under the age of 5.
- What now? Utility companies in Massachusetts can't shut off electric or gas heat during the winter, but that rule doesn't extend to people who heat their homes with fuel (about 27% of households). Scott-Chandler says ABCD is using leftover money from last year's allotment to help locals who are running out of oil or propane as temperatures dip. But she fears people may forgo necessities like food or put off other bills in order to pay for heat. "You know, rent can go unpaid. It can be a true devastation to households because they're already struggling and juggling," Scott-Chandler told Amy.
Recreation to energy creation: Voters in Falmouth will decide at a town meeting tonight whether a nearly 100-year-old golf course should be converted into a 57-acre solar facility. According to the Boston Business Journal, owners of the Cape Cod Country Club golf course began to look for new ways to use the land back in 2019. They narrowed the options down to housing or solar development, and eventually settled on building a solar facility, despite the Cape's housing shortage.
- What's changing: If voters allow the development to move forward, solar panels would be planted in three clusters across the property, hidden from passersby with shrubs and trees. Denver-based PureSky Energy, the company behind the development, has also promised to establish a walking trail network along the course's perimeter and maintain a popular sledding hill on the golf course for locals to use. The Boston Business Journal has before and after renderings here.
Up in the air: There are no cancellations — and just 11 delays — at Logan Airport this morning, according to the website FlightAware. That's a stark change from last week, when hundreds of flights in and out of Boston were canceled due to the FAA's air traffic restrictions at 40 airports in the wake of the government shutdown. The FAA announced last night that it was lifting the restrictions this morning at 6 a.m.
- Also at Logan: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem dropped by the Boston airport on Saturday to hand out $10,000 bonuses to "select" TSA workers who worked without pay during the government shutdown. According to DHS, over 270 TSA workers had perfect attendance during the shutdown.
P.S.— Even if flights at Logan are running smoothly, it may be a little tricky getting to the airport and East Boston in the wee hours this week. The Callahan Tunnel will be closed between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night Monday through Wednesday, due to work on the North End's Richmond Street Bridge. Drivers coming from I-93 southbound will be detoured through Financial District and Seaport. MassDOT is urging drivers to use caution as they drive through the affected area.
