In the News

BILLERICA — The massive crane swoops down and grabs the final steel beam covered in signatures — along with an American flag and Christmas tree attached to its top. Officials grin from ear to ear, looking up at another milestone for the $176 million high-school project.

Residents, students, officials and construction workers gathered for the topping off ceremony of the new Billerica Memorial High School on Wednesday. The school, located on the existing site, is set to open in 2019.

Sen. Cindy Friedman, of Arlington, was the late Sen. Ken Donnelly’s chief of staff when they worked to secure funding for this project. She said the new school will provide students with the most up-to-date technology, preparing them for higher education and the workforce. “We must continue to give our students all the support they need to excel, and I know that Billerica is committed to doing this,” Friedman said.

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BILLERICA — Officials pitched it as a “temporary” home for pre-trial detainees. It was the fall of 2012, and officials were announcing a $37 million plan to expand the Middlesex House of Correction in Billerica to house those prisoners from the Cambridge Jail. They continued to stress, however, that the relocation of detainees would only be temporary while officials looked for a 5-acre site to build the Southern Middlesex Justice Center.

Last year, the late Sen. Ken Donnelly and Rep. Marc Lombardo sponsored a resolve to establish a commission to investigate sites for the jail.

Like Lombardo, Sen. Cindy Friedman — who succeeded Donnelly, and was his chief of staff — supports housing detainees at a new site in southern Middlesex County. The state needs to fulfill this commitment, she emphasized. “I’m very much supportive of the project, and would like to see it move forward,” Friedman said.

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BOSTON — As allegations of misogyny and sexual harassment swirl both inside and outside of the Statehouse, local female lawmakers areas said leaders on Beacon Hill should take tough and swift action against harassers on a zero-tolerance basis.

“I think it’s something that women face everywhere, no matter what the situation is, what the field is,’ said state Sen. Cindy Friedman, whose district includes Billerica and Burlington. “It’s pretty rampant as we can see, as we’ve learned — all the stories have come out in different fields.”

“I really believe that if you want to stop certain behaviors from happening, it needs to come from the top,’ Friedman said, ‘and people who are in a position of power need to understand that if they engage in this kind of behavior that there’s consequences, and they will be strong and they will be swift.”

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The close, mutually beneficial partnership between business, industry and Minuteman High School was highlighted at Minuteman’s ninth annual Program Advisory Committee Appreciation Dinner on Oct. 25.

State Sen. Cindy Friedman, who represents the 4th Middlesex District and is a member of several legislative committees including the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, lauded that vital partnership in her remarks to the gathering.

“The connection between industry, workforce development and vocational high schools is critical,” she said.

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Veterans gathered at Billerica Town Hall on Nov. 16 for a forum designed to educate them on the benefits available to them in the community. State Rep. Marc Lombardo hosted the forum, inviting speakers to present information to local veterans.

Speakers at the forum included: Acting Director of Bedford VA Hospital Ed Koetting; Lowell Social Security Office representative Marilenin Vasquez; Assistant Director U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Benefits Office Ena Lima; Military War Records Michael Perna; Billerica Town Assessor Rich Scanlon, Billerica Veterans Agent Ken Buffum,; and Department of Veteran Services Secretary Francisco Urena.

State Senator Cindy Friedman said the legislature needs to make sure veterans have benefits available to them when they return home.

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Senator Cindy Friedman took part in an interview with Invested, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s new community development magazine, to discuss Senate Bill 1000, An Act establishing fair scheduling practices for employees in the Commonwealth.

“The bill addresses the issue of constantly changing work shift schedules,” said Senator Friedman. “The purpose of the bill is to create predictable schedules for workers. This has become an issue particularly in big-box stores and fast-food restaurants because of the availability of software that tracks moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and week-to-week sales and trends and allows an employer to change a shift schedule in a minute. We’ve worked on two different versions of the bill. The first version more broadly addressed all of the issues that come up because of just-in-time and on-call scheduling. The most recent version hones in on on-call scheduling and treats being on call the same as being physically present. The language that we filed this year basically says that if you’re on call, you get paid, because you can’t do anything else during the time you’re on call—you’re working. It’s only fair.”

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For the second time in six months, the Massachusetts State Senate has approved a proposal that would grant Mass Retirees direct representation on the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC).

The proposal was filed by our Association as an amendment to S2202, An Act furthering health empowerment and affordability, which aims to gain control over rising healthcare costs. Joining Mass Retirees in backing the amendment was each of the state’s public employee unions and the Mass. AFL-CIO.

Senators Michael Brady and Cindy Friedman took the lead as the main sponsors of Amendment #87. They were joined by nine Senate colleagues as cosponsors: Feeney, Cyr, McGee, Boncore, Timilty, Gobi, Eldridge, O’Connor and Montigny.

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The state Senate approved at the stroke of midnight Thursday, Nov. 9, a wide-ranging bill that seeks to control the rising costs of medical care and prescription drugs, including a controversial plan that would fine hospitals if spending rises too fast.

Sen. Cindy Friedman joined the majority in the 33-6 vote. The Arlington Democrat said she is pleased that the bill’s final version included several of her amendments related to improving access to treatment for mental health and substance-use disorders.

“This robust legislation takes necessary steps to contain health-care costs for everyone while continuing to deliver quality care and access to services,” she said in a Nov. 10 news release. “Going forward, we have to continue to work together to level the playing field and look for ways to ensure that someone with an acute behavioral health condition has the same access to health-care coverage as an individual with medical and surgical needs.”

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State Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, will speak at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 13 at Temple Shalom Emeth, 16 Lexington St., Burlington.

She will speak at the meeting of L’Chaim, a new social group established by the temple. “Soup and Salad with Cindy” begins at 12:30 p.m. in the social hall. The new temple group, L’Chaim, was established a few months ago for retirees to get together for social and educational conversation. Members hope the monthly meetings will help build a community-center environment and encourage more participation in temple life.

Temple Shalom Emeth serves local communities including Burlington, Bedford, Billerica, Lexington, Reading, Wilmington and Woburn. Its rabbi, Susan Abramson, is the longest serving female rabbi in Massachusetts.

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The Lexington Board of Selectmen, School Committee and Planning Board met with Lexington’s State House delegation at a joint meeting Monday, Nov. 8. state Sen. Cindy Friedman, state Sen. Michael Barrett and state Rep. Jay Kaufman shared their views on State House priorities. The trio also fielded questions from the Lexington officials on hand, in a wide-ranging discussion that aimed to square up local, state—and at times, national—issues.

At the outset, each of the state legislators updated those on hand about the Beacon Hill happenings that were at the forefront of their minds.

Selectmen, School Committee members and Planning Board members then had the chance to ask questions from a predetermined list of 12 legislative topics of interest (plus three additions provided on-site by School Committee members).

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