Reporter’s Notebook: ‘Cheryl Tiegs, eat your heart out!’
Back when I was in middle school, if someone complimented my appearance — a very rare occasion, because I was that classic trope of the girl who no one noticed until she removed her glasses — I would say, as a child of the ‘80s, “Cheryl Tiegs, eat your heart out!”
Since social media didn’t exist at the time, the supermodel did not demand an apology. The Grafton Public Library had the same energy when it announced on Facebook that it was becoming popular as a middle school hangout and suggested — oh, let’s just go to my Twitter feed.
Seriously? Who knew Dunkin’ suffered from such low self-esteem that it requires a public apology for a light-hearted library comment?
Hey, Cheryl Tiegs, are we good?
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While the town once again tries to decide whether or not the Town Clerk should be appointed or elected due to an oops at fall Town Meeting, Town Clerk Kandy LaVallee is once again doing the work of the throughly modern clerk.
After all, when the framers of the original Grafton town charter were outlining her position, they probably never even dreamed that the town needed a plan for disaster striking on Election Day, or an extended voting period where electioneering at the Municipal Center could affect the polls.
LaVallee will come before the Select Board Tuesday night to discuss both issues. Electioneering is easy enough — make sure no one is holding signs or distributing material within 150 feet of the Municipal Center. Protecting the ballots — and the voters and election workers — is a bit more complicated.
In the event of a situation which renders the use of the Grafton Middle School and Millbury Street
Elementary School inaccessible to members of the public, or which renders such polling place unsafe, it
is the standard procedure for the affected polling place to be moved to another operating polling place.
The optimal situation would move the polling place to the nearest location. The intended relocation site
is the Town Hall Gymnasium at 30 Providence Road, Grafton, MA 01519.
Such a removal shall be implemented when, upon the advice of the police, fire and/or facilities and
utilities personnel, the situation cannot be remedied within 60 minutes or is of uncertain duration.
Temporary situations of shorter duration can be managed on site by the warden and election workers
directing voters to return when the polling place is secured. Absentee voting will be offered at Town Hall
during any period of interruption.
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The Class of 2022 will be headed to Worcester to receive their Grafton High School diplomas, reviving the tradition of graduation at the Hanover Theatre.
Grafton has held its graduation on the football field due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the past two years, with the Class of 2020 having to hold off until mid-July before donning their caps and gowns. Both students and guests alike were seated on the field — socially distanced, of course — while the proceedings were magnified on a giant screen.
The field, of course, has the risk of unpredictable weather and some preferred the grandeur of Hanover Theatre. The Class of 2022 will now graduate on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 6 p.m.
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