Data Platform Releases National Cost of Living
The Inquirer and Mirror - 11/21/2019 Page : A01 Nantucket’s Newspaper Since 1821 – New England’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year
VOL. 199 NO. 27 USPS 264-720 The Inquirer and Mirror , Nantucket, Mass. Thursday, November 21, 2019 Fifty-Six Pages Three Sections www.ACK.net $3.00 Island cost of living tops $100K for most Data Platform calculator intended to help set living wages By Brian Bushard [email protected] The website works like a calcula - tor. Plug in how many adults live in your house, how many kids and bed - rooms you have, and out pops a dol - lar figure: the current annual cost of living on Nantucket. The answer? Anywhere from Alan Worden $66,756 to $160,728 per year. More to provide a living wage that takes specifically, $152,424 for a family of into account the estimated cost of four in a three-bedroom home, $124,000 for a family of three in a living on-island. two-bedroom home, and $100,812 “If we don’t get it right, we’re for two adults in a two-bedroom going to have a revolving door of em - house, according to the Nantucket ployees,” Worden said. “In order to Data Platform, which developed the have a community where employees calculator. can afford to work and live here, we “We’ve built a cost-of-living indica - need to know the cost of living.” Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger tor that can be a model for the na - The calculator separates cost of WINDMILL WALKER: Joe Bedell and Nantucket Historical Association staff work to remove the vanes from the tion,” said Alan Worden, founder and living into categories, from housing Old Mill on Prospect Street Tuesday, a sure sign that winter is approaching. CEO of Community Data Platforms, to food, transportation, healthcare, the umbrella organization that in - childcare and taxes. Putting it to - cludes the Nantucket Data Platform. gether took a team of 10 Data Plat - The online calculator was re - form employees analyzing data from All in the family: Next generation leased this week. The intention is to home rental prices, USDA food provide quantifiable information for budgets and federal healthcare-pre - people considering moving to Nan - mium costs six months, Worden tucket, and for employers setting managing NCF cranberry bogs wages and salaries for staff, in order COST, PAGE 11A Nick Larrabee taking over for Tom Nevers a top
Copyright � 2019 The Inquirer and Mirror 11/21/2019 father in January November 21, 2019 12:06 pm (GMT +5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA By Brian Bushard priority in park plan [email protected] Nick Larrabee remembers visit - Improvements “It’s worth the money. ing the Milestone Cranberry Bog as a boy, climbing a split-rail fence by could cost upwards You go up to Tom Nevers the entrance, and looking out over on the weekends, families nearly 200 acres of cranberries his of $18.5 million By Brian Bushard grandfather tended. are there, they go out and It’s a memory that stuck with [email protected] they play games. They’re him, and led him to work alongside Town officials are considering people who work here, both his father and grandfather at large-scale improvements to several the bog. Now, he’s preparing to take who might not go to the Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger island parks and recreation areas, over the operation. starting with the dilapidated Tom beaches, who are looking Nick Larrabee, left, and his father Tom at the Nantucket Conservation Last week, the Nantucket Con - Nevers fairgrounds and the over - for something servation Foundation, which owns Foundation’s Milestone Cranberry Bog this week. used Nobadeer athletic fields. the bog, announced Larrabee will be get a vacation,” Nick said. “But it’s my much longer than we have.” The municipal-property make- to do.” taking over for his father, Tom passion. I love this job like I love my In fact, Nantucket’s Milestone overs are among the top priorities in – Jack Gardner Larrabee Jr., as the bog’s manager. family, and working here is all about and Windswept bogs date back to the town’s parks and recreation Park and Rec He will start in January. tradition. These bogs have been here master plan, which the recently re- at the Delta Fields, and converting “It’s all physical labor and we don’t FAMILY, PAGE 9A formed Parks and Recreation Com - the existing baseball fields at Tom mission is now reviewing. Nevers to soccer and lacrosse fields. “It’s really well laid out. It’s some - In total, the projects are esti - ACK Now files warrant articles thing that’s been needed for a long mated to cost between $14.4 million By Brian Bushard ery times downtown to five hours in time,” said Jack Gardner, vice-chair - and $18.5 million. the morning, and one and a half [email protected] man of the commission, who sat on “It is worth the money,” Gardner hours in the late afternoon. The newly-formed political-action Park and Rec at its founding in said. “You go up to Tom Nevers on
G group ACK Now has officially en - 1987. the weekends, families are there, Changing the delivery game tered the political arena, submitting The master plan was drafted by they go out and they play games. L two citizen’s petitions for April’s An - town consultant Weston & Samp - They’re people who work out here, “This is a test,” ACK Now execu - N nual Town Meeting. son, at a cost of $105,000. Its initial who might not go to the beaches, tive director Julia Lindner said One is a proposed amendment to recommendations range from reno - who are looking for something to do.” I E about the one-season delivery-truck the town’s noise bylaw, banning the vating existing baseball, softball and The master plan recommends the proposal. “What we understand commercial use of gas-powered leaf improvements be completed in from other towns that have done soccer fields, to installing a second
L blowers islandwide. The other would phases, starting with Tom Nevers, B artificial turf soccer field at the regulate commercial-vehicle deliv - Nobadeer fields, two baseball fields PARK, PAGE 6A
I ACK NOW, PAGE 6A A A L M Thursday, November 21, 2019 The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket, Mass. Page 11A ACK Now: Submits two articles Sat. Nov. 23 • 10am-3pm
(Continued from page 6A) community feels like it makes address issues it considers to Sun. Nov 24 • 10am-2pm enough of a difference, maybe be degrading islanders’ qual - companies, and not residen - we’ll have next steps,” she ity of life, including rampant Early-bird Admission said. “When you do talk to in - tial use, or the sale of gas- building growth, an outmoded begins at 9 am • $10 powered leaf blowers. It’s a dividuals who have battery- government structure, traffic matter of addressing what powered lawn mowers, there Bartlett’s Opens at 7:30am! Lindner said ACK Now sees is a reduction in noise. But and parking issues, and insuf - as excessive noise. It’s caught you have to make sure the ficient affordable and moder - Stop into the Market after the eye of town officials as tool is effective as well, and in ate-income housing. for Hot Lunch & Soups terms of a lawn mower, I don’t well. For Lindner, the two arti - Meals to go! think that’s the case.” The Select Board is also cles are a small step toward considering drafting a war - “The reality is we have to Buy-One-Get-One-Free be sensitive to landscapers the organization’s larger goal rant article that would ban Sales throughout the store! gas-powered leaf blowers. because they’re going to be of addressing the broader is - to benefit the the ones feeling this,” Lindner But ACK Now’s version sues. Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum 8am-6pm Daily added. “That’s why we’re giv - could be the start of some - “Part of it is building trust ing them a year, and only thing bigger, to regulate the in the community,” she said. going with leaf blowers. This 33 BARTLETT FARM ROAD 508.228.9403 use of other gas-powered is a big change for them, and “That might mean taking a lawn tools, Lindner said. Reg - bartlettsfarm.com going with small steps is slower approach to putting ulations on those tools, like going to be easier.” anything out, and figuring out lawn-mowers or weed-trim - what the community actually mers, could come later, she Small steps The Inquirer and Mirrorsaid. - 11/21/2019 wants. That’s why we’re not Page : A11 “This is the first step. If the ACK Now’s mission is to rushing to anything big.” Cost: Tops $100,000 for most
(Continued from page 1A) considering applying for a job that’s a huge expense. Child - on the island, who need a care costs can be upwards of said. It was funded entirely by baseline of information on $800 a month. That was a ReMain Nantucket. how much money they can ex - missing component. On food, • Fresh-cut Fraser Fir Christmas Trees “For ReMain it’s so we’re pect to pay for groceries or a lot of indexes would take a better able to do our job,” ex - rent, Worden said. It’s also im - state number and assume all • Wreaths ecutive director Cecil Jensen portant for employers, he communities are the same, rrive Trees A said. “It brings up questions said, especially when they set but we know food on Nan - • Garland 5 like, what does it cost to hire employee wages or salaries, so tucket is a lot more expensive Nov. 2 good, reliable people on the is - their staff does not leave for a than most other places in the • Ornaments & more land, and questions like, is my better-paying job on the state.” cost of childcare adequate, or mainland. “If you try to tell your the cost of food and utilities, “The cost of living here is friends what it costs to live Visit our Showroom which leads to our choices in expensive, and turnover is somewhere and you leave out energy.” very expensive for employ - a third of the cost, you’re not to find the perfect “With the right data, we ers,” Worden said. “If you hire going to be painting a full pic - can make better decisions for someone and the next year ture,” he added. ornaments & holiday the community, and that’s they leave, that’s more expen - Work on the Data Plat - what led us to be the first cus - sive than increasing a salary. form calculator is not neces - hostess gifts. tomer of the Nantucket Data Turnover is brutal. You hire sarily complete, Worden said. Platform. The first question someone and if you don’t pay Data scientists are nothing them, now they’re gone, and short of what Worden calls we asked them was how you’re scrambling to fill that hunter-gatherers, and if more many people live here, and job. We think the community information becomes avail - that led to the population will be more stable and suc - able, they can include it. 9 Wampanoag Way 508-228-1961 study.” cessful if employees and em - Everybody knows Nan - Through a data table on ployers know the true cost of tucket is expensive, Worden the website, users can com - living. We need to pay them a said, but collecting the infor - pare Nantucket’s cost of living living wage. Otherwise, we’re mation allows people to have to the cost of living in Boston, putting people in substan - quantifiable data on exactly as well as the national aver - dard housing because they how much it costs to live on age. can’t afford anything else.” island. Nantucket’s cost of living Similar online cost-of-liv - “Before this, it was totally ranges from about 7.25 per - ing calculators exist, includ - anecdotal,” he said. “The cent to more than 21 percent ing a Massachusetts Institute whole reason the Nantucket higher than Boston, between of Technology version that Data Platform exists is to $4,000 and $17,000 per year, compares every county in the move away from anecdotes according to the calculator. state, as well as city-specific and toward real evidence. Compared to Barnstable calculations for Boston, There will always be more County, living on Nantucket Worcester, Springfield, Pitts - that can go into this, like in is anywhere from 16 percent field and Barnstable. any research project. Is it 100 to 32 percent more expensive. But many of those calcula - percent of all the data avail - The national average cost tors are not as comprehensive able? No. But the goal is that of living for a family of four in as the one the Nantucket it’s strong enough so it can be a three-bedroom home is Data Platform put out last peer-reviewed and re - $114,980, according to Data Thursday, Worden said. searchers can say this is cred - Platform analysis. “To our surprise, the vast ible research.” It’s helpful information for majority of calculators did not The calculator is available young professionals or experi - include healthcare,” he said. at costofliving.nantucketdata - enced people in the workforce “If you have kids on childcare, platform.com. NCTV: Meeting-contract renewed
(Continued from page 4A) The Select Board’s inten - us in terms of government tion with the $50,000 contract work or government airing. person operating a camera for is to give NCTV enough fund - We do so much more than any the entire meeting. The meet - ing to cover the governmental other PEG station in the ings can also be recorded with side of the channel’s responsi - state.” Copyright � 2019 The Inquirer and Mirror 11/21/2019 November 21, 2019 12:07ce ipmlin (GMTg ca m+5:00)era s and uploaded bilities, including municipal Nantucket’s franchise fee Powered by TECNAVIA online the next day, without a committees and town meet - is set to increase on island staff member present for the ings. cable bills from 3 percent to 5 meeting, Driscoll said. He es - Any educational and pub - percent in January, 10 timated that takes about 20 lic work it does, from provid - months after the Select Board minutes of work per meeting. ing video-production classes voted to approve an NCTV re - Getter did not have a pref - to making public-service an - quest for the increase. erence for which option the nouncements, should be Bridges hopes the addi - Save energy channel should take, but ad - funded by the 3 percent fran - tional revenue can fund new vised the Select Board to opt chise fee, members said. workshops, high-definition vi - for a mix of the two. Live cov - The contract, however, is with a No-Cost Home suals for TV broadcasts, as erage can be taxing on staff, an anomaly among other well as a second public-access and the contract with the PEG channels in the area. channel for NCTV to operate, Energy Assessment. town does not give NCTV Martha’s Vineyard-based so it can provide more pro - enough time to record live at MVTV generates its revenue gramming. For now, he hopes every meeting, she said. from a 5 percent cable-bill Receive 20 red tickets during your assessment. NCTV can record as many “The Select Board has franchise fee, without accept - meetings as possible. Appointments available Dec. 10-15. asked for the Park and Recre - ing any additional funding ation Commission, the Town from the six island towns it “People can’t get to every Government Study Commit - covers. Other PEG channels meeting, so why don’t we Schedule your appointment: tee, the Audit Committee, the around the state have been leverage the technology to get ngrid.com/Nantucket Coastal Resiliency Advisory taking a 5 percent franchise the most outreach possible, Committee,” Getter said. fee, the highest percentage al - and that’s what we’re trying 844-615-8316 “We have a certain amount lowed by the Federal Commu - to do. We just need to make of money to work with from nications Commission, for sure we know what it costs. the town. I think the easiest years, Driscoll said. We can’t record every meeting way to do it is to just work by “We’re covering more all the time, so we have to pri - the hours, because we work meetings than communities oritize them,” he said. on an hourly basis. That’s 722 quadruple our size, and that “I don’t know if we can get hours worth of staff time to means communities with to every waste summit at the film whatever they want us to more than quadruple the fees DPW, or every info session we film. It’s now up to them to coming in from cable bills,” do, but we should at least try decide how they use it.” Driscoll said. “No one touches to tape every meeting.”