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South Street parcel may get industrial overhaul By Evan Walsh Managing Editor SHREWSBURY – A major parcel may be getting a facelift. 333 South Street, currently offices for UMass Chan Medical School, could be transformed. The property was first developed in the 1980s by Digital Equipment Corporation. Today, the parcel is home to about 682,000 square feet of office space, which includes the school’s Office of Development, Human Resources, Information Services, Health Consulting, and the President’s Office, according to UMass’s website. UMass first purchased the campus site in 2007, but slowly started
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Vol. 52 | No. 1 | January 2, 2026
‘It takes a special person to do this’
Westborough Tennis & Swim eyes new building
Funeral home celebrates 145 years of serving Westborough
WESTBOROUGH | 4 Grafton home once housed ancient Egyptian artifacts
Grafton | 7 Shrewsbury breaks ground on new PFAS Treatment Plant
South Street | 5
Is this Northborough committee about to be dissolved?
Pickering & Son Westborough Funeral Home located at 62 West Main Street.
By Shealagh Sullivan Reporter
By Leighah Beausoleil Assistant Editor
NORTHBOROUGH — Just over five years since Northborough’s Master Plan Implementation Committee (MPIC) was formed, its future may be rocky as some town officials say it has “outlived” its usefulness. Northborough’s Master Plan was published in June 2020 after a year-long process involving public participation and review. The plan endeavors to make Northborough “a thriving town,” looking at economic development, land use, public facilities, and transportation. The MPIC was formed shortly after in October 2020. The 13-member board is composed of residents and
WESTBOROUGH — For 100 years, a funeral home on West Main Street in Westborough has become a place generations of families turned to in their most difficult moments. But behind its doors, the funeral home itself has also been shaped by generations of families who worked there, lived there, raised children there, and built relationships that extended far beyond business hours. Known today as Pickering & Son Westborough Funeral Home, the building has been serving the community from its current location for more than a century. But its story stretches even beyond that. About 145 years ago, in 1880, Emery L.
Master Plan | 5
Shrewsbury | 10
Visit us for the latest discounts and tasting events Family Owned & Operated since 1974. Experience the Difference! OPEN 7 DAYS M-Sat 9am-9pm, Sun 10am-7pm 140 Turnpike Rd, Westborough • Route 9 at Lyman St. • 508-366-1942 • juliosliquors.com
Wood founded the business at 23 South Street. It was later passed to L. Phillips Conant, who purchased the West Main Street building in 1925, using it as both his residence and a funeral home. In 1933, Conant’s son-in-law, Irving “Hip” Harper, took over. Harper ran the funeral home until 1973, when it was purchased by Warren Rand, who ran it for the next 23 years. Rand’s sons grew up immersed in the rhythms of the business. Robert Rand, now a retired Westborough fire captain, remembers living in the house behind the funeral home. The house was often silent, he recalled: “When the phone rang, you never knew who was going to be on the other side of that phone.” People would show up at their door Pickering | 6
Freshman Joceline Boulay leads Shrewsbury past Leominster
SHrewsbury | 22
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