By; Tom Duggan – May, 2011 Lawrence School Committeeman Sammy Reyes (District D) has written a scathing letter to the city council demanding that education funds (which were used for city services) be repaid to the school children of Lawrence. In his letter, Reyes threatens to turn in the Lantigua administration for misappropriation […]
The following letter was sent to Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua from members of the Lawrence City Council The Honorable William Lantigua Mayor, City of Lawrence City Hall 200 Common Street Lawrence, MA 01840 Dear Mayor Lantigua, We are writing to emphasize that public safety is a core function of our government, and that the […]
Catholic Church to Close Saint Mary’s After Promising to keep it Open By: Tom Duggan – May, 2011 Hundreds of students, parents and supporters of Saint Mary’s School of the Assumption in Lawrence, rallied and held a vigil Saturday to oppose the decision of the Boston Archdiocese of the Catholic Church to close the school […]
By: Peter Larocque – May, 2011 When words in our English Language are used without any adherence to their meaning or definition, the result is meaningless! Please allow me to explain. To put things in perspective, here’s a little timeline without re-hashing all the details. Former Lawrence School Superintendent Dr. Laboy went on sick […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – May, 2011 A recall effort is underway in the City of Lawrence. The process of a recall is contained in the City Charter (hereafter Charter). Section 9.7 entitled “Recall of Elected Officials.” As this section is written in government lingo, it does require a careful reading as well as some […]
By: D.J. Deeb – May, 2011 Dracut voters came out in record numbers for the May 2, 2011 Town Election to return incumbents to office and vote in favor of a Proposition 2 ½ Debt Exclusion for renovating Dracut High School. Nearly 31% of the registered voters in Dracut, a total of 5,958 people, […]
The North Andover Republican Town Committee held their annual Spring Fling last month and as they do each year the committee honored some of our local veterans in town. Selectmen Rosemary Smedile and Dan Lanen presided over the honors and presented each veteran with a certificate of appreciation. Here are the four heroes they […]
By: Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi – April, 2011 Municipal health care continues to be a dominant political issue for localities, with both Governor Patrick and Speaker Deleo advocating reform that would allow savings of over $100 million per year statewide. The Legislature held a hearing on this subject a couple of weeks back, but as […]
By: Kenneth Willette – April, 2011 I have officially announced my candidacy for Methuen Mayor. I want to personally thank the Valley Patriot for allowing me to continue to express my ideas every month. I have worked on many issues over my tenure as Methuen City Councilor at Large and School Committeeman. I am the […]
Mayor James J. Fiorentini has laid out an ambitious plan to use energy savings to pay for capital improvements to city and school buildings. Fiorentini said the city received approval last month for a Federal energy grant to pay for new capital improvements to the Citizen’s Center and the Hunking School. These improvements will cost […]
By: D.J. Deeb – April, 2011 The Dracut Town elections are just a few short weeks away on Monday, May 2nd. A debt exclusion issue, the Selectmen, School Committee, and Town Moderator seats are proving to be most contentious races this year. As I wrote in last month’s column, the Massachusetts School Building Authority […]
By: Peter Larocque – April, 2011 According to Wikipedia, (meaning quick encyclopedia), a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia, Public Safety involves the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury/harm, crimes or disasters, (natural or man-made). In the United States we have the […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – April, 2011 While everyone wants to feel good and say nice things, it is hard to feel good or say nice things about what is going on in the Lawrence Schools. Yes, there are successful students there. Yes, there are great teachers, and yes there are good programs and happy […]
By: Gerry Nutter, April – 2011 “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the one).” Mr. Spock I have used that phrase before but it comes to my mind every year around budget time for the Lowell Public Schools. The week after this paper hits the newsstands Lowell will […]
By: Lawrence, “Lonnie” Brennan – April, 2011 Some interesting shell games are going on before our eyes. One of the most interesting is the creation of a new centralized town maintenance department, funded via a new $729,583 proposition 2 ½ override. The cool thing about it (for the proponents of the bill) is that […]