STATE PRIMARIES WILL DECIDE SEVERAL RACES Several races for State Representative in the Merrimack Valley will be decided in the September 6th primary as there are no Republicans running (so far) in those races. In the newly carved Lawrence/Methuen district it will be Methuen City Councilor Jim McCarty – who has no job and lives […]
METHUEN REPORT CARDS With a new mayor and city council in Methuen taking the reins of power in January, The Valley Patriot has been keeping track of who is serving the people of Methuen and who is there to serve themselves. Below is our objective evaluation of each councilors for 2020. Our editors, staff and […]
METHUEN COUNCIL CENSORS THE MAYOR Methuen City Council President Jim McCarty may like to crow about “following the law” and “respecting the city charter” but McCarty has been stifling the mayor at city council meetings and if the mayor is not going to call him out for it, then I guess I will. According to […]
CITY COUNCIL GRANDSTANDS PRETENDING TO BE FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE Last month the Methuen City Council finally approved Mayor Perry’s first budget as the CEO of the city. Councilors discussed and debated the budget Perry submitted, spending hours on items like a $1.00 line item, cutting pennies from some city departments and then patting themselves on the […]
ANDOVER FIREFIGHTER IS A RACIST BECAUSE … HE’S WHITE Last month an Andover Firefighter was put on leave after an altercation with one of his neighbors. The firefighter saw someone he did not recognize taking mail from one of his neighbor’s mailboxes and confronted her saying he did not know her thinking she was stealing […]
VALLEY PATRIOT BASH The Valley Patriot’s 16th Anniversary BASH! will be held at the Firefighter’s Relief In (2 Market St. in Lawrence) on March 27th. Tickets will be available on Eventbrite.com. MARK YOUR CALENDAR. If you enjoy our news coverage please consider making a $1 donation HEROES AND BOZOS OF 2019 HERO – SENATOR DIANA DIZOGLIO Newly […]
THANK YOU JEN KANNAN I want to personally thank Methuen City Council Chairman Jen Kannan for her decades of service to this community. Whether you supported Jen or not in this mayoral election, she has given of herself to the city of Methuen and the Merrimack Valley and made a lot of people’s lives better […]
VOTE NOVEMBER 5th IN LOCAL ELECTIONS – HERE’S WHY ITS IMPORTANT November 5th is Election Day for cities in the Merrimack Valley. In Methuen and Haverhill voters get to decide who their mayor will be for the next two years. In Lawrence, Mayor Dan Rivera has two years left in his term and cannot […]
POLICE AND DA’S NOW CONTROL WHAT YOU KNOW Four men were stabbed on Kendall Street in Lawrence on the 4th of July. One man, the aggressor in the situation, was charged with attempted murder. You didn’t read that in the daily paper or see it on the news because the new norm by our public […]
CHANGES TO METHUEN’S CITY CHARTER The Methuen City Council and the charter commission are considering changes to the city charter this year (the document that governs how the city operates). Some of the proposed changes being discussed are minor tweaks to the document to make city government more effective and accountable. But, some of the […]
NOW THAT WAS A BASH!!! Each year the Valley Patriot celebrates our anniversary with a charity BASH scholarship and award night. This year we raised and gave away almost $10,000 in scholarships to local students, raised money for Veterans Northeast Outreach in Haverhill, and were able to give out 8 different awards to community heroes. […]
IG REPORT HAS TONS OF ERRORS…. LIKELY, MAYBE, KIND OF One thing that popped out at me while digesting the IG report on corruption in Methuen was the fact that it never actually concluded anything. It didn’t really rule anything and contained words like “Likely illegal” and “may be” against the law. People who are […]
VALLEY PATRIOT BASH! – Put April 5th in your calendar now! The Valley Patriot will be holding our 15th Anniversary BASH scholarship and award night at the Firefighter’s Relief In, 1 Market Street in Lawrence. Each year we honor police officers, firefighters, veterans, and give out college scholarships to local students trying to get to […]
HEROES AND BOZOS OF 2018 While we normally reserve the word “hero” for our brave veterans, police officers, and firefighters, the use of the word hero in this yearly notebook feature “HEROES and BOZOS” is to denote community heroes who go above and beyond to make our lives better. BOZO – METHUEN SCHOOL COMMITTEEMAN […]
WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE IT WRONG BUT YOU DON’T On two occasions last month we reported a story on line that we thought we got wrong after it was posted. In one story we reported that a shooting victim from East Haverhill Street had died. Minutes after we reported the victim’s death we were […]