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, […]
By: Tracey Zysk – April, 201 It’s puppy season! It’s that time of the year when families decide it is a great time to bring a puppy into their homes. People constantly ask me, “Do you know a good breeder? “ Or they ask me for names of breeders of specific breeds. After I […]
By: Tracey Zysk – April, 2011 Life can change in a minute, literally. Last month I wrote an article educating readers on the importance of Animal Evacuation Plans. I submitted that article to the Valley Patriot March 3 and just days later March 11, 2011 Japan was destroyed by an earthquake and a tsunami. Who […]
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 […]
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: Dani Langevin, Lesbian Columnist – April, 2011 My mother, God rest her soul, always told me that when a child asks a question they are ready for the answer. Of course always be sure what questions they want answered and answer them in an age appropriate way. Case in point: my daughter asked […]
By: Paul Murano – April, 2011 This month the world’s two billion Christians celebrate Easter, their biggest holiday of the year. I want to focus on three words posed as a question by Pontius Pilate just hours before the Easter resurrection event. According to historical records these three words make up the last question […]
By: Christine Morabito – April, 2011 The giant CITGO sign looming over Fenway Park is one of the most recognized landmarks in Boston. But what it symbolizes is as controversial as when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. We have all seen the Citizens Energy commercials where former Congressman Joseph Kennedy […]
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 […]
Opponents of Secure Communities Come Out in Full Force By: Tom Duggan, Valley Patriot Publisher – April, 2011 A forum was held last month at Lawrence High School by the Deval Patrick administration. Governor Patrick wanted to get feedback from the public on a federal program that would allow police to […]