By: Diana Dizoglio – July, 2012 About a year ago, I wrote an article regarding civic engagement and community involvement. The article was inspired out of my encounter with a group of high school honor students from the Merrimack Valley. In the piece, I discussed the lack of understanding that the students seemed […]
By: Tom Duggan – June, 2011 Lawrence City Councilor Mark LaPlante (District F) has been one of the more outspoken supporters of the Lawrence police. Last month LaPlante went on two police ride-alongs with Lawrence Police and it’s an experience he says all members of the city council could benefit from. “We are […]
Superintendent Reaches out to Marines, says they will be treated respectfully By: Tom Duggan – June, 2011 Sgt Cardona the Marine Recruiter in Lawrence and a number of past recruiters have long complained that the faculty at North Andover High School are not only uncooperative when they enter the building to recruit, “but there’s […]
By: Tom Duggan – June, 2011 Local U.S. Marine recruiters in The Valley got their first look at the latest batch of recruits last month at Ft. Devans Army Base in Massachusetts. The new recruits, called “poolees” (recruits yet to attend basic training) were put through preliminary training to get them ready for the extensive […]
By: Jamison Tomasek – June, 2011 I noticed from Facebook the number of people that grew up in Lawrence and settled in the Merrimack Valley is very high. While this might not just be a Lawrence thing, it seems particularly pronounced here. The Lawrence Diaspora (migration) doesn’t seem like a random scattering. Almost everyone who […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL June, 2011 For the last few years The Valley Patriot has sporadically received information about prisoners from the Lawrence Jail (the “Farm”) on Marston Street escaping from the facility. Each time we are informed by law enforcement officials at other agencies that another escape has occurred, we wait. We wait, and […]
By: Tom Duggan, June, 2011 With several law enforcement agencies investigating the finances and political dealings of Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua, and the Boston media finally waking up to his political shenanigans, the question most people are asking is: can Lantigua survive? Let me start by saying that I’ve known and studied the political genius […]
By: Tom Duggan – May, 2011 A Full year ago, in May of 2010, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to Lawrence DPW Director Frank McCann informing the City of Lawrence that the EPA has first hand knowledge that the city was pumping wastewater (human waste) into the Shawsheen River. According to documents […]
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: 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: 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 […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL March, 2011 Since Lawrence Police Chief John Romero formed the Auto Theft/Auto Fraud Task Force under Mayor Michael Sullivan, residents of Lawrence have seen a decrease in their auto insurance rates. But, according to numbers release by Lawrence City Councilor Mark LaPlante: auto thefts in Lawrence have increased 114% since Lawrence […]
February, 2011 Valley Patriot readers will recall that last summer, residents living near the Shawsheen River reported the smell of raw sewage and a foul, cloudy discharge coming from a stormwater drain behind the South Lawrence East School. In May of last year, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter to Lawrence DPW Director […]