By: Clare Donegan NORTH ANDOVER: Town Meeting voters are considering a $4M expenditure involving 16 municipal buildings, including 8 schools. If the contract is awarded to AMERESCO the $40k study will be “free.” Forty percent is allocated for “new energy management systems” that communicate using wireless microwave radiation. Why install expensive infrastructure, which increases security […]
By: Mark Behan – May 2013 After a combined 70 years of coaching and 875 wins between them, two Lions of the Winter have retired. Longtime Andover High School girls’ basketball head coach Jim Tildsley has stepped down. Tildsley coached for 39 years, including the last 18 at Andover, where he shepherded the Golden Warriors […]
By Mark Behan – April 18, 2013 “So, Noelia Figuereo, you’ve just won two national titles. What are you going to do next?” If Figuereo had been the Super Bowl MVP, rather than a junior college track star at the time, she may have responded: “I’m going to Disneyland!” But real life is not something […]
By: Tom Duggan – April 203 North Andover Town Manager Andrew Maylor worked in post-receivership Chelsea for six years. He told The Valley Patriot it was a great learning experience. You have worked in cities and towns, which do you prefer, which do you see as functioning better? “After six years, I became the […]
“The help we give to Lawrence will not be an infusion of capital it will be getting at some management changes.” Deval Patrick January, 2010 “My goal is to decentralize” Jeff Riley 2011 By: Tom Duggan – April 16, 2013 When State Receiver Jeff Riley took over the failing Lawrence Public Schools more than two years ago, he promised to decrease the […]
By: Tom Duggan Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua issues statement regarding the firing of Eagle Tribune publisher Al Getler saying that Getler was not ethical and purposely tried to discredit the image of the City of Lawrence. The Valley Patriot reported yesterday that Getler has been fired as the publisher of Eagle Tribune Publishing and former […]
By: Mark Behan – High School Sports Reporter – February 15, 2013 He’s back! And we are not talking Arnold Schwarzenegger and his next Terminator movie. John Rafferty is back as North Andover High’s head football coach – nearly two weeks after being fired by Principal Dr. Carla Scuzzarella and Athletic Director Jon Longley on […]
By Tom Duggan – January 8, 2013 19 year old Mark Mezzina says he wants to serve on the North Andover School Committee. The Johnson Road resident says that he is against the new grading system in North Andover which replaces the letter grade report card system (A through F) with a number grade […]
Paying Attention! with Tom Duggan November 3, 2012 After watching all the debate, interviewing the candidates, consuming the news and commercials every day I have made my final decisions on who I am supporting in Tuesday’s election. As the publisher of a newspaper, a political radio talk show host and an activist in my […]
By: Tom Duggan – October, 23 2012 Laurie Myers, president of Community Voices, a non – profit children’s advocacy group is endorsing United States Senator Scott Brown this afternoon at Stachys Pizza on High Street in North Andover at a “Women for Brown” rally. Myers told the Valley Patriot this morning that she is not […]
Legislators Blame Deval Patrick Administration for Not Addressing the Lawrence Crisis By: Tom Duggan – October, 18, 2012 More Legislators on Beacon Hill are stepping forward this week to say they are tired of the state tax payers footing the bill for what Andover State Rep. Jim Lyons has called “an ongoing criminal enterprise” in […]
Local Legislators to File Bill Adding Penalties to Public Records Law Violators By: Tom Duggan – October 17, 2012 (2:30pm) TOWN HALL, NORTH ANDOVER, MA During a press conference today endorsing Karin Rhoton for the 14th Essex Rep. seat, Rhoton, Senator Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R) Gloucester, Representative Brad Hill (R) Ipswich, and Representative Brad Jones […]
By: Tracy Zysk – Valley Patriot Doggie Columnist Well when you have three animal writers for the Valley Patriot all PRO ADOPTION…you know we are all very excited about the month of October being the American Humane Association Adopt a Dog Month. Why adopt? Well why wouldn’t you? There seems to be many misbelieve […]
By: Tom Duggan – September 17, 2012 In the wake of two more members of the Lantigua administration being indicted last week, State Representative Jim Lyons, (R) Andover, is calling Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua’s administration a “corrupt criminal enterprise” that should no longer be enabled by the state taxpayers. Lyons says that the corruption […]
Senator Scott Brown Says Warren “Desperate” Talks About Medicare, Social Security, Budget PHOTO GALLERY FROM EVENT By Tom Duggan, August, 2012 “Desperate” United States Senator Scott Brown said his opponent Elizabeth Warren was “desperate” Monday during a visit to the North Andover Senior Center where he spoke for about thirty minutes on Medicare, taxes, […]