Local News - Gloucester Daily Times

ROCKPORT and mdash; Senior center advocate Christopher Lewis has notified John Krenn and mdash; the presumptive fill-in moderator for Article I at fall Town Meeting and mdash; that he intends to amend the motion to acquire the Granite Savings Bank building to say it will be used as a senior center and purchased for $894,400 using $506,000 from the sale of the Carnegie Library and $388,400 with a ...

MANCHESTER and mdash; The Manchester-Essex Regional School District will conduct reviews of its operations in preparation for the 2009-10 fiscal year. The goal of the reviews is to identify ways to make operations more effective and efficient.

Nobody in Gloucester wants to see a local veterans' organization lose its home. But nobody certainly wants to see service cuts in public safety, education, public works or the other fundamental responsibilities of city government, either. And, as local residents know, there have been cuts in all those things during one of the most difficult fiscal decades in the city's history.

To the editor: I wasn't going to write a letter to the editor supporting Tony Verga, because I didn't feel it necessary to tell what we all know. Tony is a hardworking, honest, caring, intelligent person who cares about the people in his district. How do I know this?

To the editor: Hurrah for the Gloucester Board of Appeals and the city of Gloucester for continuing to oppose Brierneck Crossing, a plan to build 12 condos on Thatcher Road across from Good Harbor Beach.

From Merrimack River to Watch Hill, R.I. Today, south winds 5 to 10 knots. Increasing to 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots in the afternoon. Seas 3 to 4 feet. Tonight, south winds 10 to 15 knots with gusts to around 20 knots. Becoming southeast 5 to 10 knots after midnight. Seas around 4 feet. A chance of showers in the evening. Showers likely after midnight. Visibility 1 to 3 ...

ESSEX and mdash; At 12:18 pm Wednesday police received a report of someone looking in mailboxes in the Spring Street area. Police were unable to find the person responsible. A report of a stolen mountain

ROCKPORT and mdash; A Sandy Bay Terrace resident reported someone let the air out of one tire of a vehicle parked in the resident's driveway. Police said the resident claimed to have seen the person doing it. It was reported at 9:11 p.m. Wednesday.

For kids still coming to grips with the start of the school year, September has brought something a little more entertaining and mdash; the return of the Fish Box Derby. At noon Sunday, more than 20 homemade vehicles will take to the hill on Rogers Street for a timed run down the street in front of Gorton's and a chance for racing immortality.

The days of buying, stealing, counterfeiting or ignoring the city's pink trash collection stickers are coming to an end. A new re-vamped pay-as-you-throw garbage policy and mdash; designed to discourage trash scofflaws, promote recycling and reduce the amount Gloucester spends on getting rid of its solid waste and mdash; was approved this week by City Council and will go into effect by the end ...

The second chance American Legion Post 3 hoped would keep it viable and meeting in its historic Gloucester home was dashed this week, leaving only marginal prospects for keeping the organization alive and functioning in the city, members said.

MANCHESTER and mdash; A new school and a new schedule were on the minds of students as they started a new year at Manchester Essex Regional High School yesterday. The new building, being built behind the current building and expected to be ready for students next September, generated more excitement when a small fire broke out yesterday afternoon.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. and mdash; A pivotal scientific study of groundfish stocks off New England, introduced and discussed publicly for the first time yesterday, shattered some assumptions about the winners and losers in the quarter-century effort to rebuild fishing stocks since the federal government stepped in.

Roughly 10,000 customers in Gloucester, Rockport and Manchester were left without power around 1:09 p.m. Tuesday after an electrical failure in Blackburn Industrial Park caused an outage, according to a National Grid spokesman.

ROCKPORT and mdash; At their meeting this week, selectmen announced that they will accept written comments from the public on Michael Racicot's performance as town administrator for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

When Gloucester High School opened for the new school year yesterday, it did so with some key issues still unresolved from the aftermath of the school's teen pregnancy spike during the last school year.

ROCKPORT and mdash; The town's selectmen have narrowly urged passage of a fall Town Meeting article that would have the town buy the Granite Savings Bank building for "general municipal uses" and mdash; at a price of $894,400.

It's been a long, sometimes difficult road for track and field athlete Sabra Hawkes of Rockport. But on Saturday, a dream that began four years ago will be fulfilled when the 2006 graduate of Rockport High School proudly parades into Beijing's "Bird's Nest" Olympic Stadium with more than 200 members of the 2008 U.S. Paralympic Team.

I hope that, when it comes to deciding during Rockport's Town Meeting whether we want to buy the Granite Savings Bank, the vote will be for a designated purpose — whether it will be used as a senior center or an expanded Town Hall.