Haverhill

Haverhill Council Grants Water Limit Relief to Well Owners

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Tension erupted at the Haverhill City Council meeting Tuesday during a discussion on whether to exempt residential well owners from new water usage restrictions. Councilors voted 9-1, with Ward 3 Councilor Devan M. Ferreira opposed and Ward 4 Councilor Melissa J. Lewandowski absent, to exempt well owners from restrictions. At-large Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan was quick to label applying the drought-inspired conservation plan to those who have already made an investment in assuring a personal water supply for their homes “government overreach.”

Of well owners, he said, “They have the same problem that we do except that they don’t have the city to back them up. If they have a problem, they have to dig deeper. That’s going to cost you money.

Haverhill

Haverhill Councilors Approve E-Bike, E-Scooter Ordinance

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On a unanimous vote the Haverhill City Council Tuesday gave the city’s police department, among other measures, authority to impound e-bikes and e-scooters parked on city property. Haverhill Police Lt. Kevin Lynch said, under the new confiscation rules, only a parent or guardian will be permitted to retrieve the vehicles from the Haverhill police station after payment of any relevant fines. In an answer to a question from at-large Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan, Lynch said the department is prepared to undertake an education campaign to reach parents as well as students about the change in policy. “A big component is we are going to have to educate parents. Parents need to take responsibility for their children and not buy the $300 to $400 scooters and let them go out on the street.”

The city began pushing for rules last June after a 12-year-old girl lost her life, and another young girl was hospitalized, following an accident.

Haverhill

Haverhill Farmers Market Plans Winter Expansion Downtown

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Organizers of the Haverhill Farmers Market are trying once again to establish a winter outlet for their vendors and customers, this time inside the new Historic New England Center in downtown Haverhill. Jeff Grassie, market manager of the weekly summer events on Bradford Common, told WHAV he has been searching for a protected location large enough to accommodate about 40 regular vendors. He oversaw an initial effort years ago at the Universalist Unitarian Church on Kenoza Avenue, but the space was too small. “This has kind of been in the planning stages for about two-three years now,” Grassie said. Grassie said he was inspired to look harder at the insistence of his vendors.

Business Bulletin

Essex District Attorney Tucker Rules Out Third Term

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Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said Friday he will not seek a third, four-year term, presuming he is re-elected during the November general election. Tucker, who was first elected to the county’s top law enforcement post in the November 2021 general election following a lengthy career in law enforcement and as a state representative, is running unopposed for his second term this November. “I am wrapping up my fourth year. And I’ll have one more term and, as long as my wife and I both vote for me, I’m unopposed. I will be back on the job for four more years.

Haverhill

Haverhill Dedicates First Nations Park, Celebrates Ongoing History

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The city celebrated the Atlantic shortnose sturgeon, which has been making its way up the Merrimack River to spawn in what we now call Haverhill for centuries, during the dedication of First Nations Park Saturday. At Saturday’s ceremony, Larry Spotted Crow Mann, an enrolled citizen of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe of Massachusetts and executive director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center in Rowley, explained the park’s significance to indigenous people, who consider the sturgeon sacred. “This is a significant event for not only indigenous people but for my ancestors, the Nipmuc people, who are from this area and part of the Pennacook Confederacy. So, it is really exciting to let the world know our people are still here. We still use these waters,” Mann said.

Haverhill

Haverhill Councilors Poised to Add Limited Outdoor Food Vendor Locations

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The Haverhill City Council is poised to increase the number of outdoor food vendors next summer, but reject a suggested location. While councilors took no votes Tuesday night, they heard Ward 4 City Councilor Melissa J. Lewandowski’s summary of where members of the Council’s Natural Resources and Public Property Committee are leaning in response to Ward 3 Councilor Devan M. Ferreira’s June proposal to more than double the number of vendor licenses from six to 14 and add three new locations. Lewandowski recounted objections raised by her subcommittee. “Some of the concerns that we had as a Council included pedestrian traffic, impacts on downtown businesses and trash and debris,” she said. Under Ferreira’s plan, the number of vendors allowed in Riverside Park would go from one to four and GAR Park, Swasey Field Park and Nettleton Avenue would each go from one to two vendors.

Education

Absent Graduation Requirement, More Haverhill Students Show MCAS Apathy

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Haverhill Public Schools is facing a new challenge in its efforts to raise the district’s MCAS scores: IDK. IDK is texting shorthand for “I don’t know,” in the sense of not caring. Of the 441 Haverhill High School 10th graders who took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test last spring, 103—or 25%—received a zero on the essay portion because they did not attempt to provide a writing sample, Haverhill School Superintendent Margaret Marotta told the School Committee last Thursday. “There were 822 essays. Each one had to write two essays.

Education

Haverhill’s Lemelson-MIT Interns Share Summer Experience at Assembly

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When the final group of Haverhill High School students, taking part in an assembly to show off their summer work, prepared to step onto the stage, they realized their “show and tell” prototype had mysteriously gone missing. Turns out, their “enhanced” cardboard box, which students in the Lemelson-MIT internship program hoped to use to explain their efficiency idea for HVAC units, had been scooped up by a too-efficient custodian during a rogue fire alarm minutes earlier. After students and the audience evacuated the space as required, the cleaner grabbed the display, believing it was just another empty cardboard box to be recycled. Students Sophia LaFontaine, Baram Raad and Cassidy Noonan, regrouped and went on to deliver a detailed explanation of their idea using a photograph of their prototype for show and tell. More importantly, they agreed after the event closed, they put into practice a key take-away from their experience: failure is often a part of the industrial design process.