Haverhill city councilors this week opted to continue discussions on a proposed solar field near Lovers Lane amid concerns over the scope and scale of the plan, which could impact more than 23 acres of green space near the New Hampshire border. Attorney Robert D. Harb, representing applicant Christopher Anderson of Hannigan Engineering said the project proposes using approximately 23 acres of a greater than 120-acre site to build a large-scale solar field. “This is going to be a good source of renewable energy, not carbon-based fuels. We’re going to be tied into the grid,” he said. He clarified abutting residents will not receive a discount on their bill.
Haverhill school administrators are scrambling to determine what services families may need as they learned Beth Israel Lahey Health Community Behavioral Health Center will soon close its outpatient clinic here. Director of Guidance Counseling and Student Support Services Jami Dion recently told the School Committee she learned of the closing after having a conversation with Lahey on Sept. 23. “This information is new and I’m sure that plans will evolve and change over the coming weeks and months and I can provide updates as I get them,” she said. Dion said she will have biweekly meetings with Lahey between September and “the next few months.”
Though the outpatient clinic is slated to close at the end of the month, she said, it will not impact all services the center provides.
The Atkinson Women’s Civic Club is having its 2024 Indoor/Outdoor Artisan Market, offering the community a day of shopping and family fun. Attendees will have the opportunity to find unique gifts and crafts from among the work of 75 local artisan vendors. There will also be raffle baskets, 50/50 raffles, music and various food vendors. Proceeds benefit the Atkinson community. The market will take place, rain or shine, Saturday, Oct.
Fire within a huge tree stump pile at Haverhill’s Kimball Farm kept Haverhill firefighters and mutual aid partners busy Tuesday night and Wednesday. The Haverhill Fire Department was dispatched around 9:40 p.m., Tuesday, to the farm at 791 East Broadway, Haverhill. Fire Chief Robert M. O’Brien said the fire appears to have started from natural heated decomposition. He said it is a relatively common occurrence at farms.
“It was a big pile where they put their stumps…it’s a really nagging type of fire and we flooded it with a lot of water,” O’Brien said. A bulldozer was necessary to reach part of the source and mutual aid came from West Newbury and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Bureau of Forest Fire Control, which provided additional water tankers.
Haverhill and state officials celebrated National Literacy Month Monday by highlighting $150,000 in state money received to adopt early literacy curriculum in Haverhill Public Schools and help Haverhill Promise deliver early literacy interventions and tutoring. Officials gathered in front of Golden Hill Elementary School to demonstrate how efforts as early as pre-school have been shown to reduce dropout rates later and deliver lifelong success. Golden Hill Principal Paula Rodriguez explained how students are using the school’s outdoor little library and other the resources made possible by the state earmark. “They can come, take a book and the kids use it quite often. Every day, we are constantly filling the books, so that’s been great.
Due to cloud cover, Tattersall Farm is delaying an up-close view of the sky until Saturday, Oct. 5. Local amateur astronomers will have telescopes set up to share views of Saturn, star clusters, binary stars and, possibly, fainter galaxies and nebulae as it gets darker. Stargazing takes place Saturday, Oct. 5, starting at 8 p.m., at Tattersall Farm, 542 N. Broadway, Haverhill.
Lawrence General Hospital said its takeover Tuesday of Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill and Methuen went “absolutely with no glitches,” and hospital staff and elected officials celebrated the return of nonprofit ownership in ceremonies in both cities. Lawrence General Hospital President and CEO Abha Agrawal called the near closings of Holy Family Hospital by Steward Health Care a “breach of trust,” but promised to “rebuild.”
“Today is the day when we step out of the fog of uncertainty onto a path of progress forward, creating a healing system of care for our patients and our team. Just a few months ago, we were on the brink of losing Holy Family Hospital, its facilities—beautiful, the care it provides, the jobs it sustains and the economic benefit it creates,” she told a crowd gathered Tuesday morning outside Holy Family Hospital in Methuen. Agrawal tanked Gov. Maura T. Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, state Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh and other local and state leaders for their efforts in saving the hospitals in Methuen and Haverhill. She said the priorities are now to protect patients and the care team; expand mission of health equity, diversity and inclusivity; fostering partnership and collaboration with area institutions such as Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, rehabilitation centers, community services and AgeSpan; “integration and efficient organization” of clinical services and operations; and “laying the foundations of innovations in care.
Haverhill city councilors are scheduled tonight to consider asking the legislature for approval to expand the city’s Board of Health from three to five members. Mayor Melinda E. Barrett recommends the additional members. In a letter to the mayor last week, City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead said state law currently limits the city to a three-person board and she drafted a home rule petition for councilors to consider. The special legislation would give the mayor the authority to name five members with staggered terms, eventually totaling three-year appointments. Health Board Chairperson Peter Carbone told WHAV, he has requested an enlarged board for at least three years.
Haverhill educators last Thursday pored through Haverhill’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System—or MCAS—results which showed in many cases the city roughly tracking the state in downward scores. The learning loss that came about as a result of the pandemic and its shift towards remote schooling that began more than four years ago is still showing up in standardized test results, state officials said last week, as they released the latest batch of MCAS scores. “The road back from the pandemic is not short,” Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said during a press briefing on the test results. The Department of Secondary and Elementary Education compares Haverhill to communities such as Worcester, Pittsfield, Leominster, Methuen and Fitchburg. For English Language Arts achievement among grades three through eight, among comparable districts Haverhill falls dead center at 26% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, according to data presented to the School Committee.
