Haverhill

Haverhill Garden Club Awards Garden of the Month to Messer

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(Additional photograph below.)

The Haverhill Garden Club’s August’s Garden of the Month award goes to Jen Messer of Fernwood Avenue. When Messer moved to her Fernwood Avenue home 12 years ago, the Club said, the yard was a blank canvas, containing just two plants. In the years since, she gradually transformed the property, creating and expanding gardens around the home and developing a landscape filled with color, texture, and seasonal interest. Today, Messer’s gardens feature hydrangeas, ornamental grasses, flowering perennials, annuals, and a wide variety of foliage plants. The combination creates a landscape that changes throughout the growing season, with different plants and features taking prominence as spring gives way to summer and eventually fall.

Community Spotlight

Chang Offers Tips to Avoid Reverse Mortgage Surprises

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Realtor Paul Chang offers Haverhill Council on Aging members with reverse mortgages options if they expect to outlive the mortgage or learn how to capture the equity in their homes and avoid surprises. The presentation also seeks to help people understand their options if they plan to stay in their homes over the long term. The talk takes place Friday, Sept. 4., 10 a.m., at Haverhill Citizen Center, 10 Welcome St., Haverhill. The Haverhill Council on Aging requires reservations by calling 978-374-2390, ext.

Haverhill

Haverhill to Formally Dedicate First Nations Park in October

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October’s formal dedication of Haverhill’s newest recreation area, First Nations Park, involves sacred ceremonial practices with a citizen of the Hassanamisco Nipmuc Tribe of Massachusetts, a reading from Haverhill’s poet laureate and other presentations. First Nations Park, as WHAV has reported, was built by Procopio Companies and gifted to the city as part of an agreement to develop the mixed 290-unit apartment and commercial space called The Beck. It was named in 2023 by the city’s Native American Commemorative Task Force headed by Daniel Speers, Haverhill’s poet laureate. “While there are many parks in Massachusetts that feature native Americans and events, this is the first park exclusively dedicated to remembering and honoring the culture, heritage and stewardship of the indigenous people who lived and prospered in pre-colonial America,” Speers says. He further notes, “It recognizes Haverhill as one of the oldest continuously used Indigenous sites in New England.

Haverhill

Haverhill Plans Free Labor Day Weekend Concert to Cap Nation’s 250th Celebration

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Haverhill caps its celebrations of the nation’s founding 250 years ago with a free concert the Sunday of Labor Day weekend at Winnekenni Castle. The concert features Three At Home, Danielle Miraglia and The Glory Junkies and Julie Rhodes with various food vendors. “Events like this remind us of what makes this city so special. There is no better way to close out this season of summer programming celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary than by gathering at Winnekenni Castle for an afternoon of music and celebration. It is such a great opportunity for residents and families to enjoy Winnekenni and come together over Labor Day weekend,” says Mayor Melinda E. Barrett.

Community Spotlight

Haverhill Woman’s 6th Annual Pink Party Seeks Sponsors

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The Sixth Annual Pink Party art show and auction to benefit Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, founded by a Haverhill woman who benefited from new research and treatment, is set for Saturday, Sept. 26. Event Manager Muriel Lee Boles, who was diagnosed with Stage 4, or metastatic, breast cancer in 2013, has raised more than $65,000 since launching Pink Party show and auction in 2021. To keep up the progress, sponsor, artist and prize donations are still needed and accepted through the first week of September. There are a variety of ways sponsors can help and options are online here.

Haverhill

Hillies Football Looks to Bring ‘Focus and Attitude’ to 2026 Season

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Haverhill High School football is set to start play for the 2026 season. Despite going 3-6 the last two years, Coach Robert Pike says the team “has a lot of potential.”

Pike told WHAV the strength of the team this year will be its focus and attitude. He said, “They know they have potential, but they know it’s a lot of work.” He added leadership and excitement will also play a crucial role in the team’s performance this year. An aspect Pike believes the team needs to improve on is its confidence, and belief in itself. Pike said many of the players on this year’s team are returning starters from last season on both the defensive and offensive side of the game.

Haverhill

Haverhill to Consider Hilldale, Other Alternatives for Battery Site Zone

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Five additional sites in Haverhill that could accommodate a so-called battery energy storage system, or BESS, will soon be considered by the Haverhill City Council. Haverhill city councilors put off a discussion Tuesday night about a proposed zone on Amesbury Road in the event any such siting proposals come before the city. The Council’s own Planning and Development Committee Monday appeared poised Monday night, however, to recommend other sites. A Hilldale Avenue site scored highest among both city departments and subcommittee members. Other options include Broadway Business Park on Computer Drive off Route 97, Cross and Neck Roads in Ward Hill and Groveland Road at the old city dump.

Community Spotlight

Soup-er September Food Drive Aims to Collect 5,000 Cans and Packages

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A coalition of city officials, businesses and nonprofit aid groups say they will be “warming hearts and homes, one can at a time” with a Soup-er September food drive to restock food shelves before winter. Soup-er September Food Drive, organized in partnership with Somebody Cares New England, has set a goal of collecting 5,000 cans and boxes of soup to help those in need. Donations, which may be made at community events and locations throughout the city, will be distributed by Somebody Cares, 411 Cares, All Saints Parish, Emmaus, Common Grounds, Sacred Hearts, Liz Murphy Open Hand, Calvary Baptist Church and Veterans Outreach Center. At-large City Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan outlined the concept Tuesday night before his colleagues. “The reasons we’re doing soups—actually, and chilis and chowders—during the month of September is we’ve come to find out that food pantries in the area have a hard time getting volumes of soup and chilis and chowders for the winter months.