Community Spotlight

Driscoll Again Sponsors First Responder, City Worker Appreciation Cookout

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Haverhill’s Driscoll Funeral Home is again treating first responders and city workers to a cookout Friday. Owner Pat Driscoll said the sixth annual First Responders and City Workers Appreciation Cookout takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in the funeral home parking area, 309 S. Main St., Bradford. It features meal raffles provided by local restaurants and businesses

“If you are a current or former City of Haverhill worker, you are invited,” Driscoll said. Last year, more 250 city workers and first responders, including members of the Haverhill Police and Fire Departments and Pridestar Trinity EMS, were served lunch.

Business Bulletin

U.S. Awards National Grid $49M for Grid Improvements, to Meet Growing Demand

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National Grid is receiving about $49 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project which will use advanced transmission technologies to help improve grid reliability, increase system efficiency and support growing electricity demand. Officials said, what is called the Dynamic Rating Enhancement Advancements and Modernization, or DREAM, project will improve visibility into transmission line performance, enabling National Grid to make smarter operating and planning decisions and obtain more value from existing infrastructure across the company’s transmission network in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. “The DREAM project will help deliver a more reliable, resilient and affordable electric system for our customers by giving us better information to make smarter operating and planning decisions,” said National Grid Vice President of Engineering and Network Strategy Andrew Schneller, adding, “By getting more value from the infrastructure we already have, we can strengthen the grid while helping keep costs as affordable as possible.”

Subject to negotiations and a final agreement, the award covers a four-year initiative, which would begin next year. The award, part of the Department of Energy’s Speed to Power, or SPARK program, seeks to accelerate use of advanced technologies that can expand grid capacity, improve reliability and reduce customer costs.

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.

Haverhill

Former Holy Family Hospitals Show Improved Profitability in Report

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Hospitals Financials Improved Ahead of ‘Most Disruptive Wave’
By Alison Kuznitz

The former Holy Family Hospital and its new parent, Merrimack Health, showed improved profitability during the last fiscal year. It was among a majority of Massachusetts hospitals that boosted their profitability, but a trade group offered a cautionary note this week due to federal policy changes that could upend the gains. According to the state Center for Health Information and Analysis—or CHIA, the former Holy Family Hospital posted the highest acute hospital total margin of 27.4%. Merrimack Health, the rebranded system encompassing Lawrence General Hospital and Holy Family Hospital’s campuses in Haverhill and Methuen, had the highest total margin—11.5%—among multi-acute health systems. Holy Family Hospital was salvaged amid the Steward Health Care bankruptcy crisis. CHIA noted both entities “received state funding and one-time revenues related to Merrimack Health’s acquisition of Holy Family Hospital.”

The report also captured how much money hospitals are pouring into the use of temporary workers, a sore point for nurses who have gone on strike or are preparing to walk off the job as they push for higher wages.

Region

Trash Hauler Agrees to Pay $525K to Settle Claims it Left Overflowing Trash

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The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said Tuesday it reached a $525,000 settlement agreement with a trash hauler that it said repeatedly failed to empty overflowing trash dumpsters and recycling containers across the Lawrence Public School system, delayed or disregarded residential trash pickups and left yard waste uncollected. State Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s said JRM Hauling and Recycling Services, a subsidiary of Republic Services, failed to honor its waste and recycling contract with Lawrence, leading to uncollected trash that caused unsanitary conditions across the city. Phoenix-based Republic Services purchased JRM Hauling and Recycling Services of Peabody in 2022. The following year, as WHAV reported at the time, the company paid $9 million for a warehouse on 4.8 acres of land at 5 Fondi Road, Haverhill. Campbell’s office said it began investigating Republic in 2022 following public reports of significant disruptions to waste management services in north shore communities after Republic bought JRM Hauling and Recycling Services.

Business Bulletin

PrideStar Trinity EMS’s Communications Center Wins Reaccreditation

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PrideStar Trinity EMS’ Communications Center has again earned designation as an Accredited Center of Excellence by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. Originally achieving ACE Accreditation in 2017, PrideStar Trinity EMS became the first emergency medical dispatch center in Massachusetts to receive the designation. Today, it remains one of only two accredited Centers of Excellence in the Commonwealth and joins a group of just 300 accredited communications centers worldwide. “This re-accreditation reflects the professionalism, dedication and unwavering commitment of every member of our Communications Center,” said PrideStar Trinity EMS President & CEO David T. Daly. “Our dispatchers are the first contact our patients encounter.

Community Spotlight

‘Wildlife Out Your Window’ Explores Backyard Visitors Oct. 10

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Bradd Timm, nature author and wildlife ecologist, tells the stories of everyone’s backyard visitors when he discusses “Wildlife Out Your Window” during the Haverhill Public Library’s Climate & Community Series. Timm tells the stories and uses photographs and videos from his book, “Wildlife Out Your Window,” to bring common backyard species to life with stories described as fun, memorable, and often surprising. He’ll also provide simple, practical ways people can help wildlife where they live, in the backyard, on the balcony or just through the window view. The free program takes place Saturday, Oct. 10, from 2-3:30 p.m., at Haverhill Public Library, Milhendler Room, 99 Main St., Haverhill.

Haverhill

Downed Limbs Highlight Haverhill’s Nor’easter Bout; Rain Fails to Break Drought

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Downed tree limbs and power outages over the last few days highlighted Haverhill’s experience with the season’s early nor’easter, but an official said, the rain hasn’t done enough to dramatically change local drought conditions. Officials starting receiving calls of power outages, downed tree limbs and business alarms being set off beginning about 12:45, Saturday afternoon. Public Works Director Robert E. Ward told WHAV the wastewater treatment plant on S. Porter Street recorded a little more than two inches of rainwater as of Monday morning. Elsewhere in the city, totals amounted to between an inch and a half and two inches. “It’s not enough, but every little bit does help,” he said.