What about the turbine?

Several abutters of the ecologically friendly Forbes Park development have told city councilors they are concerned about what the development's 650-kilowatt wind turbine may do to their property values, as well as any potential noise that might come from it. Concerns will be further discussed at a City Council subcommittee on conference meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Forbes Park is a residential, retail, and office complex at the Chelsea waterfront. - Katheleen Conti

WIRELESS INSTALLATION OK'D - Faced with a federal lawsuit, the Board of Aldermen has agreed to grant permission to NextG to install a new type of wireless networking system wireless network on 20 utility poles in Everett. NextG, a California-based telecommunications company, filed suit against Everett late last month in federal court after the board refused to authorize the installation of the company's distributed antenna system, or DAS, to utility poles. Aldermen had voiced concerns about the aesthetics and the safety of hanging the system's metal antennae, which are about 3 feet long and a foot wide and have been likened to gym lockers. Monday night's vote was 4 to 3 in favor of the installation, with Aldermen Michael Marchese, Jason Marcus, and Wayne Matewsky voting against the measure. The board's approval was contingent on NextG dropping its lawsuit against the city. - Kay Lazar

VARIANCE REQUEST FOR NEW HOUSING - The Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development on Tuesday will ask permission from the Zoning Board of Appeals to allow nine housing units to be built on the old Waterworks site on Walnut Street. The development includes a total of seven lots of land on Childs, Flint, and Walnut streets. Five single-family homes would be built on Childs and Flint streets, and two two-family homes on Walnut Street. Each lot has less than the minimum required area and frontage allowed by the city's zoning ordinance, so a variance from the board is required. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Room 302 at City Hall. - Kathy McCabe

LONGER CONSTRUCTION HOURS - The contractor working on the state Department of Education site in Malden has been given permission to temporarily work longer hours. The extended hours - 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. - were to go into effect Wednesday and will allow CorJen Builders to pour and finish concrete flooring for the five-floor complex, according to an announcement from the city. City police details will supervise the work, which is expected to be completed by early next month. Anyone with questions or concerns may call the mayor's office at 781-397-7000 or Ward 4 Councilor James Nestor at 781-324-2672. - Erin Ailworth

GETTING KINDERGARTNERS READY - Parents have been invited to a free workshop about easing anxieties for children who are starting kindergarten. The workshop will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. April 8 in the Odyssey Day School at 11 Paul Ave. in Wakefield. Research and experience shows that a successful transition to kindergarten can contribute to long-term success in school, according to the Community Partnership for Children program of Melrose, Stoneham, and Wakefield. Leading the workshop will be Maxine Weinreb, an educational psychologist who also is licensed as a marriage and family therapist. Space is limited for the free workshop and registration is required. Call 781-246-6425, and leave a name, town, and phone number. - Kay Lazar

STATE TO AUDIT DPW - The state auditor's office offered to probe dealings at the city's Department of Public Works from July 1, 2006, through Dec. 31, 2007, at a cost to the city of no more than $25,000. City Councilor George Rotondo said, however, that the state disregarded his request to audit the years 2002 through 2006. Rotondo had requested the audit based on his allegations that there is more than $4 million in equipment that's unaccounted for. The City Council forwarded the matter to its Ways and Means Subcommittee, which is scheduled to meet at 5 p.m. March 24. - Katheleen Conti

AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM - The Saugus Youth and Recreation Department will start an 11-week after-school program on April 1 at Belmonte Middle School. Arts and crafts, indoor and outdoor games, and a homework club are planned for the program, which is open to all sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders in the town. The program will meet from 2:10 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the school library. The cost is $60 per child. All students must be registered in advance. Checks may be made payable to the town of Saugus. For information, call Youth and Recreation at 781-231-4022. - Kathy McCabe

FULL ELECTION SLATE - With the deadline to submit nomination papers having passed, the lineup is in place for the town election scheduled for April 22. There are four contested races. Five candidates are vying for two seats on the Board of Selectmen. One of the seats is vacant because of the recent resignation of Stephen P. Maio, who is seeking to replace retiring Town Administrator Thomas P. Butler. Competing are Dennis Cloherty, William R. DiScipio Sr., Patrick S. Glynn, F. Michael Nardone, and incumbent Betsy Sheeran. Incumbent Christopher J. Callanan, Michael H. Conley, and David P. Lieber are contending for two seats on the School Committee. Former Board of Assessors member Edward H. Stone and incumbent Sebastian P. Tine are competing for a seat on that panel. Former selectman Kevin T. Haggerty and incumbent John J. Warchol are vying for a seat on the Municipal Gas & Light Commission. Meanwhile, Michael Bourque and incumbents Nancy C. Delaney and Harold D. Regan are running unopposed for three seats on the Board of Library Trustees. Bourque was appointed to the committee to fill a vacancy created by a resignation and is running for a full three-year term. Christopher M. Jinicki is running for the remaining year on Bourque's term. Six others are running unopposed for reelection. They are Town Moderator William Harbison Carroll, Planning Board member Frederick J. Emilianowicz Jr., Constable Robert E. Foley, Town Clerk Mary K. Galvin, and Board of Health member Ann McGonigle Santos. - John Laidler

BAILING OUT SCHOOL BUDGET - Town Manager Richard White has requested a $225,000 transfer from free-cash reserves to cover part of a projected $448,022 deficit in the school department's current budget. The deficit is a result of unrealized retirements, decreased school lunch participation, special-education expenses, and unforeseen or extraordinary maintenance repair costs. The transfer has a caveat that the School Committee make adjustments in programs to eliminate or significantly reduce the need for an additional transfer. The Town Council is scheduled to get a recommendation from its Finance Subcommittee and the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Finance, and then vote on the request on March 26, said council president Thomas E. Reilly. - Katheleen Conti

SPIFFING UP DOWNTOWN - Beverly Main Streets, the nonprofit organization that helps stimulate Beverly's economy, is spearheading a project that would offer low-interest loans and matching grants to downtown business owners who want to renovate their storefronts. Beverly Main Streets and the city's Planning Department will hold a workshop for business owners at 5:30 p.m. March 31 at the Beverly Public Library. The program will allow businesses to borrow up to $40,000 in loans and offer matching grants of up to $5,000. For more information, call 978-922-8558. - Steven Rosenberg

BARBECUE RESTAURANT SEEKS LICENSE - Texas Roadhouse, a barbecue restaurant, has applied to the Board of Selectmen for the liquor license held by Spud's restaurant on Endicott Street. Spud's is closing its Danvers location, but not its restaurants in Rowley, Saugus, and Woburn. Texas Roadhouse plans to open at the Danvers Plaza on Route 1 north, where tenants now include Staples and Stop & Shop. A public hearing on the license transfer will be held Tuesday during the selectmen's meeting, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Town Hall. - Kathy McCabe

CHEMICAL SPILL HAS A COST - The city has a signed a consent order with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and has agreed to pay a $2,000 fine to the state after a chemical was discharged into Alewife Brook last summer. According to the DEP, the city violated the Clean Water Act last August, when 90 gallons of a concentrated caustic chemical used at its water treatment plant was discharged into the brook. Mayor Carolyn Kirk said that the consent order calls for the city to submit a plan in the next month to connect the plant's drains to the sanitary sewer system. DEP had fined the city $34,500 over the matter, but has agreed to suspend $32,500 of the penalty. - Steven Rosenberg

COOKING UP CONFIDENCE - A Middleton children's cookbook author will bring her culinary talents to a national audience this month. Katie Wilton will be featured on two segments of the ABC Family Channel's talk show, "Living the Life," on March 26 and 28. The show airs from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Wilton will demonstrate recipes for pizza wontons and yogurt fruit shakes from her 2006 cookbook,"You're the Cook: A Guide to Mixing it Up in the Kitchen," designed for 9- to 14-year-olds. Wilton will be joined in the demonstration by the show's host, Carolyn Castleberry, along with Castleberry's two daughters and their friends. - John Laidler

POLICE AWARDED GRANT - Salem police have been awarded a $66,500 grant from the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, in part to help reduce the incidence of juvenile offenders repeating their infractions. According to an announcement from the city, the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Grant also will be used to reduce alcohol dependence in the community and to "ensure the proper collection, follow-up, and public dissemination of information of sex offenders required to register with the Police Department." Salem police were among only six departments statewide that were funded. - Erin Ailworth

SELECTMEN APPROVE BUDGET INCREASE - The Board of Selectmen recently adopted Town Administrator Andrew Maylor's proposed fiscal 2009 budget. The $52,996,684 plan provides for a 3.8 percent, or $1.9 million, spending increase over the current year's budget. The school budget increased 3.5 percent, or $756,000. The remaining $631,000 came from an increase in the town's water and sewer enterprise funds. Maylor said to achieve a balanced budget, he had to made reductions totaling $1.7 million to the spending requests of the town's various departments, including about $1 million from the schools. But he said he was spared having to make further reductions when the town recently learned that its health insurance costs will remain at the same level next year. - John Laidler

BROTHERS PRESS LITTERING - Through the initiative of two local boys, the Annual Town Meeting in May will consider a proposed litter prevention bylaw. Hamilton Coke, 12, and his brother, Barrett, 10, conducted a successful petition drive to place the proposal on the warrant. Topsfield currently has no antilitter bylaw, thus there is no fine that police can impose on those who litter, according to Town Administrator Virginia Wilder. The proposed bylaw would make littering subject to a $100 fine for the first offense, $200 for the second, and $300 for the third and subsequent offenses. The initiative by the two boys, both students at Shore Country Day School in Beverly, grew out of a trip they took with their parents to California last summer, according to their mother, Wendy Coke. Struck by the litter-free condition of a coastal highway in California, they wondered why Topsfield's roads could not be similarly clean. With encouragement from town officials, whom they approached with their mother, the boys began an antilitter campaign - John Laidler