Rotarian of the year in Andover

RUN FOR OFFICE - Residents who plan to run for public office have until July 28 to file nomination papers. This year’s preliminary election will be held on Sept. 15. Offices on the ballot are two-year terms. They include mayor, nine City council seats, and six School Committee seats. Mayor William Scanlon is being challenged by City Councilor John Burke. To take out papers, call the city clerk at 978-921-6000 or visit the clerk’s office at City Hall. -Steven Rosenberg

SPECIAL TOWN MEETING CONSIDERATIONS - The Board of Selectmen plan to convene a Special Town Meeting later this summer to balance the town’s spending plans for fiscal 2010, which began Wednesday. Among the questions that may be considered at the meeting: Local option taxes on restaurant meals and hotel rooms, and two Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion override proposals. If placed on the Special Town Meeting warrant, one override question would seek $13 million to buy the Old Mother Hubbard building and convert it into a Department of Public Works facility; the second would seek $12 million to build a new Center Fire Station on town-owned land at Wilson and Chelmsford streets. - Brenda Buote

DETAILS ON HIGH SCHOOL RENOVATION PLAN - The Board of Selectmen and the School Committee will be meeting on Tuesday with the town’s architect for the high school renovation and expansion project. Representatives from DiNisco Design Partnership, of Boston, will present its recently completed feasibility design for the project at the School Committee’s meeting at 6 p.m. and the selectmen’s meeting at 7:30 p.m. Both meetings are at the Holten-Richmond Middle School. Completion of the feasibility study, which includes a schematic design of the project, is a necessary step in the town’s efforts to secure state reimbursement for the project. - John Laidler

INTERIM TOWN ADMINISTRATOR NAMED - The Board of Selectmen has voted unanimously to appoint Mike Farrell of Methuen as interim town administrator. Farrell has held several positions in municipal government and now works with Municipal Resources, Inc., a company that provides consulting services to cities and towns. The Board of Selectmen and Farrell will begin contract negotiations during the next few weeks. - David Cogger

NEW TRASH HAULER - The city has hired Hiltz Rubbish Removal as its new trash hauler, and beginning this month recycling pickups will be weekly. Glass, tin, and plastics should be separated from cardboard and papers. For more information on recycling, call 978-281-9785, or the trash hot line at 978-281-9790. - Steven Rosenberg

FIVE CANDIDATES FOR POLICE CHIEF - Board of Selectmen chairman David Carey says that the police chief search committee has narrowed its field to five candidates, and expects to present two or three finalists to the board sometime this week. The board plans to interview the finalists (which will be broadcast on the local cable channel), and should make its decision by the end of July, Carey said. - David Rattigan

TRAINING FOR JOBS - Northern Essex Community College is scheduled to host an information session later this month to discuss careers in the human services sector - from case manager to social work assistant and mental health aide - and how students can train for them at Northern Essex, pairing classroom studies with internships to gain real-world work experience. Human service workers, particularly those who are bilingual, are in high demand, according to Jane Gagliardi, coordinator of the human services program at Northern Essex. The information session is slated to run July 29 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Room A124 in the library on the community college’s Haverhill campus at 100 Elliott St. For more information, contact Gagliardi at 978 556-3302 or visit the program website at www.necc.mass.edu/programs/humanservices. - Brenda Buote

LOOKING INTO WIND POWER - Encouraged by Governor Deval Patrick’s goal to develop 2,000 megawatts of wind power in the state by 2020, Councilor William Martin recently presented a motion to determine the feasibility of erecting a turbine at the capped landfill. The council referred the motion to City Manager Bernard F. Lynch, who told the council the wind atop the landfill was not strong enough to produce sufficient wind power, said City Clerk Richard Johnson. However, city officials will look at other potential locations for a wind turbine, Johnson said. - Katheleen Conti

NEW LEADER FOR JCC - The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore has a new chief administrator. Anthony Daniels has been named the center’s acting executive director. Daniels, 40, a Peabody native, began his new post on Wednesday. He succeeds Perry Frankston, who submitted his resignation in the spring. Over the last year, the center has lost more than 10 percent of its members. Administrators attributed the decline in membership to the economic downturn and to the opening of a new YMCA in Marblehead last winter. - Steven Rosenberg

SUMMER NIGHTS OF FUN - The Methuen Afterschool Project Inc. will kick off its 2009 Summer Nights of Fun program with an Arts & Crafts Night Thursday from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Tenney Grammar School gymnasium. Summer Nights of Fun events are free, run Thursdays through July and August, and are open to all residents of the Merrimack Valley. Activities will introduce children and parents to the programs that will be offered at the proposed Methuen Boys and Girls Club, scheduled to open at the Tenney Grammar School in September. Event themes include sports, movies, health, karaoke, and story time. For more information, visit www.methuenbgcaproject.org/summer2009.html. - Karen Sackowitz

LARKEN ROAD DAM STUDY - Engineers are set to move forward on a study to determine the fate of the Larken Road Dam. Selectmen voted to award the contract for the study to Gomez and Sullivan Engineers of Weare, N.H., according to Town Administrator Charles Kostro. The firm will study several factors, including ecology, hydrology, and fish habitat. There are several options to deal with the circa-19th-century dam - maintain its structure either partially or fully, repair or modify it for fish passage, or remove it. The firm will have a draft report of the feasibility study ready in the fall, Kostro said, and the final report prepared for public discussion in spring 2010. There will be public meetings throughout the process. Voters approved the use of $10,000 at the May town meeting for the dam project; that will be used in conjunction with $62,000 in federal funding awarded earlier this year. - Taryn Plumb

STAUDE APPOINTED TO NEW POST - Jay Staude has been appointed an acting police sergeant for the North Andover Police Department. Staude has spent 17 years with the department, most recently as a police inspector. He was recommended for the position by Town Manager Mark Rees and Police Chief Richard Stanley, and the Board of Selectmen approved the appointment early last week.

NEW PRINCIPAL NAMED - School Superintendent C. Milton Burnett recently announced the appointment of Todd Bucey as the new principal of Higgins Middle School, effective June 26. Bucey replaces Melissa Matarazzo, who resigned at the end of the school year to pursue her doctorate degree. Bucey was among 30 up for the principal’s position. Since 2002 he had served as a housemaster at the Higgins school. Prior to that, he worked at the Higgins for a year as a technology professional development specialist, and for six years as a teacher.

FARMERS’ MARKET RETURNS - A venerable Salem tradition has recently been revived. For much of its nearly four centuries, Salem has had a farmers’ market, with the first one established in 1634. At one time in the 1930s, the weekly market attracted 40 vendors and as many as 10,000 buyers. With the advent of supermarkets, that market declined in popularity and was discontinued in the early 1970s when Derby Square - the area the market had operated - was reconfigured. This year, the 375th anniversary of the original market, the Salem Main Streets program has worked with the city and volunteers to bring back a weekly market. The market, which debuted June 25, will operate every Thursday from 4-7 p.m. at Derby Square on Front Street through Oct. 29. In addition to fresh produce from local farms, the market features seafood, fresh-baked goods, and a number of other local products. For more information, go to www.salemfarmersmarket.org. - John Laidler

HARBOR FESTIVAL SATURDAY - The annual free Swampscott Harbor Festival, postponed earlier this year because of a forecast of inclement weather, was rescheduled to Saturday. The Swampscott Yacht Club will hold the Blessing of the Fleet at 2 pm., and a teen band concert sponsored by the public library will begin at 3 p.m. and run into the evening, followed by a bonfire on the beach at 9 p.m. Bands scheduled to play include Red Rock, Anything Goes, and The Ones on the Left. The Harbor Festival will be held at Fisherman’s Beach, 425 Humphrey St. For more information, call the Swampscott Public Library at 781-596-8867. - David Rattigan

WINEMAKING COMPETITION - The Topsfield Fair announces its fourth annual winemaking competition for amateur winemakers. Professional judges will evaluate the wine on appearance, taste, finish, and overall quality. Entry forms and details are available at the Topsfield Fairgrounds administration building on Route 1 in Topsfield, or at Alfalfa Farm on the Rowley Bridge Road in Topsfield. The deadline for entries is Aug. 12. Forms can also be downloaded, and further information is available at the fair’s website, www.topsfieldfair.org, or call Ann Savage at 978-887-5000. - David Cogger

INTERIM PRINCIPAL AT SOUHEGAN - James B. Bosman will be interim principal of Souhegan High School next year. Bosman retired last year from Brookline High School in Massachusetts, where he was coordinator of mathematics. Before joining the faculty in Brookline, Bosman taught mathematics at Souhegan for 14 years and was dean of the school’s faculty from 1998-2001. After Souhegan principal Scott Prescott announced his decision to resign for personal reasons in April, the school district advertised the position and winnowed the list of applicants down to two. But when one of the finalists dropped out, school officials chose to seek an interim principal for one year, while the search continues.

BAN ON HEAVY TRUCKS - Trucks that weigh more than 20 tons may no longer use the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge. The restriction was announced by state transportation officials after an inspection of the structure in June found deterioration of several steel deck supports. The bridge carries the Route 1 bypass over the Piscataqua River. The restriction may be eliminated if repairs are made, a project that should take about three weeks once work begins. In the meantime, trucks that exceed the weight limit will have to cross the Piscataqua River Bridge on Interstate 95, as the Memorial Bridge also has a weight limit of 20 tons. - Tom Long