I want to add my condolences to those of the School Committee and the rest of the town tonite to Colleen Garry on the loss of her father today.

He was a true servant to the community for years, and our town was made better by his efforts.

Senator-elect Scott Brown will be making a stop in Dracut this Saturday on a “thank you” tour as he travels around the state to thank those who helped him win the election.

Stop in to see him at Lenzi’s this Saturday, Jan 30th at 3:30 p.m.

Thank you very much for all your support. Together we achieved victory. It has been just over one week since the Election and I’ve been busy working on the transition.

There are so many of you I want to thank and I look forward to representing you in the United States Senate. Every day I hold this office, I will give all that is in me to serve you well and make you proud.

Most of all, I will remember that while the honor is mine, this Senate seat belongs to no one person and no political party – and as I have said before, and you said loud and clear, it is the people’s seat.

The Open Spaces committee is sponsoring a presentation by nationally acclaimed naturalist Mark Fraser of Dracut.

Wednesday, Jan 27th at 6:30 p.m. at the Dracut Library, the talk “will provide a glimpse of the varied wildlife right outside out doors and simple things that can be done to protect and enhance the environment.”

See the library announcement here:

http://www.dracutlibrary.org/adultprograms.htm#wildlife

If you’re not interested in watching the Board of Selectmen meeting on Tuesday, you may be interested in another large project that will soon be making a huge impact to Dracut.

There has been an effort underway to reconstruct the rotary at 110/113 and 93 over in Methuen for the last few years.

The project has moved significantly forward, and a public hearing is being held Tuesday evening at the Methuen Senior Center, 77 Lowell Street, Methuen from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with a presentation planned for 7:00 p.m.

The project is planned to be constructed over 3 years.. and there are two possible plans underway so far (both including new lights, reconstruction of the are intersections and an elimination of the rotary).

From the project website:

Based on the alternatives analysis and community input, two alternatives were carried forward from the 2008 Study (Alternatives 2B and 3A). The key features of the alternatives under review include:

• Four realigned/reconstructed ramps – southbound exit ramp, southbound entrance ramp, northbound exit ramp and northbound entrance ramp;
• New cloverleaf ramp(s);
• Realignment of Route 110/113 including construction of new signalized intersections on the east and west sides of the interchange;
• Removal of the two existing I-93 bridges over the existing rotary roadways; and
• Reconstruction of the Route 110/Riverside Drive/Bolduc Street and Route 113/Branch Street intersections on the west side of the interchange.

This will probably impact traffic throughout one of Dracut’s only significant industrial zones, not to mention the commercial interests along 113/110 on both sides of the rotary.

Hearing Notice: download flyer

A note from Rebecca on next weeks meeting at the Dracut Historic Society:

The Historical Society has changed its monthly meetings to the second  Sunday of each month at 3 pm instead of the second Monday at 7 pm.

So next Sunday January 10th I’ll be talking about Shay’s Rebellion and  of course Dracut’s role in the uprising.  I hope you can make it.  The  Rebellion was far larger than I realized.  You should google the  Springfield Armory–they have an excellent site on it.  It’s really  quite interesting.

These presentations are really interesting, and truly show Dracut’s part in American history.

Click for more pictures

Five towns, six hours.. lots of logistics, and Tim keeping it all together.

This morning we took the morning show on 980 WCAP on the road. With Tyler Dumont and Tim Bomil keeping the production center under control, Warren Shaw, Brian Bradbury and I took the Salvation Army on a trip throughout the Greater Lowell Area performing live radio from Dracut, Tewksbury, Lowell, Chelmsford and Dracut in preparation for next weeks Salvation Army Radiothon Auction.

With less than 10 minutes during top of the hour breaks, Sam Poulten helped the team succeed in moving from town to town, and the program flowed easily as people came out in each town to donate and support our efforts for the Salvation Army.

Next week is the real deal though.. we’re aiming high. Soon I will have a list of items available here, and we will start the live auction next Saturday morning. Tune in, bid on an item.. or pledge a donation. Its all for a good cause.

The Salvation Army Captain in San Francisco had resolved, in December of 1891, to provide a free Christmas dinner to the area’s poor persons. But how would he pay for the food?

As he went about his daily tasks, the question stayed in his mind. Suddenly, his thoughts went back to his days as a sailor in Liverpool, England. On the Stage Landing he saw a large pot, called “Simpson’s pot” into which charitable donations were thrown by passers-by.

On the next morning, he secured permission from the authorities to place a similar pot at the Oakland ferry landing, at the foot of Market Street. No time was lost in securing the pot and placing it in a conspicuous position, so that it could be seen by all those going to and from the ferry boats. In addition, a brass urn was placed on a stand in the waiting room for the same purpose.

Thus, Captain Joseph McFee launched a tradition that has spread not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world.

(more…)

One excellent resource in the search for family history is the Registry of Deeds in the local courthouses.

Ours is an example of modern efficiency and technical excellence through the efforts of Dick Howe Jr.

He has moved a great deal of the registry deed and records online, in a simple to search format for the most recent records.. and with most of the old records online as well.. though a little harder to search.

He is being sponsored by the Lowell Historical Society to give a presentation next Tuesday (the 24th) Evening at the Lowell Pollard Library (downtown) on how the data he provides can be used for historical and genealogical research.

Sounds like a great resource to learn more about, and a good opportunity to learn from the “primary source”.

I had four meetings scheduled for tonite… so I had to choose. Funny thing was, two of them were in the same building.

At the Dracut Historic Society this evening, the society invited Dracut Teacher Rebecca Duda to make a presentation to their monthly meeting.

Her selection was Dracut African Americans in the American Revolution.

In attendance were about 30 of her students (and many of their family members), as well as the Historic Society members, State Rep Colleen Garry, and a few others like myself and Brian Flaherty who have an interest in the history of Dracut.

What could have been a dry discussion actually was very interesting and fun to watch.

Ms Duda used the topic to inspire her students to see Dracut as a living thing, and was able to bring the people to life by bringing out pictures of them, documents they had written, maps of where they lived in town, information on the battles they participated in and documents showing their family members and finally when they died and where they were buried.

Where a teacher could be just rattling off dates and places, following a textbook to teach the subject, this one teaches History by making it personal to the students.. as well as the rest of the audience.  Someone who was fighting at Saratoga was not just some distant dead person. This guy owned land on Marsh Hill, Peter’s Pond was named after his son, Tony Brook in Pelham was named after him (ok, I may have mixed up which was which, but the point is made!)

For a brief time, history became real.

That’s the kind of teacher we need to keep in Dracut.

Which brings us to the School Committee meeting.

(more…)