City Councilor David Hall's complaint against a woman he said falsely accused him of threatening her, was thrown out of court May 2 because police charged the woman under the wrong statute, so Clerk Magistrate Kevin Burke dismissed the case. Hall, 70, a constable and retired Haverhill police sergeant, asked Haverhill police to charge Joyce McMurray, 41, with filing a false police report Jan. 18, when she told police Hall threatened her with violence while he was serving her a home eviction notice. Police may file a new complaint against McMurray.
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Christopher Kelley, a longtime teacher and administrator at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School, was chosen to represent Haverhill on the school's board by a split vote of the School Committee. Kelley, who retired last year after 34 years at Whittier, held a variety of positions at the school. He beat out Corinne Corso for the three-year, unpaid seat. Voting for Kelley were Mayor James Fiorentini and School Committee members Scott Wood Jr., Shaun Toohey and Joseph Bevilacqua. Corso was supported by School Committee President Kerry Fitzgerald and members Susan Danehy and Erin Francescone.
More students are leaving Haverhill schools than are coming here through School Choice and it's costing the city about $500,000 a year. Haverhill has lost about 150 students each year since 2005. School Choice allows any public school student to leave their home community for any other district that accepts school-choice students. When students leave their home districts about $5,500 in state money travels with them to their new district. School officials have mailed surveys to the parents of more than 100 Haverhill students who recently left, Assistant Superintendent Kara Kosmes said. The survey asks parents why they took their children out of Haverhill, where they sent them, and if Haverhill's MCAS scores or money problems were reasons. Most surveys were returned and Kosmes is compiling a report for the School Committee.
A 2.5-mile stretch of the road from Maxwell Street to the Methuen line will get a new surface during the summer or early fall thanks to $2.1 million in state money. The money will also put new surfaces to 13 other Haverhill streets, among them upper Main Street near the American Legion Farm over the summer. The state gave Haverhill $1.1 million for the city roads through its Chapter 90 program. The state will spend another $1 million to pave the stretch of Route 110, which is also River Street. The first group of city roads to be paved this summer are: Hyatt, Edgewood, Eastern and Washington avenues; Amesbury Line and Old Amesbury Line roads; Merrimack and Plaistow roads; Upper Main near the Legion Farm; Inland, South Crystal and Booth streets; and Glenwood Circle. More streets will be announced on a second list coming later this summer. Those roads will be paved in the fall.
The city will be able to bridge a $6.5 million gap in the city budget without cutting residents' services. Mayor James Fiorentini said state money, plus money from selling city land and accepting truckloads of fill at the old city dump helped make ends meet. The budget he presented to the City Council included an additional $1.5 million for schools, had two additional patrolmen and two part-time downtown parking officers. The new fiscal year starts July 1. The mayor's spending plan for the coming year relies on $2.4 million in special state money and eliminating eight positions in city government.
Brandi Sullivan-Feole, 27, a Haverhill mother of three who lived on Bellevue Avenue, was killed shortly before 5 a.m. on Sunday, May 4 when she was hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 495. The investigation into why she was walking on the highway continues. A preliminary investigation by Trooper John McNeil indicated that a 1997 GMC Sierra pickup truck being operated by Raymond Cerri, 47, of Derry, N.H., was traveling north on I-495 in Methuen near Exit 46 (Route 110) when it struck Sullivan-Feole, who was walking in the right travel lane. She was declared dead at the scene. Cerri, an employee of The Eagle-Tribune, was uninjured, state police said. A spokesman for the state police said there have been no charges filed at this time and it could be weeks before the investigation concludes.
The city's animal control officer, police and health inspectors are stepping up enforcement of city dog laws in the wake of four attacks on people in the last month. Animal Control Officer Michelle Hamel said in the last two weeks she has issued 30 fines to dog owners whose pets were not on a leash, as city law requires. The fine is $50. She is also warning residents not to leave their dog droppings behind. Doing so can result in a $100 fine. Dog officers and health inspectors are patrolling parks and playgrounds and they will be issuing fines and warnings to people who do not leash their dogs. The mayor is recommending changes in the city laws to better regulate all breeds of dangerous dogs, not just pit bulls.
Conservation experts for the city and a developer say it is unlikely that construction along a rural stretch of North Avenue forced beavers out of the woods and into the road where they were hit by cars. After a resident complained to the mayor last week about the dead beavers, conservation officials looked into the matter. Curtis Young, president of Wetlands Preservation Inc., said the beaver deaths were likely the result of Mother Nature — not because of construction of the Hospice House. Young said Merrimack Valley Hospice hired his firm to oversee the preservation of plant life and wildlife on 39 acres of woodlands and wetlands at 360 North Ave., where the Hospice House is being built. He said the project is sensitive to plants and wildlife on the land, and that steps were taken to protect Snow's Brook and other wetlands on the property.
Former Mayor John Guerin Jr. lost his $79,500-a-year job with the state Civil Service Commission. Guerin, 46, was not reappointed to the commission by Gov. Deval Patrick when his term expired in March, said Patrick spokeswoman Cyndi Roy. Guerin has been replaced by attorney Paul Stein of Westport, Roy said. Guerin, a Democrat, was appointed to the seat in January 2004 by former Gov. Mitt Romney, shortly after Guerin's single term as Haverhill mayor expired. Guerin did not seek re-election.
The City Council will hold one more meeting on new laws for dangerous dogs and then vote on a proposal for tougher rules and penalties in three weeks. The council agreed to refer to the Public Safety Committee a proposal from the mayor to regulate all breeds of dogs into two categories — dangerous dogs and potentially dangerous dogs. Dogs would be deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous by the city's dog officer or police chief, based on preset criteria. The proposal would give police new tools to control dangerous and potentially dangerous dogs.
Howard Curtis, former director of the city's public library, will spend the next four to six years in state prison for sexually abusing a child. Curtis pleaded guilty May 7 in Salem Superior Court to two counts of sexual abuse of a child under 15. The plea came as the result of a complaint by a New Hampshire man who said that when he was a child in Haverhill in the 1980s, Curtis forced him to perform sexual acts. Curtis will serve his sentence at MCI-Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison for male offenders. Curtis was also accused of molesting boys while he was a Boy Scout leader in Haverhill in the 1980s. The man, who grew up in Haverhill, is suing the city and the Boy Scouts of America. The lawsuit names three former Boy Scouts, among them the plaintiff.
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An 81-year-old man was arrested after he made a sexual proposition to an undercover male police officer in a wooded area of Winnekenni Park. Robert Beaulieu, of 25 Ridgewood Drive, Atkinson, N.H., was charged with indecent assault and battery after the arrest, which happened Wednesday, May 7 at 4:23 p.m. Police Capt. Alan Ratte said police have received reports of illicit activity among people who park in the lot near the castle and walk into the nearby woods. He said the undercover officer walked into the wooded area and was solicited by Beaulieu.
School officials are considering moving 100 special needs students from the St. James School to Whittier Middle School to save some of the 43 public school teaching jobs on the chopping block. Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan's proposal to bridge a projected $3.9 million budget gap for the fiscal year starting July 1 includes eliminating that many teachers, plus three administrators and other jobs. About 360 Whittier students would then be reassigned to nearby Nettle Middle School, which has about 370 students, but space for up to 800 children. The School Department has leased the St. James building from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston since the 1970s. The schools pays $280,000 per year in rent under their current multi-year deal with the Archdiocese, and merging Whittier students into Nettle would save another roughly $660,000.
School Supt. Raleigh Buchanan will stay in Haverhill for at least another three years. The School Committee unanimously approved a new contract that immediately increases his annual salary from $130,000 to $140,675. Buchanan's deal includes an option for a fourth year that would kick in by approval of the School Committee between the eighteenth and twenty-fourth month of the agreement. The agreement includes opportunities for additional pay raises to be negotiated at the start of the second and third years of the contract. It also includes $16,500 in annual perks, including: $6,000 payments into a retirement account; $5,000 for professional development training; and a $3,000 personal vehicle allowance. He can carry over 15 unused vacation days through the end of this calendar year, and it increases his annual payment toward retirement from $5,000 to $6,000.
