Archive for the ‘News’ Category

A lot of people who plan to vote “Yes” on Question 4 will be in for a big surprise after it passes. They think the ballot question to legalize marijuana for recreational use is about making it so that people won’t go to jail for smoking a joint. But what it’s really about is allowing […]


Wakefield is getting good at hosting really big parties: Festival Italia, the Holiday Stroll and Independence Day are prime examples. Soon to take its place alongside those is the upcoming Halloween spectacular, “Haunted Happenings.” But what if you can’t make it for some reason? What’s the next best thing to being there?


It’s even worse than I thought. A couple of weeks ago, we discussed Voter Fatigue and the steps that our state and local governments are taking to aid us in performing that onerous civic duty known as voting. But until Thursday, September 8, I had no idea that for more than 90 percent of us, […]


Voter fatigue

02Sep16

You’ve got your work cut out for you this fall. It’s called voting, and you’re going to have to do it not once, but twice. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Hopefully you’ve recovered from voting in the local Special Election on July 19 and have spent the summer resting and building up your strength […]


To paraphrase the late, great Dan Hicks, “How can we miss them when they won’t go away?” Just when you thought it was safe to go to the Post Office on Saturday morning, they’re back like a bad penny – or three or four of them. The Wakefield Civic League, those guardians of our local […]


By MARK SARDELLA We all know how social media has affected our own lives. We see it every time we check Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in and a host of new networks springing up every day. Even those who have succeeded in resisting social media can’t avoid it entirely. But how is social media impacting the corporate […]


Fine print

05Aug16

Lately, I don’t feel like my week is complete until I’ve been lectured by a millennial about one thing or another. Usually it’s about the evil of plastic bags or how many genders there are or how the Founding Fathers all smoked hemp, dude. The usual venue for these sermons is social media, where I’m […]


Now that July 19 is behind us, can we finally admit that all the hand-wringing over the Special Election had nothing to do with it costing the town $10,000 and everything to do with politics and the person who filed for the Special Election? After Phyllis Hull collected the 200 signatures needed to force the […]


Things like the recent Independence Day celebration and the upcoming Festival Italia remind me that civic groups that actually do things are a lot more interesting (not to mention fun) than the ones that exist just air grievances and self-promote. If it’s true that after July Fourth, the summer flies by, then why do I […]


By MARK SARDELLA WAKEFIELD — With Lake Quannapowitt as the backdrop, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan stood shoulder to shoulder with a host of local officials yesterday to convey a life-saving message about water safety this summer. And to hammer the point home, the Wakefield Fire Department conducted a simulated drowning rescue, swimming far […]