By MARK SARDELLA
The campaign to oppose a likely question on the Nov. 6 election ballot seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use is picking up steam, as State Senator Jason Lewis appeared before the Board of Selectmen on Monday to present the case for voting “no” on recreational pot.
Lewis headed a year-long study by a committee of Massachusetts lawmakers on the impact of legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts. Based on everything that he learned, Lewis said that he is strongly opposed to the ballot measure that will likely go before voters in November seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use and allow it to be sold commercially.
Lewis has joined the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, a bipartisan effort to oppose recreational marijuana. The campaign is spearheaded by Gov. Charlie Baker, Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo and Boston mayor Marty Walsh.
Continue reading ‘Senator Lewis: Just say ‘no’ to legalizing pot’
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Tags: >Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, 4Front Ventures, AIM, alcohol, Association for Behavioral Healthcare, hemp, legalization, lobbyists, marijuana, marijuana industry, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police, Massachusetts District Attorneys, Massachusetts Hospital Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, money profit, National Association of Mental Illness of Massachusetts, pot, Retailers Association of Massachusetts, SAMHSA, Sen. Jason Lewis, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, Wakefield Daily Item, weed
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 out into the Lake to save a “victim” and deliver her to waiting Action Ambulance EMTs.
Ryan noted that in Middlesex County there are 136 lakes and ponds and 22 rivers.
“They offer many opportunities for recreational activity,” Ryan observed, “but all too often that fun turns to tragedy in accidents that could have and should have been avoided.”
Ryan cited a Centers for Disease Control report that from 2005 to the present, 10 people died every single day in swimming or some other water-related incidents (not including boating). Of those, she said, 5,000 were children.
“This is what we’re trying to avoid as we go into the summer,” she said.
Continue reading ‘DA brings water safety message to Wakefield’
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Tags: Action Ambulance, Adam Rodgers, boating, Boys & Girls Club of Stoneham & Wakefield, Captain Mary Walker, District Attorney Marian Ryan, drowning, Fire Chief Michael Sullivan, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Environmental Police, Middlesex County, Mike Woronka, Police Chief Richard Smith, rescue, safety, swimming, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Fire Department, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police, water, water safety
The walk of life
By MARK SARDELLA
They came to celebrate life and they came to reaffirm a commitment to defeat cancer.
And they came to walk.
More than 1,000 people made their way to the athletic field at Northeast Metro Tech on Friday, June 17, 2016 for Wakefield’s Relay For Life. They included cancer survivors, caregivers and participants in 53 teams as well as other supporters.
Before the event ended, they had raised more than $100,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Continue reading ‘The walk of life’
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Tags: American Cancer Society, Anthony Longo, Darcy Corrigan, Donald Wong, House Calls Catering, Julie Budd, Mark Sardella, Mary McKenzie, Massachusetts, Northeast Metro Tech, Paul Brodeur, Relay for Life, survivors, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
By MARK SARDELLA
Whether or not you have read or studied Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, you are undoubtedly familiar with a few of the phrases and idioms that the work gave to the English language.
“Water, water, every where,/ Nor any drop to drink,” is one. But the metaphor of an albatross around one’s neck has become an English language idiom referring to a heavy burden of guilt that becomes an obstacle to success.
“Albatross,” the current one-man play at Gloucester Stage Company, is both a retelling and an extension of Coleridge’s epic poem. Co-written by Matthew Spangler and Benjamin Evett (who also performs as the mariner) the play appends to the poem a prologue that explains how the mariner got on board the ship.
Continue reading ‘Albatross soars at Gloucester Stage’
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Tags: Albatross, Benjamin Evett, Cristina Todesco, Frances Nelson McSherry, Garrett Herzig, Gloucester Stage, Leslie Sears, mariner, Mark Sardella, Matthew Spamgler, play, Rick Lombardo, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sailor, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, sea, ship, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item
Of plastic and pot
The town recently held an event called “Wakefield 101,” an orientation session for new residents to give them a chance to talk to representatives of town departments, community organizations and local businesses.
The idea was to help new residents get the lay of the land and to give them a heads up on how we do things here in Wakefield. The first such session was by all accounts an unqualified success.
So successful, in fact, that the state might want to consider stealing the idea, and not just offer it to new residents of the Commonwealth. Things are changing so fast that even lifelong Massachusetts residents may soon need an orientation to figure out what’s going on in the new Bay State.
Continue reading ‘Of plastic and pot’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Bay State, business, fossil fuels, herb, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella Wakefield Daily Item, Massachusetts, petroleum, plastic bags, pot, Wakefield 101, Wakefield Massachusetts, weed
Hot fun in the summertime
As of this writing, we have eight people (and counting) running for Selectman in the July 19 Special Election to fill the nine months left on former selectman Betsy Sheeran’s term.
This sudden surge of interest in public service is truly a wonderful thing to behold.
My only question is, where were some of these people last month when we didn’t have enough candidates for all of the positions on the Town Election ballot? Walter Schofield had to mount a write-in campaign after nobody could be bothered getting on the ballot for an open slot on the Board of Assessors.
Continue reading ‘Hot fun in the summertime’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Betsy Sheeran, Board of Selectmen, candidates, election, July, Mark Sardella, Mass., Massachusetts, Phyllis Hull, Politics, selectman, special election, summer, Town Election, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walter Schofield
By MARK SARDELLA
It was a shotgun blast to the face as she answered the door of her posh New York City Apartment. The only question was who killed the beautiful and successful advertising executive – and why?
In Stoneham Theatre’s production of Laura, answering that question falls to NYC Police detective Mark McPherson (played by Alexander Cook), as hardboiled a gumshoe as there ever was. Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade have nothing on this dick.
Continue reading ‘Stoneham Theatre’s ‘Laura’ an intriguing noir’
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Tags: Alexander Cook, Chris Larson, cope, Dashiell hammett, Deb Sullivan, detective, dick, Dominique D. Burford, drama, Eliot Purcell, Erica Desautels, gumshoe, James Tolman, Jasmine Rush, Laura, Liana Asim, Mark Sardella, Misaki Nishimiya, Molly Kimmerling, murder, mystery, Philip Marlowe, play, Raymond Chandler, Sam Spade, Sarah Gazdowicz, stage, Steven Barkhimer, Stoneham, Stoneham Theatre, theater, Wakefield Daily Item
By MARK SARDELLA
It all started when he purchased nine Pleasure Island postcards at a local church antiques show.
Since then, Wakefield’s Robert McLaughlin has written five books and turned himself into one of the country’s leading experts on American theme parks. His latest book, Magic Mountain was published last week and tells the story of the park of the same name that was once nestled in the hills of Golden, Colorado, just outside of Denver.
Magic Mountain was the first of three knockoff theme parks designed by Disney deserter C.V. Wood and his firm, Marco Engineering. The other two were Pleasure Island in Wakefield and Freedomland in New York City.
Continue reading ‘Wakefield author Bob McLaughlin publishes history of ‘Magic Mountain’’
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Tags: amusement parks, Arcadia Publishing, Baby Boomers, Bob McLaughlin, C.V. Wood, Colorado, Disneyland, Freedomland, Golden Colorado, Heritage Square, Magic Mountain, Marco Engineering, Mark Sardella, New York City, Pleasure Island, Robert McLaughlin, theme parks, trolly parks, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walt Disney, Walter F. Cobb, westerns
Special effects
If you are one of those who thought last week’s election meant that you could finally count Phyllis Hull out, a) You don’t know Phyllis Hull very well and, b) you might want to cork the Champagne, at least for now.
Hull was defeated in her bid to be re-elected to the Board of Selectmen in the April 26 Town Election, but within 48 hours she was preparing a petition for the town to call a Special Election to fill the vacancy left on the board by the election of Selectman Betsy Sheeran as Town Clerk.
And if you thought she wouldn’t get the 200 signatures necessary to call a Special Election, then you really don’t know Phyllis Hull.
Continue reading ‘Special effects’
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, campaign, candidate, debt exclusion, dissent, election, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, money, Opinion, override, Phyllis Hull, politicians, Politics, Proposition 2 1/2, special election, taxes, taxpayers, veterans, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, World War II
Directed by Nancy Curran Willis
By MARK SARDELLA
Israel Horovitz’s play “My Old Lady” is set in Paris but in Quannapowitt Players upcoming production there are Wakefield connections galore.
Most obvious is the fact that Horovitz is a Wakefield native who grew up on Elm Street and graduated from Wakefield High School in 1956.
On top of that, the director of the production, Nancy Curran Willis, is also a Wakefield native and WHS grad. (Her son, Lt. Sean Curran is a Wakefield firefighter.)
Continue reading ‘QP brings Horovitz’s ‘My Old Lady’ home’
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Tags: comedy, David Kimmelman, drama, France, Gloucester Stage, Israel Horovitz, Kevin Kline, Kim Anton Myatt, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lake Quannapowitt, Liz Robbins, Maggie Smith, Mark Sardella, My Old Lady, Nancy Curran Willis, play, playwright, Quannapowitt Players, theater, viager, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Mark Sardella 