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Election Results: Community Preservation Act fails

The Community Preservation Act has once again failed in Danvers.
The CPA failed at the polls during the town’s spring election with 1,513 residents voting against it and 1,322 in favor.
The act would have created a local fund to preserve historic buildings, landmarks, drinking water supplies and open space in town, along with community housing programs. It also would have helped create recreational areas and rehabilitate local parks, playgrounds and athletic fields.
The matter was the sole ballot question for the town’s May 2 election. If it had passed, the CPA fund would have been subsidized through a surcharge of 1% on the annual property tax assessed on real property in Danvers, translating to $18 a quarter for the average Danvers homeowner, according to local proponents of the CPA.

School Committee members Eric Crane and Joshua Kepnes, Town Moderator Patricia Fraizer and Select Board member Maureen Bernard ran unopposed for re-election and will remain in their seats.

Lisa Silva won an uncontested race for a spot on the Danvers Housing Authority, while Irene Conte, CoryRyan and Charles Desmond were voted in to fill three seats on the Board of Library Trustees.

Precincts 3, 5 and 7 were the only contested races for Town Meeting.

Precinct 3 voted in Jane Fuller, Linda Lee, James Morose, George Snow, Jeffrey Cary and Jeanne Argento, edging out Gary Cannavo.

Precinct 5 elected Julie Elizabeth Curtis, Charles Dame Jr., Rebecca Froncki, Amy Elizabeth Ciancarelli, Jennifer St. Arneault and Michael Shannon, while Brian Barry just missed getting in.

Precinct 7 elected William Fouhey, Katie Hislop, Robert O’Keefe, Kenneth Gerald Scholes Jr., Kyle Bryce Hopkins, Kristine Cheetham, and R. Geoffrey Caldarone, beating Mark Zuberek.

As for non-contested races, in Precinct 1, Susan Dagley, Torey Adler, Joan Louise Chane, Nova Samodai, Deborah Mary Gesualdo and Karen Joanne Nelson were elected.

Precinct 2 voted in Edward Joseph Gibbons III, Jarod Waterman, Arthur James Francis and Ellen Lefavour.

Precinct 4 elected Gary Alton Jones, Jason Anthony Gross, Cory Ryan, Lisa Marie Trask, Laurent Perreault, Sara Jean D’Antonio and Valentine Ndanga Nanah.

In Precinct 6, Vincent Mackey, Dutrochet Djoko, Mark Lentine, Fawn Burns Anderson, Peter Wilson and Ryan Griffis were voted in.

Precinct 8 saw John Pumphrey Jr., Brandi Ditch, Jonathan Mattarocchia and Jane Tremblay get elected.

Caroline Enos Salem News Staff Writer

Election Results: Community Preservation Act fails Read More »

Community Preservation Act on May 2 ballot

TOWN WIDE ELECTION MAY 2, 2023   VOTE YES for the Quality of Life in Danvers.

The Trustees of the Society voted to support what is likely the most important historic preservation effort that the Town of Danvers has undertaken in the past century.

By accepting the Community Preservation Act , the Town of Danvers would create a grant program to fund historic preservation, open space preservation, and veterans and senior housing programs. This fund would mean that the Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum, the Danvers Historical Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution (Samuel Holten House), and other Danvers history organizations would be able to apply for a share of more than $1.2 million in grants each year.

The Community Preservation Fund is partly paid by fees collected by the Registry of Deeds. Currently, this money paid by Danvers residents is going to other towns’ historic sites each year instead of funding historic preservation here in Danvers. In addition to state money, the fund would be financed by a local charge of 1% of your current property tax bill. (Not the assessed value.) The average Danvers home owner would pay about $17.50 per quarter.

With CPA historic preservation grant funds, the Town of Danvers Preservation Commission would be able to:

Restore the dozens of veteran’s graves that have fallen into disrepair and dishonor in the town-owned cemeteries (such as on High St.) or the abandoned cemeteries the town maintains.

Ensure preservation of the 1681 Salem Village Parsonage site on Centre St.,1892 Peabody Institute Library, 1855 Town Hall, 1832 Putnamville School, façade of the 1923 Holten-Richmond Middle School, 1870 Civil War memorial and other veterans memorials, the Salem Village Witch-Hunt Victims Memorial on Hobart St., and numerous other historic sites.

How you can be involved:

-Encourage your friends and family who are Danvers residents and supporters of historic preservation to support this effort as well.

-Host a sign on your lawn, or volunteer to hold a sign at an intersection around town.

-Vote YES on May 2nd, 2023

For any questions, please contact President, David McKenna at 508-328-2790

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Community Preservation Act on Ballot at Town Election – May 2

The Annual Election is on May 2.

Positions on the ballot:

  • Town Moderator – one 1 year term
  • Select Board member – one 3 year term
  • Housing authority – one 1 year term
  • School Committee – two
  • Library Trustees – three 3 year term
  • Town Meeting member for all eight precincts – six – 3 year term
  • Town Meeting member Precinct 4 – one – 2 year term (in addition to six)
  • Town Meeting member Precinct 4 – one – 1 year term (in addition to six)

Community Preservation Act

The DDTC supports the CPA

VOTE YES for the Quality of Life in Danvers.

The Trustees of the Society voted to support what is likely the most important historic preservation effort that the Town of Danvers has undertaken in the past century.

By accepting the Community Preservation Act , the Town of Danvers would create a grant program to fund historic preservation, open space preservation, and veterans and senior housing programs. This fund would mean that the Rebecca Nurse Homestead Museum, the Danvers Historical Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution (Samuel Holten House), and other Danvers history organizations would be able to apply for a share of more than $1.2 million in grants each year.

The Community Preservation Fund is partly paid by fees collected by the Registry of Deeds. Currently, this money paid by Danvers residents is going to other towns’ historic sites each year instead of funding historic preservation here in Danvers. In addition to state money, the fund would be financed by a local charge of 1% of your current property tax bill. (Not the assessed value.) The average Danvers home owner would pay about $6.00 per month.

With CPA historic preservation grant funds, the Town of Danvers Preservation Commission would be able to:

Restore the dozens of veteran’s graves that have fallen into disrepair and dishonor in the town-owned cemeteries (such as on High St.) or the abandoned cemeteries the town maintains.

Ensure preservation of the 1681 Salem Village Parsonage site on Centre St.,1892 Peabody Institute Library, 1855 Town Hall, 1832 Putnamville School, façade of the 1923 Holten-Richmond Middle School, 1870 Civil War memorial and other veterans memorials, the Salem Village Witch-Hunt Victims Memorial on Hobart St., and numerous other historic sites.

Web ask all members to vote YES on May 2nd, 2023

For any questions, please contact President, David McKenna at 508-328-2790

The Community Preservation Act is on the ballot also. For more information, go to https://www.danvershistory.org/collecting-signatures-for-cpa-2/

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MassDems select Steve Kerrigan as new chair

Former lieutenant governor nominee Steve Kerrigan cruised to the top post at the Massachusetts Democratic Party with no opposition Monday night.

A majority of the party’s state committee members elected Kerrigan as the next party chair on a voice vote. He was the only nominee and ran with support from top power players including Gov. Maura Healey.

Kerrigan succeeds Gus Bickford, who stepped down after a more than six-year tenure as party chair that saw Democrats expand their supermajorities in both legislative chambers.

Kerrigan, a veteran party operative who is currently CEO of the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center, previously worked for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. He ran the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In a statement, Kerrigan called his new role “the honor of a lifetime.”

“I inherit a strong foundation thanks to Gus Bickford’s terrific leadership. Senator Kennedy always reminded us that you never rest on your laurels. You can always get better,” Kerrigan said. “My goal is to make the Massachusetts Democratic Party the gold standard for state parties across the country. We will do that by harnessing the tremendous energy at our grassroots, by representing all our people and being accessible to all, and by building an infrastructure that elects and supports Democratic leaders up and down the ballot. I cannot wait to get to work.”

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Fox News settles with Dominion Voting – Cost of lies is $787.5 Million

Fox and Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787 million settlement Tuesday in the voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit, averting a trial in a case that exposed how the top-rated network chased viewers by promoting lies about the 2020 presidential election.

“The truth matters. Lies have consequences.

The resolution in Delaware Superior Court follows a recent ruling by Judge Eric Davis in which he allowed the case to go to trial while emphasizing it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations about Dominion aired on Fox by Trump allies was true.

Many of us hoped that this would go to trial to expose Murdoch and the Fox anchors. This is unlikely to sway the Fox audience as they live in the alternative reality of Fox and most don’t know of this case. It is a step forward as it is the second time that right wing liars have lost in court, the first being Alex Jones. This is not the end as Smart-Matic is suing Fox for $2.7 billion.

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Trump charged with 34 Felonies in Hush Money Case

Trump was accused by Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday April 4 of orchestrating a hush-money scheme to to silence a porn star, a mistress and a Trump doorman in order mislead the voters two weeks before the election and then covering it up from the Oval Office of the White House.

Trump was fingerprinted but not placed in handcuffs and no mug shot was taken, although the Trump campaign was selling mug shot tee shirts on line during the arraignment.

Trump pleaded not guilty in the case that opens a perilous chapter in the long public life of the real estate mogul/game show host and now faces the embarrassing prospect of a criminal trial.

Trump was indicted on 34 felony charges and stands accused of covering up a potential sex scandal with a porn star during the last days of the 2016 presidential election campaign. Trump made an extraordinary appearance at the Criminal Courts Building in lower Manhattan , his home town, to face charges. Relatively few Trump supporters (estimated at 350) and anti-Trump protestors (estimated at 150) raged outside as the former president sat quietly while prosectors laid out the case against him.

As a common ordinary person, Trump replied “not guilty” in the pin-drop silent courtroom.

“Everyone stands equal under the law”, Alan Bragg, the Manhattan DA said at a news conference after the arraignment.

The prosecutors addressed the threatening posts made by Trump against the DA, his wife and his daughter, against the Judge and his wife and including” death and destruction” would follow if he was charged.

The judge, Juan Merchan, addressed Trump’s lawyers telling them ” please speak to your client and anybody else you need to, and remind them to please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest.”

Trump held a rally at Mar-a-Lago and immediately ignored the judges instruction.

Next hearing is scheduled for December 4.

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April DDTC Meeting

The DDTC meeting was held on April 27 @ 7:00 PM via Zoom due to no availability for the Gordon Room at the library.

Louis George spoke to us about the Community Preservation Act on the ballot at the May 2 Town Election. Louis explained in detail the benefits for the town of the program, how it is funded and teh state contribution. The DDTC members support the CPA and ask all members to vote for it on May 2.

We will be having a Meet the DDTC event on Saturday May 20 in the Gordon Room. The purpose of this event is to invite Dems in the town come talk with us and possibly join the committee. We will be working on the event to generate the invitation and prepare for a mailing. We will be inviting local officials to join us. We invite all members to join us.

Next DDTC meeting will be on May 25. This meeting will also be the caucus to elect delegates to the MassDems convention. This will be a policy convention. We will be working in the coming week to set this meeting as a hybrid meeting being held at the library but also on line. This will be our first time setting up the hybrid meeting which could be used for future meetings.

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