Top 10 Newsmakers For 2011
A look at 10 people/groups that made headlines and had people talking throughout the last year.
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2011 was a busy news year and here are 10 people/groups that made headlines.
John Lyons: The director of the Community Services office for the Tewksbury Public Schools took on a huge responsibility when his office took over running many of the programs formerly offered by the defunct Parks and Recreation Department. Not only was the transition successful, some programs were able to expand the services previously offered.
Corey Starliper: The freelance writer, amateur code-breaker and true crime enthusiast made headlines over the summer when he claimed to have cracked the legendary code of the Zodiac Killer. Some embraced his claim while others dismissed it but he had people taking around the globe.
Nancy Reed: You can’t blame Nancy Reed if she doesn’t have a lot of free time on her hands. She is chairman of the Planning Board, chairman of the Community Preservation Committee and vice chair of the Economic Development Committee. Though soft spoken, Reed is a force behind the scenes as Tewksbury continues to evolve as a community.
Scott Wilson: As he nears the end of his first term on the Board of Selectmen, Scott Wilson has found himself in the center of a firestorm. He was appointed as a member of the Special Act Charter Committee to make sure that body followed open meeting procedures. However, as the work of that committee has proceeded, the issue of which form of town government Tewksbury should have has become a political powder keg.
Walter Shelley, Michael Ferreira, Edward Brown: Up until April, 2011, very few people in Tewksbury knew who Shelley, Brown and Ferreira were. Fewer still knew what allegedly happened back in September, 1969, when the trio allegedly murdered 15-year-old Johnny McCabe. Their cases got to trial in 2012.
David Gay: Economic development is one of the huge, ongoing stories in Tewksbury and Selectmen David Gay, who serves as chairman of the Economic Development Committee, is right in the middle of it. With the arrival of Ocean State Job Lot, Thermo Fisher and discussions regarding the end-to-end upgrade of Route 38, it appears Gay and co. are just getting started.
Marc Ginsburg: The leading real estate developer in town continued to make headlines in 2012, beyond just his latest projects. Back in February, Ginsburg stepped up and sponsored the Father-Daughter Valentine’s Dance that had appeared to be cancelled in the wake of the Parks and Recreation scandal. In August, it was announced that A Novel Café, a business owned by Ginsburg and his wife, would be closing after less that a year.
Mother Nature: Are you kidding? What a bizarre year for weather. 2011 began with the greatest accumulation of snow in recent memory. Summer brought us Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene and we don’t even want to talk about the Halloween weekend from hell. Power outages became so common that the question became not IF power would be lost but how long it would be out.
Denise Graffeo: The position of Town Clerk is a fairly benign job in most communities. But it became the focus of high drama last spring with an emotional three-way race, won by Graffeo. However, later in the year, voters decided to change the position from an elected post to an appointed one. In the meantime, Graffeo has been busy finishing up precinct realignment and the addition of two new polling locations.
The Tewksbury High Hockey Team: It was a dream season for the Tewksbury High ice hockey team. And when the Redmen knocked off Franklin in the Division 2 State Title game, that dream became an amazing reality for Coach Derek Doherty and his squad.
