This report was presented by Essex Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki at the Essex Board of Selectmen meeting on April 12, and it covers topics of interest for town business from March 20th to April 9.

It’s part of a natural cycle that’s been recurring for thousands of years.  Every April, the alewives return from the open ocean, enter the Essex River Estuary, and follow their sense of smell up Alewife Brook to Chebacco Lake—the place of their birth—to spawn.

There’s a lot set to happen with the Council on Aging (COA) in the coming weeks. Check them out here, and for further information on any of these great trips or to reserve your seat on the van, please call (978) 526-7500.

This week the Board of Directors of the Cape Ann Community Foundation (CACF) opened for proposals for the Foundation’s fifth annual round of grants. 

This week's news from the Board of Selectmen.

The LIP (Local Initiative Project) negotiations between the Board of Selectmen and SLV, the applicant for an apartment complex at Shingle Hill, have ended without an agreement.  At the Board’s public negotiation session on Tuesday, April 6, Mr. Engler of SLV concluded that it was no longer i…

40B Public Meeting:  The next 40B negotiation meeting hosted by the Board of Selectmen is currently scheduled for Tuesday, April 6. Please see the Town website for meeting details and past recordings.

Manchester Police Chief Todd Fitzgerald says since the onset of COVID, his department has been receiving a steady stream of scam reports.  This week, after two Manchester residents lost $15,000 and $50,000 to lottery scammers, he decided to push out a fresh public warning to residents.

Last month Manchester and Essex successfully secured state-funded technical support from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development under a program designed to help towns get back to business.

Our Annual Town Meeting, where voters will decide on next year’s municipal budgets, has been delayed until June 21.  None-the-less, we are seeing an uptick in discussions about town finances.  There are certainly many aspects of a town’s budget.  In the end it is the choices voters make that…

Manchester Essex Rotary Club 2nd Annual "Run for the Roses" Raffle $7,500 first prize only 300 tickets get yours now! Buy your ticket today and support our local community!

This is the story of Abigail Hooper Trask, Manchester’s Boss lady.  A commanding pioneer who defied gender roles and rules of law to become a titan of local industry, Abigail Trask empowered other women to be self-sufficient through education, activism, financial savvy and marital control, n…

This is the first of a series of articles in the Cricket addressing adjustments currently being considered by the Planning Board as part of the zoning “recodification” process.  Voters will be asked to consider these changes at a special Town Meeting in the Fall.

With all the attention development proposals and options for new zoning are receiving, there has been renewed interest in the status of the Town’s drinking water and sewer systems.  These utilities are often taken for granted but they are critical parts of our infrastructure that provide ess…

40B Public Meeting:  The next 40B negotiation meeting hosted by the Board of Selectmen is currently scheduled for Tuesday, April 6. Please see the Town website for meeting details and past recordings.

Police officers and firemen from three area towns and Massachusetts State Police air responders were called to a rescue two off-trail hikers who became stuck in a swamp in the Manchester Essex woods Tuesday.  The afternoon rescue took several hours of coordination between state and local saf…

It seemed like all of Beverly Farms had spilled out into the streets and headed to the MBTA Commuter Rail Station that had been transformed into a 1980s era Westport, Connecticut train station.  It was the set of the new George Clooney-directed feature film, The Tender Bar, based on the awar…

Last week at the local meeting of the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, a fundamental shift signaled a solution to one of Manchester’s most dogged parking challenges: creating a path from the public parking lot behind Town Hall to the heart of Manchester’s downtown shopping district.

The Manchester Housing Authority (MHA) and the Manchester Affordable Housing Trust (MAHT) have been working together on a plan to improve the existing 84 public housing units at Newport Park, The Plains and Loading Place Road, that have served the town well for over 50 years.  As part of the…

Chief Todd Fitzgerald announced this week that his department has produced a video introduction to detail the Manchester-by-the-Sea Police Department and its role in the community.

July 4 Parade Rescheduled:  Due to COVID restrictions, the parade on July 4 will be rescheduled to September 25. The new date will celebrate Manchester’s 375th Anniversary.  More details to come!

Last week’s tease of warm weather sparked our anticipation of the many summer time activities that abound here on our stretch of beautiful coastline.  With any luck, as more and more people are vaccinated against COVID, this coming summer will start to feel more normal.  We are not yet at th…

The academic year is feeling different this year for local students who are “off” at college or university (or even boarding schools).  But we’re happy to see reporting that shows many are doing well and have achieved academic honors.

A group of nine students from Landmark School in Beverly is among 13 teams nationwide awarded this year’s prestigious Lemelson—MIT InvenTeams grant to invent solutions to solve real-world problems. This is the third time that Landmark’s team has received this grant.

Effective March 5, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries imposed a complete ban on the setting of “buoyed” lobster traps in Massachusetts coastal waters from Cape Cod to the New Hampshire border.