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This edition in one sentence: A nor'easter has Marblehead under a coastal flood warning through Sunday night, with gusts to 52 mph forecast Saturday and the causeway liable to close; the Light Commission meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, with a Green Communities vote on the agenda, a state charge of about $4 a year for the average home; Salem State kept local reporters out of Barack Obama's talk with Doris Kearns Goodwin, then posted the video of him recalling a 2004 keynote that perhaps 35 million or 40 million people watched at once; a rusted nut that has beaten oil, a torch, a 36-inch wrench and a sledgehammer is keeping Abbot Hall's 1877 bell from being turned; a POW/MIA chair of honor reached Abbot Hall nearly 12 years after selectmen first approved the idea; Maria Torres, who promised the Driftwood's fried dough was staying, picked up a State House citation; St. Michael's has called the Rev. Patrick T. Gray as priest in charge; Hestia Creations will honor Linda D'Addario at its 40th on Nov. 12; Nick and Marilyn Freeman, married at Old North Church on Oct. 3, 1966, mark 60 years; the Marblehead Museum will walk Old Burial Hill on Oct. 9 and Oct. 16; the police log has a mooring raided three times for beer, a man knocked off his stern by a wave and a car found in the wrong lot; Colleen Connor battens down the beds and brings home a free tree from the flower show; and Ryan Park sizes up a legal striper by eye from a Rhode Island seafloor. — Cheers, Will.
Alongside our 125 members, this edition of The Independent’s newsletter is made possible by the support of Marblehead Youth Soccer Association (MYSA):
The 2026 MYSA Golf Classic is Monday, Oct. 5, at Tedesco Country Club, celebrating 50 years of soccer in Marblehead. Join us for a great day on the course while supporting the players, coaches and programs that bring our soccer community together. Foursomes and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Scan the QR code to register, sponsor or learn more.
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The National Weather Service upgraded Marblehead's coastal flood watch to a warning Friday, Sept. 25, calling for up to 1 foot of water in low-lying areas through 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, with gusts in town forecast to reach 52 mph Saturday, Sept. 26. The town said it may close Ocean Avenue and the causeway, the only road in and out of Marblehead Neck. Forecasters called the storm unusually strong for September and said beach erosion may prove its biggest impact.
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The Light Commission takes up Green Communities at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, eight years after Sustainable Marblehead first raised it. A yes vote puts a state renewable energy charge of one-twentieth of a cent on every kilowatt-hour, about $4 a year for the average home and roughly $49,900 a year across town. Light Department General Manager Jon Blair, who ran Ipswich's light department when that town joined in 2019, wrote that it takes "early, frequent, and perpetual pursuit of grant funding" for the program to pay off.
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Salem State University barred local reporters from Barack Obama's Sept. 21 conversation with Doris Kearns Goodwin, citing security, then posted the video Friday, Sept. 25. In it, Obama told roughly 3,600 people in the O'Keefe Sports Complex that perhaps 35 million or 40 million people watched his 2004 Boston keynote at once, in a media "monoculture" that no longer exists. "One day I could walk on the street, and then the next day, I couldn't," he said.
Story here
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David Draves, one of the volunteer cranks who wind the tower clock, has soaked the bolt atop Abbot Hall's bell in penetrating oil, scraped it, torched it, leaned on a 36-inch wrench and hit it with a sledgehammer, and the nut on top has not moved. "It will not budge," he told the Historical Commission Sept. 17, a year after the Select Board approved rotating the 2,089-pound bell, which by his count has taken almost 3 million hammer blows on one spot. A $48,000 quote was on the table; it does not cover the crane.
Story here
On Dec. 10, 2014, the Board of Selectmen backed a POW/MIA chair of honor and left its location "to be determined at a later date." The Select Board accepted the chair at Abbot Hall on Sept. 23, nearly 12 years later, and its spot is still being determined. The seat, more than 200 years old, came from the Masonic Hall; Veterans Agent Roseann Trionfi-Mazzuchelli refinished it herself in her side office.
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"Fried dough is staying," Maria Torres told the Select Board in July, answering a question Chair Dan Fox brought from his daughters. On Sept. 24, about three months after she took over the 63 Front St. breakfast counter, state Rep. Jenny Armini's nomination put Torres at the State House for a citation during Latino Excellence on the Hill. Torres has kept a low public profile through the transition; her nephew and manager, Jonathan Morel, said in August that she would rather run a great business and let it speak for itself.
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The Rev. Patrick T. Gray, who spent more than 16 years as rector of Christ Church in Hamilton-Wenham and seven as associate rector and curate at the Church of the Advent in Boston, begins as priest in charge of St. Michael's Episcopal Church on Oct. 1. Senior Warden Robert L. Howie Jr. welcomed the call to the Pleasant Street parish, founded in 1714. "I am delighted and deeply grateful," Gray said.
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Linda D'Addario started out painting ornaments at Hestia Creations and has been principal sculptor and designer for 39 of its 40 years. The store at 13 Hawkes St. marks the anniversary from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, with a signing, a new Nativity figure and a drawing for a one-of-a-kind ornament of the winner's own home, a $500 value. Owner Joanne D'Alessandro said D'Addario's contribution "cannot be overstated."
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Bradford "Nick" Freeman Jr. and Marilyn (Ames) Freeman, lifelong Marbleheaders, were married at Old North Church on Oct. 3, 1966, and mark 60 years on Oct. 3. Nick served on the ice-covered Coast Guard cutter Casco in the North Atlantic, carried mail for decades and sat on the Water and Sewer Commission; Marilyn ran the office at the church where they wed and rang in its handbell choir. In a tribute signed by Matt Freeman and Lisa Anastos, Nick is still "Marblehead's biggest know-it-all," and the family agrees.
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One of the oldest European graveyards in Massachusetts, Old Burial Hill was established around Marblehead's first meetinghouse in 1638. Dan Marshall, the Marblehead Museum's director, leads the museum's new walking tour of the hill at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9, and Friday, Oct. 16, covering old funeral practices, the carvers who worked the stone and what their symbols meant.
Story here
Link to archive
POLICE LOG:
A 12-pack of Coors Light, 10 wine coolers and three fishing rods and reels disappeared from the Baby Ruth, moored in Salem Harbor, on three separate occasions in August. A man told police a wave knocked him backward off the stern of his boat, Zen, at the Marblehead Yacht Club Aug. 22. And a man who remembered parking at Crosby's for a night out at Maddie's could not find his car Aug. 30. It turned up, just not where he left it.
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COLLEEN'S GARDEN:
With a nor'easter bringing strong gusts and several inches of rain, Colleen Connor, 1.5 miles inland, works through a checklist: water pots to weigh them down, tie tomatoes with cloth strips, lay mulch 2 to 3 inches deep and prune only the dead and dangling. She plans to send her downspout overflow into the beds rather than let it run off. Also: what to check once the wind dies down.
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COLLEEN'S GARDEN:
Colleen Connor and her friend Beth Woodward left Wellesley with a free tree from Bartlett Tree Experts, a November painting class on the calendar and a new favorite: miniature buildings made of seeds and stems, with onion skins for glass. Connor also explains what an ikebana vase has in common with a Maddie's Sail Loft pour and what to do before the first frost, usually mid-October.
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BENEATH THE BLUE:
Spearfishing striped bass is illegal in Massachusetts, so Ryan Park travels to Rhode Island, where it is legal on a Massachusetts permit and a keeper must measure 28 to 31 inches, tail pinched, mouth closed. Flattened against the seafloor, sometimes surrounded by a school of hundreds, he has to pick one that looks about right and take the shot. He explains how he trained his eye and what he suggests adding to the pole spear.
Story here
Around Town
This week’s community bulletin highlights key town deadlines, meetings, programs, events and civic reminders. Click any blue item to go directly to source material, registration pages or full details.
See all 28 listings in the full bulletin on the web
Standing resources and weekly recurring events
St. Andrew’s Church moved its fall rummage sale to Saturday, Oct. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon at 135 Lafayette St., with $5 stuff-a-bag from noon to 1 p.m. As of late Friday, organizers still listed the Lee Mansion Trails & Sails program and Festival of Arts speed puzzling at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26; outdoor Harvest Moon yoga at 5:45 p.m. Saturday; Schmooze and News at the JCCNS at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 27; and the JF&CS Ride and Stride in Dedham, Massachusetts, Sunday. Check with each organizer before going. Read more
Abbot Public Library, 235 Pleasant St., is closed Saturday, Sept. 26, because of the storm. The library, the Council on Aging and the Marblehead public schools are all closed Monday, Oct. 12, for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Marblehead High School has an early release Wednesday, Oct. 21. Read more
The Select Board is taking letters of interest for a committee that will plan a townwide celebration of Marblehead’s founding in 1629. Letters go to the Select Board at Abbot Hall, 188 Washington St., or to wileyk@marbleheadma.gov by Wednesday, Sept. 30. Read more
North Shore Community Action Programs takes new home energy assistance applications from Oct. 1 through April 30, covering heating costs between Nov. 1 and April 30. This season’s income limits are $53,585 for a one-person household and $103,049 for four, up from $51,777 and $99,573. Returning recipients should watch for a recertification form in the mail. Call 978-531-0767, ext. 136, or email energyassistance@nscap.org; the Council on Aging’s Sharon Doliber helps with applications at 781-631-6225. Read more
Traffic Safety Advisory Committee, 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, Abbot Hall, hybrid; Board of Health, 7 p.m. Sept. 28, Abbot Hall, hybrid; Municipal Light Board, 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, 80 Commercial St., hybrid; Recreation and Park Commission, 5:30 p.m. Sept. 29, 10 Humphrey St.; Glover School Advisory Council, 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 30, 9 Maple St.; School Committee Facilities Subcommittee, 11:30 a.m. Sept. 30, 9 Widger Road, hybrid; Brown School Advisory Council, 1:20 p.m. Sept. 30, 40 Baldwin Road; and the School Committee, 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1. Storm cleanup could force changes, so check the town calendar first. Read more
The Board of Health will hold Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the transfer station, with the entrance on the Green Street access road. The event is open to Marblehead and Swampscott residents with proof of residency. Pricing runs $43 for up to 3 gallons or 6 pounds, $60 for 3 to 10 gallons or 20 pounds and $95 for 10 to 25 gallons or 50 pounds, credit card or check only. Read more
Discover Marblehead and the Marblehead Museum hold the 7th annual Fall Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in the Lee Mansion garden, with 21 artist vendors, Acorn Gallery portrait drawing and pumpkin kits benefiting the Marblehead Food Pantry. Admission is free, and the fair moves inside the Lee Mansion if weather is bad. St. Andrew’s Church holds its storm-delayed rummage sale the same morning from 8 a.m. to noon at 135 Lafayette St. Read more
National Grid’s two-week notice, posted Sept. 24, covers the weeks of Sept. 28 and Oct. 5 at 1-175 Washington St., 1-69 Gregory St., 2-14 Laurel St. and 1-5 Doane St. The utility’s project sheet with work details is posted with the notice. Read more
The town’s vacancy list includes two seats on the Conservation Commission and one each on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Marblehead Housing Committee, Design Review Board, Harbors and Waters Board, Marblehead Community Access and Media, MBTA Advisory Board, Old and Historic Districts Commission, Task Force Against Discrimination and Traffic Safety Advisory Committee. Terms run one to three years. Letters of interest and resumes go to the Select Board at Abbot Hall or to wileyk@marbleheadma.gov; call 781-631-0000 with questions. Read more
Library programs, arts openings, concerts, theater, the senior center’s October lineup, a Medicare fraud workshop, the Old Burial Hill tour and leaf and cart updates through Oct. 9 are on the web bulletin. See all
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