By Sav1a | May 23, 2008
DHS FATAL CRASH DISPLAY IMPARTS CHILLING MESSAGE
BY DENNIS SHAUGHNESSEY, VALLEY DISPATCH STAFF
Article Launched: 05/23/2008
A Dracut firefighter checks the pulse of Ally Malonis during this dramatization of a fatal crash held at dracut High School. VALLEY DISPATCH/DENNIS SHAUGHNESSEY
DRACUT — “What the Hell just happened?” said someone inside one of the two cars that have just been involved in a head-on collision.
Dracut High School seniors Ashley Tello and Kosta Gregory crawl out of the wreckage, their faces covered with blood. Their anguished shrieks pierce the air, as they see their friend, who has been thrown from the vehicle, motionless on the side of the road, blood flowing from a gaping head wound.
“Ally! Oh, my God! Ally!” Tello screams.
It’s only a dramatization, put on as a somber warning amid prom and graduation season by the school system in conjunction with the Police and Fire departments, but this “Make a Date (Driver Awareness Through Education) With Life” program’s mock accident seemed too real for comfort.
Police sirens can be heard in the distance as passengers in the other vehicles groan incoherently. Tello and Gregory are joined by classmate Elyse Turgeon, who pulled herself out of one of the wrecks. “No. No. No. Ally!”
Students, all seniors from the Class of 2008, watch the scene from a grassy knoll behind the high school. Their eyes are riveted to the scene. They bite their bottom lips. They clutch each other and sob openly. A grisly scene like this isn’t hard to imagine. They watch the news. They read the papers. Many of them know somebody who has been involved in a serious accident.
Police arrive on the scene, followed by firefighters and paramedics. Hydraulic tools are used to cut away the metal that has wrapped itself around one of the drivers and several passengers. A firefighter checks the pulse of the girl on the ground. He walks away silently, as police officers cover the body of Ally Malonis with a sheet.
Officer Barry Cregg pulls empty beer bottles and a quart of hard liquor from one of the cars. In this dramatization, Matt Monbleau, one of the most popular seniors in the class, is taken into custody on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol. He is expected to face a vehicular homicide charge.
And just when the students watching from the lawn think they’ll get an emotional breather, Lorrie Malonis comes running onto the scene, trying to break through a cadre of officers to get to her daughter. Grief stricken and wailing, she is restrained by Cregg and the Rev. Larry Zimmerman, the fire chaplain.
Crash victims are placed in ambulances and taken away, but for 17-year-old Ally Malonis, there is a hearse. Whether by design or happenstance, the Dracut Funeral Home hearse parks within feet of the spectators on the lawn. She’s placed in a body bag and then into the back of the hearse, while her mother, in hysterics, tries to climb in. The hearse drives away quietly.
Students, somber-faced, file back into the school for an assembly of the senior class.
If the mock crash hasn’t yet driven home the alcohol-awareness message to the students, what comes next just might. They are met by a coffin just inside the door of the auditorium. A half-length mirror in the coffin bears the cryptic message, “This Could Be You.”
For Dodi Hughes, the program was all too real. Hughes is the mother of Betsie Hughes, a senior at North Middlesex Regional High School who was killed in 1999, along with her boyfriend Sean Wellington, in a horrific crash caused by 31-year-old drunken driver Irving Chapman.
“I know that some of you here will not listen to what I have to say,” said Hughes, whose voice was so whisper-thin that the audience sometimes had to strain to hear her. “When I hugged my daughter goodbye that day, how could I know it would be the last time I would see her alive?”
Chapman is serving a 28-to-30-year sentence in prison for the fatal crash. He had been drinking most of the day when he got behind the wheel and collided with Hughes and Wellington. During her impact statement in court, Dodi Hughes told Chapman that she forgave him.
“I told him that I knew he didn’t mean to kill Betsie and Sean. He made the wrong choice to drink and drive,” she said. “After he was convicted people kept talking about closure. There is no closure. Closure means an end. There is no end. There is a conscious void in our lives 24 hours a day. Betsie and Sean are still dead. They always will be.”
Hughes said she hoped the dramatization and anything she had to say would stay with the students long after the day was done. She told the students that they will find themselves in circumstances where someone has had too much to drink and wants to get behind the wheel.
“If it takes 10 of you, stop that person. Get their keys,” she said.
By Sav1a | May 23, 2008
Republican Jim Ogonowski, who has the backing of key party members in his bid to challenge US Senator John F. Kerry, could be in danger of stumbling on his first crucial test: collecting 10,000 voter signatures to secure a spot on the GOP primary ballot.
With all the signatures submitted by the campaigns and the exhaustive certification process winding down, Ogonowski still needs at least 259 certified signatures to qualify for the September primary. But even that estimate is low, because he is expected to need a cushion of up to 1,000 more to withstand challenges to the validity of individual signatures that are sure to be mounted by his rival in the GOP primary, Jeff Beatty.
“There appears to be some question as to whether he will make it,” said Secretary of State William F. Galvin, a Democrat whose Election Division compiles signature tallies submitted by individual city and town clerks.
Candidates had until May 6 to submit signatures to municipal clerks. Local officials then have until May 27 to certify each signature as valid and submit a total from their communities to Galvin’s office.
Though five working days remain, most certifications and submissions have been completed, Galvin said. His office could not provide the exact number of cities and towns that had reported yesterday.
Ogonowski, a 28-year Air Force veteran from Dracut who lost a special election last year against US Representative Niki Tsongas, Democrat of Lowell, has about 9,750. Ogonowski is the only federal candidate in Massachusetts still seeking to get the needed certified signatures to qualify for the 2008 ballot.
Beatty - a Harwich security specialist and Army veteran who failed in a bid to unseat US Representative William D. Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat, in 2006 - has more than 17,000 certified signatures.
“Most candidates traditionally achieve a minimum number at this late point in the certification process and are building a surplus,” Galvin said. He said that traditionally, election specialists advise candidates to obtain a minimum 10 percent above the required number of certified signatures to insure against a challenge from opponents.
Ogonowski’s campaign strongly rejected any notion that his nomination papers would fall short and his candidacy would be short-circuited. The campaign said it handed over 22,000 signatures to local officials; it could not be learned yesterday why there was such a discrepancy between that total and the much smaller numbers trickling into the state.
“We are not worried about it,” said Alicia Preston. “We submitted well over the amount required.”
Preston said three key communities - Dracut, Chelmsford, and Boston - had still not reported their numbers. Dracut and Chelmsford are home turf for Ogonowski.
But Galvin’s Elections Division and Boston officials said yesterday that results from all three of those communities have been submitted. Preston said later that her information was dated and that other communities she didn’t identify had yet to finish certifying Ogonowski’s papers.
Galvin’s questions about the viability of Ogonowski’s signature drive coincided this week with a boost to Ogonowski from former governor Mitt Romney, who is hosting a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser tonight at the Taj Boston hotel on Arlington Street.
Romney is one of a number of leading Republicans backing Ogonowski who include former governor Paul Cellucci, former lieutenant governor and former GOP state chairwoman Kerry Healey, and US Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota. The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, US Senator John Ensign of Nevada, has donated to Ogonowski’s campaign.
Earlier this month, Ogonowski launched a television ad that skewers Kerry as being absent from Massachusetts.
An attorney representing Beatty’s campaign has already notified the state’s election office that it will challenge Ogonowski’s candidacy based on irregularities in the nomination papers. When contacted yesterday, a spokesman for Beatty’s campaign said the staff would “cross that bridge when we come to it.”
By Sav1a | May 23, 2008
Dracut: American Legion will visit Dracut cemeteries Monday, May 26, 7 a.m. Parade to follow at 11 a.m., from Greenmont Avenue School, to Dracut High School for ceremony. Lunch to follow at American Legion, Broadway Road.
By Sav1a | May 21, 2008
By Ken | May 9, 2008
The high school and middle school were locked down about 9 a.m. Friday when the owner of nearby Brother’s Pizza, 1734 Lakeview Ave., was robbed and two suspects fled into some nearby woods.
The suspects, with coats over their faces, approached the shop owner as he was unlocking the front door and grabbed his briefcase, which contained an undisclosed amount of cash.
Police are looking for two white men in their late teens. One man was wearing dark clothing and other was wearing light clothing.
No weapons were shown.
Update:
Pelham teen was one of three people charged as a result of an armed robbery of the owner of a Dracut pizza parlor after beating him repeatedly with a wooden stick, police said.
As police waited to execute a search warrant on the home of one of the suspects, the juvenile accomplice and an accessory to the crime happened upon the property and were arrested on the spot.
Jeremy Hogan, 17, of 1 Land Road in Pelham turned himself in to both Dracut and Pelham police on Monday, May 12, after a search of his home after the incident on Friday, May 9, turned up the burnt remnants of a briefcase stolen from the owner of Brother’s Pizza on Lakeview Ave.
Also arrested during the investigation’s course were Justin Hayes, 19, of Hudson, who was charged with accessory after the fact and an unnamed 16-year-old from Dracut, an accomplice in the robbery.
Alicia Beauregard, 18, of Pelham was also arrested while Pelham police searched Hogan’s home, but was not charged in connection with the robbery. She was charged with with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and felony possession of Vicodin.
Dracut and Pelham police collaborated on the case to make the arrests, with Dracut dealing with the crime scene and Pelham obtaining and executing the search warrant for Hogan’s home, which turned up not only the remnants of the briefcase but also about 400 prescription painkillers and a half-pound of marijuana.
The $6,000 that was inside the briefcase when it was taken had not been recovered as of Monday, May 19, according to Pelham police Lt. Gary Fisher.
Just before 9:30 a.m. on Friday, May 9, Dracut police responded to Brother’s Pizza on the armed robbery call. The owner had heard a knock on the back door, and thinking it was a delivery person, opened it to two masked men who entered and proceeded to assault him with a wooden stick, then took the briefcase with them.
Dracut schools in the area were put on lockdown for a short period of time, according to a statement from Dracut police Deputy Chief David Chartrand, until it was determined that the robbers had fled the scene.
The owner told police at the time that he believed he knew one of the masked men to be Hogan, who had worked at Brother’s Pizza for a few weeks and had recently stopped showing up for work, Fisher said.
After obtaining a search warrant through Salem District Court Judge John Korbey, Pelham police searched Hogan’s home. Hogan was not present at the time, Fisher said.
As Fisher waited for the warrant to be approved, he sat in an unmarked police car at the bottom of the driveway close to the home, a car containing Hayes, Beauregard and the Dracut juvenile pulled into the driveway.
“Once they were up that driveway, they were committed,” Fisher said. Pelham police charged Hayes with possession of a prescription drug, a misdemeanor, and Beauregard with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and felony possession of Vicodin.
The drugs found in Hogan’s home during the search led Pelham police to charge him with two counts of possession of prescription drugs, felony possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and receiving stolen property.
Dracut police charged Hogan and the juvenile with armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, both felonies. Hayes was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
After being arraigned in Lowell District Court on Tuesday, May 13, both Hogan and Hayes have pretrial sessions scheduled in Lowell District Court for Wednesday, July 9. Both of them, along with Beauregard, will answer to their Pelham drug charges in Salem District Court on Monday, June 9.
By Sav1a | May 8, 2008
Lowell will get new park for dogs
LOWELL — Mill City canines will soon have a place to call their own.
City councilors last night unanimously approved the ordinance amendments necessary to create Lowell’s first dog park. City officials have said they hope to be able to complete the nearly $36,000 conversion of an out-of-use public park located alongside Route 110, off the ramp to the Hunts Falls Rotary, by early next month.
Anne Barton, deputy director of the city Division of Planning and Development, told councilors that city officials “have a very strict set of rules” for the park that includes licensing, vaccination and other requirements.
“We’re proceeding cautiously with this,” she said.
The site, a level, grassy expanse that overlooks the Merrimack River, is officially known as First Street Park. It is recognizable for the curved, candy-cane striped tubes jutting from the ground.
Crystal Arnott, a Back Central neighborhood resident and the founder of Lowell Unleashed, an association of local dog owners whose lobbying efforts led to the creation of the new park, said the new facility would provide a legal and safe place for dog owners to exercise their animals. The closest such parks are in Somerville and Derry, N.H.
“Any dog owner knows a happy dog is a tired dog,” she said. “And that keeps the neighbors happy as well.”
By Sav1a | May 8, 2008
2008 Schedule:
Week 1 - WIN 16-0
Week 2 - RAINOUT
Week 3 - May 28 Wed 6:30 vs. Fatcats
Week 4 - June 3 Tue 8:00 vs. Majors
Week 5 - June 11 Wed 8:00 vs. Donkeys
Week 6 - June 18 Wed 8:00 vs. Sports Zone
Week 7 - June 24 Tue 6:30 vs. Golden Snappas
Week 8 - Bye
Week 9 - July 7 Mon 6:30 vs. The Pizza Man
Week 9 - July 9 Wed 6:30 vs. something softball
Week 10 - July 18 Fri 8:00 vs. Avenue
Week 11 - Bye (trying to change game to Fri July 25 6:30)
Week 12 - Bye
Week 13 - Aug 5 Tue 8:00 vs. Dead Man Inc.
Week 13 - Aug 6 Wed 8:00 vs. Seagulls (game may change to week 11)
Week 14 - Aug 15 Fri 8:00 Rated R
Week 15 - Aug 20 Wed 6:30 Riderz
Week 16 - Aug 29 Fri 8:00 Shaddycack
Week 17 - Bye again!!!
Week 18 - Sept 8 Mon 6:30 The Crush
Playoffs
Sept 12 - Sept 19 (first round)
Sept 22 - Sept 24 (semi finals)
Sept 25 - Sept 27 (Finals)
Its time for the 2008 Ropes to begin the pre-season warm ups/training session with a new line up:
1. Scott - OF
2. Ass. Coach - 1B
3. New Guy Jay
4. Coach Nick - Pitcher
5. Johnny - SS/3B/OF
6. Matt - 3B/SS
7. Kim - OF/2B
8. Swid - OF
9. Davis - OF
10. Katie - Catcher
11. Steve - 2B/3B
Venue: Joker’s Lounge Dracut MA
Sport: Beer league Softball - An organized sports venue in which participants focus their efforts on both the event at hand and the post and pre-game ceremonies which include large consumptions of alcoholic beverages. Generally, these athletes take their involvement too seriously, comparing themselves to professional athletes. The post game ritual of sitting around several pitchers full of beer bullshitting about skill level or lack thereof is as important as the game itself. Sportsmanship, camaraderie and competition are the key elements. Amateur baseball or slow pitch softball league. derives its name due to the fact many of the players tend to be overweight and/or of below average physical condition, and consume massive quantities of beer. Only the key team allow smoking on the field by one or many players.
By Sav1a | May 7, 2008
| SPRING Compost Dates |
 |
The compost site located at the Dillon Center, 833 Hildreth St., will be opened this spring on the following dates: Saturday’s - April 12, April 19, April 26, May 3, May 10 and May 17.
With proof of residency, the compost site will accept leaves, brush and grass clippings. The hours of operation will be from 8:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.
Screened compost is available at the compost site for residents to use on their lawns, gardens, and flowerbeds.
If you have any questions please call Public Works Director Michael Buxton at (978) 957-0411
By Sav1a | May 7, 2008
The town election will be held May 6th for town positions and the Dracut Water Supply District. Regional Vocational School Committee nominee Brian J. Martin and Town Clerk Kathleen M. Graham will win their respective categories unless write-ins make up a significant amount of votes.
In other major positions, newcomer Ted Kosiavelon runs against incumbents John J. Zimini and Robert Cox for the two selectmen spots, incumbent Dennis “D.J.” Deeb runs against Matthew James Sheehan for the School Committee, and Charlie Maraganis runs against incumbent Gary W. McCarthy for the town moderator position.
*UPDATE*
Zimini and Cox remain in selectman spots
Sheehan beats Deeb in a small margin (27 votes)
McCarthy remains taking Maraganis
By Sav1a | May 7, 2008
Dracut election: Deeb’s charge against Espindle likely backfired
DRACUT — He stumbled to the finish line.
He made gaffes along the way. He missed the only candidates’ debate and never offered a clear explanation. He sent out very little literature to the folks in town. He missed the deadline for filing his campaign finance report.
Rookie mistakes.
But at the end of the day, 29-year-old Matthew Sheehan managed to squeak by the polished, consummate politician Dennis “D.J.” Deeb by 27 votes — 1,783 to 1,756.
Many factors that contributed to his victory.
During his three-year tenure on the board, Deeb alienated 27 more people than he should have. Deeb had been consistently critical of Superintendent of Schools Elaine Espindle and was seen by many as the the catalyst behind her decision not to renew her contract.
Shortly after being elected in 2005, he voted to give the School Committee the authority to hire a business manager. Deeb tried to hire Matthew McLaughlin even though McLaughlin’s qualifications were called into question. The job went to Terry Wiggins.
Deeb moved to privatize the district’s cafeteria workers. He challenged Espindle over incoming High School Principal James Generoso’s three-year-contract. The exchange took place during a televised meeting while Generoso was in attendance.
“He was disconnected with the parents in the schools,” said resident Barry Myers. “I consider D.J. a friend, but I couldn’t vote for him. … I don’t think it mattered who was running against D.J.”
Overall, there has been a lack of support from the committee for Espindle, and Deeb’s face is the most recognizable. He was sole member up for re-election this year.
Deeb often railed against the district’s dropout rate, low SAT scores and poor MCAS results.
“Almost every time you heard him speak, he was bashing the schools,” Myers said. “People started getting tired of it.”
It was a year ago when Deeb led the charge replace Espindle and began the search process for a new superintendent. Parents targeted him.
On Monday night, after the votes were tallied, Deeb, a high-school teacher in Reading and an adjunct professor at Bunker Hill Community College and UMass Lowell, said he stands by every vote he has taken in the last three years.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said, adding that he plans to teach a college course in the fall. “My Monday nights will be freed up, and I’ll make an extra $10,000.”
For his part, Sheehan has said that many of his votes came from people who were dissatisfied with Deeb.
“There were friends I didn’t know I had. At least 27 of them,” said the 29-year-old Sheehan, who works as a chef at Lenzi’s Catering and Mill House in town.
Incumbents in all other races were returned to office, including Selectmen John Zimini and Robert Cox, who fended off a strong challenge by Ted Kosiavelon.
Both men say they benefited from the work of Town Manager Dennis Piendak, who has balanced the budget with no loss of services, kept residential tax rates among the lowest in the Merrimack Valley and managed to have a modest surplus of $1.9 million.
By Ken | January 22, 2008
A Lowell judge denied bail today for a 28-year-old man charged with killing his live-in girlfriend and dumping her body in a Dracut dumpster.
Salinda Sun is accused of shooting Shannon Meara, 24, in the head and disposing of her body with the help of Eric Anderson, a 28-year-old who shared an apartment with the couple on Westford Street in Lowell. Anderson was charged as an accessory after the fact and was held on $100,000 cash bail.
“We allege that this is another unfortunate example of domestic violence, this time between a boyfriend and his girlfriend,” Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in a written statement.
The body of Shannon Meara was found Sunday morning in a dumpster on Skyline Drive in Dracut. A resident was taking out her trash, saw the body, and called police. Meara was identified after police found a tattoo of her first name on her body.
Prosecutors said that Anderson and Sun were seen on Wal-Mart surveillance video purchasing cleaning supplies after the woman’s death. A Chevrolet Tahoe seized from the apartment had been wiped clean, but State Police investigators uncovered traces of blood in the vehicle, according to police.
Dozens of Meara’s relatives sat in Lowell District Court today during the arraignment. One woman held up a photo of the victim. They declined to speak to a reporter.
By Ken | May 16, 2007
Frozen Ropes Dominate!
Under new ownership and leadership the once storied Frozen Ropes softball franchise returned to glory in a crushing week 1 victory, 18 and 7 against some team that doesnt even matter.
The only player that was unable to attend this weeks game was Andro (Sean dont call me Jimmy) Davis who is still in extended spring training because of his unexpected weight loss when our league started testing for illegal substances. The teams DH and senior video analyst was at the game but not in uniform because of an undisclosed illness.
As for the game: the attack was paced by the greatest coaching duo ever assembled you new leaders Nick Nazzaro and Sean Quealy.
Defense was solid I might be wrong but I believe that Matt Collinge only had 1 throwing error and 1 fielding error. If might also be a career low. I would like to thank my catching duo of Karen and Katie without their tireless work of the umpire of finding out what balls deep meant I would be confused and not able to pitch as good as I did.
ICECREAM
As you know we have and standing tradition of coach taking the team out for ice cream when our first victory happens. We will go after our first 6:30 game or Friday night game what ever happens first.
Practice
If anyone is interested I can look into getting the field on Sunday between 6:00 – 6:30 let me know what you think. I would like to get some work in.
Quote of the week: Pitchers, like poets, are born not made. — Cy Young
By Ken | November 21, 2006
Video Poker Machines in Bars and Clubs in Massachusetts.
More as soon as Shawn writes it.
By Ken | November 19, 2006
Dracut Police Officer Philip Berard retired all of a sudden this week and from what I heard it’s because he got in trouble for something new. The Lowell Sun could not reach Ex-Officer Berard for comment. Philip Berard, was removed from a normal patrol duty sometimes earlier this week and also was demoted from sergeant to just an entry-level patrolman in April 2003 because he used excessive force in the arrest of another Dracut man riding a 4 wheeler someplace he obviously shouldn’t have been. Basically Berard pointed his gun at the guy on the 4 wheeler and threatened to shoot him if he didn’t stop. A little excessive Mr Berard?
Berard submitted testimony to a Civil Service group but he was found to have “no credibility” and the demotion was upheld.
The Lowell Sun found that, “The high-ranking source inside the department said Berard’s retirement came in anticipation of more disciplinary action for an undisclosed violation.” What I heard was that Berard had made another screw up that was inexcusable by another which was the last straw and he was going to be fired or given the chance to retire.
