The Friday notebook
Beverly elections, library HVAC woes and Sally Field
Notes and quotes on a Friday afternoon …
2025 promises to one of the most competitive election years in Beverly in quite awhile. There are three good candidates for the state rep seat that opened up when Jerry Parisella became a judge — city councilors Hannah Bowen and Todd Rotondo, who will meet in the Democratic primary on April 15, and Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce President Medley Long, who is running as a Republican and will face the Bowen/Rotondo winner in the May 13 final election.
Then there’s the mayor race, which so far features City Councilor Brendan Sweeney challenging Mayor Mike Cahill. I checked out the candidates’ campaign fundraising numbers, which you can find here, and found it notable that Cahill has raised $14,425 since the day Sweeney announced his candidacy on Jan. 2. That includes 12 donations of $1,000, the maximum allowed. The $1,000 donors were Richard Alpern, Kimberly Holmes, Lyndon Holmes, Kim Lane, Wayne Miller, Charles Benevento, Christopher Comb, Thomas Erickson, Mark King, Samskriti King, Brian Kelly and R.J. Lyman.
Sweeney, meanwhile, has raised $7,035, with the largest donation being $250. Among the contributors to Sweeney’s campaign are Bowen ($25), former City Council President Paul Guanci ($200), the campaign of City Councilor Matt St. Hilaire ($100), and former School Committee member Maria Decker ($50). As of Jan. 31, Cahill had $34,270 cash on hand, while Sweeney had $1,753. The stakes are even higher this year because the winner will have a four-year term, which voters approved in 2023 as a change from the current two-year term.
In the state rep race, the cash-on-hand totals were $15,976 for Long, $13,408 for Bowen and $10,131 for Rotondo.
Who knew that library HVAC systems could be such a pain? You might remember that Mayor Mike Cahill’s plan to replace the main library’s HVAC system was shot down by the City Council last year after the cost of the project exploded to $18 million. Now here comes trouble with the HVAC system at the Beverly Farms library branch.
The Farms branch has been closed since Jan. 21 after a “small fire” broke out when a vendor was repairing the HVAC system, according to a post on the branch’s web page. The fire caused “significant damage” to the duct work and spread smoke throughout the building.
The branch will closed “until further notice,” according to the library. In the meantime, people can use the main library, the Bookmobile and go online.
Let me give you a little insight on the kind of decisions reporters make when writing stories. Yesterday I wrote about a nonprofit called the Albanian Boston Community Inc. and their purchase of the former Elks building on Bow Street. I couldn’t get in touch with them so I went to the Licensing Board meeting last week at City Hall to catch the hearing on the group’s application for a liquor license.
I knew from previous reporting by Caroline Enos of The Salem News that the organization had gotten in trouble in Peabody, where they had opened a club, for having alcohol on the premises without a liquor license. The Peabody City Council ended up fining them $200 and suspending their special permit for three months, and later denied their request for a liquor license.
Anyway, I was surprised when that issue never came up at the Licensing Board hearing. The group’s attorney, Tom Alexander, never mentioned it and the board members never asked. When I wrote the story I had to decide how much importance to place on the Peabody situation. A headline like “Board approves liquor license despite group’s past troubles” would certainly have attracted attention.
But I decided to downplay the incident. I included it somewhere in the middle of the story and kept it out of the headline. I wasn’t overly excited to bash the group without knowing much about them. Alexander said it would be a family-oriented place, including English language classes on Saturday morning. He said they would be a great addition to the city. I hope so too.
Remember when Sally Field said after winning an Academy Award, “You like me! You really like me!” (Just Googled it and I guess she didn’t say that exactly, but I’m going with it anyway.)
That’s how I feel after the response from the first week of The Beverly Beat. I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate all the support and encouragement. The fact that people will voluntarily pay for local journalism is so gratifying. I know everyone’s used to getting content for free on-line, but more people are becoming aware of the crisis in local journalism and realizing it’s worth paying for if they can.
So thank you again, and please don’t hesitate to comment on stories on use the chat function or email me at leightonbeverlybeat@gmail.com with your thoughts and story ideas.
How about a Friday trivia question? Being a former sportswriter, I’ve got to start with a sports question: What Beverly native made his major league baseball debut three days after graduating from St. John’s Prep? You can answer in the comments.
That was too easy for you Larry.
My fingers are crossed that you inspire similar substacks for Salem and Peabody.