This month, The Valley Patriot begins a new feature
called “Puppy Love” by Boxford resident Kate
Whitney. She is a welcome edition to the paper as we are
always looking for new ways to diversify our material.
Nobody loves animals, (especially puppies) more than I do
and I am personally thrilled that we are able to help Ms.
Whitney in her efforts to find safe, loving homes for
puppies in temporary foster care. Please take a minute to
read Kate’s column on page 4 and if you know anyone
who would like to provide temporary foster care for a
puppy waiting to be adopted please email her at kwswingrite@aol.com
Pappalardo/Andrew: we were
NOT campaigning together
Prior to the Methuen elections last month, we published
evaluations of all the candidates running for office. In
our evaluation of the West end candidates we informed our
readers that residents in the West End saw City Councilor
Bob Andrew and first time candidate Jeanne Pappalardo
knocking on doors and campaigning together. After the
election however, both Pappalardo and Andrew called
The Valley Patriot to tell us that they neither
campaigned together, nor did they have any affiliation
with each other’s campaign. “Maybe they saw me
knocking on doors with my husband,” Pappalardo said.
“But I never went door to door with Bob Andrew. I
ran my own campaign and the only person I was campaigning
for was Jeanne Pappalardo.”
“Jeanne’s husband is a former councilor, maybe
she was knocking on doors with him, but I never went door
to door with Jeanne,” Andrew said.
Andover Teachers don’t
want to give back tests
Teachers in Andover refuse to give tests, book reports
and homework assignments back to students or their
parents saying that they need to keep these papers for
“assessment” purposes, among other lame
excuses. The fact is, given the type of things being
taught in Andover (Remember anti-Semite Ron Francis and
his indoctrination techniques?) it isn’t hard to see
that these teachers simply do not want parents to know
what kind of political correct, anti-American, anti-
Semitic propaganda they are spewing in the classroom.
Shame on any Andover School Board member who agrees to
pass a policy to hide classroom work or assignments from
parents. And shame on anyone who can’t see through
the ridiculous party line being given to the public by
the teachers union and certain school board members.
Parents have the right to see what is being taught to
their children and public school teachers have an
obligation to inform the public, especially parents, what
is being taught to young people in their care.
Voter Fraud
Every year we get reports after local elections that
massive voter fraud took place in Lawrence. Those making
such claims frantically try to get The Valley Patriot to
do an investigation or write a news story after the fact.
We’ve all heard the complaints and allegations;
illegals voting in large numbers, people from other
communities voting in Lawrence, Willie Lantigua and his
cohorts influencing voters in polling locations and
ballot stuffing before or after the polls close.
This year we decided to be proactive and had people on
the lookout at ever polling location in Lawrence to see
exactly what kind of questionable behavior was taking
place. While there is no doubt that some voter fraud
occurs, and we are reasonably certain that there are some
illegal aliens or non residents voting in Lawrence
elections, our sources at the polls on election day saw
no evidence of out of town busses bringing in voters,
large numbers of illegals casting a ballot or any ballot
stuffing either before or after the polls closed on
election day. While there is evidence of some voter fraud
with absentee ballots (we will report more on that in the
coming months), there was absolutely no evidence that
there was widespread voter fraud in last month’s
municipal election in Lawrence. There were, at best, four
or five isolated incidents of improper behavior or
complaints about certain campaign workers. By our count,
this was one of the cleaner elections in recent history.
Nevertheless, we will be on the lookout in the ’09
election.
Dave Abdoo for President
Current City Council
President, Patrick Blanchette has made it perfectly clear
that he is going to run for mayor in two years. He has
also made it clear that he cannot (or will not) work with
the Sullivan administration to resolve the myriad of
problems facing the residents of Lawrence. Instead,
Blanchette has engaged in political wars with Sullivan
and anyone who works for him. He has called the mayor a
“dictator,” likenend him to “Saddam
Hussein,” demanded members of his cabinet be fired,
called for the disbarring of a city attorney, and
interfered with the day to day operations of city hall to
the point where a comptroller and a budget and finance
director have both cited Blanchette’s politics as
their reason for leaving the city’s employ. Anyone
who has witnessed the tension and conflicts between
Sullivan and Blanchette over the last two years (even
those who side with Blanchette) would have to agree that
having Blanchette remain council president for the next
two years would yield more of the same. In fact, if
Blanchette is to return to the council presidency, it is
safe to assume that he will actually increase his
personal and political attacks on the Mayor and his
administration to garner headlines every day in his quest
to be the next mayor.
The good news is, as of the date of this publication,
Blanchette has only two votes to return as council
president; himself and Councilor Nick Kolofoles. The bad
news is, Nilka Alvarez is also going to seek the council
presidency and she only has two votes; herself and Jorge
Gonzalez. According to several of the council members I
have talked to, newly elected District “E”
councilor David Abdoo is the favorite among a majority
but Abdoo has not expressed an interest publicly or
privately to be the next council president. It may not
matter, however, as Abdoo goes into January’s
inauguration with at least five votes (a majority) to be
the next council president. If Abdoo steps up to the
plate and even privately asks his soon to be fellow
councilors for their support, this race will be all over.
If not, look for a third candidate to emerge (like Frank
Moran) and end up being the conciliation candidate.
Bogus Ethics Complaint in
Georgetown
Georgetown Selectman Lonnie Brennan writes a monthly
column in The Valley Patriot called Georgetown Today,
where he exposes the inner workings of the town, behind the scenes
wranglings and publishes public information that town
officials purposely try to hide from the public.
Apparently, Brennan’s exposes have hit a nerve with
some of the local insiders. First, Georgetown officials
tried to deny Brennan access to public documents for fear
that he may publish them in his column. Then, they tried
to isolate him from information so that he wouldn’t
even know what was happening and he wouldn’t know
what to look for when something was happening in town.
But when that didn’t work, some genius filed an
ethics complaint against the selectman claiming that he
was either a) printing information that was not legally
considered public record, or: b) that he was abusing his
position as a selectman for personal gain as a paid
columnist for The Valley Patriot.
For the record, we are VERY BIG fans of the Massachusetts
State Ethics Commission. Their existence is one of the
reasons we started The Valley Patriot. And, because it is
our mission to publicly expose government officials who
violate ethics laws, we do not pay any of the elected or
appointed officials who write in the pages of our
publication. As is the case with Lawrence Mayor Mike
Sullivan, Methuen Councilor Kathleen Rahme, Lawrence
School Committeeman Peter Larocque, Haverhill Mayor Jim
Fiorentini and the dozens of other officials in the
Valley, they write to perform a public service with no
compensation whatsoever. And, they do so with the
knowledge that at any time, if they are involved in any
kind of unethical behavior, their participation as a
regular contributor to the Valley patriot will no longer
be welcome.
GPS in Highway vehicles in
Haverhill
Haverhill Mayor Jim
Fiorentini has placed Global Positioning Systems (a
satellite tracking system which keeps a log of everywhere
the vehicle goes) in all highway vehicles in the city so
that city officials can better track public vehicles. Not
only is this a great idea for Haverhill, but cities like
Lawrence and Methuen ought to be looking into this
technology to keep track of city vehicles. In recent
years, The Valley Patriot has received complaints (most
unsubstantiated) at election time that city vehicles
(usually DPW) in Lawrence and Methuen were being used to
shuttle political supporters of one candidate or another
to the polls on election day. We have received complaints
that town vehicles from North Andover have routinely been
parked at the Lawrence British Club throughout the entire
workday (we’ve actually seen that one ourselves) and
that public vehicles are abused by city and town
officials in Georgetown who are alleged to be doing
personal errands while on the town clock. With the GPS
system in place throughout the Valley, it would be very
easy to tell who is making a bogus complaint of vehicle
abuse for political reasons and who is actually being
brave enough to blow the whistle on those who would so
willingly abuse public time and public vehicles.
Building Commissioner Out of
Control?
As I have always defended Lawrence building inspector
Louis Waldron against political attacks, this next item
has me eating crow. Last month, Hutton Construction was performing work on Essex
Street outside the old “Loft and Ladle”
building. Hutton Construction was hooking up the building
with a new sprinkler system. The system is needed so the
building will pass inspection for a liquor license as
required by law. Although Hutton received all of
the necessary city permits for the construction and had
the approval of the Lawrence Police to begin digging on
Essex Street, City of Lawrence building Commissioner,
Louis Waldron, showed up and began making waves. As I sat
in bumper to bumper traffic watching the conflict unfold,
Waldron demanded that the construction stop (in the
middle of the day) even though Hutton was in total
compliance with the law and received all the proper
permits for the work. When Hutton called the Lawrence
police, several officers showed upand ordered
Commissioner Waldron to leave and said that Hutton
Construction could continue the work they had already
started. Waldron ended up leaving with his tail between
his legs, as I snapped picture after picture of the
incident. Why is this a notebook item? Because, as
Waldron was walking back to his car, he received a
parking ticket for double parking on Essex Street while
he was abusing his position trying to shut down a legal
construction project. Minutes later as I arrived at
city hall (on other business) I saw my friend Mr. Waldron
trying to have his ticket fixed.
CAC Buys Land on Andover St.
The Greater Lawrence Community Action Council now owns
the land and building which houses its Child Care
Center at 581 Andover Street in Law-rence. For years, the
Greater Lawrence Community Action Council had been
renting the building from Vincent Manzi, David Zion and
Andrew Triantafillou, as Trustees of 581 Andover Street
Trust. But on October 25, 2007, the Trustees sold the
property at 581 Andover Street to the Greater Lawrence
Community Action Council, Inc for $2.1 million dollars.
The Community Action Council partnered with Massachusetts
Development Finance Agency and Sovereign Bank for the
issu-ing of a $4.3 million dollar Tax Exempt Bond, used
to purchase the property and future renovations. The
child care center presently takes care of 250 boys and
girls and the bond proceeds will be used to refinance
three existing conventional bank mortgages and purchase
two school buses, according to MassDevelopment
documents. The building and lot is located between
Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds. Neither of these food
establishments were part of the land deal. The lot size
of 20,401 square feet was assessed in 2007 at $448,300.
Gifts for the Troops in North
Andover
Brownie Troop #542 is collecting items to send to our
troops in Iraq for the holi-days. Boxes will be at each
elementary school for collections. Help give the troops a
happy holiday and please donate. items for the troops:
fleece blankets (the type that Walgreens or CVS Sell);
note cards (to allow our soldiers to write letters home);
dispos-able cameras; phone cards; hand-held
battery-operated games; batteries; crossword puzzle
books; word search books; coffee; snacks (such as beef
jerky, peanuts, granola bars, hard candy); single-serving
presweetened powdered drink mixes; throat lozenges;
disposable razors; baby wipes; socks.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com The December 2007
Edition of the Valley Patriot The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 16,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury, Newburyport
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Newburyport,
Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
Hampton & Salisbury Beach, (summers
only)
Save the Puppies
our
readers that residents in the West End saw City Councilor
Bob Andrew and first time candidate Jeanne Pappalardo
knocking on doors and campaigning together. After the
election however, both Pappalardo and Andrew called
The Valley Patriot to tell us that they neither
campaigned together, nor did they have any affiliation
with each other’s campaign. “Maybe they saw me
knocking on doors with my husband,” Pappalardo said.
“But I never went door to door with Bob Andrew. I
ran my own campaign and the only person I was campaigning
for was Jeanne Pappalardo.”
“Jeanne’s husband is a former councilor, maybe
she was knocking on doors with him, but I never went door
to door with Jeanne,” Andrew said. 
Current City Council
President, Patrick Blanchette has made it perfectly clear
that he is going to run for mayor in two years. He has
also made it clear that he cannot (or will not) work with
the Sullivan administration to resolve the myriad of
problems facing the residents of Lawrence. Instead,
Blanchette has engaged in political wars with Sullivan
and anyone who works for him. He has called the mayor a
“dictator,” likenend him to “Saddam
Hussein,” demanded members of his cabinet be fired,
called for the disbarring of a city attorney, and
interfered with the day to day operations of city hall to
the point where a comptroller and a budget and finance
director have both cited Blanchette’s politics as
their reason for leaving the city’s employ. Anyone
who has witnessed the tension and conflicts between
Sullivan and Blanchette over the last two years (even
those who side with Blanchette) would have to agree that
having Blanchette remain council president for the next
two years would yield more of the same. In fact, if
Blanchette is to return to the council presidency, it is
safe to assume that he will actually increase his
personal and political attacks on the Mayor and his
administration to garner headlines every day in his quest
to be the next mayor. 
behind the scenes
wranglings and publishes public information that town
officials purposely try to hide from the public.
Apparently, Brennan’s exposes have hit a nerve with
some of the local insiders. First, Georgetown officials
tried to deny Brennan access to public documents for fear
that he may publish them in his column. Then, they tried
to isolate him from information so that he wouldn’t
even know what was happening and he wouldn’t know
what to look for when something was happening in town.
But when that didn’t work, some genius filed an
ethics complaint against the selectman claiming that he
was either a) printing information that was not legally
considered public record, or: b) that he was abusing his
position as a selectman for personal gain as a paid
columnist for The Valley Patriot. 
Haverhill Mayor Jim
Fiorentini has placed Global Positioning Systems (a
satellite tracking system which keeps a log of everywhere
the vehicle goes) in all highway vehicles in the city so
that city officials can better track public vehicles. Not
only is this a great idea for Haverhill, but cities like
Lawrence and Methuen ought to be looking into this
technology to keep track of city vehicles. In recent
years, The Valley Patriot has received complaints (most
unsubstantiated) at election time that city vehicles
(usually DPW) in Lawrence and Methuen were being used to
shuttle political supporters of one candidate or another
to the polls on election day. We have received complaints
that town vehicles from North Andover have routinely been
parked at the Lawrence British Club throughout the entire
workday (we’ve actually seen that one ourselves) and
that public vehicles are abused by city and town
officials in Georgetown who are alleged to be doing
personal errands while on the town clock. With the GPS
system in place throughout the Valley, it would be very
easy to tell who is making a bogus complaint of vehicle
abuse for political reasons and who is actually being
brave enough to blow the whistle on those who would so
willingly abuse public time and public vehicles. 
was performing work on Essex
Street outside the old “Loft and Ladle”
building. Hutton Construction was hooking up the building
with a new sprinkler system. The system is needed so the
building will pass inspection for a liquor license as
required by law. Although Hutton received all of
the necessary city permits for the construction and had
the approval of the Lawrence Police to begin digging on
Essex Street, City of Lawrence building Commissioner,
Louis Waldron, showed up and began making waves. As I sat
in bumper to bumper traffic watching the conflict unfold,
Waldron demanded that the construction stop (in the
middle of the day) even though Hutton was in total
compliance with the law and received all the proper
permits for the work. When Hutton called the Lawrence
police, several officers showed upand ordered
Commissioner Waldron to leave and said that Hutton
Construction could continue the work they had already
started. Waldron ended up leaving with his tail between
his legs, as I snapped picture after picture of the
incident. Why is this a notebook item? Because, as
Waldron was walking back to his car, he received a
parking ticket for double parking on Essex Street while
he was abusing his position trying to shut down a legal
construction project. Minutes later as I arrived at
city hall (on other business) I saw my friend Mr. Waldron
trying to have his ticket fixed. 
