essex Happenings 1.20.12

Essex Happenings 1.20.12

Essex Heritage Trails & Sails 2012 Planning is Underway!

Planning is underway to once again celebrate our region's distinctive history, breathtaking landscapes and hidden gems during the 11th annual Trails & Sails: Two Weekends of Walks and Water, September 21-23 & September 28-30, 2012! Mark your calendars to join us for FREE guided tours, open house visits, hikes, walks, sails, paddles, and special experiences for all ages, skill levels and interests. This event has become one of the most popular events celebrated in the fall season, and has clearly become one of the signature events of Essex Heritage. Participation by area residents has increased every year since the inception of the program over a decade ago.


Keep in touch and stay involved...
Event Hosts:

Get creative! Get involved! Start planning now, online event submission begins in March! We seek all kinds of experiences and invite any heritage organization or business to consider offering a unique, free event that provides residents and visitors the chance to connect and experience your special place. Build public awareness and audience for your cause, mission and organization! Please contact Emily Levin with your ideas for a possible Trails & Sails tour, lecture or workshop. Prior-year hosts will be contacted via email soon.

Participants: Can't wait until September? Make Trails & Sails last all year long by becoming a mission-based champion of Essex Heritage! As a member of Essex Heritage there are many opportunities to connect to resources in this region beyond Trails & Sails weekends, making the fun and discovery last all year long! Join today!


Special Thanks to Corporate Members


Essex Heritage would like to extend special thanks to our new and renewing corporate members! Thank you to Hawthorne Hotel, and Saugusbank, for renewing commitments as Sustainer Circle Members and to Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care for becoming a new Corporate Sustainer Circle Member. In addition, Essex Heritage would like to thank Rockport National Bank who has renewed its Supporter Circle Membership! Business contributions to Essex Heritage illustrate a strong demonstration of your company's investment in the unique quality of life we enjoy in the Essex National Heritage Area. Find out more here.

Become a member at any level! Discover special places and experiences throughout the county. Your tax-deductible Essex Heritage Membership helps to support programs that enhance, preserve and promote the unique historic, cultural and natural resources found within the Essex National Heritage Area. Join today!


Fine Food and Fundraising in February!

Come join us for an evening of fine food and fundraising to benefit Trails & Sails on Tuesday, February 7 from 5:00-9:00 PM at the Landing Restaurant (81 Front Street, Marblehead, MA 01945)! Bring your friends and family and enjoy a great meal with the staff of Essex Heritage and the Landing will generously donate 20% of your meal to support the programs and initiatives of Essex Heritage. A delicious and easy way to support your favorite regional event. Join us!



This past Tuesday, the Salem Rotary Club held its weekly meeting at Salem State University. The membership had the pleasure of hearing University President Patricia Maguire Meservey. She spoke about important projects that are going on with the University including the library project. I am sorry I was not able to attend the meeting but I am re-printing sections of the club Newsletter that highlights the President’s remarks for your information.



As we conclude what was a highly successful fall on campus and prepare for a new semester of heightened activity, I am pleased to report that Salem State continues to fulfill its commitment to students, to the North Shore region and to the commonwealth. Allow me to share with you a bit about the busy fall semester just concluded, and the equally full semester that awaits us in the 2012 spring semester.


Salem State is a leader in the number of Fulbright Scholars According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 28, 2011, Salem State University is considered a “top producer of U.S. Fulbright Scholars” among master’s degree-granting institutions for the 2011-2012 academic year.
Faculty member Thomas Hallahan and librarian Zachary Newell will spend six months each in Amman, Jordan, and Alexandria, Egypt, respectively, during the spring semester, where they will engage in scholarly pursuits. Management professor Gina Vega will spend the summer at England’s Cranfield University as a Fulbright senior specialist. There, she will assist European Case Clearinghouse in designing a series of programs to increase the profile of the case method in the UK.


NEASC
Every ten years, the 238 colleges and universities accredited by the New England Association of Schools and College’s (NEASC) Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (CIHE) are required to submit to comprehensive evaluations to maintain accreditation. A self-regulatory, peer review process based on rigorous criteria, these evaluations determine how well each institution meets prescribed standards relative to its stated mission. 

Over the course of two years, Salem State underwent this very important 10-year re-accreditation review, which included an extensive self-study and an on-site visit of several days by the NEASC committee this past April. A preliminary report from the commission indicates that we have fully met their requirements and will be continued in accreditation. 

Fitness Center approved At its November annual meeting. , the Salem State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved the construction of a campus fitness and recreation center. The 40,000-square-foot, two-story, glass-walled facility, which will be built as an addition to our existing athletic complex, the O’Keefe Center, is expected to be operational by September 2013. When complete, the new fitness facility will provide—in addition to more exercise equipment, two basketball courts, a yoga studio, and a conference/lecture hall that can accommodate an audience of 1000—a place where students can gather, connect and find a bit of respite from the rigors of their academic studies.

Salem’s Mayor Driscoll to head Statewide Mayor’s Association this Year

At the end of last year, the Nominating Committee of the Massachusetts Mayor’s Association put forth the name of Mayor Kimberly Driscoll of Salem to serve as the Association’s President for 2012. It is expected that the entire membership will endorse that recommendation at the associations upcoming annual meeting. Driscoll served last year as the first vice president of the group and will provide leadership for the one year term that she will serve. She has indicated that it will be a pleasure to be able to work with other municipal leaders from across the state to develop collective strategies to address some of the issues that impact all communities. Last year Essex Heritage honored Mayor Driscoll as one of its 2011 Heritage Hero’s and since that time she has continued to demonstrate an unusual level of leadership in both her home community and across the Commonwealth. Congratulations Mayor Driscoll on the latest honor.

Town of Georgetown to seek help in Completing Cultural and Architectural Survey

The community of Georgetown is seeking bids from qualified preservation consultants or companies that might wish to undertake a most important survey from the Town. The local Historical Society and the community wishes to undertake a comprehensive four phase survey over the next nine months that will survey the communities cultural and architectural resources. The work will be completed using Community Preservation Act Funds and will include documentation of historic properties in the village district. Interested bidders or those seeking more information should contact Georgetown Town Administrator Michael Farrell at Town Hall. Bids to complete this project are due by 3:00 pm on January 23, 2012, so time is of the essence. As part of the project, early in the process, residents and businesses operating in the region to be surveyed will be asked to provide information about their properties to members of the Commission or by attending an upcoming meeting. The results of this project will be of interest to Essex Heritage as the material gathered will be valuable for the future.

Two Weather related events Scheduled in local Communities
Two local communities have events scheduled that will most certainly depend on if we receive meaningful snow in the near term. The Town of Hamilton had already moved a date for a sled dog races. The event was first scheduled for this past weekend and now in the hopes of receiving some snow to allow this event to occur they have rescheduled the event until the weekend of February 4 and 5. That new date will have to be monitored if the snow drought we are experiencing this season continues.

The City of Peabody has scheduled an inaugural series of snowshoe races at 10:00 am on February 19th 2012. That event will certainly be dependant on the a snow event in this region prior to that event.


Citizen Warrant Submission Deadline in Andover Nears

The Town of Andover has announced that citizen petitions for action at the Town Meeting scheduled for this spring are due in the Town Clerks office by January 27, 2012. The petitions must have the signatures of ten registered voters to be considered for action by residents at the spring meeting,