Your Hometown Newspaper! ECRWSS PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT #67
Peabody, MA POSTAL CUSTOMER
Vol. 2, No. 22
-FREE-
www.advocatenews.net
Info@advocatenews.net
Peabody celebrates its fallen soldiers in poignant Memorial Day ceremony
978-777-6397
Friday, June 2, 2017
In Courtney’s Memory
By Melanie Higgins t was an overcast day, but that didn’t stop Peabody from honoring its fallen service members in its annual Memorial Day parade and ceremony. Scores of veterans, their families and citizens turned out for the events, which carried marchers and floats down Main Street all the way to City Hall. Girl Scouts, Brownies, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, the Peabody Police, numerous veterans’ organizations – such as the Polish Legion and Disabled American Veterans – the Elks Lodge, the North Shore Pipe Band, and many more populated the procession. Also very special, the Veterans Services Department assembled its first ever “Gold Star” float for families of fallen service members. After the parade, veterans and Gold Star families huddled on the front lawn of City Hall by the memorial monuments to pay respects. The Marine Corps League performed the 21 Gun Salute, and Peabody native Dana Sheridan performed the National Anthem. New this year, Peabody’s Gold Star Families received their first-ever Massachusetts Medal of Liberty, which is specifically for the families of those
I
Martha Barrett, shown with her two granddaughters, accepts a citation from Mayor Ted Bettencourt honoring her fallen brother, Richard Joseph Bois, at the city’s recent Memorial Day Ceremony honoring Gold Star families and all of the city’s fallen service members. See more photo highlights inside on pages 11-14. (Advocate photo by Ross Scabin)
fallen. Only a few other Massachusetts communities share the distinction. Signed into Massachusetts General Laws in 2009, a statute decrees that any family of any service member who has fought and died in any war since 1776 is eligible to receive the award. Some family members who received the award are elderly, while others are much younger. Any family member of a fallen solider is eligible to receive the medal, but first they must apply through the state. The Peabody Veterans Services Department did a lot of the work
tracking down the families of the soldiers to inform them of their eligibility, according to Veterans Services Director Steve Patten. On behalf of the Governor of Massachusetts, Mayor Ted Bettencourt presented the medal to
CELEBRATES | SEE PAGE 4
Jack Corning, addresses the crowd last Saturday during a ceremony in the middle of the Courtney Marie Corning Tournament at Endicott College in Beverly honoring Courtney, his daughter and late Peabody High School softball player, who died tragically in a 2007 car accident. Courtney’s mother, Ginny, read a poem written by the late PHS student expressing her love for the game of softball. See story inside on page 10. (Advocate photo by Greg Phipps)
City Council votes to relocate proposed medical marijuana zone Move earns praise of Lynnfield residents By Melanie Higgins
“The original proposed zone would have dramatically and adversely affected the lives and homes of many decent people. Living with the uncertainty of people potentially getting high and driving down our streets
impaired, while our children play, would have been agonizing for the residents of this area,” said Danielle Berdahn, a resident of Green Street in Lynnfield.
eabody will be reorganizing how it plans to have medical marijuana facilities in its borders. At a meeting on May 25, the City Council decided to strike the plan to bring a medical marijuana zone to 100 Corporate Place off of Route 1. The city is in the process of approving the new location, which is located next door in the area of Brothers Kouzina, 7-Eleven, and Bertucci’s and contains four parcels. Complaints from residents at Green Street in Lynnfield halted the move. The only way to access the site is to drive through Green Street. Residents are concerned that people might be getting “high” on-site and driving back through their neigh- Peabody residents, including many from Lynnfield were in borhoods, which contain attendance at the May 25 City Council meeting in opposition to the medical marijuana zone. children.
P
MARIJUANA | SEE PAGE 3