IN THIS ISSUE
SPORTS
ARTS
COOKIE CANVAS
Magicians hope to tame Mustangs Friday
Make-it and take-it in Current Events
Meet the local chef offering treats in town
Page 14
Page 11
NONPROFIT ORG PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
MARBLEHEAD, MA PERMIT NO. 25
Page 9
NEWS FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT.
TM
SEPTEMBER 16, 2026
|
VOLUME 4, ISSUE NO. 43
FIRST WAVE 1
“We’re gonna make as many enemies as we are friends with this.” Update on ADUs in town. Page 12.
|
2
MARBLEHEADCURRENT.ORG
Marblehead’s first Sit for Peace brought people to Devereux Beach. Page 3.
|
ON SOCIAL @MHDCURRENT
Trail plans start 3 Singer/songwriter 5 Anfor explosive 4 .areRailmoving Vienna Teng shares ahead MHS boys
her music — and tips on climate action. Page 14.
… but not everyone’s happy. Page 7.
soccer. Page 10.
Five facts from this week’s Marblehead Current.
HOUSING
Revised Broughton Road redevelopment plan calls for 50 new senior units BY AKANKSHA GOYAL The Marblehead Housing Authority and WinnDevelopment presented a revised plan Tuesday to redevelop Broughton Road, proposing 50 new age-restricted units while preserving all 62 existing family housing units.
The revised concept, presented to the Planning Board on Sept. 8, follows months of feedback from residents, abutters, town officials and other stakeholders. The proposal calls for either renovating or demolishing and rebuilding the 62 existing units, along with construction of a three-story building containing
»Mixed results for ADU applications. Read the update on page 12. 50 new senior units. The rear portion of the site would replace existing units with 20 new twoand three-story townhouses.
The redevelopment would also add community and amenity space, onsite management and resident services, additional parking, landscaping and a connection to the Rail Trail. “We want to make sure that we’re on the same page, and that this development concept is something that people feel they
ENVIRONMENT
From tiny oysters, big hopes for healthier waters
can support and get behind,” Housing Authority Executive Director Cathy Sheehan told the board. The latest design differs from the original proposal in several ways. The previous version called for BROUGHTON, P. 6
Health board unanimously censures McMahon for his conduct BY LEIGH BLANDER
Salem Sound Coastwatch Nicole Albani speaks at Marblehead’s upweller on Sept. 10.
BY LEIGH BLANDER Outside the Marblehead Harbormaster’s office sits a big white box that has been attracting curious looks all summer. Inside are six orange buckets containing about 25,000 tiny oysters — some no bigger than a grain of rice — quietly doing their part in an ambitious effort to restore oyster populations and improve the coastal ecosystem.
The box is an oyster upweller, installed in June as a joint project involving Sustainable Marblehead, Salem Sound Coastwatch and the Massachusetts Oyster Project. The baby oysters, known as seed, arrived July 1 at just 2 millimeters across. Some have since grown to about 10 millimeters. Harbor water is continuously pumped into the bottom of the upweller and through the buckets holding the oysters. The flowing
CURRENT PHOTO / LEIGH BLANDER
water delivers a steady supply of phytoplankton, algae and other naturally occurring food, helping the young shellfish grow before they are moved into open water. The oysters are expected to leave their Marblehead nursery at the end of September. Many will be moved to an oyster reef in Ipswich that the Massachusetts Oyster Project has been working to restore for about five OYSTERS, P. 3
NEVER FORGET
25 years later, Marblehead remembers — and looks to a generation that never knew 9/11 BY LEIGH BLANDER Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the memories remain vivid for those who lived through that day. But for a growing number of Americans — including firefighters, police officers, EMTs and military members now serving their communities — 9/11 is not a memory at all.
BLACK CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW
They weren’t alive when the towers fell. That generational shift was at the heart of Marblehead’s 25th anniversary remembrance Friday morning, as hundreds gathered at Memorial Park to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks, the first responders who ran toward the danger and the six Marbleheaders who lost their lives on 9/11 or in the wars that followed. Fire Chief Jason Gilliland opened the
ceremony by reflecting on how much time has passed. “Twenty-five years is a long time,” Gilliland said. “An entire generation has come of age since September 11, 2001.” Today, he said, there are young people serving in firehouses, police stations, EMS bases and dispatch centers who were not yet born when 9/11, P. 8
The Board of Health voted unanimously Wednesday night to censure member Tom McMahon over his conduct during a heated exchange with resident Ryan Wilson at an Aug. 24 meeting, formally putting the board’s disapproval of his behavior on the record. The vote came after a tense, 90-minute discussion during which McMahon acknowledged that he should not have repeatedly interrupted Wilson but declined to apologize directly to him, even as Wilson sat in the audience. “I’m apologizing to my board members,” McMahon said. At the beginning of the discussion, McMahon said he had reflected on his conduct and acknowledged that he had fallen short. “I didn’t need to interrupt the way I did,” he said. “I can’t snap like that. I have to be better, and I will be.” McMahon added, “My promise to my board and the residents of Marblehead is that I will be better.” He then moved to censure himself, saying his colleagues clearly did not support the way he had handled the Aug. 24 exchange. The Aug. 24 confrontation occurred during public comment, when Wilson, a parent of two Marblehead High School students who works in market research, challenged McMahon’s repeated comments that underage drinking is approaching a dangerous “tipping point.” A recent Marblehead High risk survey showed a 10% drop in teens reporting drinking. Wilson corrected another statistic McMahon had cited from the survey and questioned some of the conclusions McMahon had drawn from the data. McMahon repeatedly interrupted Wilson, and the exchange escalated into shouting. Wilson also said McMahon had previously sent him a text calling him a “f—ing moron.” Wednesday night, several residents told the board that the incident was part of a broader concern about whether people who disagree with McMahon feel comfortable speaking at Board of Health meetings. Resident Cindy Schieffer offered several examples of collaborative initiatives to address underage drinking. She then spoke to McMahon. “Your approach is to attack, at every turn, McMAHON, P. 2