Shirley News

Calling all shoppers: Be on the look out for chances to contribute to this year's Ayer Police Holiday Toy Drive.

An appropriation approved by residents at the fall Town Meeting has provided momentum in the process for updating the town's Master Plan, as boards and committees are solicited for their input and help.

Despite having been embroiled in a legal saga against Pan Am Railways, the town of Ayer has signed off on supporting an EPA grant for the Billerica-based rail company.

The concept of a regional emergency communication center that would include a Reverse 911 system that will allow residents to be electronically warned of trouble has come to town.

The state Department of Correction will not make mitigation payments to 10 communities around the state that are home to prisons, including an estimated $180,000 for Shirley, officials said.

The North Middlesex Regional School Committee voted unanimously this week to begin a discovery phase on consolidation of the North Middlesex and Lunenburg school districts.

Shirley Playboard hosts "Drop and Shop" Babysitting Day at SMS on Dec. 6, 1 to 6 p.m. Every busy parent knows how hard it is to shop for your little ones when they are constantly by your side.

The annual meeting of the Shirley Historical Society was held on Friday, Nov. 13. Newly elected officers include President Patty MacDonald, Vice President Beth Wade, Secretary Ruth Rhonemus, Treasurer Paul Przybyla, board members Betsy Mirkovic, Don Reed and Arthur Banks.

Authorities have ruled that the death of a Mattapoisett couple last week was a murder-suicide. A joint statement from the Plymouth district attorney's office and Mattapoisett police released Wednesday says 74-year-old Shirley Battistelli was strangled, while 78-year-old Joseph Battistelli died of a gunshot wound to the head.

The Scouts of Shirley will be collecting the bags they distributed for nonperishable food items for the Loaves and Fishes food pantry on Sunday, Nov.

On Nov. 4, the first-grade students in Mrs. Shorey's class carefully removed bits of bone from owl pellets and matched them to drawings of the dead animal's skeleton.

"This should be done by 2033," said Ayer Selectman Gary Luca half-jokingly. He was referring to reaching a tri-town consensus on whether to facilitate or block Devens' enrollment in the state mosquito-spray program.

Each of the last four years, the Shirley Republican Town Committee organizes Operation Cookie Drop and this year will be the same.

Many members at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 794 in Fitchburg served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

In a departure from the agenda, the selectmen began their Nov. 2 meeting with a testimonial to longtime resident and decorated WWII veteran John Hebert, who died Nov.

High school seniors Meghan McCaffrey and Nick Flanagan said regionalization discussions between school officials from North Middlesex and Lunenburg school districts are a good idea if they could help the towns build a new high school.

School teachers and administrators were on hand to greet parents who took advantage of an open house at the proposed new home for the Harvard public school's Integrated Pre-K program.

It's a task so unwieldy that the Joint Boards of Selectmen for Ayer, Harvard and Shirley decided to outsource the job to the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission .

The Special Town Meeting warrant includes seven articles, and the most important may be Article 2, which contains separate line-item requests worth $52,000 needed to chase delinquent taxpayers, Selectman Enrico "Rico" Cappucci said yesterday.

The Friends of the Hazen Memorial Library in Shirley hosted a free Haunted Halloween Magic Show with magician Tommy James at the library on the evening of Oct.