Westminster News

Selectmen scheduled a Special Town Meeting for June 4 to allow residents to vote on a $177,000 tax override to increase school funding.

Mayor Dean Mazzarella raised the ante in a friendly community rivalry with Fitchburg and Gardner during a Light the Town Purple celebration that bathed City Hall in purple lights Thursday to recognize the upcoming Relay for Life of Greater Gardner.

Officials were a bit agitated Monday night that they will have to hold a special town meeting for a $37,000 request in additional school money that they say could have been requested at annual town meeting a little more than a week ago.

Selectmen in Ashburnham and Westminster are each preparing to set a date for a special Town Meetings in the next few weeks to re-approve next year's school budget.

Dan Kirouac said when his band, Beatles For Sale, gets on stage it's obvious they're not really the Beatles.

After the last potato chip rolls off the production line at Utz Quality Foods Inc.

Eleven arrests were made Thursday during "Spree Day," the annual unofficial party celebrating the last day of classes for the spring semester at Fitchburg State University.

Lunenburg police, with assistance from detectives in Westminster and Ashburnham, arrested Patrick E. Crane, 29, of Island Road, Lunenburg, on Thursday and charged him with two counts of receiving stolen property.

A plan to hire two new teachers to reduce class sizes in the Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District was cut from next year's budget, following a failed vote at Westminster's annual Town Meeting Saturday to put a tax override to the voters.

The Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School District Committee recertified a reduced budget Tuesday night, omitting the creation of two new teachers from next year's budget after a failed vote at Westminster's annual Town Meeting on Saturday to put a Proposition 2 1/2 property-tax override on a future ballot.

Fire departments from several area towns are responding to out-of-control brush fires in the area of Ball Hill Road in Princeton.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE/ JOHN LOVE Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical High School teacher Ken Pearson was given an Audubon Society Conservation Teacher of the Year award for his work with students.

Swing into spring with the Point 'n' Swing Big-Band at the Costume Ball, at 6 p.m. May 18, at Pleasant Valley Country Club.

Before the budget vote, Ashburnham-Westminster District Superintendent of Schools Ralph E. Hicks said if the money was approved it would allow for the hiring of two more teachers.

Voters have 25 articles to get through at town meeting Saturday, including a recommended $13.3 million town operating budget, $450,000 in capital requests and a request to provide $238,000 in additional funding to the school department through a Proposition 2-1/2 tax cap override that will require subsequent ballot approval.

Fallen soldier Lt. Ryan Patrick Jones will be honored today by having the Westminster Post Office named after him.

In cities like Fitchburg and Leominster, voter turnout was only about 11 percent, while towns with local contested races saw only slightly higher participation.

In Millbury, Asa Dubois, 3, peeks out from behind red, white and blue curtains as his grandmother, Linda Langway, votes Tuesday.

Voters at the annual town meeting Saturday will be asked to approve an annual town budget that is up 2.2 percent from the current year.

Fitchburg firefighters scaled a steep hill overlooking Mirror Lake on Monday to battle a brush fire at Cogshall Park, one of several brush fires in the region that have kept firefighters busy the last few days.