Public safety

BREAKING NEWS: School canceled, snow emergency declared due to stormy forecast
Local News, Marblehead Public Schools, Public safety, Top Stories

BREAKING NEWS: School canceled, snow emergency declared due to stormy forecast

Marblehead Public Schools have joined several other North Shore communities to cancel school for Tuesday, Feb. 28, due to a stormy forecast. All morning and afternoon school activities are canceled. Marblehead Community Charter Public School has also canceled for Tuesday. The town has declared a snow emergency on Tuesday from 12:01 a.m to 7 a.m. “This will allow for the streets to be cleared of any snow and the cleanup of existing snow and ice,” according to an email from the town. “It will be illegal to park any vehicle including boats and trailers on any public way during the snow emergency. Any vehicle, boat or trailer that is not off the public way between midnight tonight and 7 a.m. will be subject to being ticketed and towed.” The email goes on to read: “If your veh...
Breaking news: Snow emergency declared
Local News, Municipal Matters, Public safety, Top Stories

Breaking news: Snow emergency declared

The town has declared a snow emergency due to stormy weather headed this way. The snow emergency runs Tuesday from 12:01 a.m to 7 a.m. "This will allow for the streets to be cleared of any snow and the cleanup of existing snow and ice," according to an email from the town. "It will be illegal to park any vehicle including boats and trailers on any public way during the snow emergency. Any vehicle, boat or trailer that is not off the public way between midnight tonight and 7 a.m. will be subject to being ticketed and towed." The email goes on to read: "If your vehicle is towed during a snow emergency, you should call the Marblehead Police Department at 781-631-1212 to confirm the location of your vehicle. All vehicles are towed to the designated town tow lot at the Transfer S...
Police log: Rash of car breaks investigated
Local News, Public safety

Police log: Rash of car breaks investigated

Excerpts from the Marblehead police log of Friday, Feb. 10 through Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. Consistent with state law, Marblehead Police have adopted a policy of not providing to media outlets reports related to incidents related to domestic violence, juveniles and matters that remain under investigation.  Friday, Feb. 10 8 a.m. Police assisted with the disposal of fireworks or flares on Ocean Avenue. 8:36 a.m. A walk-in reported that a vehicle had been entered on Elm Street, but nothing was missing. 9:16 a.m. Another car break was reported on Elm Street.  9:22 a.m. A resident reported that a vehicle had been entered on Roosevelt Avenue, and unspecified items were reported missing. 9:26 a.m. Police received another report of a vehicle being entered on Roosevelt Aven...
At hearing, resident outlines remedial steps for ‘dangerous’ dog, but some still wary
Local News, Municipal Matters, Public safety, Top Stories

At hearing, resident outlines remedial steps for ‘dangerous’ dog, but some still wary

Marblehead Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer will recommend that the Select Board deem a Pickwick Road dog dangerous, he said in a public hearing on Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 15. Marblehead Animal Control Officer Betsy Cruger petitioned the Select Board to schedule the dangerous dog hearing following two attacks involving Nala, a 2-year-old pit-bull mix owned by Gina Rushton of 45 Pickwick Road, on Dec. 3 and Jan. 10. Lawyer Jeremy Cohen pleads the case of resident Gina Rushton to Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer during a dangerous dog hearing on Feb. 15. CURRENT PHOTO / WILLIAM J. DOWD Cruger told Kezer that the first incident involved Chloe, owned by Rushton’s neighbor, Robert Barone. Barone, who intervened because his dog’s life was in peril, sustained a bite wound to his ind...
‘Swatting’ incidents at local high schools prompt warning from chief, superintendent
Local News, Marblehead Public Schools, Municipal Matters, Public safety, Top Stories

‘Swatting’ incidents at local high schools prompt warning from chief, superintendent

Marblehead officials put the town on notice Wednesday afternoon, following a recent pattern of hoax phone calls, known as swatting incidents, into area police stations alleging an imminent threat exists at local high schools. “This week several schools have been targeted including Haverhill, Amesbury, Ipswich high schools and Salem High School today,” Marblehead Superintendent John Buckey and Police Chief Dennis King wrote in a Wednesday email to local parents. “The caller in each incident appears to be the same person, and reciting the same narrative.” The pair added, “After all of the incident investigations, it has been preliminarily determined that the call is a hoax and there is no danger to the school community.” King and Buckey said local law enforcement and Marblehead Pu...
SJC upholds Marblehead man’s murder convictions 
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SJC upholds Marblehead man’s murder convictions 

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the first-degree homicide convictions of a Marblehead man Tuesday.  In the winter of 2014, a Salem Superior Court jury found Peter Ronchi guilty in the stabbing death of his pregnant girlfriend, Yuliya Galperina, and her nearly full-term fetus. Following the two first-degree murder convictions, Superior Court Judge David Lowy, now an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, sentenced Ronchi to two life sentences without the possibility of parole.  With his appeal, Ronchi was attempting to reduce his first-degree convictions to manslaughter, which would have made him eligible for parole. But the court affirmed the outcome in the lower court.  Ronchi argued that he had stabbed Galperina in the “heat of passion upon re...
Marblehead police log, Feb. 1-9, 2023: Ticketmaster account hacked, but another’s credit card used for purchase
Local News, Public safety

Marblehead police log, Feb. 1-9, 2023: Ticketmaster account hacked, but another’s credit card used for purchase

Excerpts from the Marblehead police log of Wednesday, Feb. 1 through Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Consistent with state law, Marblehead Police have adopted a policy of not providing to media outlets reports related to incidents related to domestic violence, juveniles and matters that remain under investigation. Wednesday, Feb. 1 7:43 a.m. An officer investigated the report of a past hit-and-run on State Street. Upon his arrival, an officer spoke with a man who told him that sometime overnight a vehicle had struck his car, run over some mulch and struck a large electrical box. The officer observed minor cosmetic damage to the rear driver side of the man's vehicle, a large electrical box pushed slightly off its base, and a mulch bed with tire tracks on it. The man believed that a car parke...
Franklin Street firehouse needs $2.3M worth of work
Culture, Local History, Local News, Municipal Matters, Public safety, Top Stories

Franklin Street firehouse needs $2.3M worth of work

The Marblehead Select Board’s 2023 warrant articles will include a request to override Proposition 2 1/2 to finance the restoration of the Franklin Street firehouse.  The Select Board took its vote on Feb. 8 after architects Ryan Foster and Erik Christensen summarized an assessment of the condition of the historic building that the town commissioned last year. Fire Chief Jason Gilliland briefs the Marblehead Select Board on the Franklin Street Firehouse renovation. CURRENT PHOTO / WILLIAM J. DOWD  "The firehouse is a wood structure built in 1886, and it has been continuously used as a fire station since its construction," Foster told the Select Board. "It is one of the oldest continuously operated fire stations in the commonwealth."  Today, the firehouse at 3 Frankli...
Vintage items from Marblehead Fire’s past find place to rest
Local News, Public safety, Top Stories

Vintage items from Marblehead Fire’s past find place to rest

An old glass-fronted bookcase has been given a new life holding antique objects at Marblehead Fire Headquarters. “We’ve always wanted to start making a place where we could collect historical stuff,” said Fire Chief Jason Gilliland, showing off his latest acquisitions. “It’s only been here a couple of months, and I’ve already had people send stuff in.” The huge piece of furniture has sat in the Building Commissioner’s office in the Mary Alley Municipal Building for decades until recently, when the current commissioner said he had no use for it. Gilliland said he put in a call to the Historical Society, but they had no room for it, so he asked if he could have it. Everyone said yes. A relic itself, the three-section-cabinet is original to the Mary Alley from its days as a hospital...
Marblehead gathers to mourn Tyre Nichols
Culture, Local News, Public safety, Top Stories

Marblehead gathers to mourn Tyre Nichols

Members of the Marblehead community converged Sunday afternoon for a Seaside Park vigil to grieve the police killing of Tyre Nichols last month in Memphis, Tennessee. The Rev. James Bixby of Clifton Lutheran Chruch speaks to a crowd at an afternoon vigil for Tyre Nichols on Sunday, Feb. 5. CURRENT PHOTOS / WILLIAM J. DOWD On Jan. 7, five Memphis Police Department officers beat Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, following a traffic stop. He died three days later. Nichols’ death is another incident of longstanding police brutality against Black men in the United States. The officers have since been fired and charged with second-degree murder. "Why is it that we continue to gather again and again in the same fashion? Why do Black and Brown people always seem to be the victims of...