Townsend News

Police will not press charges against a former elementary-school teacher accused by some parents of putting duct tape over her students' mouths.

Jonathan Bik looked longingly out the courthouse window yesterday while awaiting his arraignment in Ayer District Court on charges that he led police from four communities and the State Police on a wild chase the day before.

The doorbell plays "The Star-Spangled Banner'' at Jannine Kraus's home, where her dining room table nearly disappeared last week under parade signs, a rainbow of crayons, quivers of felt markers, and a sticky bottle of white construction glue.

If all goes right, the town's Water Department could soon be on the receiving end of federal stimulus funds aimed at promoting "green" energy projects.

A 38-year-old Townsend woman, who took off to Brazil with her 4-year-old son in February, was arrested as she got off a plane with the boy at Logan Airport on Thursday afternoon and was charged with custodial kidnapping.

It suddenly became more expensive to build a new home in Townsend. Selectmen have voted to almost double the town's building-permit fees.

Neither the town nor the North Middlesex Regional School District has seen a school close and neither wants to pay for shutting down the Peter Fitzpatrick School .

It's because of his strong work ethic, his genuineness and his insistence on going above and beyond the call of duty that led Ayer Police Chief William Murray to nominate Ayer Police Sgt.

Teachers at the Peter Fitzpatrick School in Pepperell wave goodbye to students yesterday as the buses pulled out of the lot for the last time.

"It's fun," each person in the room said at some point. Some even said it more than once.

Fire Chief Donald Klein was both humbled and curious as to why he has been named recipient of the 2009 Nashoba Publishing Extraordinary Service Award.

Stowell-Parker American Legion Post 163 has elected 2009-2010 officers. They are: Nancy E. Friis-Hansen, commander; Lee Reed, first vice commander and finance officer; John J.L. Matson, adjutant and judge advocate; and Donald H. Olson, chaplain.

All Emily Metcalfe wants is the chance to keep her career -- and dreams -- alive.

Evidently, Maureen Marshall doesn't have enough to do as the full-time superintendent of schools of the North Middlesex Regional School District, so she also wants to run the Quabbin Regional School District at the same time.

The communication center at the police station on Brookline Street is undergoing a $250,000 upgrade in equipment that will eventually let the police and fire departments share information, police said.

All Emily Metcalfe wants is the chance to keep her career -- and dreams -- alive.

The Townsend Recreation's six-week summer program will be held, Monday to Friday, July 6 to Aug.

Olivia Aubuchon feels lucky that a yellow school bus comes to pick her up every morning.

In a case of out with the old, in with the old, former Quabbin Regional School District Superintendent Maureen M. Marshall has been named the new superintendent of the Quabbin Regional School District.

Richard O. Collette, 86, of 8 West Main St., Rivercourt Residences, West Groton died Friday, June 5, at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston.