Remembering Spenser author
When crime writer Robert Parker, 77, of Cambridge died last week, his connection to Andover came to mind. His book-turned-television-show "Spenser: For Hire," brought the late Hollywood actor Robert Urich to town.
Urich starred as Spenser and moved his family to Phillips Street (near Phillips Academy) because the show was filmed in Boston.
Parker himself was seen in Andover from time to time during the last few years. A few years back he was here with his wife, Joan Parker, a fan of Coco Collection clothes. While his wife shopped at Coco Collection in Olde Andover Village, he opened his sportscoat and showed a Townsman reporter that he also had a favorite clothes store in Andover. His sportcoat label was from the Andover Shop on South Main Street.
He said the couple started out their married life living in a Chestnut Street apartment, because Robert Parker worked at Raytheon in Andover as a younger man.
— Judy Wakefield
Tax-hike votes coming
For years, Andover has been planning to move its town yard and build a new elementary school and fire station. Now, residents are getting a better idea of the price tags and their timing. Residents will be asked to pay for each through temporary tax hikes - called debt exclusion overrides that usually raise taxes for 20 years to pay for one specific project each - within the next 15 months.
Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski said the first of these, to build a new town yard at a cost of at least $10 million, will come before Annual Town Meeting this spring. If approved there, residents will need to vote in favor again at a special ballot-box election shortly after Town Meeting.
Currently, the town yard is located downtown, on Lewis Street, near the police station and Andover commuter rail. The town yard is where Andover repairs many of its vehicles and stores road salt and sand.
A task force is considering whether it would be better to move the yard to 5 Campanelli Drive, near the Interstate 93 River Road exit, or 146 Dascomb Road, near the I-93 Dascomb Road exit.
— Brian Messenger
Presidential donation
Vanity Fair is reporting this month that the cold winters and elite intellectual atmosphere of Phillips Academy Andover were a jarring change for President George W. Bush. He flunked his first English paper and stuck with fellow southerners and Texan classmates, it says. But Bush eventually grew to appreciate Andover, becoming head cheerleader, earning the nickname "the Lip" for his sharp tongue, and coming in second for the title of "Big Man on Campus," Vanity Fair reports.
Now Bush is giving back to Andover. The magazine reports that Bush gave somewhere in the range of $5,000 to $9,999 to his alma mater between the years 2005 and 2009, taking the info from a PA alumni donation list. Some others gave more money, but Vanity Fair says "nothing stands out quite like a president's name tucked inconspicuously into a long list of donors."
— Judy Wakefield
