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Goats grazing on High Plain Road
Diary goats continue to graze - quite happily - in the Virginia Hammond Reservation on High Plain Road as part of a Conservation Commission program to "mow" a three-and-a-half-acre meadow the natural way.
Recent photos taken by Bob Decelle, Conservation Commission special projects manager, show how the goats have taken a liking to their grazing area, even stripping leaves and berries off a bush.
The program, which uses the diary goats of Andover farmer Lucy McKain, was started last fall.
- Bethany Bray
Downtown Post Office not considered busy
Andover has four post offices and the U.S. Postal Service is now paying $16,575 to lease the one at 20 Main St., inn the Town House, space formerly leased for just $1-a-year.
Will the current economic climate of tightening budget belts affect the future of the Old Town Hall Post Office?
USPS spokesman Dennis Tarmey was asked that question and wrote this in an e-mail: "We do not consider Old Town Station to be a busy station. Of the 204 Post Office Boxes that are available, customers have rented less than 50 percent of that total...No Post Office in Andover is currently under formal consideration for closing, however, that may change as we are constantly reviewing Postal operations to remain viable."
- Judy Wakefield
School business manager coming
The school department has been searching for a business administrator since the spring, and it seems someone may soon fill the office formerly occupied by interim Bernie Tuttle.
A classified advertisement for the job listed an application deadline of May 7 and a salary range of $105,000 to $115,000 annually.
"We had originally received 24 applications and interviews were conducted with seven candidates. No finalists have been named as of yet," wrote Superintendent Marinel McGrath, in an Aug. 5 e-mail to the Townsman. "We are hopeful that in the coming weeks we will have either a permanent hire or an interim."
The position was filled by former full-time administrator Tuttle through the school year after School Business Administrator David Keniston left the district in October 2009. In June, the state told Andover School leadership to continue the hiring process for a business manager after months of studying whether Andover should consolidate school and town-side finance departments.
- Bethany Bray
35 trees coming down?
A National Grid tree-by-tree assessment shows that power outages troubling thousands of customers in the area of Dascomb and Argilla roads is in part due to hazardous trees. National Grid wants to remove 35 town-owned trees (21 of them on Argilla Road) in that area and prune another seven trees. A complete list of the designated trees will be available at tonight's, Thursday, Aug. 12, public hearing on the matter. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the selectmen's conference room on the third floor.
- Judy Wakefield
Herons back and beautiful at Pomps
It's been five years since herons nested in a tree top visible from the shores of Pomps Pond. But a nest returned this summer and an Andover tree top was home to a heron family. Pond staffers provided photos of the herons.
"It's just fantastic and neat to see," said Mary Donohue of the Department of Community Services, which manages Pomps Pond.
Donohue said the pond lost some water this year because a berm was removed and speculated that may be why the herons are back. Pond staffers also have seen turtles sunning on rocks at Pomps this summer, and Canada geese were plentiful.
"There's lots of nature down there and it's great to see," Donohue said.
- Judy Wakefield
Rio Grande teaching job for new grad
Andover native Michael Besser has joined Teach For America, the national corps of top college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools in low-income communities.
Besser, an Andover High School graduate and 2010 graduate of University of Maryland College Park, is among 4,500 new teachers selected this year. A record 46,000 applied. The selection rate works out to just 12 percent. Besser will teach in the Rio Grande Valley beginning this fall.
