My View of Life on the Dock
Please join us on Monday, April 10th at 6 PM at the Gloucester Police Department for a march and rally led by Mayor Romeo Theken to protest sexual violence. Together we can demand an end to this horrible crime.
For more information, please contact Public Health Nurse, Kelley Ries, at 978-325-5266.
Join us on Saturday, April 29th from 10am to 1pm at the Rose Baker Senior Center. Do what is right for the environment and safely dispose of your unused medications properly.
Donna Ardizzoni / Circle Consulting Group 978-526-9222
Great Egret Flying Over Perched Osprey
There is much to chortle about in this latest Cape Ann Winged Creature Update. Early April marked the arrival of both Snowy and Great Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons and Great Blue Herons. Osprey pairs and evidence of Osprey nest building can be seen wherever Essex Greenbelt platforms have been installed. Northern Pintail and American Wigeon Ducks are stopping over at our local ponds on their northward migrations while scrub and shrub are alive with the vibrant song of love birds singing their mating calls. Oh Happy Spring!
Ospreys Nest Building
Northern Mockingbirds SingingÂ
Blackbird Tree
Female American Wigeon
Gadwall (center), Male Pintail, Mallards, Male and Female American WigeonsÂ
Well, Thursday had wind, rain, waves and then the lightning.
Contractor: Newport, Nashua, NH, Brian McCabe is the Project Manager
Status: in progress
Progress April 2017: nearing finish line
Project start (historic): pre 1900
Modern project start: 1999
Funding Awarded: 2013
Bid Open and contract amount: 2/24/15 approx $7 million
Contract completion: on schedule, estimated spring 2017
Locations: Stacy Boulevard and Blynman
Priority: Top Level! Unique and exceptional project– Mayor’s Office considers seawall boulevard a priority necessity, for safety, a centuries infrastructure project with immeasurable quality of life benefits for residents and visitors and essential to economy
Temporary work site chain link fence: Required. The chain link fence is installed by the contractor to protect the work zone and define it better.
Tender house at Blynman and bridge: These are State not city/DPW purview. The new bridge house is temporary (thankfully). The entire bridge needs to be replaced and when it is a new tender’s house will be constructed. I will write more about the bridge house and Blynman in other posts.
Local jobs– scroll below
photo above: fencing subcontractor on a beautiful work site readying for railing. Railing required diamond coring like old granite quarrying. Stacy Boulevard December 2016.Â
photo caption: Railing! 2000 feet of new galvanized railing. (The replaced railing was not galvanized. DPW replaces railing: it’s simply a matter of funding.)
photo caption: Alex Karp – GZA Field Engineer Boulevard construction. The GZA company acquired (David) Vine Associates. GZA is the design engineer for the boulevard project. Â David Smith at GZA (formerly Vine) has worked with Gloucester since 1999.Â
photo caption: Gloucester’s DPW construction along the Boulevard
photo caption: CAP STONE! It’s more than decorative. It has two exposed sides that need to be trimmed to look perfect. Mike Hale, Boulevard construction, November (of course note beard) 2016
photo caption: Stacy Boulevard contruction capstone and harbor
photo CAPtion!: Stacy Boulevard dazzling dizzying scope of ocean and capstone as far as the eye can see
photo caption: Mike Hale with Brian McCabe, Project Manager, Newport construction, November 2016, Gloucester Boulevard
Along with the Mayor’s office and current administration, Gloucester’s DPW and Newport Construction work with subcontractors including local ones such as:
GZAÂ –Â national with corporate headquarters in Norwood, MA – Engineering
Gloucester Transit Mix Concrete, Gloucester, MA, Â – huge part of project!
Cape Ann Stone, Rockport, MA, Bruce Johnson (owner) – granite
MBT Electricians, Gloucester, MA – Â electrical and lighting
Essex County Landscaping, Gloucester, MA, J D Aspesi (owner) – irrigation and sod
Anne Gilardi Johnson –  additional new gardens, site and landscape design for the Boulevard (building upon the successful Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Memorial)– Johnson , a Gloucester native and multi award winning landscape architect, was commissioned by the Fishermen’s Wive Memorial board back in 2000 to design the landscape for Morgan Faulds Pike bronze sculpture, dedicated August 2001. “A series of design plans, and finally a study model, was produced as part of an interactive process between the designer, sculptor, and the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association.” Johnson is a member of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects (largest chapter of the national organization), “known for her design of urban spaces including parks, playgrounds, memorials and streetscapes in Boston,” Worcester, and Gloucester. Her award winning designs include Boston’s (James) Hayes and Childe Hassam Parks in the South End. Generous Gardeners is planting the new beds on the Boulevard: thousands of tulip and daffodil bulbs were planted by many volunteers last fall to bloom this spring!
some prior posts:
April 2017 Part 3- Gloucester’s boulevard public works construction Part 3: compare high res plans from 1922 and 1923 with today
April 2017 Part 2:Â Boulevard Public Works stunner | Gloucester is an early client for the Harvard and Olmsted trained landscape designer, Thomas Warren Sears. His 1908 photos are a must see!
April 2017 nearing the finish line Part 1-Â Walk this way: Gloucester’s stately Stacy Boulevard public works project is breathtaking and one for the ages! Part 1
September 12 2016-Â Stacy Boulevard construction update: historic Blynman the Cut Bridge project scope plans and engineering details
August 2016Â Stacy Boulevard construction update. Gloucester DPW is impressive
Nice to see the bright skies this morning!! Â Happy Friday all!
After the crazy snow fall last Saturday….we were thrilled to wake up Sunday morning to a really nice day. Â We went for a nice walk….and then a nice drive. Â I dragged the boys with me around Cape Ann while I took the some photos. Â They played on beaches along the way, took some of their own photos, and then convinced me it was time for an ice cream.
Two things. Â First of all, Long Beach Dairy Maid is super yummy. TONS of choices….and tons of ice cream.
So, secondly, downsize your order. Â I got a small….it was easily a large at any other ice cream joint. Â Really…too big to finish. Â The boys got “kiddies”…which insults them to no end, but were still quite large….as seen in the photo below!
I’ve been told since that kids should really order the “1/2 Kiddie” and I should have ordered a “Kiddie”. Â Which, if you ask me, begs the question way not just make the 1/2 kiddie the kiddie, the kiddie the small, and the small the large.
READ MORE ABOUT THE LONG BEACH DAIRY MAID AT THEIR WEBSITE HERE
John Ronan presents Taking the Train of Singularity South From Midtown on Saturday, April 8, 2:00-3:00pm in the Friend Room. It’s Sponsored by the Gloucester Lyceum and Friends of the Sawyer Free Library.
John Ronan a poet, playwright, journalist and a National Endowment for the
Arts Fellow in Literature has done so much in Gloucester! Here’s a throwback article from 1978 about the Gloucester Broadside, a monthly 10 cent one sheet of quality poetry.
Ronan developed the website resource dedicated to Gloucester poets, Gloucester Poet Laureate, also for Salt and Light: An Anthology of Gloucester Poetry, published spring 2010. He is the host of the Cape Ann TV program, The Writer’s Block.  He was pivotal in establishing the library’s annual Poetry without Paper Contest and poetry columns in the Gloucester Daily Times.
Students are encouraged to submit poems to the Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library’s annual Poetry without Paper contest by April 30th!
April 27 2017 | POEM IN POCKET DAY: It’s free and simple to participate. Carry a Poem. Share a Poem. For more information, search for Poem in Your Pocket Day (PIYP Day) Academy of American Poets (www.poets.org) or New York City’s excellent web site, http://www.NYC.gov/poem. PIYP Day started in NYC in 2002 inspired by the Favorite Poem Project established in 1997 (first events April 1998) by Robert Pinsky, former 3x Poet Laureate of the United States. East Gloucester Elementary School initiated Poem in Pocket Day in 2011 (PTO enrichment).
The Ride of My Life
The signs say sixty
miles an hour, sixty
degree angles, eight
bucks for two minutes,
and Don’t Stand Up!
We pay the eight,
climb in the car.
The Big Guy who draws
down the lap bar
tight as a tourniquet,
says: “Stash the glasses,
the pen in your pocket.
Stuff flies out.”
Cogs catch. The cars
quake, start awkwardly
forward as my wife waves,
safe on West 10th
and others stroll Surf,
Coney Island tourists
not thinking about The Cyclone,
or the comic fate that leads
in the first place to Astroland,
no way not to be
in a roller coaster seat
at the top of the first drop and…
Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod!
Up plummet of guts
plunging down, fist
full of fear in the heart-
sick final mind:
I am not on a metaphor,
I am going to die.
Followed by a slow coast,
an arc of confident calm,
balm of Brooklyn below and…
Ohmygod! Ohmygod! Ohmygod!
Death drop and keister
clench! The easy scream!
…and the balm of Brooklyn below.
Ohmygod! horror, and hope…
Ohmygod! horror, and hope…
Slowly, slack in the lickety split.
Speed evens out
and the sine curve dies,
finally flat
in a fan turn to the ramp.
The Big Guy hovers
above the cars, smiling:
“Second ride’s five.”
-John J. Ronan
Cape Ann TV filmed John Ronan reading this poem, The Ride of My Life
I LOVED the Cyclone and I lost my prescription eyeglasses…and a shoe!
John Ronan’s New Book: Taking the Train of Singularity South from Midtown
The Poetry Society of America recently featured  John Ronan’s wonderful civic poetry creed essay January 2017. Book tour events listed http://www.theronan.org/
POET LAUREATE: In Gloucester, MA, the Poet Laureate is dedicated to building community through poetry and encouraging a love of poetry among people of all ages. The honorary post for the City of Gloucester was created in 1998. There have been 4 Poet Laureates: Vincent Ferrini was the City’s first, then John Ronan served from 2008-10, Ruthanne Collinson served 2010-14, and Peter Todd served 2014-15. The Committee for the Arts helps to select a new Poet Laureate.
Join author and Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire, Jeffrey Bolster, for a discussion of his book The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail (Harvard University Press, 2012).
Cost is $5 for Cape Ann Museum members / $10 nonmembers (includes Museum admission). Registration required; please call (978)283-0455 x10 or register online at Eventbrite. For more information email info@capeannmuseum.org.
Since the Viking ascendancy in the Middle Ages, the Atlantic has shaped the lives of people who depend upon it for survival. And just as surely, people have shaped the Atlantic. In his innovative account of this interdependency, W. Jeffrey Bolster, a historian and professional seafarer, takes us through a millennium-long environmental history of our impact on one of the largest ecosystems in…
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Pauline shares a once in a lifetime experience (Photo L-R: 39th Chief of Staff for the US Army, General Mark A Milley; Pauline Bresnahan; Major General John ‘Mike’ Murray; Special Assistant to the Commanding General at Fort Benning Mike Burns)
Good Morning Gloucester 