Good Morning Gloucester

Obituary
Thomas P. Burns, 78, of Gloucester, passed away unexpectedly at his home on January 9, 2020. He was born in Gloucester on January 16, 1941 and was the son of the late William Burns and Tina Santapaula.
From a very early age Tommy had a passion for working on cars and became a talented mechanic. He worked for North Shore Plymouth during the muscle car era of the 60’s. Tommy loved those cars and loved racing them as well. He quickly gained the respect of his fellow street racers. It was a great time in his life and he had many stories from those days. After his years as a mechanic, Tommy headed South to help build the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel and worked on a tugboat alongside his Uncle “Shorty”. He brought his Plymouth Road Runner with him and continued to drag race with the kids in Virginia while he was there. Tommy always loved the ocean and loved lobstering. He was especially proud of his 42’ Bruno lobster boat the “Arethusa”. He was the first one in town with a boat like that, earning him the nickname “Father Bruno”. He was very knowledgeable about old ships and schooners and Captained the 150’ schooner “Pilot” in the early 90’s and loved to take people for rides during storms. Tommy kept lobstering for the rest of his life with his son Cody by his side for many years. He would often help out his fisherman friends in need of a good mechanic. When Tommy wasn’t lobstering he liked to hang around at Capt. Joes and with his best friends, Harrison Golden, Dave Williams, Lebaron Hazen and Dave Goeteman. He also loved going to Todd’s farm on Sundays. At home in his older years, Tommy liked to work on his collection of outboard motors. He also enjoyed watching classic movies and listening to oldies music. Some of his favorites were Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.
Tommy will be greatly missed by all those who knew him. He is survived by his sons Sean and Cody Burns and their mother Lindsay and her sister Leslie Parkhurst; his daughters Deborah and Denise Burns and their mother Gerry; his daughter Julia Heffernan of Portsmouth, England; his daughter-in-law Candice Pierce and his grandchildren Krystalyn Burns, Kamron Diaz; his sister Cheryl Graham of Florida and his cousin Jim Santapaula and his 2 sons Jimmy and Andy.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Emerson Inn in Rockport on Thursday, January 23, 2020 from 5-7 p.m. Family and friends are cordially invited. Arrangements are by the Greely Funeral Home, 212 Washington St. Gloucester.

To send flowers to the family of Thomas P. Burns, please visit Tribute Store.

“Tonight, Governor Baker announced the Career Technical Institute Initiative. We are glad the Baker-Polito Administration has learned from the example and success of the Gloucester High School Craft Laborers Program.

In 2018, an MOU was signed between the Craft Laborers Local 22, Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School, and Gloucester High School. The agreement allows Gloucester High School students that were not accepted into the regional vocational school in their freshman year to enroll in a pre-apprenticeship program with Local 22 during their junior year.

Gloucester High School students remain Gloucester Public Schools students, attending required courses for graduation at GHS in the morning and boarding a bus to Essex North Shore to study in a building trades pre-apprenticeship program with Craft Laborer instructors in the afternoon.

This collaboration between Gloucester Public Schools, Essex North Shore, and Local 22 has allowed more students interested in the trades to enroll in a program based on a technical education and career path. Students that enroll in the program are guaranteed a job in Local 22 post-graduation.

We are glad that our collaborative effort to create new educational and employment opportunities for our students is serving as a model for use around the Commonwealth.”

GloucesterCast 377 Livestream This Morning 8:45AM & AT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOEYGMG

The chat part where you can write in questions while we’re taping is at WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/JOEYGMG

Join the chat, we have lots of fun!

We drove to Lane’s Cove this week to see what was new and ran into Erik and H of Mass Wildlife who were in the middle of tagging some ducks for release. We watched as about a dozen or so mallards were tagged and released and I was struck with how calm the ducks remained during this process. If you find a tagged duck (or other wildlife) please report it! Here’s a link: http://www.reportband.gov for reporting and another link for further information from US Fish and Wildlife  It was very interesting and we thank Erik and H for allowing us to watch and answering our questions.

From Cape Ann Live

This, of course, is the historic 18th century barn located within the construction site for the new Essex police and fire station. Fundraising efforts are underway to preserve the barn and hopefully reconstruct it at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. If you are interested in donating, here’s a web address: http://www.essexshipbuilding.org/barn-rescue. It’s a wonderful old barn along the byway!