Walnut Street Park May Be Named for East End Veterans

Mayor Bettencourt, former Mayor Bonfanti and city officials break ground on new park as a catalyst for new development in the downtown.

"Look at this dump," former Mayor Michael Bonfanti said in greeting a large crowd that gathered Wednesday afternoon at 45 Walnut St. for a groundbreaking of what both Bonfanti and current Mayor Ted Bettencourt hope is a catalyst for new development in the area near the downtown. The 1.3-acre site, vacant and over-grown with weeds, will be transformed by early November into a park for children and adults. Construction begins on Monday. As the former mayor was quick to point out, the site has been a brownfield for more than two decades, contaminated with heavy metals, petroleum residue and dioxins left behind by an old tannery. Bettencourt called the groundbreaking "an important day for our city." He said he expects this park to be "the …

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Week in Review

Peabody Residents Rocked by Bostik Plant Explosion

Peabody Police and Firefighters were among many North Shore emergency responders at the scene.

The Bostik Plant explosion Sunday night reverberatted with news during and after the event for several days this week as authorities continue to probe the cause of the blast which injured four company employees. On Sunday evening just after 7:30 p.m., several West Peabody and Peabody residents heard a loud sonic boom and some said their houses actually shook making some believe they had experienced an earthquake. Peabody firefighters and police officers rushed to the scene of the Bostik Plant explosion on 211 Boston St. in Middleton along with many other North Shore emergency responders. Four employees were injured, but the city and the region breathed a collective sigh of relief that the damage wasn't worse. On Monday, officials with the …

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Consultants: Peabody, Salem Brownfields Sites Chock Full of Opportunity

Some property owners are still unwilling to have environmental assessments done because they don't want the financial liability of clean-up.

Planning consultants James Currier and George Naslas did their best to convince some property owners within the North River Corridor they should take advantage of free environmental assessments to see what contaminants, if any, exist on their land. But no one voiced any willingness to utilize some of the $1 million Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields Coalition grant to have their property tested when they finished their presentation Tuesday night at the Peter A.Torigian Community Life Center. The problem, as some property owners described it, is that if they take advantage of the free assessment, any contaminants found would have to be reported to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. As a result, the property …

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