Essex Morning Current, Thursday, October 8

Transcript

Good morning, Essex. It's Thursday, October 8. From the Cape Ann Current, I'm Kerry Jane, with your Essex Morning Current. Today we look at the town's 24.5 million dollar budget and where the money goes.

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At the May 4 town meeting and May 11 election, voters approved a 24.5 million budget for the current fiscal year. That is a 2.9 percent increase. To pay for it, voters passed two overrides of the state property tax limit. The Finance Committee says it is the first override for town operations in more than 20 years. Schools account for over half of all spending. Town departments grew 8.1 percent, driven by employee health insurance and the first full time fire department employee. The Essex Elementary School project heads to the fall town meeting on November 16.

It is Fire Prevention Week. Fire officials want every household to check its smoke and carbon monoxide alarms before heating season. The American Red Cross installs up to three free smoke alarms in Massachusetts homes, for renters and owners. Our checklist and free calendar reminders are at capeanncurrent dot com.

Today's public meetings include a community meeting of the Essex School Building Committee at 6 p.m. at Essex Elementary School. The Board of Health meets at 7 p.m.

In the race for state representative in the Fifth Essex District, Gil Frieden of Essex is the first of the three candidates to answer the Cape Ann Current's questionnaire. His answers on housing, the working waterfront, climate, school funding, transportation and all nine ballot questions are now in our voter guide at capeanncurrent dot com. Democrat Dru Tarr and Republican Christina Delisio have until October 16 to send theirs.

Looking ahead to Saturday, the First Congregational Church hosts a community breakfast from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Then, the Essex River Cultural District festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum.

In high school sports, the Manchester Essex field hockey team shut out Amesbury 3 to 0 yesterday. The girls cross country team beat Amesbury 19 to 38, while the boys fell 31 to 26. Today, the golf team hosts Amesbury at 3:30 p.m. Boys soccer hosts Amesbury at 4 p.m., and the girls travel to Amesbury at 4 p.m.

The National Weather Service expects a chance of a shower this morning, then mostly sunny and breezy with a high near 68. A small craft advisory is in effect until 11 a.m. High tides in the Essex River come about 11 to 13 minutes after Gloucester Harbor's high tides at 10:09 a.m. and 10:32 p.m. Hurricane Isaias is headed for the northern Gulf Coast and will not bring storm conditions to Cape Ann this weekend. Forecasters expect a dry, sunny Saturday, then say the storm's leftovers could bring rain showers Sunday night into Columbus Day, with no flooding or damaging winds expected.

That's the Essex Morning Current for Thursday. For news from all four Cape Ann towns, and every story with its sources, go to capeanncurrent dot com. I'm Kerry Jane, the Cape Ann Current's newsreader. Catch the Morning Current again tomorrow. Keeping Cape Ann current.

Stories in this episode

• Essex's $24.5 million budget, line by line
• Morning shower chance, then sunny and cooler into the weekend
• Scoreboard: seven games today, including Gloucester volleyball and Rockport and Manchester Essex soccer

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