The Weekly Current: Oct. 26 to 31. Gloucester's tax split, Rockport's water emergency, and Election Day Tuesday

0:00 Kerry Jane: Gloucester voted eight to one to keep the same tax split, and the rate on your house is going down. Your bill might not.

0:07 Mateo Daniel: Rockport declared a water emergency so it can borrow three feet of water from a quarry it does not own. I live there. I had questions.

0:16 Ana Lucia: And Tuesday is Election Day. Nine questions, one state representative seat for all four towns, and we wrote up every one of them.

0:24 Kerry Jane: It's all coming up on The Weekly Current.

0:27 Kerry Jane: Good morning, Cape Ann. This is The Weekly Current from the Cape Ann Current, a free source of public information for Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea. I'm Kerry Jane. It's Sunday, November 1. The clocks went back an hour overnight, so if you feel rested, that's why. This is our third episode.

0:47 Ana Lucia: Good morning. I have been up since what my body says is six.

0:52 Kerry Jane: Ana Lucia covers the waterfront, business and history. And Mateo Daniel covers sports, schools and community, and reads the police and fire logs every morning.

1:02 Mateo Daniel: Let's go. Episode three. We're a series now.

1:05 Kerry Jane: All right. Before the week, the week.

1:08 Kerry Jane: Ana Lucia, you first. How was your week?

1:11 Ana Lucia: So. Wednesday morning there was frost. The first real one down in the Fort. And Wednesday was October 28, the date the Andrea Gail made her last radio call, 35 years ago. We ran a write-up about the six men. I read it before work and then I walked Stacy Boulevard to the Fishermen's Memorial.

1:32 Kerry Jane: In the frost.

1:33 Ana Lucia: In the frost. Nobody there but a man with a coffee and me. Billy Tyne, Robert Shatford, David Sullivan, Alfred Pierre, Dale Murphy, Michael Moran. My father worked the waterfront for 40 years. You don't grow up in the Fort without knowing what that memorial is for.

1:56 Mateo Daniel: That's a heavy start.

1:57 Ana Lucia: It is. But that's the week. Then Avó fixed it, like she does. Today is November 1, Dia de Todos os Santos. All Saints' Day. In the Azores when she was a girl, children went door to door on this day asking for Pão por Deus. Bread for God. Little cakes, bread, sometimes a coin.

2:19 Mateo Daniel: Wait. So the kids went around the day after Halloween?

2:23 Ana Lucia: There was no Halloween. There was this. Avó says it was Halloween before Halloween, except you said thank you. So she is making arroz doce this morning, sweet rice, and I am on cinnamon duty. The only job she trusts me with.

2:39 Kerry Jane: And Sardinha?

2:40 Ana Lucia: Sardinha does not know the clocks changed. She woke me at what used to be six and is now five, sat on my chest, and looked at me like I had done it to her. Then back to the bathroom radiator. The heat has been on at my house since October 16.

2:54 Mateo Daniel: You wrote the story and then you turned it on. We all remember.

2:58 Ana Lucia: Three days. I know. How about you? You had a Saturday.

3:02 Mateo Daniel: Okay so. Yesterday. Halloween. First, soccer. Gloucester and Rockport played a doubleheader at Rockport, girls at ten, boys at noon. I live a few blocks from Front Beach, so Tito and I walked over. Fifty degrees and windy. Rockport swept it. We'll get to the scores.

3:20 Kerry Jane: Tito outside the fence.

3:22 Mateo Daniel: Outside the fence. That's the rule. He's a Rockport dog now, apparently, because he barked at every Gloucester throw-in. I didn't teach him that. Then Sofia came up on the train. She had the weekend off, so we got a daytime Saturday, which almost never happens with her on nights.

3:37 Ana Lucia: And then.

3:38 Mateo Daniel: And then I took her to Woodman's. In Essex. Like I said I would two weeks ago, on this show, in front of everybody.

3:45 Ana Lucia: So. Did you eat them in the truck?

3:48 Mateo Daniel: We ate them in the truck. Tito in the back seat watching every single clam. Sofia said, this is your idea of a date, and I said yes, this is the whole date, and she laughed. So I'm counting it.

4:01 Ana Lucia: Farnham's has the marsh.

4:03 Mateo Daniel: Farnham's has a view. I'm not eating a view.

4:07 Ana Lucia: You have never once addressed the view.

4:09 Kerry Jane: I don't care. Onion rings. Moving on. Mateo Daniel, the Revolution. I know you want to.

4:16 Mateo Daniel: I do. Okay so. Four straight wins. Two to one at Philadelphia last Saturday, which ended Philadelphia's 15 game unbeaten run. Three to two over the Red Bulls Wednesday night at Gillette. Second in the East, 18 wins, home playoff game locked up. That's from the club's own match reports.

4:35 Kerry Jane: And tonight.

4:37 Mateo Daniel: Tonight. Seven o'clock. Inter Miami at Gillette, last home game of the regular season. It's my share of the tickets, so I'm driving to Foxborough with the scarf on. Playoffs start November 18.

4:48 Ana Lucia: Is Sofia going?

4:50 Mateo Daniel: Sofia is going back to Beverly to sleep like a normal person. Kerry Jane. Your week. And I want the real answer.

4:58 Kerry Jane: You'll get it. I have the planner open. Monday was 65 degrees. In the last week of October. Owen walked home from the bus in a T-shirt and told me the heat rule was, quote, obviously correct. He's nine. He agrees with his father on everything.

5:13 Ana Lucia: And then it got cold.

5:15 Kerry Jane: Wednesday, frost on the car, same as you. The kitchen thermometer said 57. Thursday and Friday it warmed right back up, 64, 66, with that wind Friday and an elevated fire risk out for the dry grass. Then Saturday dropped to 50 and last night went to about 36.

5:34 Mateo Daniel: Halloween night.

5:35 Kerry Jane: Halloween night. Owen went out as a harbormaster for the second year in a row. Same orange float coat, same clipboard. He told a neighbor the Centennial Avenue bridge closes Monday, which is true, and which nobody asked. Maggie went with friends. She is thirteen and did not need me, and she said so twice.

5:57 Ana Lucia: Did she come home with candy?

5:59 Kerry Jane: She came home with candy and said it was for Owen. It was not for Owen. And then Dan and I sat in the kitchen with Chowder on my feet, and he looked at the thermostat, and he looked at me, and he said, tomorrow.

6:12 Mateo Daniel: Okay so. Today is November 1.

6:17 Kerry Jane: Today is November 1. Dan's rule. No heat before November 1. We held it. Three weeks of this show, two sweaters, coffee in a hat. And by the time you hear this, Dan has turned the dial, the furnace has coughed, and Chowder has found the one warm vent in the house and will not be moved until April.

6:39 Ana Lucia: So you won.

6:41 Kerry Jane: Nobody won. We were cold on purpose for a month. But the rule held, and in this house the rule is the point. All right. Let's get to it.

6:52 Kerry Jane: Every week we pick the three things that matter most. A decision got made, or it's about to. It costs money or changes a rule. It touches the most households. Number one is mine. Tuesday night Gloucester's City Council voted eight to one to keep the same tax split between homes and businesses. The 1.03 shift, used since fiscal 2017.

7:12 Mateo Daniel: Okay, wait. What is a shift?

7:14 Kerry Jane: Every fall the council picks one number. It decides how much of the city's total tax bill falls on homes and how much on businesses. The total doesn't change. The number moves the slices. A shift of one means everybody pays the same rate. Gloucester stays at 1.03, a little moved from homes onto businesses.

7:34 Ana Lucia: What does it cost?

7:36 Kerry Jane: That's my line. Here's the assessor's math from the packet. The owner of a 750 thousand dollar home pays about 15 dollars a year less than at a single rate. A business property worth the same pays about 210 dollars more. That's the whole shift. Fifteen dollars one way, 210 the other.

7:54 Mateo Daniel: Fifteen dollars. That's a lot of meeting for fifteen dollars.

7:58 Kerry Jane: Two councilors said about the same, which is why Ward 2 Councilor Dylan Benson moved to go to one rate for everyone. That failed two to seven. Then the 1.03 passed eight to one.

8:10 Ana Lucia: And the rates themselves?

8:11 Kerry Jane: Going down. Homes, about 9 dollars and 3 cents per thousand dollars of value, down from 9.31. Businesses, about 9.33, down from 9.61. The rates fall because values went up. The median single family home in Gloucester is now valued at 775 thousand 500 dollars.

8:32 Mateo Daniel: So my rate goes down but my bill goes up.

8:36 Kerry Jane: That can happen. A lower rate on a higher value. The write-up has a calculator where you type in your assessed value and see the two rates side by side. Your real bill uses your new value, so it moves by a different amount.

8:51 Ana Lucia: Why did we cover it?

8:52 Kerry Jane: Because it's the one night a year the council decides who carries the levy, and the hearing was real. Four people asked to keep or shrink the shift, one asked to go the other way. A Wytham Street resident said the average single family bill rose about 2,070 dollars over seven years. The average commercial bill rose 446.

9:14 Mateo Daniel: And the business side?

9:15 Kerry Jane: The head of the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce asked for 1.03 or a move toward one rate. He said businesses are 8.3 percent of the city's value and shrinking, and a bigger shift lands on small businesses that rent. Both sides are in the write-up.

9:31 Ana Lucia: What does it mean for you?

9:32 Kerry Jane: Nothing changes on your bill because of this vote. The rates become final when the state certifies them, usually December, and the third quarter bill shows them. What we learned: the levy limit this year is about 113.7 million dollars. Everything else is slicing that one pie.

9:49 Ana Lucia: One line from the same meeting. The sewer plant upgrade on Essex Avenue started in August, runs to the end of 2030, and is paid for mostly with 206 million dollars in state loans. The public works director said it was estimated at 65 million back in 2012 or 2013. Delays cost money. He said that too.

10:11 Kerry Jane: Number two is Rockport, and it's water. Mateo Daniel, you live there. Take it.

10:16 Mateo Daniel: Okay so. Monday morning, 10 a.m., on Zoom, the three DPW Commissioners voted three to nothing to declare a water emergency for Carlson's Quarry and Flat Ledge Quarry. Those are two of the places Rockport's drinking water sits.

10:32 Ana Lucia: Why the word emergency?

10:35 Mateo Daniel: Because the state made them say it. The Pigeon Cove Quarry Association offered about three feet of water from Steel Derrick Quarry, which the town doesn't own. The state environmental agency said yes, siphon it, but first declare an emergency. So they did. The DPW director called it mostly procedural. Quote, this is not to raise red flags.

10:56 Kerry Jane: How low is it?

10:57 Mateo Daniel: Carlson's is about four to four and a half feet lower than this time last year. Each foot is about 1.6 million gallons. The week of October 18 it was 56 percent full. Last year that same week, 68.8 percent. That's the town's own weekly table.

11:15 Ana Lucia: And three feet buys you what?

11:17 Mateo Daniel: About 4.8 million gallons. At what the town figures it uses, 680 thousand gallons a day, that's about seven days. One week of water.

11:29 Kerry Jane: What happens to the ban?

11:31 Mateo Daniel: Nothing. The total ban on outdoor water use that started September 18 stays. Nothing changes for residents yet. That's the line from the meeting. I rent, so the landlord gets the letter, but I read the table every week now.

11:44 Ana Lucia: So. The water plant supervisor said the siphon they're about to use was last used in 1996, when the town took almost 26 feet out of Steel Derrick. He said that from accounts at the time. Twenty six feet then. Three feet now.

12:01 Mateo Daniel: And Flat Ledge, the quarry they pump into Carlson's, is 29 feet down, with maybe two or three weeks of pumping left. Quote, I just feel like we need to catch up somehow.

12:12 Kerry Jane: Why did we cover it?

12:13 Mateo Daniel: Because the word emergency was going to show up in a town notice and people were going to wonder. The board talked about that. They said the word is the state's required term and they wanted people to know what they did and why. So that's what we did. Here's what they did and why.

12:28 Kerry Jane: What does it mean for you?

12:29 Mateo Daniel: If you're in Rockport, keep doing what you're doing. The ban is the ban. Watch the weekly table on the town's water page, it's linked in the write-up. And if you see a hose running from Pigeon Cove toward Carlson's in the next few weeks, that's the three feet.

12:44 Ana Lucia: Number three is Tuesday.

12:47 Kerry Jane: Election Day, November 3. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in all four towns. Early voting ended Thursday in Essex and Friday everywhere else. A mail ballot has to reach your clerk by 8 p.m. Tuesday, in person or in a drop box. Mailing it now is cutting it close.

13:05 Ana Lucia: Nine questions.

13:07 Kerry Jane: Nine questions. This week we published a short write-up on almost every one, with the full explainer on the elections page. Ana Lucia, give people the list.

13:16 Ana Lucia: So. Question 1, should most records of the Legislature and the Governor's office be open to public records requests. Question 2, should employees of the state public defender agency be able to form a union. Question 3, one primary for state offices, top two go to November. Question 4, registering to vote at the polls on Election Day.

13:44 Mateo Daniel: Keep going.

13:45 Ana Lucia: Question 5, how the state figures its yearly tax cap. Question 6, a Nature for All Fund for land, water and parks. Question 7, should every town allow a single family home on a 5,000 square foot lot. Question 8, should the state end recreational marijuana sales. Question 9, should the 2024 firearms law stay in place.

14:09 Kerry Jane: And every write-up says the same thing at the bottom. The Cape Ann Current takes no position on any ballot question. What you get is what a yes does, what a no does, who's for it, who's against it, and who's paying. The money comes from the state campaign finance office.

14:24 Mateo Daniel: Give me one. The money.

14:27 Kerry Jane: Question 3, the one primary. As of October 26, the yes side had reported about 7.7 million dollars. The no side, about 198 thousand. Question 8, marijuana, is closer. About 3.8 million yes, about 3 million no. It's all in the write-ups.

14:46 Ana Lucia: Mateo Daniel, you had a rule.

14:50 Mateo Daniel: Holding it for one thing we learned.

14:53 Kerry Jane: The local race. Fifth Essex District, state representative, all four of our towns. Three names, as the state lists them. Christina Delisio of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Republican. Gil Frieden of Essex, Transparency Inclusion Environment. Andrew Tarr of Gloucester, Democrat, who goes by Dru and holds the seat. All three are side by side in the Fifth Essex voter guide.

15:18 Ana Lucia: And the Governor's Council.

15:19 Kerry Jane: Fifth District. Eunice Zeigler, Democrat, of Methuen, who holds the seat, and William Falcetano, Republican, of Gloucester. The council votes on judges, clerk magistrates and pardons. That's in the guide too.

15:32 Mateo Daniel: Why nine separate write-ups?

15:34 Kerry Jane: Because nobody reads a 9,000 word explainer the night before. Each one is a few lines. You can read all nine in ten minutes.

15:42 Ana Lucia: What does it mean for you?

15:44 Kerry Jane: Tuesday, 7 to 8. Essex votes at the Public Safety Building on John Wise Avenue. Manchester at Memorial School. Gloucester and Rockport, look up your precinct on the state's site, it's linked. Gloucester voters who will be away Tuesday can still vote absentee in person at the clerk's office until noon tomorrow.

16:02 Kerry Jane: All right. The Desk. Quick ones. Ana Lucia, business.

16:06 Ana Lucia: The Lobster of Gloucester, on East Main Street, won the city's last year round liquor license. The Licensing Board voted three to nothing Monday. It has run on a seasonal license since it opened in May 2023 and closed part of every winter. The state still has to approve it, and the seasonal license runs out January 15.

16:25 Kerry Jane: There was a second bid.

16:26 Ana Lucia: For an Indian restaurant on Washington Street. It failed one to two. The board said the application was incomplete because neighbors weren't notified.

16:36 Kerry Jane: Manchester.

16:37 Ana Lucia: Manchester's Planning Board gave Cell Signaling Technology back the full 250 thousand dollar bond it posted for its quarry site, five to nothing. And the board set a public forum for Thursday, December 3, at 6 p.m., on the rest of the town's business district. About 100 acres.

16:55 Kerry Jane: Mine. Roads. Four in ten miles of road in Gloucester are private. That's 573 roads, 63.8 of the city's 167 miles, the fourth highest share in Massachusetts. Statewide it's 8 percent. The city can plow them and fill potholes, and that's about it. The people along a private road own it, whether they know it or not.

17:18 Mateo Daniel: Rockport?

17:19 Kerry Jane: Rockport 16 percent, Manchester 18, Essex 8. There's a lookup on the site. Type your street, it tells you public or private.

17:27 Mateo Daniel: And crashes.

17:29 Kerry Jane: Police reported 1,859 crashes in Gloucester from January 2023 through late September, in state records. Washington Street had the most, 266, and 55 of those hurt someone. Grant Circle had 22, the most of any intersection on Cape Ann.

17:46 Ana Lucia: And Lanesville.

17:47 Kerry Jane: My neighborhood, so I read this one twice. The Historical Commission wants a National Register historic district there and has no grant for it yet. The state grant has a 15 thousand dollar minimum and the job is about 7 thousand. They'll look at Community Preservation Act money next. No votes.

18:08 Mateo Daniel: Okay, scores. From the MIAA. Gloucester football beat Beverly 14 to 7 yesterday at Beverly. Gloucester girls field hockey beat St. Mary's 4 to 2 Tuesday and Masconomet 3 to 1 Thursday. They are seventeen and oh. Seventeen and oh. They play at Swampscott tonight at 6:30.

18:29 Kerry Jane: Seventeen and nothing.

18:31 Mateo Daniel: Nothing. Gloucester boys soccer beat Saugus 2 to 0 and Danvers 2 to 0. Gloucester girls soccer had a hard week. Lost to Saugus 3 to 0, Danvers 7 to 1, and Rockport 5 to 1 yesterday. Girls volleyball beat Saugus 3 sets to 2, beat KIPP Academy Lynn 3 to 1, lost to Triton 3 to 0 Friday.

18:50 Ana Lucia: Rockport.

18:51 Mateo Daniel: Rockport went four and oh. Boys soccer beat Georgetown 3 to 1 Thursday and Gloucester 1 to 0 yesterday, that one from the school's own results listing. Girls soccer beat Georgetown 1 to 0 and Gloucester 5 to 1.

19:06 Kerry Jane: Manchester Essex.

19:07 Mateo Daniel: Boys soccer beat Hamilton-Wenham 5 to 0. The girls lost to Hamilton-Wenham 2 to 0. Field hockey lost to Hamilton-Wenham 2 to 1 and tied Andover 1 to 1. Football lost at Pentucket 21 to 6. Every game has a write-up with the kids' names in it, win or lose. That's the rule.

19:27 Kerry Jane: Tito's game report.

19:29 Mateo Daniel: Tito reports that the seagulls at the Rockport fields are soft, and that he will accept a trade to Gloucester for the right price.

19:35 Ana Lucia: One more. Rockport's New Year's Eve has the town's go ahead. The Select Board approved the plan three to nothing. Shows from 4 p.m., ball drop at midnight at Dock Square. Same meeting, five residents asked for Town Hall light fixtures that meet the town's dark sky rules. The board did not respond during public comment.

19:55 Kerry Jane: And one closure. The Centennial Avenue bridge in Gloucester closes after the morning school commute starting tomorrow while the state works on it. It reopens at 2 p.m. so traffic can leave the high school. The city says a couple of days. No detour posted.

20:09 Kerry Jane: One thing we learned. Mateo Daniel, you held one.

20:13 Mateo Daniel: Question 9. The firearms law. It's not like the other eight. The Legislature already passed that law in 2024, so this is a veto referendum. Yes keeps the law. No repeals it. But no only wins if it gets a majority and the no votes equal at least 30 percent of all ballots cast.

20:31 Ana Lucia: Thirty percent of all ballots, not just the votes on the question.

20:35 Mateo Daniel: All the ballots. I read it three times in the truck.

20:38 Kerry Jane: Ana Lucia.

20:40 Ana Lucia: Mine is from the roads write-up. Eastern Point. The streets there are private, and the residents have kept them paved for more than 60 years through an association they run themselves. And the public works director told the council in 2018 that many private roads in the city are in poor condition. Same word. Two very different roads.

21:03 Kerry Jane: Mine is a process. Gloucester counts late mail ballots in public. A ballot postmarked by Election Day still counts if it reaches the city by 5 p.m. Friday, November 6. Then Monday, November 9, at 9 a.m., election workers sit down in Kyrouz Auditorium at City Hall and count them. The notice says the public is welcome to observe.

21:24 Ana Lucia: I didn't know there was a second count.

21:26 Kerry Jane: Or that you could sit in the room for it.

21:28 Mateo Daniel: Are you going?

21:29 Kerry Jane: It's in the planner.

21:32 Kerry Jane: All right. What gets decided this week, before it's decided. Monday, November 2. Essex selectmen, 6 p.m., Town Hall on Martin Street and online. They walk through every article on the November 16 town meeting warrant and take questions. If you live in Essex and have a question about the school vote or the zoning articles, that's your night.

21:51 Ana Lucia: Manchester, same night.

21:53 Kerry Jane: Manchester Select Board, 6:30, Town Hall and Zoom. The harbor management plan and the motions for the special town meeting. The town administrator said this is where they'd settle whether the 7.5 million dollar senior center article needs a two thirds vote or a simple majority. That was still open at Tuesday's forum.

22:11 Mateo Daniel: Remind people about the forum.

22:13 Kerry Jane: About 60 people, half in the old Masonic lodge on Church Street, half online. The town wants 7.5 million in borrowing for an 8.5 million dollar project, and says it will not borrow until 3 million in donations is in the bank. Cash, not pledges. About 90 dollars a year on a million dollar home, the town administrator said.

22:32 Ana Lucia: And the Finance Committee.

22:34 Kerry Jane: Voted three to four against the article. Its chair said that was about the financing plan, not the project, and she'll explain at town meeting. That's her saying it. The vote is November 16, 7 p.m., Memorial School, then the ballot December 10.

22:48 Mateo Daniel: Gloucester Monday?

22:50 Kerry Jane: Six p.m., a council committee takes up the shopping cart ordinance again. Tuesday is Election Day, so most boards are quiet. Rockport's Select Board is on the town calendar for 6.

23:00 Ana Lucia: And Wednesday.

23:01 Kerry Jane: Wednesday, November 4, is the big one. The Essex school building community meeting, 6 to 8 p.m., at Essex Elementary. The Essex selectmen posted it on their own agenda, so a quorum of the board may be there. It's the last community meeting before the November 16 vote on the 95 million dollar school.

23:18 Mateo Daniel: Also Wednesday.

23:20 Kerry Jane: Manchester holds a forum at 6 p.m., Town Hall and Zoom, on the downtown intersection where Bennett, Pine, Central and Bridge streets meet. The town says come share what you see there now and what you'd change. Gloucester's Conservation Commission at 5:30 and School Committee at 6.

23:36 Ana Lucia: And the dates to circle.

23:37 Kerry Jane: November 9, the public ballot count in Gloucester. November 16, both town meetings. Manchester at 7 at Memorial School, Essex at 6:45 at the elementary school. December 3, Manchester's business district forum. December 8, Gloucester's hearing on downtown multifamily lot rules. December 10, the ballot votes in Essex and Manchester.

24:00 Mateo Daniel: How do people take part?

24:02 Kerry Jane: Go. Every one of these is public. Watch. Gloucester posts recordings, Manchester posts video, Rockport posts its Zoom recordings, and we link them. Write. Every board takes written comment and the agenda says where. And the Meeting Finder on our site has all of it by town, with a sign up for meeting alerts.

24:23 Kerry Jane: The week ahead. Mateo Daniel.

24:26 Mateo Daniel: Tonight, Gloucester field hockey at Swampscott, 6:30, going for eighteen and oh. Monday, girls soccer, Georgetown at Rockport at 4, Beverly at Gloucester at 4:30, and Triton at Manchester Essex at 6:30. Boys soccer, Manchester Essex at Triton at 4. Times from the MIAA, check with the schools.

24:46 Ana Lucia: Anything postponed?

24:47 Mateo Daniel: The Manchester Essex field hockey game with Triton that was set for yesterday. No new date yet. And Rockport's school musical is Sister Act, November 6 to 8. Coaches and parents, report your game on the site. We put the names in.

25:01 Ana Lucia: Weather. Today is sunny and milder, near 58, light west wind, seas a foot or less. Sunset tonight is 4:35. Yesterday it was 5:37. That's the clocks. By December 21 it's 4:12.

25:18 Kerry Jane: Tuesday, vote. Monday, the Centennial Avenue bridge. Monday through Friday there's a soup and cereal drive for veterans and local families, details in the Veterans Day write-up. Veterans Day is Wednesday the 11th. Gloucester's ceremony is 9 a.m. at the high school and the parade steps off at 10:30. No school that day in Gloucester, Manchester or Essex.

25:39 Ana Lucia: And Essex's library. We ran the profile yesterday. It shares a 132 year old building with Town Hall, runs on about two and a half full time staff, and lent 13.6 items per resident last year. The state median is 10.4.

25:56 Mateo Daniel: Two and a half people.

25:57 Ana Lucia: Two and a half people. Manchester's is next Saturday.

26:02 Kerry Jane: That's the week. Ana Lucia, how's the rice?

26:05 Ana Lucia: Avó says I put the cinnamon on like I'm drawing a map. She wants a cross. It's All Saints' Day, it gets a cross. I'll do it again.

26:15 Mateo Daniel: Foxborough at seven. If the Revolution win tonight I will be very hard to talk to next week. If they lose, same.

26:23 Kerry Jane: Noted. And I'm going home to a warm house for the first time this fall. Dan held the rule. I held the rule. Chowder held the vent.

26:32 Mateo Daniel: Chowder won.

26:33 Kerry Jane: Chowder won. Everything we talked about today comes from public records and government data. The meeting recordings, the assessors' packet, the town's water table, the MIAA. The sources are on the website at capeanncurrent.com, with every write-up we mentioned.

26:47 Ana Lucia: And if we missed something.

26:49 Kerry Jane: Send it to [email protected]. Questions for next Sunday go there too.

26:55 Mateo Daniel: Let's go. Vote Tuesday.

26:57 Ana Lucia: See you next week.

26:59 Kerry Jane: I'm Kerry Jane, with Ana Lucia and Mateo Daniel. This has been The Weekly Current. Keeping Cape Ann current.