Primaries, Passes and Progress

Tomasek, Finegold, Commane Adams  dominate primaries

 Jamison Tomasek of Andover cruised to a victory over Tewksbury's Patrick Rahilly to claim the GOP nomination to the State Senate from the Second Essex/Middlesex District on Tuesday. Rahilly, who won his home town by a 3-1 margin, criticized Tomasek's campaign tactics in his concession speech and refused to endorse his rival in the General Election in November against Democratic State Rep. Barry Finegold.

Finegold  won a three-person race to take the Democratic primary over Debbie Silberstein and Jack Wilson.

In the state representative race from the 17th Essex District, Republican Paul Adams of Andover will take on Democrat Patricia Commane of Andover in the November General Election.

Adams defeated Sal Tabit, 55-45 percent. Commane cruised past Frank Bonet of Lawrence, 75-25 percent.

Patriarcha out of the gate quickly

Records are meant to be broken and on Wednesday afternoon Tewksbury junior Laura Patriarcha did just that. Patriarcha came from out of nowhere lead the Redmen to a 23-32 win over Methuen in the first met of the season. In the process, she set a course record (by 18 seconds) and a new Tewksbury High record with a time of 18:14.

Connolly, Arcari lead Redmen rout

Tewksbury came out firing early and never looked back as they dominated the Lawrence Lancers en route to a 35-6 win in the Redmen's home opener. 

Tewksbury senior quarterback Sean Connolly led a balanced offensive attack with two touchdowns.  The first came on a 17-yard pass to senior wide receiver Ryan Vibber.  Connolly's second was a 6-yard quarterback draw as the clock expired before the half.

Tewksbury started the day with a 13-yard touchdown run by senior halfback Anthony Arcari, his first of two scores on the day.  Sean McCarthy added the extra point making it 7-0.  That score was quickly followed up by the Connolly to Vibber strike.  After another Redmen stop on defense Arcari scored on a three-yard touchdown run and the rout was on. The Tewksbury defense shut down Lawrence's wide open spread attack all day as Lawrence quarterback Nate Baez could not find much room to operate

Battle over smell from Krochmal Farm flares up again

Owners and staff members of Krochmal Farms appeared before the Tewksbury Board of Health Thursday night to respond to the latest wave of odor-related complaints directed at the farm.

The farm was hit with 28 complaints in the month of August, bringing the total for the year to 115, according to board records. John Michael Cave, son of the farm's owners, engaged board members in a verbal battle. Cave wondered why the hearing had been scheduled with such short notice and accusing the board chairman with lying regarding a complaint the chairman had made personally about the farm.

Broadcasting legend earns well-deserved honor

Dale Dorman, a Tewksbury native and 40-year veteran of the broadcasting industry, was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters' Hall of Fame at its fourth annual induction and awards luncheon at the Boston Marriot Quincy on Thursday afternoon.

"It's been 45 years since Dale first cracked the microphone and no one will ever sound like he does," said O'Terry. "And no one will ever be as memorable as Dale Dorman."

Dorman's career has included stints at several Boston area radio stations, including WRKO and KISS 108. Currently, Dorman is a familiar voice on Oldies 103.

Another step toward high school groundbreaking

The file subcontracting bids, which should make up slightly less than half of the total cost of the $82 million high school construction project, were unsealed Wednesday and reviewed by the building committee at its meeting Thursday night.

Officials say they are pleased with the bid figures and believe the project continues to be both on time and at budget.

Next up will be the unsealing of the general contracting bids, which will take place on Sept. 29. According to Collins and Flanagan, if all continues to go smoothly, contacts should be signed and actual work on the new high school should begin by mid-October, with a ground breaking ceremony to take place the last week of October.