By Alan Burke
This article has been corrected since its original publication. To read the correction, please click here.
MARBLEHEAD — The Abbot Public Library is offering an exhibit of digital photos by photographer Dorothy Kerper Monnelly. Her images highlight the beauties of salt marshes and dunes in Ipswich.
Okay, so the subjects aren't in Marblehead. Even so, Marbleheaders love salt marshes and dunes, and does it really matter where they are? The show lasts until March 26, and the real treat is seeing Monnelly's work. She's nationally recognized and, points out library director Patti Rogers, her work illustrates just how good digital photography has gotten.
"These silver gelatin prints are so rich," Rogers says, "it's like you can touch and feel the texture of the grass."
Silver gelatin? Sounds tasty and looks even better.
Charge vs. sarge
Plenty of her supporters showed up last week to hear the selectmen rule on charges that police Sgt. Marion Keating had created a hostile work environment by making an improper and vulgar suggestion while in the midst of a ribald conversation with three others at the station house.
The selectmen voted unanimously to give Keating a 50-day suspension, which her lawyer promptly promised to appeal.
In the aftermath, one demonstrative and angry Keating sympathizer created a hostile voting environment when he had to be urged away from the board and "finder of fact" and Town Administrator Tony Sasso.
Also in the audience was former Marblehead Community Charter School Head of School Tom Commeret. In 2007, he was arrested by Keating and charged with pushing a student. A jury trial acquitted him.
Commeret explained later that he attended in order to ask the selectmen if they would consider a complaint from him that Keating "mishandled" his arrest. In the wake of publicity over the case, he said he's been unable to find a job.
"I've been pursuing this over a year," he said. Commeret dismissed the notion that he had come to gloat, noting that he raised his complaint with Sasso following the meeting.
Out of characters
Marblehead has lost two highly regarded citizens of character, with the deaths of Charles "Bud" Grader and Emerson Brown, husband of former longtime Town Clerk Betty Brown. The selectmen offered a salute to both at their last meeting.
Grader traveled the world as an official with the United States Agency for International Development. "All of a sudden, we'd see a destabilized government somewhere," recalled Selectman Bill Woodfin. "And we'd say, 'Bud, where you been?' And he'd been there."
Selectman Judy Jacobi noted Brown's longtime service on the Water and Sewer Commission. Woodfin recalled that Brown was the town's last turkey farmer. "A man of honor, of integrity. He did a lot of things for the town that no one knew about. He'll be missed."
Remembering with song
The Allie Castner Scholarship Fund will hold a benefit on March 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the middle school auditorium. Allie, a Marblehead High School student, was killed last August while crossing the street.
Organizers, including mom Julie Castner, have put together an exciting evening of entertainment, featuring The Jewel Tones, Luminescence, Hayley Reardon and The Jess Prouty Band, among others. The event promises to celebrate Allie, "her life, her love, her laughter, her friendship."
In the running
The death of Emerson Brown has left a seat on the Water and Sewer Commission vacant. Meanwhile, prospective members have only until March 22 to pull papers and get them back to Town Clerk Robin Michaud.
With Harry Christensen retiring, four sitting selectmen and four would-be newcomers have drawn papers for the five seats. With signatures already returned are incumbents Jackie Belf-Becker and Bill Woodfin, along with Michael Rockett.
Still to come are signatures from incumbents Judy Jacobi and Jim Nye, along with Christopher Hartley, Rose McCarthy and Karin Martin.
Three people have declared for the two School Committee seats, including incumbent Jonathan Lederman, as well as Kathy Leonardson and Jennifer Schaeffner.
Get your bets down fast.
