SALEM — After Monday night's meeting of the Licensing Board, the three board members took Lt. Andre Ouellette to dinner at a downtown restaurant.
It was their way of saying thanks for Ouellette's service to the board as a special investigator for more than two decades.
"There's nobody on the North Shore who has the knowledge he has," said Chairman Robert St. Pierre, the former police chief.
Ouellette is not retiring, just shifting assignments in the Police Department.
The ageless and seemingly unflappable Ouellette was also honored this month by the city of Peabody for helping save the life of a child in that city last January who had accidentally ingested drugs and gone into cardiac arrest. Ouellette, who just happened to be nearby, began performing CPR on the child, who was not breathing and had no pulse.
Two Peabody officers arrived to help, along with a team from Atlantic Ambulance. Ultimately, the child made a full recovery, police said.
All in a day's work.
Helping veterans
Veterans' Agent Jean-Guy Martineau can't thank Salem residents enough for their response to his call for help. A few weeks ago, he sent out an SOS for gift certificates and other assistance after talking to a number of veterans, including several with young families, who are struggling to make ends meet and buy presents for their children at Christmas.
The response was "tremendous," Martineau said.
Now, he wants to reach as many Salem veterans as possible who need help this Christmas. If you are a veteran in need, call Martineau at 978-375-9699. Since he is retiring at the end of the year, the veterans agent said he will be available every day, even weekends, for calls.
Keeping secrets?
There was a rumor flying around that city officials knew Bentley School was going to get a Level 4 "underperforming school" designation long before the state announced the bad news on Nov. 15. The implication appears to be that the city was holding the bad news, possibly until after the Nov. 8 elections.
The rumor apparently was based on a schedule the state published that stated that on Aug. 15 notices would be "sent to superintendents and principals whose district and schools the (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) expects to identify for improvement, corrective action or restructuring based on preliminary 2011 accountability data."
Superintendent Stephen Russell, who started in August, said he didn't get any official word until he met with state education officials on Oct. 27. Although he was told the news was "embargoed" and not to be shared until the Nov. 15 release date, Russell said he told the mayor the next day and shared it with the School Committee and the public on Monday, Nov. 14, the eve of the state's announcement.
Buying booze
The Licensing Board's recent work on seasonal licenses turned up some interesting information on the sale prices of liquor licenses in Salem.
If you didn't know, these licenses were issued by the city long ago but are considered the private property of restaurants and are sold along with the businesses. But how much they sell for has been a deep, dark secret.
Although this new information is "self-reported," restaurants have recently been sharing the sales figures with the board.
Here are a few recent reported sale prices of all-alcohol licenses:
Casa Blanca, $45,000 in 2007, and then $72,000 when the still unopened Lafayette Street business was sold last year.
Bangkok Paradise, $80,000.
Adriatic Restaurant (formerly Edgewater Cafe), $60,000.
Mandarin Buffet on Highland Avenue, $50,000.
Welcome aboard
They held a meet-and-greet Tuesday night at the Salem Visitor Center for Michael Quijano-West, the new superintendent of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.
Here are some fun facts about the new guy running the National Park site:
He was born and raised on the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas.
He was on special assignment at the 1984 Olympics in L.A.
In addition to English, he can speak a little Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian and Portuguese.
Teacher award
Jennifer Toler, an art teacher at Salem High, won first prize at Wax Inc., a national juried art show. Her prize-winning art is on display at the Bancroft Gallery at the South Shore Art Association in Cohasset through Dec. 21.
Restaurant alert
A new deli is about to open in Vinnin Square where the old Black Cow Express used to be.
It's going to be called The New Yorker and should be serving corned beef sandwiches by January.
Let's hope it's good, because the North Shore could use it.
History lesson
The folks who want to see Lisa Lavoie fill the School Committee vacancy created by Kevin Carr's move to the City Council will be bringing out the history books Monday night.
In 1974, there was a similar unexpected opening on the school board. The School Committee and City Council met jointly, just as they will Monday, and elected the runner-up in the 1973 school election to fill the empty seat. Do you know who that was? None other than Joe O'Keefe, the current Ward 7 councilor.
Since Lavoie was the runner-up in the November school board election, it seems likely somebody, maybe even O'Keefe, is going to remember that history lesson.
There are others, however, who feel past precedent shouldn't be the law of the land, that the school system is facing a crisis over the status of Bentley School, and that the best qualified candidate should be elected.
Maybe that's Lavoie, they say, or maybe it's somebody else.
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