In a single-night Town Meeting, Marblehead clears override for the ballot and adopts 3A overlay
The zoning vote ended a prolonged standoff with state officials and restored eligibility for future grant programs lost during noncompliance.
Will Dowd
I started my full-time reporting career in Marblehead in 2012 and have failed spectacularly at leaving. Now I cover the town through The Independent, following its people and stories with the curiosity that makes this place impossible to quit.
Moulton rallies hometown 'rogues,' frames Senate race as generational test
Moulton leaned on hometown volunteers, polling gaps and policy contrasts as he sought to turn a House insurgency model into a statewide campaign.
POLICE LOG: Town park benches bolted to the ground mysteriously vanish
March 26 10:15 a.m. — A resident reported the alleged theft of a RidStar e-bike from in front of an apartment on Green Street Court. According to the report, the e-bike had been locked to a railing and the lock was cut. The resident, who later spoke
For Green Home Tours, Marblehead homeowners open doors on energy retrofits
Nine local houses showed how older buildings can cut fossil-fuel use through heat pumps, solar panels, insulation and induction cooking.
Cemeteries committee targets summer start on Hooper Tomb wall
Local overseers plan an initial $40,000 phase to rebuild a collapsed stone boundary and stabilize a historic burial site using original materials.
At Veterans Middle School, mock town meeting backs tier 2, rejects trash override
Seventh-graders weighed competing budget plans and opted for a midlevel tax increase while turning down both the highest option and a plan to fold waste pickup into taxes.
Abbot Hall to bloom with student art spring exhibition
Get our free local reporting delivered straight to your inbox. No noise, no spam — just clear, independent coverage of Marblehead. Sign up for our once-a-week newsletter. Paintings, drawings, photographs and mixed-media works by student artists from Marblehead Veterans Middle School and Marblehead High School will fill Abbot
Marblehead Liberty Foundation pushes challenge to override plan
Organizers are seeking a special town meeting through a petition process that requires at least 200 registered voters, triggering action by the Select Board within 45 days.
The war made Glover famous. Marblehead made the man.
Speaker frame general's legacy through family loss, civic duty and a waterfront community that shaped his leadership before battlefields did.
Three Marblehead voices, three takes on the override — before Monday's Town Meeting
A trio of longtime residents examines the town’s fiscal plan and offers sharply divergent views on how officials should respond to looming deficits.
Marblehead Rail Trail design heads into permitting as residents weigh in
About two dozen participants reviewed a 25% plan covering two corridors from Lafayette Street to West Shore Drive and Smith Street toward Swampscott.
FinCom recommends Town Meeting send overrides to ballot box
Marblehead’s fiscal 2027 plan closes a $7.7 million gap through layoffs, school reductions and one-time tuition prepayments.
SPUR, Sustainable Marblehead mark Arbor Day with tree plantings, cleanups
Residents planted new shade trees at Village School and cleared shoreline debris near the harbor during coordinated environmental projects.
EDITOR'S DESK: The Independent, now with better bones
When we launched the Independent, we made a deliberate choice to avoid clutter. We wanted a clean reading experience, a site built around readers first and a simple sponsorship model — enhancing not just their reading experience but also their support. In recent days, we’ve made a meaningful round of
Residents get multiple chances to question officials before Town Meeting
Residents can question budget assumptions through forums and informal sessions scheduled in the days leading up to the May gathering.
Town Meeting is complicated. These tools are meant to make it clearer.
Interactive tools translate policy choices into household costs, using a median home value to counter distortions from high-end properties.