Town Council Down to Final Candidates for Top Post
Kaitlyn G. Funk
Nutfield News

Three finalists remain in the running for the Town Administrator job in Derry, following a series of interview panels last week.

Residents, professionals and town employees interviewed six candidates Thursday, July 22. Scores given by the three panels, based on the candidates' answers to questions ranging from how they would work effectively with a split town council, to how they would promote economic development in Derry, were used to select the top four candidates, who were then sent to the town council for interviews the following day. more

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Abutters, Planning Board Pose Questions on Walmart Design
Kaitlyn G. Funk
Nutfield News

Abutters to the proposed Walmart Supercenter attended a public hearing of the planning board last week, but only one spoke out. Scott Lavoie, who is not opposed to the box store's moving in behind his 6 Thames Road home, said he is concerned an emergency access road included in the building's design will increase the likelihood of criminal activity around his property.

"Can it be somewhere else," he asked the board and Walmart representatives at the meeting, suggesting that the access road be relocated to cut through the apartment complex to the southeast of the proposed 24-hour shopping center. "That would definitely help me out. I have already lost a lot of value on my home because of the economy; (the access road) is going to affect me even worse in the future." more

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Derry's Catherine Dion - 109 Years of Age and Counting
Penny Williams
Nutfield News

Her face doesn't give away the long life Catherine Dion has enjoyed, but her ready smile and her quick quips shed light on how she has managed to reach the venerable age of 109 years.

"Thank God it's not every day I have a birthday," Dion told her granddaughter, Beverly Proulx.

Dion was surrounded by her extended family, who had come from as far away as Portland, Maine to help celebrate her 109th birthday. She is the present holder of the Town of Derry's Boston Post Cane, as Derry's oldest resident. She was given the cane last October, several months after the death of the previous Boston Post Cane holder, Wilfred Bernier.

At the age of 18, Dion left her native Prince Edward Island after she told her father he was not going to tell her what to do. With money borrowed from her brother, she came to the Lawrence and Andover area of Massachusetts and took a job in the textile mills. Always a hard worker, she often did other jobs to keep the family together. She has been married twice and outlived both husbands, the last one 12 years her junior. more

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