Share on FacebookShare on X (formerly Twitter)Share on PinterestShare on LinkedInWESTFORD (WCAX) - A home in Westford was destroyed by fire Wednesday morning Authorities say they were called out to the property on Merlo Lane around 10:30 a.m and found the home fully engulfed in flames and that accessing water was a challenge “We don’t have a single pressurized fire hydrant in this community All of our water has to be trucked in from other sources throughout the town so that does add to the complexity of these bigger rural fires,” said Westford Fire Chief Garett Bartlett Multiple departments were called out to help including Milton The Vintage Vocal Quartet, which performs music from the Swing Era (mid-1930s to mid-1940s), will perform at the Parish Center for the Arts in Westford on Saturday The group, founded by David Thorne Scott, blends jazz and pop. It features piano, guitar, bass and trombone/drums, and draws inspiration from famous acts like Glenn Miller’s Modernaires and the Nat King Cole Trio Attendees are encouraged to bring their favorite foods and drinks for a complete evening of entertainment at the 10 Lincoln St Tickets are priced at $18 for members and seniors; $20 for non-members; and $25 at the door if available A discounted rate of $15 is available for EBT/Card-to-Culture cardholders at the door The Vintage Vocal Quartet has been entertaining audiences throughout New England, appealing to both concertgoers and dancers. For more information about the event, visit pcawestford.org A direct ticket link is also available online Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application 2024 after a lifelong fight with mental health and addiction challenges Craig leaves so many that loved and supported his journey Riley Monahan who all know that he is finally at peace.  He attended the Westford public schools as a child and teen Craig was a member of Laborers Local 429 out of Lowell especially taking them fresh water and deep sea fishing He was an avid collector of popular memorabilia and was tattooed head to toe He loved his '95 and '96 Chevy Impala SS and listening to music on cranked sound systems Craig loved the ocean and watching the waves hit the beach He also loved all animals especially his dogs mother of his son Riley; Amanda Bouffard mother of his daughter Haley; siblings Nicki Monahan and her son Nicholas McEnnis Ryan Livermore and his son Lincoln Livermore “Dada” Robert Livermore; father He was predeceased by grandparents Corrine and William Monahan and Patricia Reekie Craig faced the challenges of mental health throughout his life His journey reminds us of the importance of compassion and understanding and we encourage anyone struggling to reach out for help by texting 988 Let us honor his memory by supporting one another and fostering open conversations about mental health and substance abuse Family and friends will gather to honor and remember Craig for visiting hours on Sunday with a funeral service at 3:30 PM at the Badger Funeral Home donations may be made in Craig’s memory to the Westford Remembers MA 01886 or Venmo westford-remembers  Arrangements under the care of Badger Funeral Home, 347 King Street, Littleton, MA 01460  978-486-3709 www.badgerfuneral.com Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors When players on the Westford boys’ lacrosse team were coming up through the youth ranks annual losses to Acton-Boxborough felt inevitable The A-B varsity dominated the Ghosts year in and year out and Westford’s youth team eventually stopped scheduling games against the Revolution So, Westford’s first win over Acton-Boxborough in eight years, a 13-10 triumph on April 15 was a “full-circle moment,” according to third-year coach Scott Corcoran “They’d always get their butts kicked and they were avoiding it,” said Corcoran That milestone result set the stage for a dominant seven-game win streak, which has the Ghosts (8-2, 4-0 Dual County League), ranked sixth in the MIAA’s initial Division 1 power rankings believing they’re primed for a deep tournament run Westford has improved each season under Corcoran but this year’s team has taken a particularly impressive leap which the coach attributed to veteran leadership and a deep roster The Ghosts feature six seniors and four returning captains — Ryan Campbell and Jack Donovan — which has helped the team keep its poise in tight games “This was the first time in my coaching career that we didn’t vote for who the captains were,” said Corcoran The captains have preached a balance of fun and focus Westford makes a point of celebrating hard after goals and the group likes to keep a lighthearted attitude on the field But the team’s veterans also understand how to lock in when the situation calls for it who will play lacrosse at Saint Anselm next year we play nervous and we’re worried about little mistakes.” sidelined for the first week of the season Westford began 1-2 with losses to Andover and Billerica we had a little bit of hesitance in our offense and a little lack of confidence,” said junior Peter Burns along with us feeling more confident in ourselves The Burns brothers lead the team in scoring 24 assists) and Nick at 39 points (20 goals But offense has come from several contributors with ball movement and passing a major emphasis The Ghosts have notched 76 assists on 108 goals and it was just another sport,” Peter Burns said with Coach Corcoran and the difference he’s made they’re clearing the ball cleanly on defense and playing at a controlled pace on offense Rather than relying on spectacular individual plays Westford thrives on quick passes and high-probability shots That style has helped the Ghosts catapult to the top of the Dual County League standings alongside traditional powers A-B and Concord-Carlisle And though a league title is the primary focus Westford isn’t shying away from statewide aspirations “We can 100 percent be the best team in the MIAA I have a lot of confidence in our team and know that if we play our best ⋅ Haverhill alumnus Ben Delaware (’10) and former German national player Tobi Thurk are co-head coaches at Haverhill this season after former head coach Jeff Wasson took a job in Alaska this past summer The Hillies (7-2) dropped a 7-6 thriller at Methuen in their second game including a thrilling 8-7 double-overtime win over Methuen on Tuesday Junior Max Boyer made 25 saves in the first matchup and showed his hockey goalie skills once again with 21 saves in the rematch 1 assist) buried the winner in double overtime after Methuen’s Jared Cripps had scored twice in the fourth quarter to force extra time Jake Staples and Trevor Lindmark netted two goals apiece for the Hillies we didn’t have to change too much schematically,” said Delaware “But we put our own twist on things and we’re starting to click To come through in a tight game and have all our players contribute and it justifies everything we’ve been working towards.” ⋅ Sophomore Tripp Germani netted nine goals, including the 100th of his career, while lifting Cape Cod Academy to its first win of the year Tuesday . . . Senior Shane Mulcahy netted his 100th career goal for Cohasset in Monday’s South Shore League win over Mashpee. Thursday, No. 10 Duxbury at No. 3 Lincoln-Sudbury, 5:30 p.m. — Back home after scoring a pair of impressive wins over powerful teams in Washington state, the Warriors welcome a perennial power from the Bay State. Friday, Wakefield at No. 13 Reading, 4:30 p.m. — Undefeated heading into Wednesday’s test against No. 11 Winchester, Wakefield will jump right into another Middlesex League showdown to end the week. Saturday, Nantucket at Cohasset, 4 p.m. — The past two Division 4 state champions meet for a midseason tune-up on the South Shore. Monday, No. 18 Franklin at No. 9 Mansfield, 7:15 p.m. — For the first time in recent history, Mansfield enters this Hockomock League showdown as the clear-cut favorite as the Hornets come off their Chowda Cup victory with an unblemished record. Tuesday, No. 12 Concord-Carlisle at No. 14 Westford, 4:30 p.m. — Both of these Dual County League programs are red hot, with Concord-Carlisle riding an eight-game win streak since dropping its opener, and Westford winning seven straight. Correspondent Nate Weitzer contributed to this story. Home Delivery Gift Subscriptions Log In Manage My Account Customer Service Delivery Issues Feedback News Tips Help & FAQs Staff List Advertise Newsletters View the ePaper Order Back Issues News in Education Search the Archives Privacy Policy Terms of Service Terms of Purchase Work at Boston Globe Media Internship Program Co-op Program Do Not Sell My Personal Information locals discovered a stone carving on a rock face that appeared to show a figure of a person They debated whether it was carved long ago by Native Americans or more recently by local kids It remained a local curiosity until the late 1930s when a researcher looking for evidence of Viking expeditions to America paid a visit to Westford and declared the figure was a European-style sword researchers stripped off a layer of moss covering much of the rock face to reveal a much larger engraving: a life-sized medieval knight with pleated armor and a shield … or The engraving came to be known as the Westford Knight and the theories around it grew wilder and more controversial including that it memorialized a Scottish voyage to America in the 14th century and even had connections to the quest for the Holy Grail there’s no better person to turn to than Jeff Belanger folklore expert and host of the New England Legends podcast He joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath for a closer look at the Westford Knight What follows is a lightly edited transcript you recently paid a visit to the Westford Knight tell us what it looks like right now when you go there it’s a surprise — it was a surprise to me — because the first time I went there was back in there’s a stone monument [that] looks almost like a headstone There’s a big plaque telling you all of the story There’s a plexiglass covering that looks almost like an upside-down casket bolted into the rock that covers the original carving three-dimensional statue of a knight lying down on his back holding a sword and a shield over his chest It is impossible to miss when you’re driving down Depot Street Belanger: It requires a lot of imagination You can kind of scrunch down and look through the plexiglass and look down at the engraving on the rock it looks like [it was] probably done by human hands The best you can see is on the nearby plaque You can see someone made a rubbing of it a few decades ago and the rubbing shows what looks like a very crude very broad-shouldered knight holding a sword upside down This looks like something literally I could draw Rath: I want to put in a plug for a book that I read that laid out so much of this and it’s called “The Westford Knight and Henry Sinclair: Evidence of a 14th-century Scottish Voyage to North America.” he certainly doesn’t prove that in the book but the book runs through all the wild theories it does seem that there is something carved into the rock It was first discovered in 1873 in the town of Westford They thought it might have been done by Native Americans We don’t find a lot of rocks carved — not saying never but it’s not typical of Native Americans to carve up rocks The thing about a mystery is that we both love and hate mysteries We love them because it’s so fun to wonder and ponder what did this But we hate it because we don’t like unanswered questions when you look at this monument and the statue and everything else it sure seems like there’s a definitive answer Rath: The knight was ultimately sketched out and chalked out and there are different versions of it from different researchers who chalked out different things but ultimately — skipping past a lot — there was a design on the shield that got connected with a Scottish knight or Scottish earl back in the 14th century who would have somehow made it to America Sinclair and his Knights Templar sailed west He’d heard stories from a lost sailor who’d shown up decades later that he’d found this very temperate We believe he was probably up in Newfoundland sailed south and allegedly found this much more temperate beautiful place that we would assume is America It didn’t leave exact coordinates back there for us but we do have a few artifacts that turned up It’s fair to say that the Westford Knight got a huge shot in the arm in 1923 when a strange stone was discovered just up the road from this carving It’s a rock that they now call the Ship Stone because it’s got a very crude drawing of a ship — again and I can only draw stick figures — with an arrow The speculation was maybe Sinclair’s expedition came by here and carved this arrow to sort of point their way back to their ship while they were exploring this new land Rath: I actually first learned about the Westford Knight while on a trip outside of Edinburgh because there is a 14th-century chapel there in Roslin that supposedly is connected with Henry Sinclair There are carvings inside that church that resemble corn and that’s cited as evidence because there was no knowledge of corn in the New World I should also point out that most mainstream archeologists and historians don’t take this terribly seriously they put up just a couple of split-rail fence posts because think about it — Depot Street is a pretty well-traveled road through Westford and that rock has been through at least a century and a half of New England winters think about the plow trucks throwing ice and salt up on the side of the road and this is just a few feet from Depot Street It’s right off the side of the road on the other side of the sidewalk but it’s a thing people looked at it and said Everybody was literally looking for the Holy Grail you wonder: could the Holy Grail be in Westford Rath: And that’s how we got to the stage where we are now with that really being a thing there But the thing that makes me sad is that when I was first there — 2006 or 2007 something like that — you could look at the rock You could really wonder and use your own imagination and try to guess Is it some message from some people long ago Does it mark a site where maybe Sir James Gunn possibly died Gunn would not have been buried below it — it’s a giant slab of rock there’s no way they moved it — but was he buried nearby It’s like if I showed you a picture of the clouds it’s very clearly a bird flying.” You’d say that’s all you see because I just put that impression on you Your essential daily newsletter delivering trusted news and can't miss programs from Boston and beyond This story is just one of many upcoming articles slated to be published before Town Meeting Day showcasing the total earnings of public school district town and city employees – whose income is funded by taxpayers – in Chittenden County for fiscal year 2024 The purpose is to provide community members a glimpse of where their tax dollars are going and lay the basis for more comprehensive follow-up stories The Burlington Free Press received the following data towns and cities themselves via public record request Administrators account for the top ten highest-paid employees on the Essex Westford School District’s payroll in fiscal year 2024, which ran from July 1 topped the list in the Essex Westford School District with gross earnings of $182,805.66 in fiscal year 2024 The district had 1,459 employees who served approximately 4,000 students with a payroll total of $63,319,708.78 in FY24 Total earnings often reflect more than just base salary accounting for factors such as years of experience weekend shift pay and miscellaneous stipends like health stipends and more Other top earnersChief operating officer Brian Donahue was the second-highest earner in FY24 Essex High School Principal Donald Van Nostrand was in third place fifth and sixth place on the list of highest-paid employees in FY24 went to Center for Technology Principal and Director Robert Travers Jr.; Albert D Lawton Intermediate School Principal Jennifer Wood; and director of equity & inclusion and co-director of student support services Erin Maguire followed by Wood with $148,771.88 and Maguire with $148,547.02 Director of social and emotional learning & wellness and co-director of student support services Dylan McNamara was the seventh highest paid school employee taking home $148,472.40 in total earnings in FY24 The last three spots on the top 10 list went to the following employees: Human Resources director Deborah Anderson former director of student engagement Suzanne Gruendling and Westford School Principal Marcie Lewis followed by Gruendling with $147,407.68 and Lewis with $145,453.02 Here is a list of the top 20 earners in the Essex Westford School District. For a complete list of all district employees' salaries, please see our related database. Megan Stewart is a government accountability reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at mstewartyounger@gannett.com Mike Payette is bringing his "three-hour tour" this Friday, April 25, to the Parish Center for the Arts in Westford Payette's band will showcase "soft yacht rock music" from the 1970s and '80s featuring hits from artists like Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins who was subbing for a musician in a tribute band expressed interest in creating a yacht rock show all contributing to the smooth sounds of the era Tickets are available for $18 for PCA members and seniors; $20 for non-members; and $25 at the door if available EBT/Card-to-Culture holders can purchase tickets for $15 with ID required at the door Attendees are encouraged to bring their own food and drinks for the event For tickets and more information, call 978-692-6333 or visit pcawestford.org or their Facebook page The Essex Westford School District is bringing a level-funded budget to its voters this spring that's going to mean deep cuts — including the closure of one of five elementary schools The district's $94.7 million spending proposal anticipates cutting more than 50 positions And it would effectively close Summit Street School a pre-kindergarten through grade 3 elementary school with 187 students in Essex Junction but other children would be redistributed to two other nearby elementary schools in Essex Junction Hiawatha Elementary and Thomas Fleming School School Board Chair Robert Carpenter said such difficult cuts were necessary to head off another double-digit tax increase “I know there's rhetoric across the state of like ‘There's a lot of bloat in schools and there's a lot of fat that we need to cut off.’ But I can tell you for sure as a district that we are at the point of cutting bone,” he said a recent retooling of Vermont’s education formula that was intended to encourage higher-need districts to spend more urban districts like Essex Westford to spend less More from Vermont Public: Taxpayers demanded relief. Now, many schools are downsizing The district’s spending proposal has engendered strong pushback “When I chose to settle here and raise my family here this is not what I envisioned for myself or my kids,” one parent, Ashley Neary, told the board last week But even as Carpenter said that the board’s proposed budget represented a “painful crisis with human costs,” he also argued it offered some opportunities Repurposing Summit would allow the district to expand its in-house therapeutic program for students with special needs That should allow the district to save money on tuition to pricey private programs In Montpelier, education reform talks have dominated this year’s legislative session But Carpenter said those state-level conversations have injected even more anxiety into the local debate because they appear to be ignoring one of the most important cost drivers at play “Many people in our community are saying: how do we address health care I feel terrible saying ‘I don't know.’ Because I've spoken to everyone right up the chain and no one seems to have an answer for how this can be mitigated and not just keep and Westford voters head to the polls April 8 Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message Enter your email to sign up for The Frequency See more newsletters Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message Pardon our dust while we build a better museum! We are open with a series of special exhibitions. During construction, select permanent collection galleries in the Main Building will reopen on a rolling basis On Free First Thursdays during the exhibition curator Mary Weaver Chapin and a special guest will be in the galleries each month to answer questions and discuss the finer points of psychedelic posters and fashion The Portland Art Museum recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence The Portland Art Museum and Center for an Untold Tomorrow are pleased to offer accommodations to ensure that our programs are accessible and inclusive We’ll do our best to accommodate your needs when you arrive — please give us 2-3 weeks advance notice for specific requests Email requests to access@pam.org