Top Stories - August 10, 2006

Walking 3 days for a cause

Left: Cheryl DelRossi and her team.

Alarmingly, it is estimated that every 3 minutes someone in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer. It is a sad statistic that Wakefield resident Cheryl DelRossi knows all too well. DelRossi’s mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor, whose diagnoses occurred 10 years apart from one another - and, DelRossi herself has undergone three lumpectomies.

From Friday, Aug. 4 to Sunday, Aug. 6, DelRossi and her team - consisting of daughter, AnnMarie, and a family friend - partook in the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. The 3-Day is a weekend for the participants to celebrate breast cancer survivors, honor the lives lost and promote further breast cancer research. DelRossi has participated in years past and remembers the walk to be challenging yet uplifting.

"It is enduring," said DelRossi regarding the walk. "However, there is so much camaraderie amongst all of the teams."

Bake sales banned in all local schools

Consider homemade cookies, brownies, cakes and pies a thing of the past in Wakefield Public Schools. Bake sales and other activities involving food on school property have been officially banned by the School Committee.

The School Committee voted unanimously at last night’s meeting to implement a stricter food allergy policy. Most members of the committee felt it was necessary to update the rules in order to decrease liability if a child were to get ill or, worse, die due to an allergic reaction on the school system’s watch.

The new policy states that all food served publicly on the Wakefield school system’s property is through Chartwells, a contracted food vendor that the School Committee deems safe for students. Chartwells runs the food service for the school department. Chartwells has assured Committee members their products’ ingredients will be available to parents.

What are your thoughts on this banning? Leave comments!

Commuter Rail concerns

After weeks of delays, "hot cars" and explanations, the Commuter Rail may be getting back on track. But with another month of summer ahead and a 25 percent fare increase expected to take affect in January, Wakefield commuters and those who ride the rail everyday are hoping the summer of ’06 will not be repeated. More than 14,000 people north of Boston and 140,000 statewide take one of the rail’s 13 lines everyday, and over 1000 complaints were filed during the month of July.

"My train was 20 minutes late last Monday and half and hour late on Tuesday," a Wakefield woman said. "That’s not really good. With the wait and the air quality in the cars there’s a substantial amount of quality of service that isn’t that great. My pass now costs $118 and it’s supposed to go up to $151. It’s not enough to say there’s problems. It’s not supposed to be like this."

According to Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail spokesman Scott Farmelant, "There’s nothing more frustrating or unacceptable than receiving less than superior service. We take very seriously the effort to try and turn this thing around. It’s been a challenge with the weather, but we know what the problems are and doing everything we can to address them."

Wakefield resident Jim McBain was more forgiving, saying there’s been a few delays and the AC is out once in a while, but that’s to be expected.

Romney activates National Guard for Logan Airport

Members of the Massachusetts National Guard were sworn in as deputy sheriffs Thursday to help ease congestion at Logan International Airport, where news of a foiled terror plot in Britain targeting U.S.-bound flights prompted heightened security measures.

Gov. Mitt Romney spoke to about 50 members of the 972nd Military Police Company who were deployed to the airport to man new Logan security checkpoints -- at each departure gate -- where passengers will be screened again, after going through terminal security.

"I appreciate your honor and integrity," he said, "your willingness to respond so quickly to the emergency that we face."

(Sources: Wakefield Observer, Wakefield Daily Item, Boston Globe)