The North Middlesex Regional School Committee voted unanimously this week to begin a discovery phase on consolidation of the North Middlesex and Lunenburg school districts.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Townsend Fire-EMS responded to a report of smoke on the second floor of a two and a half story single-family home at 322 Main St., Townsend.

There's really no way to overstate how important Veterans Day is when so many of our servicemen and women from North Central Massachusetts are in harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Linda Sanders has signed a contract and will be introduced to residents Tuesday night as Rockport's new town administrator.

Gov. Deval L. Patrick yesterday signed into law a consumer protection prompted by last year's ice storm that left customers of Unitil in Fitchburg, Lunenburg, Townsend and Ashby without electricity for up to two weeks.

Mary Letourneau is the animal control officer for Townsend and Ashby. She has been with Ashby for five years and Townsend for two years.

Linda Sanders, the woman serving as town administrator in the Central Massachusetts community of Ashby, has accepted an invitation from Rockport's selectmen to become the town's fourth permanent town administrator.

This much is clear - Orlando Pacheco, Linda Sanders or Robert Canevazzi will succeed Michael Racicot as Rockport's next town administrator.

The unanswered question Friday was: Who is caring for the soldiers who are tasked with treating the mental health of other soldiers, veterans said.

The finance committees for Townsend, Ashby and Pepperell met last night to brainstorm cost-savings ideas, focusing often on the school system and regionalization of municipal services.

Well adult clinic -- Ashby: 11 a.m. to noon. Nashoba Associated Boards of Health, in conjunction with the Ashby Board of Health, announces that a well adult clinic will be held free of charge for the general public at the Ashby Library.

The question of why Townsend employees do not receive the retirement health-care coverage that school teachers receive has once again been raised in private circles and according to rumor, a town meeting warrant article to establish the benefit may be forthcoming.

The Board of Selectmen appointed an 11-member search committee to find a new police chief on Wednesday night.

With the cold season moving in, I want to reassure my constituents that the ice storm of last December has not faded from my memory.

While finding funding for $450,000 in repairs to the Bernhardt Road Bridge remains difficult, the Highway Department was able to do most of the repairs to a small bridge at Jones Hill Road for about $1,5000, said Superintendent William Davis.