Andover To Decide On School Early Wedneday, Opens Warming Station

ANDOVER, MA -- With temperatures expected to dip close to freezing Tuesday night, Andover said it would keep its senior center open as a warming and charging center until 11 am. The center will reopen again at 4 am for residents. The town said it would also wait until early Wednesday morning to make a decision on whether or not it will close public schools for a third straight day.

"Although we hope to have school in session tomorrow, it is too early to make that judgment. We want to give the crews working on the problem as much time to address it as possible. If there is a delayed start tomorrow or a cancellation of school, it will be announced by 5 a.m.," Superintendent Sheldon Berman said.

As of 8 pm Thursday, National Grid was reporting that 4,771 Andover customers rstill did not have power. Earlier on Tuesday the utility said it could be as late as 11:45 pm on Thursday before it restores service to all of its 67,000 customers that are still waiting for electric service to be restored after Sunday night's wind storm.

Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said National Grid crews had been in Andover since 7 am Tuesday helping town workers clear limbs and branches from roadways. The utility company is focusing their efforts on restoring power to substations in Tewksbury and North Andover, which feed portions of Andover.

The decision to open the Senior Center at 30 Whittier Court came late on Tuesday as temperatures dropped.

"It will get cold tonight so we welcome those without power to come and get warm and charge their phones and electronics," Town Manager Flanagan said. "We will have have food and refreshments available."

As previously reported, Andover had already scheduled Halloween trick-or-treating to Sunday from 4-7 pm.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).