A Look At The Biggest North Shore Patch Stories Of 2022

SALEM, MA — From widespread mask and vaccine mandates to start 2022, to a celebrity seal visit in Beverly and coyote concerns centered in Swampscott and Nahant, to battles over airport noise in Danvers and Beverly, steps to improve a "deadly" stretch of Route 114 in Danvers and Peabody, plans for a new high school and offshore wind industry in Salem, and hopes for a long-polluted beach in Swampscott, it was quite a year for news on the North Shore.

Add in a record Salem Halloween, a Beverly drawbridge nightmare that may take more than a decade to fix, a North Shore clash for lieutenant governor, a school budget bout in Marblehead, and the opening of the new North Shore Children's Museum in Peabody, and there is plenty for Patch to look back upon on the eve of 2023.

Here are many of the stories that kept folks talking all year — and may do so well into the next one — on the North Shore.

Sealed With A Kiss: Shoebert's Endearing Week In Beverly's Shoe Pond

What started as a surprise splash in Beverly's Shoe Pond turned into a weeklong saga that captured the imagination of the North Shore as a 4-year-old gray seal dubbed Shoebert spent a few days drawing spectators before making his great overnight escape to the Beverly Police Station.

As we enter 2023, many are still hoping for a return sighting of the seal that has since become the subject of books, shirts, sweet goodies and plenty of fun stories across the region.

Salem COVID Vaccination Proof Order Dropped After 3 Weeks

Soon after Salem jumped on board with Boston to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter non-essential buildings a year ago, the requirement — along with many other reinstated mask mandates across North Shore — was dropped as coronavirus cases waned in early 2022.

School indoor mark mandates were lifted over the course of the next two months as officials settled on a different approach entering the third year of the pandemic after the initial shutdowns in March 2020.

Coyote Chaos: Swampscott Board Of Health Takes Steps To Curb Feeding

While a guest seal was embraced on the North Shore in 2022, the perception of an increasingly emboldened coyote population certainly was not.

After two people were bitten in Swampscott's Vinnin Square in late spring, and coyote sightings exploded over the summer and early fall, communities wrestled with how to deter the coyotes that had seemingly become comfortable in residential neighborhoods.

As Nahant authorized the execution of "problem" coyotes to help curb the problem in that town, wildlife advocates push for more aversion conditioning techniques aimed at keeping them away from people, while keeping them alive.

Danvers Officials Push Voices To Be Heard Over Airplane Noise

"It's like we are under attack."

That's the way dozens of Danvers residents have described noise and potential air pollution from increased travel and flight school traffic at Beverly Airport over the past few years.

Their persistence finally appears to be paying off with local, state and federal officials pledging increased pressure to accelerate the ban on leaded airplane fuel and steps to make sure the airport is more responsive to complaints that it has not been a very "good neighbor."

Beverly's Hall-Whitaker Bridge 'Temporary' Fix To Take Up To 4 Years

The incredulous gasp was followed by a chorus of frustration and cries of "Unacceptable!" at a Beverly community meeting in October to discuss the plans to repair on replace the months-closed Hall-Whitaker Drawbridge.

As Beverly residents, as well as North Shore commuters who rely on the Hall-Whitaker and deficient Kernwood Bridge, face more than a decade of bridge work in the city, officials have tried to work on ways to make things at least a touch easier on the neighborhood residents facing nightmare new traffic patterns.

"When they came to us with the projected calendar, of needing one or the other of the Hall-Whitaker or Kernwood closed really at all times for the next 13 years," Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill said at the October meeting, "none of us liked that."

Renewed Hope For Swampscott King's Beach Cleanup 'Success Story'

Momentum could be building for a long-term solution toward transforming King's Beach in Lynn and Swampscott from one of the most polluted in the state to a true summer destination on the North Shore.

The Swampscott Select Board took a preliminary — yet potentially highly significant — step toward the King's cleanup in October when it endorsed a recommendation to proceed with the continued study and potential pursuit of an ultraviolet light system to disinfect stormwater runoff onto the beach.

"I want a solution here that in three years — and that still seems like an awfully long time — but in three years we could cut a ribbon and say: 'We've got a beach that's safe,'" — Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald.

Salem Halloween 2022: 'Bigger Than We've Ever Seen It Before'

Two years ago, Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll gave the seemingly impossible directive for visitors to stay away from the Witch City during the Halloween season amid the COVID-19 health crisis.

"By the way, they still came anyway," she allowed.

Estimates are that Salem welcomed nearly one million visitors to its 8-square-mile city limits during this past Halloween season.

Driscoll said the number of holiday season revelers was "more than half of our annual tourism visitation, all in one month."

Work Begins On Plans To Fix 'Deadly' Route 114 Peabody/Danvers Stretch

When dozens of local officials and anguished family members of those killed or injured on Route 114 in Peabody over the past two decades gathered for a public meeting late last year there was a demand to do something at long last about the perilous stretch of road before more lives were lost.

The hope was that the emotional meeting would be the first step toward meaningful improvements.

This fall that work began with narrower travel lanes, broken-up turning lanes and improved sight lines and crosswalk access are among the safety measures planned for what one Danvers Select Board member called the "death alley" stretch of Route 114.

Kim Driscoll: From Salem Mayor To Beacon Hill As MA's New Lt. Governor

Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll drew parallels from her improbable rise to the top office in the Witch City 16 years ago to becoming part of the first all-women ticket to win the top offices in the state on Election Night after she was elected as lieutenant governor along with Governor-elect Maura Healey.

"Years ago when I first ran for mayor I was a long shot," Driscoll said during the pair's victory speech at Boston's Copley Plaza Hotel that night. "I was told to wait my turn. That Salem wasn't ready for a woman mayor. I see some nodding heads from women in the audience. It still happens.

"As you can see, I didn't wait my turn."

The Healey-Driscoll ticket handily topped Republican challengers former State Rep. Geoff Diehl and Leah Allen, a former Peabody state representative who now lives in Danvers.

North Shore Children's Museum Opens Minds To Peabody Possibilities

When Ali Haydock took the helm of the planned North Shore Children's Museum in Peabody this summer she looked around at a former bank that was just beginning its transformation into what is hoped to be one of the cornerstones of the city's downtown revitalization plan.

Three months later, there were 14 exhibits set up within the old bank offices and lobby at 10 Main Street for the October grand opening.

"It was been rewarding to see things come together the way they have," she told Patch. "We kept the original floor plan. But now it's turned into this full experiential learning environment filled with hands-on play and open-ended toys."

Marblehead School Tax Override Vote Fails In Landslide

A six-month push for increased school funding that Marblehead officials said was necessary to make up for deferred updates in technology, security, personnel and curriculum — as well as free kindergarten for all town students — came to a crashing halt in June when a $3.1-million Proposition 2 1/2 tax override to fund the initiatives failed overwhelmingly.

Nearly 70 percent of the almost 6,000 residents who turned out to vote rejected the general override that would have cost homeowners a recurring 4 percent increase in property taxes each year.

Salem Land Purchase Brings North Shore Wind Terminal One Step Closer

Plans to bring an offshore wind energy terminal to Salem became a little more in focus this fall with Crowley Wind Services' purchase of 42 acres of land from the city to redevelop the former Salem Harbor Station and coal fuel plant site.

Crowley announced the purchase that will allow the terminal's use as the logistics and operations center for turbine pre-assembly, transportation, staging activities and storage on the site.

AVANGRID, as the port's anchor tenant, and municipal leaders have projected that the terminal site redevelopment will create more than 800 full-time jobs in support of the construction and staging of wind projects and daily operations.

Peabody Generator Foes Demand Health Assessment At Public Hearing

Dozens of public leaders, climate and health advocates, and North Shore citizens opposed to a planned peak-energy generator at Peabody's Waters River substation took advantage of a rare — and perhaps final — chance to speak out against the fossil fuel-powered project at a Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Agency hearing at the Torigian Center earlier this month.

Several speakers said that the generator should be held to the same regulatory standards that currently exist as part of the state's 2021 climate roadmap law rather than the requirements that existed when the Department of Public Utilities approved the plans.

The 60-megawatt peak generator, which the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company said is more energy efficient than its predecessors set to be commissioned, is necessary to provide reliable energy and stable rates during limited extreme weather conditions each year, according to the MMWEC.

Salem High School New Building Funding Approved

A new Salem High School could open within the next five to seven years with the state's approval of a plan to reimburse the city for many of the costs associated with the new building.

Superintendent Steve Zrike said last week that the beginning of the building process represents "a critically important, exciting day for the future of Salem Public Schools."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)