March 2023: Election, Town Meeting, Musicals, Pi and Peeps

TOWN BOARD, COMMITTEE, AND DEPARTMENT NEWS

As expected, all candidates on March’s Bedford Town Election ballot were successful as there were no contested races. Read more here.
Edward Pierce quietly signed off on more than 20 years of elective office on Monday near the close of his final regularly-scheduled Bedford Select Board meeting.
Ann Guay says she is leaving the Bedford School Committee in good hands. Guay’s final regularly-scheduled meeting was Tuesday. The 10-year member was the center of a sometimes-emotional farewell near the end of the session.
Bopha Malone was elected in March to serve as chair of the Bedford Select Board for the next year.
Bedford’s Annual Town Meeting started and finished in one night. Town Meeting approved the fiscal 2024 operating budget. Residents approved revisions to the zoning bylaw that will facilitate construction of or conversion to two-family dwellings. The 2023 Annual Town Meeting kicked off with two early articles taking 40 minutes to finish.
Cliff Chuang was unanimously chosen by the Bedford School Committee as the next superintendent of Bedford Public Schools during a Zoom webinar. Get the details here.

SCHOOL NEWS

The Bedford High School National History Day Team participated in the regional competition this past weekend. The results were very good.
The opening performance of this year’s Bedford High School musical Chicago: Teen Edition, was a smashing hit, and very well received by teachers, parents/families, and friends.
Danae Bucci, BHS Class of 2015, spoke at the middle school Tenacity Challenge last weekend and shared her message: “Believe in yourself,” and “find mentors, people to invest in your success.”
Scores of children descended on Davis School for Family STEM Night. This was a destination not only for the kindergarteners and first- and second-graders, but also for more than two dozen Bedford High School students serving as volunteers.
Almost 200 people turned out to celebrate the Bedford Education Foundation in style earlier this month at the Black and White Birthday Bash. The event helped raise almost $20,000 to support creative and innovative projects in the Bedford Schools.
Frozen JR. opened up at John Glenn Middle School last week with a cast and crew of around 100 students. Read about the show here.
The 2022-2023 Massachusetts Scholastic Art and Writing Awards were announced recently with 13 awards going to seven Bedford students.
Students, teachers, parents, and supporters crowded into the Bedford High School Auditorium for the first-ever “BHS Got Talent,” hosted by the Class of 2024.

FEATURES

We honored 84-year-old school crossing guard Art Smith on School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day. Read about this special Bedford resident here.
3/14 was Pi Day! We took a look at some numbers related to Pi around Bedford.
A large group of family, friends, and co-workers from near and far gathered at the First Parish Church in Bedford in March to celebrate a remarkable woman for a very special birthday. The guest of honor was Bedford Citizen chief copy editor Dorothy Bergin, who was celebrating her 95^th birthday.
In our “What’s Happening in Bedford?” column, we’re looking at some of the other Bedfords’ claims to fame!
For International Women’s Day, this visit to Dot’s Reading Room focuses on some key statistics about women, who make up more than one-half of our population.

SPORTS

The 2022-23 Bedford High School boys’ basketball season ended with a 50-46 loss at Dartmouth High School in the first round of the MIAA Division 2 state tournament. But overall, it was a very successful season.
Twenty-five Bedford High School student athletes were named as winter Dual County League All-Stars, led by a Player-of-the-Year. There also were two Coach-of-the-Year honorees.
The Bedford High School winter varsity cheerleading team wrapped up their 2022-2023 season at the MSAA State level competition at Worcester State University.
The Bedford Travel Basketballfifth grade boys are the Division 5 North Region champions, defeating Lexington in a packed gym in Woburn, 29-28.

IN OTHER NEWS

A Salem man awaiting trial for a Bedford murder he allegedly committed more than 50 years ago has been indicted “for an array of criminal offenses he committed from behind bars in 2022,” according to a statement from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.
The First Church of Christ, Congregational in Bedford celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, not with the traditional corned beef and cabbage meal, but with an old-fashioned community spaghetti dinner on Friday, March 17.
Riley Levetin received the Peeple’s Choice Award, the highest honor in the Bedford Free Public Library’s 13^th annual Peeps Diorama Contest, at an awards celebration in March.