WEST NEWBURY – Closed to vehicles for more than seven years, the Middle Street/Plummer Springs Bridge on the border of West Newbury and Newburyport now has a deck over the Upper Artichoke Reservoir, the drinking water supply for both communities. According to West...
Stewart Lytle
Stewart Lytle is the lead reporter for The Town Common newspaper. Before joining The Town Common, he was a national correspondent for Scripps-Howard Newspapers in Washington, D.C., covering the Pentagon and Congress. He has also written for newspapers in Dallas, TX, and Birmingham, AL.
As a national reporter for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain, Stewart wrote the inside story on military life of soldiers and sailors and their families. He landed on aircraft carriers, experienced oxygen deprivation for high-altitude flight training and crawled through the mud with Marine snipers.
One of his proudest achievements outside of journalism was assisting USAA Chairman Robert McDermott in securing federal legislation that mandated air bags in vehicles.
Stewart is also a novelist and has written non-fiction books. He is currently working on a non-fiction book and screenplay about an incident that occurred in Boston.
His first novel, Iron City Conspiracy, explores power in a city. It features a black newspaper editor solving the bombing of a historic black church in a tough Alabama town.
Following in the footsteps of his idol, Ernest Hemingway, Stewart has completed a new novel about a love affair in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. The book, Montserrat, is based on a true story and has been made into a screenplay that will become an international feature film.
A graduate of Phillips Academy and Princeton University, Stewart lives with his wife, Mary, in Newburyport.
Ipswich Public Safety Building Racing to Town Meeting
IPSWICH — With a time crunch facing the architect and Public Safety Facility Committee (PSFC) to get the design and cost estimates for the new police and fire station ready for a May Town Meeting vote, the SelectBoard gave its unanimous approval for the latest design....
Vote for Favorite Roots Concerts
NEWBURYPORT – The organizers for the popular Belleville Roots Concert Series want to know what performers their fans would like them to rebook for the future. In their end-of-the-year newsletter, they ask: “What was your favorite show?!? We are already hard at work...
Custom House Makes a Rare Find
NEWBURYPORT – Parker Jackson, an intern at the Custom House Maritime Museum, had been working at the museum for about a year and a half when he was dispatched last month to organize the paintings and artifacts in the museum’s attic. The great, great grandson of George...
Ipswich Firefighters Honored for Saving Lives
REGIONAL – Just before midnight on Aug. 18, the home at 383 Linebrook Rd. caught fire with an elderly resident and his son trapped on the second floor. Ipswich and Rowley firefighters responded and saved Joseph Mello Sr., who is disabled, and his son, Joseph Mello Jr....
Plaza Landing May Be Approved Soon
NEWBURYPORT – The town’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) closed the public hearing last week on the proposed Plaza Landing building that will replace the vacant Kmart store with 212 new apartments. The five-member board, which has little wiggle room to deny approval...
Helen Hunt Honored as Local Heroine
REGIONAL – The Newburyport Black History Initiative (NBHI), in celebrating the great liberator, William Lloyd Garrison last week, honored an unsung local heroine who persuaded the school committee in the late 1950s that Black-faced minstrel shows created false...
Students, Parents, Teachers Want Amesbury Innovation School Reopened
AMESBURY – On Oct. 30, the Amesbury Fire Department was called to the Amesbury Innovation High School (AIHS) to check out the smell of gas in the building. That call has since created a major challenge for the school district, headed by Mayor Kassandra Gove, and the...
Mello Cuts an Hour of Trash Truck Transfer Traffic
GEORGETOWN – G. Mello Disposal Corp. (Mello) has proposed and the town’s Board of Health (BOH) has agreed to allow trucks serving the new transfer station to cut the time in the morning by an hour, from 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. The BoH had permitted the trucks hauling trash...
New Pet Food Pantry!
REGIONAL – With the long federal government shutdown that threatened to shut off SNAP food assistance, there has been a lot of focus on the dozens of food pantries for people in our area. But what about food and supplies for pets? Shayna Gatautis and Toni Knott, both...
Local Forecast


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