ROWLEY – A pillar that has held up Town Hall in this historic town will be gone next week. But fear not, Town Clerk Susan Hazen, who is retiring after 21 years, is not going far. She lives across the street from Town Hall. Last week, Susan, who has an encyclopedic...
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.
Help the Ipswich River Get Off Most Endangered Rivers List
REGIONAL – It is not even summer, and Ipswich along with other North Shore towns are asking residents and businesses to limit the amount of water they use. In Ipswich, forget watering your lawn except with a hand-held hose, washing your car and the outside of your...
Mike Wilson Makes Friends Wherever He Runs
SOMEWHERE IN IDAHO -- Mike passed through southern Idaho, closing in on 500 miles of running across America to help Lucy’s Bus in Amesbury. The Town Common caught up with him in Bliss, ID. Along his journey, Make has had battle packs of dogs and cold temperatures in...
What Do You Want the Newburyport Waterfront to Look Like?
NEWBURYPORT – After decades of debate, this city is asking the public what it wants its most precious asset – the Merrimack River waterfront – to look like for future generations to enjoy. The city selected Sasaki, VHB and other subconsultants to develop a new design...
Charter School Head Named Chamber’s Educator of the Year
REGIONAL – Two years ago, Jonnie Lyn Evans was promoted by the board of River Valley Charter School to be the school’s executive director. Before her first year was over, her school was shut down and the students and teachers were forced into remote learning. This...
Katy Ives Takes the Reins at the Chamber of Commerce
REGIONAL — Kathleen O’Connor Ives graduated from law school not because she wanted to practice law. Her interests were in government and specifically environmental issues. She won a seat on the Newburyport City Council in 2007 before she took the bar exam. So, it was...
Mike Wilson Faces The Rockies
BOISE, ID – Mike Wilson was happy to cross the Oregon state line into Idaho last week on his 3,000-mile run across America to raise money for his favorite charity, Lucy’s Bus in Amesbury. He expected to begin the journey across the Rocky Mountains in the next few...
C&J Bus Lines Growing Again – in Seabrook
REGIONAL – As the Pandemic winds down and people begin to travel or commute again to work, C&J Bus Lines is growing once more. “I feel good where we are going,” said C&J president Jim Jalbert last week. But Jalbert predicts it will take two years for C&J’s bus service to Boston and New York City to return to pre-Pandemic levels…
Mike Wilson Battles the Badlands
THE OREGON BADLANDS – Mike Wilson took off running last Thursday on his 3,000-mile journey across the country to raise money for his favorite charity, Lucy’s Bus in Amesbury. After a false start from Santa Monica, CA, that led him on a route across the desert, Mike...
PI Roasters Is Gone
NEWBURYPORT -- Bruce Vogel asked the landlord for his popular Plum Island Roasters Coffee House to let him stay open until April 30. But faced with triple the rent and the potential of paying the fees for his landlord’s lawyers to go through an eviction process, Vogel...
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Priced Right Junk Removal