Plum Island

The state's Appellate Tax Board has ruled in favor of six property owners on Plum Island's Northern Boulevard, granting them a 15 percent abatement on their property tax valuations. The property owners are Christine Florio and Wanda Novak; Joseph DiNapoli; Stephen and Catherine DeSalvo; Candace and Peter Erickson; Donald Accetta; and Henry and Susan Christ. Based on the tax board documents, their properties were assessed between $782,500 and $1.07 million between fiscal years 2007 and 2010, with real estate taxes ranging from $7,500 to more than $10,000.

Dawson is coming. James Van Der Beek (inset), best known for playing Dawson Leery on the teen drama "Dawson's Creek" (which was set in a fictional Massachusetts town called Capeside) has been cast in the Kate Winslet movie "Labor Day," which films here this summer. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Van Der Beek, who now plays himself on the sitcom "Don't Trust the B-- in Apartment 23," will play a police officer in the Jason Reitman-directed drama about a mother and son who bond with an escaped convict, played by Josh Brolin.

The town is moving forward with the sale of several surplus properties on Plum Island, which will bring in about $700,000. According to town documents, the parcels include: 5.4 acres, 3 Temple Blvd., sold to Ralph and Elizabeth Cox for $550,000; .22 acres, 33 16th Tee, sold to William Noonan for $50,100; .11 acre, 34 14th St., to Deborah Kell and Amy Thurlow for $41,000; .13 acre, 21 Hutchins Road, sold to Peter Dedon and Therese Schmalbach for $30,000;...

Recent bird sightings as reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society: ►More spring migrants arrived last week, including pied-billed grebes, manx shearwaters, double-crested cormorants, snowy egrets, little blue herons, Virginia rails, soras, greater yellowlegs, laughing gulls, Northern rough-winged swallows, barn swallows, winter wrens, hermit thrushes, yellow-rumped warblers, pine warblers, palm warblers, and chipping sparrows. ►Newburyport: Reports from the Parker River Refuge on Plum Island last week included three Northern shovelers, five redheads, 50 ruddy ducks, four great egrets, a little blue...

Blue, the Inn on the Beach, may be nestled in the dunes of Plum Island, Newbury, but it takes its styling cues from the boutique hotels of Miami's South Beach. This is the first year the inn is open year-round, so to encourage off-season visits, a 2-for-1 special is being offered through the end of March. Stay two nights and the second night is free, resulting in a nightly rate beginning at $122.50. Visit www.blueinn.com and click on Special Promotions or call 978-465-7171. Provence and Picasso How would you like to see 3,000 Picasso paintings illuminated...

A widow and grandmother who very painfully - and very publicly - lost her seaside Plum Island home to the ocean more than three years ago has chosen to sell her property rather than rebuild. After a long and protracted fight, Geraldine Buzzotta, 82, recently won state approval to construct a new house at 16R Northern Blvd. in Newbury. The family had been expected to break ground this spring, but the .12-acre lot is now up for sale for $349,900. The real estate listing, in addition to photos of the beach view, includes a schematic of the environmentally...

NEWBURY - As we drove along a narrow, sandy, one-way street on Plum Island, passing houses magnificent and humble, our eyes were drawn to the sparkle of thousands of round glass nuggets in shades of blue, exploding with the light of the afternoon sun. Pulling into Blue and stepping onto paths made of glass and sand, we sensed that this inn experience was going to be different. Blue, "the Inn on the Beach," takes full advantage of its oceanfront setting on this barrier island. Behind a glass counter in the lobby a live "ocean cam" displays the surf.

Please give the "snowies" their space. That's the message from the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, where large crowds have been turning out to see the bumper crop of snowy owls wintering there. Some people get too close or even flush the owls into flight, to get a better look or a better picture. That's not good, says Jean Adams, outdoor recreation planner at the refuge. "We're trying to provide undisturbed habitat," said Adams. "Look at them, enjoy them, and then move on. " She has written up a flier on "Winter Wildlife...

A 20-year-old Plum Island man suffered serious stab wounds yesterday during an afternoon fight that broke out near the downtown area of Newburyport, police said. A small group of people came to blows on Prince Place just before 4 p.m. for unknown reasons, resulting in the stabbing, Newburyport Police Inspector Michael Sugrue said. The man, who was originally listed in critical condition, was transported to Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport, then airlifted to a hospital in Boston; doctors expect him to recover, Sugrue said.

Recent bird sighting, as reported to the Massachusetts Audubon Society: ► Plum Island: five blue-winged teal, 110 gadwalls, two green-winged teal, two bald eagles, 135 lesser yellowlegs, 400 least sandpipers, one white-rumped sandpiper, two dunlin, one stilt sandpiper, 540 short-billed dowitchers, six seaside sparrows, one out-of-season white-crowned sparrow, and one orchard oriole. ► Chatham: two brant, 50 semipalmated plovers, four Hudsonian godwits, one marbled godwit, two western sandpipers, one white-rumped sandpiper, and 179 short-billed dowitchers.

A widow and grandmother who very painfully - and very publicly - lost her seaside Plum Island home to the ocean more than three years ago has chosen to sell her property rather than rebuild. After a long and protracted fight, Geraldine Buzzotta, 82, recently won state approval to construct a new house at 16R Northern Blvd. in Newbury. The family had been expected to break ground this spring, but the .12-acre lot is now up for sale for $349,900. The real estate listing, in addition to photos of the beach view, includes a schematic of the environmentally sensitive building...

Please give the "snowies" their space. That's the message from the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island, where large crowds have been turning out to see the bumper crop of snowy owls wintering there. Some people get too close or even flush the owls into flight, to get a better look or a better picture. That's not good, says Jean Adams, outdoor recreation planner at the refuge. "We're trying to provide undisturbed habitat," said Adams. "Look at them, enjoy them, and then move on. " She has written up a flier on "Winter Wildlife Observation Etiquette" that...

NEWBURYPORT - Matt Poole is looking for a few good (amateur) naturalists. Poole, visitor services manager for the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, plans to build a group of volunteer "master naturalists" to bolster the refuge's education and interpretive programs. The ultimate goal: "to help get the word out about why this refuge is here. " He's already filled many of the 20 slots in the yearlong training program, which will ask volunteers to commit one Saturday a month to learn about subjects such as beach ecology and Plum Island history.

This crowd did not gather for a ball game or a protest, or to gawk at some sort of disaster. They came to the banks of the sleepy Illinois River to witness a little miracle — a happy ending, or an anxious beginning, depending on how you look at it. Two young bald eagles were about to be released into the wild, more than five months after a storm blew them 85 feet to the ground from their nest, high atop a tree in suburban Chicago. The crowd, hundreds of people by now, watched eagerly as a small ferry came around a bend in the river and into view.

The town is moving forward with the sale of several surplus properties on Plum Island, which will bring in about $700,000. According to town documents, the parcels include: 5.4 acres, 3 Temple Blvd., sold to Ralph and Elizabeth Cox for $550,000; .22 acres, 33 16th Tee, sold to William Noonan for $50,100; .11 acre, 34 14th St., to Deborah Kell and Amy Thurlow for $41,000; .13 acre, 21 Hutchins Road, sold to Peter Dedon and Therese Schmalbach for $30,000;...

In hopes of providing more money to the town, Newbury officials are looking to sell about a dozen pieces of town-owned land, most on Plum Island. Officials currently have requests for proposals out for 5.4 acres at 3 Temple Blvd.; .11 acre at 6 Blue Hill West Ave.; .03 acre at 14 Old Point Road; .22 acre at 15 Hutchins Terrace; .13 acre at 21 Hutchins Road; .22 acre at 33 16th Tee; .11 acre at 34 14th St.; .19 acre at 71 Old Point Road; .72 acre at 73 Old Point Road; .35 acre at 81 Old Point Road; .39 acre at 119 Old Point Road; and an unaddressed property on Hutchins Road that is .11...

NEWBURYPORT - Matt Poole is looking for a few good (amateur) naturalists. Poole, visitor services manager for the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, plans to build a group of volunteer "master naturalists" to bolster the refuge's education and interpretive programs. The ultimate goal: "to help get the word out about why this refuge is here. " He's already filled many of the 20 slots in the yearlong training program, which will ask volunteers to commit one Saturday a month to learn about subjects such as beach ecology and Plum Island history.

In hopes of providing more money to the town, officials are looking to sell about a dozen pieces of town-owned land, most on Plum Island. Officials currently have requests for proposals out for 5.4 acres at 3 Temple Blvd.; .11 acre at 6 Blue Hill West Ave.; .03 acre at 14 Old Point Road; .22 acre at 15 Hutchins Terrace; .13 acre at 21 Hutchins Road; .22 acre at 33 16th Tee; .11 acre at 34 14th St.; .19 acre at 71 Old Point Road; .72 acre at 73 Old...

The state's Appellate Tax Board has ruled in favor of six property owners on Plum Island's Northern Boulevard, granting them a 15 percent abatement on their property tax valuations. The property owners are Christine Florio and Wanda Novak; Joseph DiNapoli; Stephen and Catherine DeSalvo; Candace and Peter Erickson; Donald Accetta; and Henry and Susan Christ. Based on the tax board documents, their properties were assessed between $782,500 and $1.07 million between fiscal years 2007 and 2010, with real estate taxes ranging from $7,500 to more than $10,000.