Danvers Select Board Unanimously Accepts Student-Funded Purple Heart Memorial for Town Hall

DANVERS — June 2, 2026 — Danvers Select Board unanimously accepts student-funded Purple Heart memorial for Town Hall and clears $22,700 in park gifts. The board voted 4-0 at its June 2 meeting to accept a Purple Heart monument fundraised by Danvers High School DECA juniors Chase Richmond and Ariana Fajardo, whose project grew out of a July 2025 consultation with the Danvers Veteran Council. Veteran Services Officer Kelly Reyes-Tuchera said the students raised funds through concerts, merchandise, and community donations; a landscape architect is still finalizing placement on the Town Hall grounds. The board also accepted four Friends of Endicott Park donations totaling up to $20,200 for footbridges, fencing, a concrete shelter floor, and a Nature Center exhibit, plus a separate $2,500 memorial bench gift honoring the late Melissa Dawn Campbell and her sister Shayna Campbell Clark. On licensing, the board approved a liquor license transfer to Sia Ram Hospitality LLC for the Sonesta Select Boston Danvers at 275 Independence Way with 11 a.m.-to-11 p.m. service hours, re-approved an all-alcoholic license upgrade for Panini Pizzeria at One Maple Street following an ABCC-required re-hearing, and granted Twisted Fate Brewing 13 one-day licenses covering a Rotary Club bocce tournament and a 12-date Peabody Institute Library summer concert series, with Member Trask abstaining from the concert-series vote because his band performs in the series. Town Manager Tina Cahill announced the town accountant is departing after more than six years, with a 90-day notice period that puts a possible candidate before the full board in early August.