Home Care In Linwood, MA

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Peabody Properties is a full service real estate and property management firm.

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Full-service real estate and property management firm Peabody Properties (http://www.peabodyproperties.com) is proud to announce that Jean Mistretta, a resident of Whitinsville’s Linwood Mill (a Peabody Properties community), was selected as a winner in this year’s National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) Calendar Contest.

The annual contest, this year with the theme “Learning Will Get Me Where I’m Going: Reaching for Knowledge,” is open to children, elderly or special needs residents living in a NAHMA community.

Mistretta, 74, was one of two Peabody Properties residents to be selected for the National 2018 NAHMA Calendar, and one of 23 award winners overall, out of almost 5,000 entries. Winnie Mei, 17, a resident of Charlesview Residences in Brighton, Mass., was also selected. In addition to their artwork being featured in the calendar, both will receive a $1,000 educational scholarship from the NAHMA Educational Foundation.

This year, about 150 entries from 15 different Peabody properties were received; after much deliberation, the judging committee comprised of six members of Peabody Properties’ resident service staff selected 20 entries for submission to NEAHMA for the next voting round.

Of the more than 250 posters received by NEAHMA from throughout New England, three posters entered by Peabody Properties were named Regional Winners. In addition to Mistretta, who placed first in the senior category, and Mei, who placed first in the grades 10-12 category and was also designated as Best in Show Winner, Justin Lopez, a resident of Anchor’s Weigh in Chelsea, Mass., placed third in the grades 4-6 category.

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“We are so proud of Jean, Winnie, and of all of our resident artists,” said Lynne Sales, director of resident services for Peabody Properties, Inc. “NAHMA’s contest is a great opportunity for us to showcase the vast talent residing within our communities, and to promote awareness for the importance of education in a fun and imaginative way. It is inspiring to see that so many of our residents submitted entries.”

In addition to the three entrants whose posters were considered in the national contest, the following Peabody Properties, Inc. residents achieved placement in their categories:

Youth:

Pre-K: Tiffany Gunwan – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

Sloane St. Pierre – Fairhaven Village (Fairhaven, Mass.)

Johnny Gutierrez – Anchor’s Weigh (Cheslea, Mass.)

Jose Benique – Fairhaven Village (Fairhaven, Mass.)

Alexa Adele – Camfield Apartments (Boston, Mass.)

K-1: *First Place – Aniyahlis Luna – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

Second Place – Joshua Resto – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

Third Place – Ramadan Maruf – Camfield Estates (Boston, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Izabella Aybar – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

2-3: *First Place – Fatima Portillo – Carter Heights (Chelsea, Mass.)

*Second Place – Alexander Cruz – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

*Third Place – Emely Baez – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

*Honorable Mention – Axel Luna – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Neeam Elamin – Charlesview Residences (Brighton, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Emmanuel Okeke – Station 101 (Beverly, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Riley McGovern – 240 Conant Street (Danvers, Mass.)

4-6: *Second Place – Hula Khalifa – Charlesview Residences (Brighton, Mass.)

*Third Place – Zena Khalifa – Charlesview Residences (Brighton, Mass.)

*Honorable Mention – Jeylanis Resto – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

*Honorable Mention – Daizah Davis – Braintree Village Apartments (Braintree, Mass.)

*Honorable Mention – Melanie Reyes – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

*Honorable Mention – Ester Garcia – Market Mill Apartments (Lowell, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Skylar Book – Middlebury Arms (Middleboro, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Sasiyyah Reynolds – Middlebury Arms (Middleboro, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Nevaeh Dabrey – School House Properties (Mattapan, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Savannah Dwelly – Fairhaven Village (Fairhaven, Mass.)

7-9: *First Place – Amy Jiminez – 135 Lafayette Street (Salem, Mass.)

*Second Place – Nytayah Bugg – Braintree Village Apartments (Braintree, Mass.)

*Third Place – Heb Elhssan – Charlesview Residences (Brighton, Mass.)

*Honorable Mention – Anabelle Ramos – Edgewater Apartments (Springfield, Mass.)

10-12: Second Place – Annette Betancourt – Carter Heights (Chelsea, Mass.)

Residents with Special Needs:

First Place – Johnny Torres Jr.– Edgewater Apartments (Springfield, Mass.)

Second Place – Hong Thu – Kelly House (Dorchester, Mass.)

Third Place – Judy Bernardez – 135 Lafayette Street (Salem, Mass.)

Elderly:

*Second Place – Robert Williams – Bedford Green (Bedford, Mass.)

*Third Place – Barbara Sparks – Moorings at Squantum Gardens (Quincy, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Khai Dong – Kelly House (Dorchester, Mass.)

Honorable Mention – Annie Grant – Cardinal Medeiros (Dorchester, Mass.)

* Posters were submitted to NEAHMA for Regional judging

About Peabody Properties, Inc.

Peabody Properties is a full-service real-estate firm which manages more than 11,000 units of housing, primarily in New England. The award-winning, privately held corporation and Accredited Management Organization (AMO) was incorporated in 1976 and is under the direction of Karen Fish-Will and Melissa Fish-Crane. In 1995, Peabody Properties recognized its long-term commitment to Resident Services as a unique area of expertise within the field of property management and established a new, specialty sector. Peabody Resident Services, Inc. is dedicated solely to the development of support services and programs for residents of affordable housing. Peabody Properties is designated as a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE), is certified by the Massachusetts State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance (SOMWBA) and was recently ranked in the top 60 on the 2017 National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) Affordable 100 List. Peabody Properties maintains headquarters at 536 Granite Street, Braintree, MA 02184. The firm also has offices in New Jersey and Florida. For additional information please visit http://www.peabodyproperties.com.

Spread betting and contracts for difference (CFD) operator IG Group has agreed to acquire brokerage and “ trading education” platform Tastytrade for $1.0bn (£727.9m/€823.6m), after reporting record revenue for the six months ended 30 November 2020.

Tastytrade consists of two brands: media brand Tastytrade, which offers education to traders about options and futures markets; and brokerage platform Tastyworks, which boasts 105,000 active accounts and makes up 1.3% of the entire US equity options market by trading volume.

“Together, tastytrade provides ambitious retail traders with the education and confidence to trade in derivative products, whilst tastyworks provides them with a powerful, modern and easy-to-use trading platform to utilise this knowledge,” IG’s board said.

IG Group said the deal – consisting of a $300m cash sum and 61.0m new IG Group shares priced at $11.47 each – allows it to enter the world’s largest derivatives market, the US, which it says includes around 1.5m retail traders.

Of the cash sum required for the deal, £150m will come from new debt facilities and the remaining £68.3m from existing cash. Upon completion, Tastytrade shareholders will hold 14.1% of IG Group shares.

IG Group said the acquisition also allows it to diversify its offering as Tastytrade focuses mostly on options and futures, which are popular assets in the US market, rather than spread betting and CFDs.

“I am thrilled to welcome Tastytrade to the IG Group family,” IG chief executive June Felix said. “This acquisition will materially expand and scale our business in the US and see us further diversify into the exciting high growth market of US retail options and futures, a market which is adjacent to IG’s core retail trading skill set.

“The US market has more than 1.5 million retail traders and is the largest derivatives market in the world. Tastytrade has grown impressively and proven itself to be an innovative market disrupter passionately committed to delivering for their clients.

“The financial and strategic rationale underpinning this deal are compelling. I am confident that with our shared client-centric ethos, passion for innovation and growth, IG and tastytrade will prove a winning combination.”

Finally, IG Group said Tastytrade’s fast growth to a major player in the US brokerage market – with annual revenue growth averaging 49% between the 2018 and 2020 calendar years, showed it was a very strong business.

The acquisition will also see four Tastytrade members join the IG Group board: chief executive Scott Sheridan, co-chief executives Tom Sosnoff and Kristi Ross and chief technology officer Linwood Ma.

Sosnoff said the deal allowed Tastytrade to achieve its goal of becoming a global platform.

“Early on we knew Tastytrade was a very special company,” Sosnoff said. “While our long-term goal has always been to go global, we waited almost 10 years until we found the right partner and perfect match.

“Together we will focus on empowering the self-directed investor and change the way people perceive and engage with financial markets.”

The deal is subject to approval from competition and regulatory authorities. IG Group said it expects the deal to close in the three months ended 31 August 2021, the first quarter of its 2021-22 financial year.

IG also announced its financial results for the first half of its 2020-21 year today. Net trading revenue was up 67.1% year-on-year to £416.9m.

After paying betting duty and accounting for interest on client funds and other operating income, its net operating revenue came to £420.4m, up 64.8%.

Its operating costs, meanwhile, grew 22.1% to £188.2m. The IG Group paid £162.8m in operating expenses, up 18.0%, plus £25.4m in variable remuneration of staff, a 63.2% year-on-year increase.

This led to an operating profit increasing by 131.7% to £232.2m.

After financial costs of £900,000, IG Group’s pre-tax profit totalled £231.3m, up 128.9%.

The group paid £44.2m in tax, more than double its tax bill from the prior year, leasing to a post-tax profit of £187.1m, up 127.2% year-on-year.

“Our financial performance metrics in the period have been outstanding, delivering record revenue and profits, with profit before tax 129% higher than the prior period,” Felix said. “This performance would not have been possible without the continued commitment of our people and the resilience and flexibility of our technology.

“Our strong brand, long-standing commitment to client service and improvements to our marketing capability have supported a record 238,600 clients trading with us during the first half of the financial year.”

The market volatility and acquisition opportunities from the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic have significantly boosted the IG Group’s revenue. In the 2020 fiscal year, the group took in revenue of £649.2m, of which £259.5m was made in the three months ended 31 May 2020.

HAVERHILL — Take a walk through the Linwood Cemetery and you might notice small signs attached to certain trees. An effort to identify and label some of the oldest and most interesting trees in the city turned up 27 species spread throughout the sprawling cemetery.

They include ginkgo, European larch, tuliptree, sycamore, several species of maple, spruce and birch and more.

And some of those trees are believed to be among the oldest in the city, notably a more than 200-year-old copper beech tree that bears numerous initials that were carved into its smooth, gray bark many years ago.

The 9 1/2 foot wide beech tree that is in the northeast corner of the cemetery, just off Boardman Street, is a popular stopping point for when cemetery marketing director Gordon Stone takes potential plot buyers and others on tours of the property.

"I always stop and show them this tree and its carvings," Stone said during a recent trip through the cemetery.

This private, nonprofit and non-denominational cemetery dates back to 1830 and became a private, nonprofit corporation in 1845, more than a decade before the start of the Civil War in 1861.

Stone said the idea to identify and label the cemetery's trees originated from the planting last year of many new trees. At that time many unhealthy trees were taken down.

He said some of those included five old white pine trees with shallow roots that were heaving headstones as well as weak trees that were susceptible to damage and some diseased sugar maples. About 30 hemlocks were removed from the perimeter of the cemetery as they were infested with the Wooley Adelgid, the same insect that infested hemlock in Winnekenni Park and were removed a few years ago.

"We had a tree expert identify and label 27 species trees, the ones that are along walking and driving paths," Stone said. "The labels include the common name of the tree and the Latin (scientific) name."

Ryan Guilbault, a registered landscape architect who operates Ground Work Studio LLC in Amesbury, was hired to develop a master plan that maps out the locations and types of trees on the property and will be updated as things evolve.

"I tagged nearly all of the mature trees on the cemetery interior, unless they were in noticeably poor condition or part of a mass planting along a fenceline or edge," he said about the 79 mature trees that were cataloged and labeled.

Guilbault skipped labeling smaller ornamental trees as well as the 42 new trees he planted last spring, choosing to focus on what he said are Linwood's older and most "interesting" trees. They include a ginkgo biloba tree, or Maindenhair tree that isn't the oldest on the property, but has a unique fan-shaped leaf. He said the Ginkgo is the only living species within its family.

Guilbault said the small plastic naming plates are attached with spring loaded screws that enable trees to continue to grow against them.

Stone sees the project as offering an educational opportunity to young and old.

"This would be a good learning lesson for anyone interested in nature, including Boy and Girl scouts, or anyone who enjoys walking or driving through our cemetery," Stone said.

"We have a lot of people who just walk or jog here, and we also have a fair amount of wildlife, including foxes and woodchucks," Stone said. "It's a good, safe place to walk and our roads are in good repair."

"People tell us our trees are spectacular, particularly when they bud in the spring and when they change color in the fall," Stone added. "It's just gorgeous."

The 27 species of trees at the Linwood Cemetery include:

Sugar maple

Norway maple

Crimson king maple

Flowering dogwood

European weeping birch

Green ash

Copper beech

Honeylocust

Ginkgo Biloba

Tuliptree

Pin oak

Sycamore

Littleleaf linden

Canadian hemlock

European larch

HAVERHILL — A typical cemetery expansion involves carving out a section of land for new burial plots.

But Linwood Cemetery has expanded by offering something different — and if you've driven past the main entrance lately, you've likely seen it.

Construction of a Memory Wall that began in October has been completed, and now the niches are slowly filling up with the cremated remains, or "cremains" of loved ones.

The 120-foot-long niche wall is made of granite. It's located near the cemetery's main entrance on Mill Street.

Gordon Stone, marketing director for Linwood Cemetery & Crematory, said this part of the cemetery is highly desirable due to its easy access, historic grave sites neighboring the Memory Wall and proximity to the Linwood waterfall.

The Memory Wall contains 1,113 niches, each of which can hold two sets of remains.

Somewhat similar in design to safe deposit boxes, each niche has a one-foot-square granite plate affixed to its front and inscribed with the name or names of the deceased, cemetery trustees said.

A cement walkway and steel railing runs along the front of the Memory Wall. Future plans include the installation of benches.

Trustees of the historic pre-Civil War cemetery said the growing popularity of cremation led them to want to provide a place where urns can be safely kept. They said it's place where loved ones can visit and where future generations can pause to remember family members who came before them.

Stone said the wall continues Linwood’s tradition of investments in the property and also reflects Linwood’s ongoing response to the needs of current lot and niche owners, as well as those who plan to be part of the cemetery in the future.

Stone said cremation niches are becoming popular and are less expensive than traditional burial.

"It's an all-in-one solution as opposed to burial, where you have to purchase a plot and obtain a burial marker," he said. "When you buy a niche, the engraving and installation is included.

"If you were to put two remains in one niche, you basically cut the cost in half of burial in the ground," he said.

Stone said the niches are selling and the popularity of the Memory Wall is growing now that the wall is complete and people become aware of it.

"We designed it to look like it belonged in that area,'' Stone said. "There are six older tombs there, so it looks like it blends right in.''

David Splaine, president of the board of trustees of the Proprietors of Linwood Cemetery, said the Memory Wall is the first structure of its kind in the Greater Haverhill area.

The Linwood Cemetery dates back to 1830 and became a private, nonprofit, nondenominational institution in 1845, more than a decade before the start of the Civil War in 1861.

tastytrade was founded and is led by the entrepreneurial management team who previously created the highly successful options trading platform, thinkorswim, acquired by TD Ameritrade in 2009.

IG Group has completed the $1 billion acquisition of online brokerage and investor education platform tastytrade, which significantly increases the scale and relevance of IG’s existing US business.

tastytrade’s brokerage and trading education platform is used by over 105,000 self-directed investors with active accounts. IG will provide tastytrade with a platform for international expansion.

The transaction is made up of $300 million in cash and the issuance of 61,000,000 new ordinary shares in IG Group to tastytrade shareholders.

The US options and futures market is larger than the global CFD/FX and European Turbo markets combined, boasting an estimated 1.5 million retail traders.

The combined business is well-positioned to take advantage of the exceptional structural growth of self-directed investing in the US.

The management teams for IG and tastytrade will remain in place, but key tastytrade shareholders – comprising Tom Sosnoff (Co-CEO, tastytrade), Kristi Ross (Co-CEO and President, tastytrade), Scott Sheridan (CEO, tastyworks) and Linwood Ma (CTO, tastytrade) – have joined the IG senior leadership team while continuing in their current roles. These executives will collectively own approximately 5.7% of the enlarged share capital of IG.

June Felix, Chief Executive of IG, commented: “This transaction marks an important milestone in the delivery of IG’s growth strategy, diversifying our product offering and significantly strengthening our global footprint.

tastytrade’s approach to retail markets, combining content that is unique and entertaining with deeply quantitative and technical analysis – is now a proven winning formula that will be expanded across the globe using IG Group’s reach.

Tom Sosnoff, Founder and co-CEO of tastytrade, said: “The completion of this deal is a milestone moment for tastytrade. For the past decade, we have worked tirelessly to build a trading ecosystem that challenges self-directed retail investors to think and trade strategically. Our partnership with IG gives us the opportunity to contribute this expertise as part of a global offering that reflects the scope of our ambitions.”

Kristi Ross, co-Founder and co-CEO of tastytrade, said: “The synergies between tastytrade and IG are clear. Together, our mission is to deliver a sophisticated, first-in-class trading experience that puts our clients at the heart of all we do. This distinctive, differentiated offering will allow IG and tastytrade to capitalise on the long-term, structural democratisation of global financial markets.”

Established in 1974 as one of the world’s first providers of financial derivatives to retail traders, IG offers access to over 17,000 financial markets.

tastytrade was founded and is led by the entrepreneurial management team who previously created the highly successful options trading platform, thinkorswim, acquired by TD Ameritrade in 2009.

tastytrade is the parent company to brokerages tastyworks and dough, as well as the Quiet Foundation, a data science-driven, investment advisory service launched in 2018. tastytrade is incubating The Small Exchange, a futures exchange platform focused on retail traders launched in 2020, and is a Zero Hash investor.