Troubled bridges, Fairhaven town administrator leaving, MCAS: Standard-Times top stories

As we head into a new week, let's take a look at the news from this past week.

Since 1831, the cupola atop the New Bedford Superior Courthouse has looked over downtown New Bedford. As it nears its 200th birthday, the landmark cupola is undergoing $300K in restoration work as part of overall building rehabilitation efforts. The stately brick building was the site of Bristol County criminal court proceedings from 1831 until 2010 when the new Fall River Superior Court opened.

Izzie Bromage and Meagan Pimentel played soccer together for the first time more than a decade ago with Westport United Youth Soccer. The pair of four-year starters are currently closing in on their time together at Bishop Stang after leading the playoff-bound Spartans to a 4-1 victory over St. John Paul II in their regular-season finale.

Keep up with high school sports with scores, game highlights, and Player of the Week voting at https://www.southcoasttoday.com/sports.

Here are some of the most-read stories of the week on https://www.southcoasttoday.com:

Six bridges in New Bedford are in poor shape. The state is fixing 5 of them.

The bad news is that six New Bedford bridges are considered structurally "poor" in some way by the federal Department of Transportation.

The good news is that five of the six are within the state Department of Transportation's $378 million, Interstate 195 to Route 18 interchange rehabilitation project.

What to know:Six bridges in New Bedford are in poor shape. The state is fixing 5 of them.

Fairhaven and town administrator are parting ways

The Fairhaven Select Board and Town Administrator Angeline Lopes Ellison have decided to part ways.

Prior to the announcement at the select board meeting Oct. 28, the board went into executive session for nearly an hour to "conduct strategy session in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel; Town Administrator."

While the nature of the discussion during Monday's executive session has not been made public, public comments made at the Select Board's Oct. 15 meeting seemed to hint at tensions between board members and Ellison.

Here's what we know:Fairhaven and town administrator are parting ways.

How did your school district score on MCAS?

As voters prepare to decide on Question 2 on Nov. 5 — which, if passed, would end the MCAS graduation requirement — take a look around our local districts to see how high schoolers fared in the most recent round of testing.

Students' Grade 10 MCAS scores are those that determine whether they can graduate from a public high school or not.

Many of the area schools showed a dip in their scores or stayed relatively flat.

Check the scores across the SouthCoast:How did your school district score on MCAS?

Could offshore wind plan hurt scallop fishermen? New Bedford official has 'grave concerns'

According to a letter he wrote to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, New Bedford Port Authority Executive Director Gordon Carr has "grave concern" for the scallop fishing industry in the face of a potential new call area to be leased out to offshore wind projects.

The 13,476,805-acre area off of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina — dubbed the "Central Atlantic 2" call area — encompasses a large portion of key scalloping grounds, Carr wrote.

Official has 'grave concerns':Could offshore wind plan hurt scallop fishermen?

'Not kicking yet': Neon Williams is restoring the Paul Revere sign from New Bedford

Seeing a neon light display of Paul Revere “riding” a galloping horse once was a staple of a drive through New Bedford due to its prominent location along the eastbound side of Interstate 195. 

Despite spending more than a decade in storage, work continues to rehab the 40-by-25-foot Paul Revere sign and to find it a new home, said Dave Waller, who owns Neon Williams in Somerville with his wife Lynn.

'Not kicking yet':Neon Williams is restoring the Paul Revere sign from New Bedford

All of these stories can be read in their entirety at www.southcoasttoday.com.