Latest news with #Burchell
Boston Globe
30-04-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
How a dog, missing for over a month, was discovered in a sewer drain next to Interstate 91
Advertisement Ally, a small female dog, was discovered shivering but uninjured in a sewer drain in West Springfield, according to firefighters. Courtesy of Dennis Foley But Burchell also investigated a manhole on a grassy hill about 10 feet behind highway guardrails, he said — not because it needed to be cut off from drainage, but because its cover appeared to be missing. Then he saw the dog inside. 'It was very luck of the draw,' he said, adding the animal may not have been discovered had he not peered inside the hole. 'A really good thing' Foley said he and Burchell were immediately struck by the fact that the dog was OK despite seeming to have been lost for a while. 'I was shocked, especially considering the dog was in as good condition as she could have been,' Foley, 46, said. The dog, black and white with floppy ears, had some matted fur, but no injuries, Foley said. She was wearing a collar but had no tags. Burchell said the sewer drain was a few feet deep, meaning the 'smallish' pup had no way of escaping on her own. Advertisement Burchell said he was 'not entirely sure' of Ally's breed. Firefighter Justin Burchell, a self-described "huge dog guy," with his own dog, a 1-year-old Golden Retriever named Nora, at West Springfield Fire Department Station 3. Courtesy of Justin Burchell A pile of rocks topped by a large orange traffic cone also blocked the entry to a small tunnel leading from the drain to the sewer main, Burchell said. If the rocks and cone hadn't been there, Ally could have gotten lost and stuck deep within the sewer system, he said. 'I'm a dog person, and I realized this was going to be a really good thing,' Foley said. 'We know this dog' When firefighters reported the dog to animal control, responding officers from Springfield's Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center said they recognized Ally, according to Burchell. 'They said, 'We know exactly this dog, because we've been looking for this dog for the past month,'' Burchell said. Within an hour, Ally was reunited with her owners, Burchell said, although he did not get to meet them. Today's feel good moment!! Officer Sanborn received an urgent call from the West Springfield Fire Department regarding... Posted by A Springfield woman who identified herself in a Facebook comment as Ally's owner could not be reached for comment. The O'Connor Animal Control center also did not respond to requests for comment. The shelter said in an April 21 Facebook post that Ally was reported missing 'over a month ago' from the Forest Park area. A person posting to Facebook from an account with the name Mildred Davila, who identified herself as Ally's owner, said the dog had been missing for 34 days. 29springfielddog - State police officers try to comfort Ally, a dog discovered in a sewer drain by West Springfield firefighters on Monday, April 21. (Courtesy Dennis Foley) Courtesy of Dennis Foley Davila said on Facebook she didn't know how Ally got in the drain after going missing. Advertisement 'We are beyond grateful,' the Facebook user said. 'We will never know how she got there but we always know how she was found and the calls that were made to get her back to us her family.' Foley said she may have hid in the hole to avoid nearby cars on the highway or perhaps other animals. 'Thank God everything happened the way it did,' Burchell said. 'This was one of those things that I'm happy I was able to be a part of.' Claire Thornton can be reached at
CNN
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
She found her dream home on one of the world's most famous golf courses
The dream home can take many forms. Few, however, would envision their perfect property built on the grounds of a major sporting venue. Because while having a world-renowned golf course in your backyard might sound idyllic to the diehard golfer, the prospect of balls careening towards windows and strangers strolling through your garden is less appealing to most people. And yet, nestled among the sprawling fairways and shimmering lakes of Tournament Players Club (TPC) Sawgrass – home of the PGA Tour and host to The Players Championship – is a community where one family has holed out on a slice of paradise. Rebecca Burchell had a tough decision to make. Settled and content in leafy Beaconsfield, a market town in southeast England, her family had spent 10 years building a new life across the pond after moving from Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, Florida, in 2007. Her two teenage children, Emma and Liam, were happily embedded at a local school, with Burchell – a licensed realtor – volunteering as a governor there. Yet the reason the family originally made the transatlantic switch would ultimately be the reason they returned. Having established a long career in the global relocation industry, Rebecca's husband Mark would see life imitate work as a new job opportunity in Jacksonville led the Burchells to move back to Florida. 'It was a really, really difficult decision,' Burchell told CNN Sports in 2024. 'But for my husband, as you learn in life, you gotta go where the job and the money is. It was really hard on Emma because she moved at 18, she didn't know anybody, whereas with Liam (13) – though it was devastating leaving – he started school right away so he instantly made friends.' The desire to send Liam to one of the state's top schools immediately narrowed the search to her old neighborhood of Ponte Vedra Beach. Given her real estate background, renovating and flipping properties, Burchell was in her element. Twenty house viewings quickly rattled by, many lasting less than a minute. 'I can look at a house and I'm like yes or no within 30 seconds,' Burchell said. 'With any property, I look at the front and then I go all the way to the backyard and I even skip all of the inside. If I don't like the backyard, I don't even bother.' But there was no quick exit when Burchell stepped out onto the lawn at Sawgrass Players Club, which is home to 1,900 properties, making up 16 neighborhoods across 1,200 acres. Waterways – brimming with fish, turtles, and the occasional gator – winding around immaculately kept greens, herons and eagles swooping from the tops of towering pine trees; Burchell was immediately besotted by the 'spectacular' setting of the community. Burchell's focus had settled on Seven Mile Drive, a neighborhood that occupies the second-highest price bracket at Sawgrass Players Club. Property prices on Seven Mile Drive range from $1.4 to $2.5 million, Burchell said, a rung down from the sweeping $2.5 to $3.5 million estate homes on Sawgrass Island. Proximity to the coastline, a five-minute drive away, puts a premium on prices, Burchell added, with even the cheapest properties on site starting from $700,000. More than 80% of the 117 Seven Mile Drive properties dot the perimeter of the Dye's Valley Course, brainchild of designers Pete Dye, Bobby Weed and 1982 Players champion Jerry Pate. Adjacent to the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, it has played host to a string of professional events since opening in 1987. The Burchells decided to buy a home pitched along the cart path in the middle of the first fairway, a spot that put their garden and pool in the landing zones for around 10 balls a week. Yet for Burchell, it was a minor inconvenience that's simply par for living on a golf course. Problems would only arise when the occasional brazen golfer would stroll into the Burchell's garden without permission, risking the wrath of a rescue dog wary of strangers. 'I was like, 'She'll attack you … she's not a friendly dog!'' Burchell recalled, laughing. '(Balls in the garden) is just expected. Some people get a window knocked out … but I've never heard anyone complain about it.' Later, they relocated a few doors down to a house overlooking the third green, and in the two years since moving, the Burchells have not had a single ball drop onto their property. Working from home can be a challenging task, with the laptop fighting for attention against the sight of golfers quietly putting, and the ever-present wildlife, be it baby herons hatching from a nearby nest or pelicans divebombing the water hazards to pluck their next meal. The view remains the star attraction of life in Sawgrass Players Club for Burchell, but it is far from the only draw. A sprawling array of amenities – from a swimming pool to a children's play park – forms the beating heart of the community. Players Park boasts an expansive recreation complex – including softball and soccer fields, basketball and beach volleyball courts – and serves as the venue for annual events and festivals, such as Springfest and the movie-themed Flicks in the Field. Tying it all together is the 77,000-square-foot, Mediterranean-style TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, kitted out with a range of restaurants, a gallery and a golf shop. 'It's just a really tight community,' Burchell said. 'I play tennis, my husband plays tennis, so we have all our tennis friends … and with the restaurants and the clubhouse, it's just a very social, really great lifestyle.' Ironically, golf ranks relatively low on the priority list. Burchell's husband plays, but the advantage of proximity to two championship courses is countered by the costs required to play them. Fees for a round at the Stadium Course start from $450 a head, rising to $650 between September and May. The Dye's Valley Course is cheaper, but will still set players back a minimum of $175 for 18 holes. As a result, Burchell's husbands plays primarily at The Yards, a former golf club renovated in 2020 that offers residents a less costly alternative. Fees start from $57.50 to play all 12 holes, with the club also home to tennis courts and a dedicated facility for the rapidly growing pickleball community. It leaves Burchell hard-pressed to find a single negative – and the only one she can eventually think of is immediately offset. Perhaps inevitably, it involves the annual Players Championship. Often dubbed 'the fifth major,' the arrival of one of the sport's premier events brings with it enormous fanfare, noise and – most pertinent of all – traffic. For one week every March, gridlock reigns, yet the locals have developed a survival strategy. It's golf's version of doomsday prepping: residents flock out in the preceding days to stock up on supplies before hunkering down and not leaving the site for the duration of the tournament. It's sheltering in the lightest sense of the word, as a week of non-stop festivities ensues for the community. Private seating at the course offers locals a front-row seat to the world's greatest players, with concerts, a military appreciation day, a ladies day and other events staged throughout. 'It's just a huge party,' Burchell said, ahead of last year's tournament. 'People start drinking at 8 a.m., sit out on the course all day. After the tournament, everyone comes back here, they continue partying, and then we start all over again the next day. 'The weather's beautiful … it's just a great fun week.' It's a lifestyle that has helped provide a tonic to the soreness of leaving behind close friendships in Beaconsfield. With Burchell's daughter graduating from the University of Florida and chasing her dream of working in the horse industry, life on the golf course has been smooth-swinging for the family. 'It's just spectacular,' Burchell said. 'We couldn't have lived in two more perfect places.'
CNN
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
She found her dream home on one of the world's most famous golf courses
The dream home can take many forms. Few, however, would envision their perfect property built on the grounds of a major sporting venue. Because while having a world-renowned golf course in your backyard might sound idyllic to the diehard golfer, the prospect of balls careening towards windows and strangers strolling through your garden is less appealing to most people. And yet, nestled among the sprawling fairways and shimmering lakes of Tournament Players Club (TPC) Sawgrass – home of the PGA Tour and host to The Players Championship – is a community where one family has holed out on a slice of paradise. Rebecca Burchell had a tough decision to make. Settled and content in leafy Beaconsfield, a market town in southeast England, her family had spent 10 years building a new life across the pond after moving from Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, Florida, in 2007. Her two teenage children, Emma and Liam, were happily embedded at a local school, with Burchell – a licensed realtor – volunteering as a governor there. Yet the reason the family originally made the transatlantic switch would ultimately be the reason they returned. Having established a long career in the global relocation industry, Rebecca's husband Mark would see life imitate work as a new job opportunity in Jacksonville led the Burchells to move back to Florida. 'It was a really, really difficult decision,' Burchell told CNN Sports in 2024. 'But for my husband, as you learn in life, you gotta go where the job and the money is. It was really hard on Emma because she moved at 18, she didn't know anybody, whereas with Liam (13) – though it was devastating leaving – he started school right away so he instantly made friends.' The desire to send Liam to one of the state's top schools immediately narrowed the search to her old neighborhood of Ponte Vedra Beach. Given her real estate background, renovating and flipping properties, Burchell was in her element. Twenty house viewings quickly rattled by, many lasting less than a minute. 'I can look at a house and I'm like yes or no within 30 seconds,' Burchell said. 'With any property, I look at the front and then I go all the way to the backyard and I even skip all of the inside. If I don't like the backyard, I don't even bother.' But there was no quick exit when Burchell stepped out onto the lawn at Sawgrass Players Club, which is home to 1,900 properties, making up 16 neighborhoods across 1,200 acres. Waterways – brimming with fish, turtles, and the occasional gator – winding around immaculately kept greens, herons and eagles swooping from the tops of towering pine trees; Burchell was immediately besotted by the 'spectacular' setting of the community. Burchell's focus had settled on Seven Mile Drive, a neighborhood that occupies the second-highest price bracket at Sawgrass Players Club. Property prices on Seven Mile Drive range from $1.4 to $2.5 million, Burchell said, a rung down from the sweeping $2.5 to $3.5 million estate homes on Sawgrass Island. Proximity to the coastline, a five-minute drive away, puts a premium on prices, Burchell added, with even the cheapest properties on site starting from $700,000. More than 80% of the 117 Seven Mile Drive properties dot the perimeter of the Dye's Valley Course, brainchild of designers Pete Dye, Bobby Weed and 1982 Players champion Jerry Pate. Adjacent to the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course, it has played host to a string of professional events since opening in 1987. The Burchells decided to buy a home pitched along the cart path in the middle of the first fairway, a spot that put their garden and pool in the landing zones for around 10 balls a week. Yet for Burchell, it was a minor inconvenience that's simply par for living on a golf course. Problems would only arise when the occasional brazen golfer would stroll into the Burchell's garden without permission, risking the wrath of a rescue dog wary of strangers. 'I was like, 'She'll attack you … she's not a friendly dog!'' Burchell recalled, laughing. '(Balls in the garden) is just expected. Some people get a window knocked out … but I've never heard anyone complain about it.' Later, they relocated a few doors down to a house overlooking the third green, and in the two years since moving, the Burchells have not had a single ball drop onto their property. Working from home can be a challenging task, with the laptop fighting for attention against the sight of golfers quietly putting, and the ever-present wildlife, be it baby herons hatching from a nearby nest or pelicans divebombing the water hazards to pluck their next meal. The view remains the star attraction of life in Sawgrass Players Club for Burchell, but it is far from the only draw. A sprawling array of amenities – from a swimming pool to a children's play park – forms the beating heart of the community. Players Park boasts an expansive recreation complex – including softball and soccer fields, basketball and beach volleyball courts – and serves as the venue for annual events and festivals, such as Springfest and the movie-themed Flicks in the Field. Tying it all together is the 77,000-square-foot, Mediterranean-style TPC Sawgrass clubhouse, kitted out with a range of restaurants, a gallery and a golf shop. 'It's just a really tight community,' Burchell said. 'I play tennis, my husband plays tennis, so we have all our tennis friends … and with the restaurants and the clubhouse, it's just a very social, really great lifestyle.' Ironically, golf ranks relatively low on the priority list. Burchell's husband plays, but the advantage of proximity to two championship courses is countered by the costs required to play them. Fees for a round at the Stadium Course start from $450 a head, rising to $650 between September and May. The Dye's Valley Course is cheaper, but will still set players back a minimum of $175 for 18 holes. As a result, Burchell's husbands plays primarily at The Yards, a former golf club renovated in 2020 that offers residents a less costly alternative. Fees start from $57.50 to play all 12 holes, with the club also home to tennis courts and a dedicated facility for the rapidly growing pickleball community. It leaves Burchell hard-pressed to find a single negative – and the only one she can eventually think of is immediately offset. Perhaps inevitably, it involves the annual Players Championship. Often dubbed 'the fifth major,' the arrival of one of the sport's premier events brings with it enormous fanfare, noise and – most pertinent of all – traffic. For one week every March, gridlock reigns, yet the locals have developed a survival strategy. It's golf's version of doomsday prepping: residents flock out in the preceding days to stock up on supplies before hunkering down and not leaving the site for the duration of the tournament. It's sheltering in the lightest sense of the word, as a week of non-stop festivities ensues for the community. Private seating at the course offers locals a front-row seat to the world's greatest players, with concerts, a military appreciation day, a ladies day and other events staged throughout. 'It's just a huge party,' Burchell said, ahead of last year's tournament. 'People start drinking at 8 a.m., sit out on the course all day. After the tournament, everyone comes back here, they continue partying, and then we start all over again the next day. 'The weather's beautiful … it's just a great fun week.' It's a lifestyle that has helped provide a tonic to the soreness of leaving behind close friendships in Beaconsfield. With Burchell's daughter graduating from the University of Florida and chasing her dream of working in the horse industry, life on the golf course has been smooth-swinging for the family. 'It's just spectacular,' Burchell said. 'We couldn't have lived in two more perfect places.'
