In this week's Westmeath Independent

This week's Westmeath Independent is now on the shelves and features 40 pages of the best local news, sport and photos.

Free with this week's paper is a special 16-page supplement profiling the eight 2013 Athlone People of the Year Award winners, and looking ahead to the awards night in the Radisson Blu Hotel on April 26.

Among the stories you'll find in this week's edition:

* Pharmaceutical firm Alkermes is to cut up to 130 jobs from its plant in Monksland, Athlone. We have details and reaction to the shock announcement.

* Westmeath TD Robert Troy admitted having penalty points removed from his driving licence in the last year but said, 'I'm no Ming.' 

* The cost of a controversial study into flooding on the River Shannon is expected to hit €5 million. The study began in 2011 and won't be completed for another two and a half years.  

* We have a report and dramatic photos of a fire which damaged over 50 acres of bogland at Bethlehem, near Tang, on Monday. 

* Staff recently took over Ganly's Hardware in Athlone during filming of a episiode of the RTE Two series 'The Takeover' which airs tomorrow (Thursday). We sat down with owner Michael Ganly to discuss his store's moment in the TV spolight.  

* Reporter Adrian Cusack examines the origins of quirky local placenames including Gallows Hill, Preaching Lane, Love Lane and Little Hell, in part two of our 'What's in a Name?' feature. 

* Athlone's Helen McCaul - the mother of Eurovision stars Donna and Joe - is profiled in our Independent People series. 

* We have 12 pages of top sports coverage including a report on the departure of All Ireland-winning manager Kevin McStay from the helm at St Brigid's, and coverage of Athlone Town FC's first league defeat under Roddy Collins.  

All this and much more in this week's paper, which is available in local outlets and can also be accessed in the ePaper format (for more on this option, see: http://www.westmeathindependent.ie/epaper#undefined)