DR. Wayne Peters (courtesy Lowell Sun)
Condolences again to Supt. Franco on the passing of her Mother and to the family of former Superintendent of the Lowell Public Schools Dr. Wayne Peters. Not only was Dr. Peters a former Supt. but also served this city on the School Committee and later on the Lowell City Council. Prayers go out to both families on their loss.
Congratulations to the Lowell Nor’Easter’s Semi-Pro Football team who opened their season at home last night with a 27-12 Win, including a 25-yard touchdown pass from QB Matt Boyle to WR Fred Nutter.
The front page story by Lyle Moran in today’s Sun focuses on the Library and the “chat” between a couple of employee’s regarding a library assistant. Titled Chat spat leads to calls for change at library. There is also a story about the local grocery chain who continue’s to thrive by city editor Chris Scott, Success, the old-fashioned way Sticking to its roots, Demoulas chain grows amid industry struggles (GN: The new Bridge St. store is spectacular and the Pizza very good).
On the front of the Local Section the very talented Crime reporter Robert Mills has a story about Melanie Quadros a 28year-old Lowell woman who has been missing for more than a year and a half titled Missing woman reward triples Mother seeking lead on daughter last seen in 2010. A story with a real buzz involves A honey of a hobby By Debbie Hovanasian who writes about Dracut native Bob Berube and his beekeeping. Also in the Sports section check out the many photo’s of various Little League champions and a salute to the Sun All-Stars in area BASEBALL.
Also in the Sun is a combo offer to subscribe to Home delivery and the E-Edition for 13 weeks for $26 and receive a $5.00 Dunkin Donuts Card or sign up for the 26 week combo for $52.00 and receive a $10 Dunkin Donuts Card. Any way you can subscribe or Pick up the ONLY daily Regional newspaper that covers Lowell and the surrounding communities The SUN!
One Final request for some of the local Golfers to PLEASE sign up and Play in the First Annual SHAWN M. DUMONT GOLF CLASSIC. Shawn’s father and uncle both served the city has outstanding Police Officers and Shawn’s family and friends want to establish a scholarship at the Greater Lowell Tech. School in Shawn’s memory.
Monday, August 15 · 8:00am – 11:00am
The Golf Classic day begins with registration at 8:00 a.m., followed by a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. The cost to participate in this Classic is $600 per foursome or $150 per player, which includes green fees, cart, steak and chicken dinner, and various refreshments and prizes.
Without having to step out onto the course, you can still support the Shawn M. Dumont Scholarship through a direct donation or sponsorship. email Mike/Chris at dumontgolfclassic@comcast.net,
You may also purchase tickets for the lunch portion of the tournament at the cost of $50 per person or donate a prize to be used in our raffle.Player spots are limited. To make your reservations or donations, email Mike/Chris at dumontgolfclassic@comcast.net, or call Mike at 978-937-0725.
Onto the Political Column…
It opens up with a question Will more Tully-case dominoes fall? and speculates on the identity of the co-conspirator 1 who was mentioned 13 times in the Federal document detailing one charge of wire fraud against former State Senator / City Manager Joe Tully.
The Sun talks about the Dracut Police Drug Investigation and the re-action / actions of Officer Lenny Wagner’s gal pal, Cheryl Manahan, appeared at this week’s selectmen’s meeting to publicly call out Selectmen John Zimini and George Malliaros for rushing to judgment against Wagner and Dubois. She also attacked Selectmen Bob Cox and Cathy Richardson for remaining silent on the issue during public meetings and talks about this women’s treatment of a Sun reporter during this past election night.
The column mentions that School Committee candidate Robert Gignac has announced he will not accept the $6,000 annual stipend if elected to the committee but also mentions that by law he cannot. Gignac, 22, works fulltime for the city as an accountant at the Career Center The state’s Conflict of Interest Law, Chapter 268A, Section 20, prohibits a public employee from collecting two paychecks from the same city or town.
A rumor that has been floating around all spring (with very little proof to back it up) hits the column this week. That being City Council candidate John MacDonald is City Manager Bernie Lynch’s man in the race. Apparently perennial Council candidate Fred Doyle informed the SUN that “he is watching closely to see if Lynch shows any preferential treatment to MacDonald.”
The column mentions that another council challenger Van Pech was appointed Tuesday night to the Cultural Council. No present councilors or Mr. Doyle seem to object to that appointment.
Only a few other items…
Neither Incumbent Mike Lenzi or Dave LaFerriere of the Greater Lowell Technical School Committee have pulled papers to run for re-election yet.
City Councilor Kevin Broderick pulled his papers this week.
Shaw Farms has an antique car show every Thursday Night at the Ice Cream Stand and next week Saturday Morning Live broadcast from the Car Show at Veteran’s Park in Dracut where over 100 cars will be featured. I was there last year and it is a great event to raise some funds for the continuing improvement at that beautiful park. The Radio show Broadcast from 6:00 – 10 AM and I believe this year the Car Show will open at 8:00 or 9:00 but listen to WCAP this week for all the information.
The July edition of the Valley Patriot is out on news stands and in my monthly column I rank the incumbents and contenders in the City Council, School Committee and Greater Lowell Tech races has if they were boxers in “The FIGHTER”. Pick up a copy at your local Market Basket or other fine retailer in the area. Here’s my review of the GLRVTHS race:
Greater Lowell Technical – Incumbents
Mike Lenzi – Heavyweight, Job is his has long as he wants it. Well known and well liked
Dave LaFerriere – Junior/lightweight, aging fighter who has gotten knocked down but gets right back up. Does he have one more fight left?
Challenger: Erik Gitschier – Novice – Trained under Fred Bahou and is his protégée. Hard worker who could surprise and defeat a veteran or lose in his first solo bout has his mentor did.
We are planning to vote for Gitschier for sure. We know him and we like what we see. We have never liked Laferriere and will not vote for him. McDonald will not get my vote because his robo calls came at a very bad time while I was on some serious pain meds and it hurt just to move
As for the library situation. I do not think the Manager is getting the message. A few of the librarians at the Lowell Library have gone where no truly professional person should go. Almost everyone I have talked to thinks they should be severely disciplined or terminated. As RIN said in an earlier post , no one took the assistants seriously last December. I bet if they were the ones posting those im’s they would have been fired quickly . I wonder if the Director has spoken to the 2 women and what she said to them.
The City Manager actually tried to defend these women in his comments to the paper by saying “most people see this as bad, but still humor.” You bet your a$$ he’d have IMMEDIATELY suspended Cloutier if she had made the same comments about the two librarians on “his side” of the library issues.
Yet another example of a so-called “professional Manager” acting no different than his predecessor, except this time its a different GOB network in power.
I eagerly await Jack’s defense ofthe Manager’s practices in this case.
Rin – I just remembered something. Way back in April there was a meeting where Rita was waving around what she said were emails and were way out of line. Not sure when they were sent – but if they were from the same 2 women, that makes it even worse. .
Notice how RIN randomly assigns what the CM would do. Not that RIN would be trying to poison the well for Lynch or anything. It’s a hoot how RIN just states an opinion as a matter of fact. RIN should go to Vegas. Stating the vague with such certitude is the sign of a real bluff artist.
Not sure how I was appointed the CM’s public defender. Oh wait! I wasn’t. That’s another lame rhetorical device conjured by RIN.
As Lowellian’s deal with real world problems, I wonder how they will find time to bother themselves with bickering Librarians. In these days of statewide municipal austerity, there is likley no shortage of quality staff for a few Library positions. Let the chips fall where they may.
126 words Jack (I counted RIN and CM as only one word every) and not one of them addresses my point or Elizabeth’s; the City Manager is quick to mete out justice to the Weight Measurer’s of the world, but very slow when it’s his defenders, as these librarians are. Just a bunch of talking point mumbo jumbo, no doubt practiced in your partisan activist get-togethers. When the facts don’t back you up, just change the subject and belittle the opposition.
Should Elizabeth and I take it that since you refuse to defend the CM on this issue, that even a “fair minded” person like yourself knows we are right in stating he’s playing favorites here, and is really no better than John Cox and those who you and your LiL cronies are quick to criticize? Come on Jack, stick to the topic at hand for once. Either defend the Manager on this issue or call him out as being a hypocrite. Show us your intelligently reasoned logic for once instead of changing the subject with your b.s. attacks on me. You know very well this isn’t about me. It’s about the guy running our city and the way he’s gone off the arrogant deep end.
For several months over the past year, I used the Pollard Memorial Library daily, but stopped due to the rude behavior of various staff members (not all), unclean conditions, improper use by a few patrons, and lack of access to clean rest room facilities.
About the Pollard Memorial Library:
1. The library employees that work behind the desks are not all librarians. In fact, it’s impossible for the common patron to know who they’re talking to when they approach the desks.
2. Many Pollard Memorial Library employees are unhappy, for whatever reasons. What transpired last week is the tip of the iceberg, and a manifestation of the myriad of internal problems that exist. Morale is terrible and it’s reflected in the poor attitudes of many of the employees. Often its the patrons who feel the wrath of whatever is troubling an employee on a day to day basis.
3. The issue of sex offenders hasn’t been resolved. On any given day, a teen from the High School can walk by computers that display porn. This must be stopped.
4. Library employees need customer service training, as several act inappropriately towards, and make inappropriate remarks to, patrons when asked for help or service. Sometimes when you approach a desk, the employee just stares blankly. I’ve never been addressed with the words “Can I help you?” at the library. Once I approached a desk and the employee said, “I can see you need the bathroom key.”
5. The Library is often dirty, and needs at least one full time janitor. There was a wood table that I’d use daily that had sticky goo (candy). On the fouth day, I brought some wet wipes and cleaned the table. Imagine how much of a hit a person’s self esteem takes when met constantly with conditions like this. This is the mindset that each library employee must begin to embrace.
6 Books are often left in piles on tables or shelves for days, while library staff stand behind the desks often with nothing to do.
6. The Director of the facility seems unable to implement policies and procedures that would help improve the performance of the staff.
7. Library employees seem to feel “bulletproof” because of the power of the unions. “It’s not my jobitis.” is rampant. My sense is that this attitude is at the root of much of the inappropriate behavior that has finally become visible to the public. But again, what you’re seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.
I’m writing this because the people of Lowell deserve better service than they’re getting at the Pollard Memorial Library. Yes, Lowell is a City … yes, the environment is urban. But, dealing with patrons as if everyone is a suspect; chasing someone who is taking a newspaper from one froor to another and saying, “Well, too many of them get stolen” isn’t the way to behave with patrons. I once remarked to one employee who snarled as I approached, “You should smile and give a proper greeting when people approach you.” Her response, “I don’t think so.”
Many people who use the library are doing so because they don’t have necessities afforded by the facility at home or otherwise available to them. Yes, many Lowell residents are struggling … this is true historically. But this is not an excuse to take out the worlds problems on the people who need to use the facility. Everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, except for the very few who are rabble rousers and porn users.
RIN,
You belittle the readers of this blog, as you twist logic, assign motivation and ply emotions using false equivalencies. You hastliy cobble together witty banter, to distract from the obvious, that your blame compass always points to arbitrarlily at your whim. Yet you lecture us as if you are some stweard of the public trust.
It is tedious that you persist in talk of Cox. It seems that you and your ilk wish to practice a confused brand of deja vu-doo, constantly relitigating the past. Do you wish to stir tribal allegiances?
Since we are talking tribes, it is more likely that Lynch works for an old Lowell tribe that existed as a subordinate under Cox/Tully. (Cox/Tully – Courtesy of the Lowell Shallot’s crony map) It is not likely that Lynch commands his own horde.
So, as we now wage a proxy war, pitting current manager against the ghosts of CM’s past, let’s drop the pretense of trivial concerns and ask, what is the end game?
The move is to rid the Council of “rubber stamps” and then send Lynch packing, correct?
Who’s next, RIN? I’m thinking Pangy.
PS. I’m still trying to figure the Lynch-MacDonald connection. I think that is a farce.
(Tap, tap, tap the pencil on the desk) Still waiting for the wisdom of Jack Mitchell on the issue at hand. You are great at blaming me and others who don’t agree with you. But we’re not the issue. Your continued non-response tells us even more about your legitimacy as a non-partisan on local issues.
RIN, I am not blaming others. Who’s skirt are you trying to hide behind? You have accused me of being a liberal partisan, bent on turning Lowell into Cambridge. Why won’t you play the game you started?
You don’t care about the Library. You care about portraying Lynch as ineffective and arrogant. You are using rhetoric, by conjuring visions of “professional” and “transparent,” that set Lynch high on a pedestal; just so you can snipe at him and knock him down. You deploy the old “perfect being the enemy of the good” cliche.
Tap your pencil until your fingers get raw. It is a distraction and a faint. Your ultimate and only goal is to set Lowell on a backwards course. You mean to allow your allies to feast on the table set by Lowell’s taxpayers. Your conservative ideals end when your pals come calling.
I repeat:
The move is to rid the Council of “rubber stamps” and then send Lynch packing, correct?
Who’s next, RIN? I’m thinking Pangy.
Everyone reading knows you have a dog in this fight. That is why you stay anonymous, so as to confuse us as to who, exactly, you are shilling for. You continually state that I, and some of my associates, shill for Lynch. Yet, I have repeatedly blogged that Lynch matters little to me, so long as the MO of running the city is maintained.
Come out from behind the skirt, RIN. Who is your boy?!
I’m not the one who declared the Manager professional and his administration transparent. He himself did that and his sycophants repeat the refrain as often as possible.
The other thing they do? What you’re doing now. Refusing to criticize him when he deserves it. You’re no different than his rubber stamps on the council, turning a blind eye when he is OBVIOUSLY in the wrong. You will dance around any topic that makes the manager look bad, because ultimately you don’t have the intellectual integrity to call a spade a spade. Nobody needs to know my identity to know that you’re a complete and utter fraud, preaching to the blogging community like some impartial intellectual, when in essence you’re nothing more than what Gerry called you out for months ago. A political activist using your money and your PAC to promote your agenda. The only shill in this thread is you.
Yes, I collaborate with other Lowellians in a PAC. It is called Move Lowell Forward Our agenda is spelled out on our website. On Thursday, July 21st, you can join us to learn more:
MLF PAC Open Meeting and Member Drive, Jul 21 7PM
Lowell Art and Design Center
256 Market St, Lowell (across from the Brush Gallery)
Gerry does not support PACs, but he did attend our last public event. You can too.
RIN, does your group have a website? Or does your crew hatch it’s agenda in the dirty, shadowy crevices of the city. Do you use a password or need to wear a mask to attend?
Funny, ain’t it. Lowellians don’t have to like MLF or be part of it. But those that are part of it, don’t have to hide themselves. They stand next to and stand up for the work that we do. We believe in our “agenda” enough to put our names and faces to it. That counts for something, whoever you are.
I don’t hold meetings. I ask people questions and hope they give honest answers instead of diverting the subject. Wake me when you can bring yourself to give an honest opinion of the City Manager’s actions or lack thereof in this particular case. Or do you have to ask Lynne what to say first?
Have a great day!
Gee, I think that RIN may be in error in suggesting MLF is Jack Mitchell’s PAC. The PAC belongs to a number of people, and as Jack said earlier, ALL are welcome to come out to our public meeting on Thursday.
Move Lowell Forward is a group of folks with an interest limited to Lowell (and those non-partisan things that attach to Lowell). There is a reason for the limitation and it is the fundamental differences amongst the group once the discussion leaves the level of the City.
I hope RIN will come up and greet me Thursday evening, at 7:00 O’clock, at Lowell Art and Design Center, 256 Market St.
The issue about John MacDonald being City Manager Lynch’s man seems strange to me. The City Manager needs FIVE people. And today those FIVE need to be sitting members of the City Council. Whether or not Mr MacDonald has aspirations for higher office is really not a key issue at this time. I would hope he does. We need folks who have played well on the City Council and the School Committee to move up to higher office. Look at our former Mayor, Eileen Donoghue—State Senator (I just wish she had been a Republican, so we can get a better balance in organizing that august body).
Regards — Cliff
This isn’t a thread about PAC’s. It’s a thread about a variety of topics, one of them being the Manager not doing his job and reprimanding his librarians with the same heavy hand he’s used many times in the past to punish those who don’t back him at City Hall.
Your boy Jack has tried to turn this discussion every which way but loose because he can’t bring himself to do the right thing and criticize the Manager for his actions. No matter. At this point, we’ve exposed the man behind the curtain as a partisan member of the Lynch mob, unwilling to call a spade a spade.
So I’ll ask you, as a member of MLF. Is the Manager’s handling of the vendetta against Dianne Cloutier and others who spoke out about the horrible conditions at the Library (George DeLucca did very well in pointing them out impartially) an example of the professional management MLF supposedly promotes?