July 9, 2011

Ms. Kimberly D. Bose
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20426

Re: Hydroelectric Project (FERC No. 2790-055: “Draft Environmental Assessment for a Non-Capacity Related Amendment to License”, Lowell Massachusetts.

Ms. Bose:
During the past nine (9) months the FERC has deliberated on this application by Enel Corporation and has now published a draft of its final report. This report, among other things, covers some opinions of what the Enel company believes are historically insignificant. This letter I am presenting now is in opposition to Enel’s attitude, and is in conjunction with the other formal responses from the historic community. I am not under the impression the world is waiting on my contribution, or my opinion, into Enel’s intrusion of the historic Pawtucket Falls Dam. There are more qualified and more gifted who have already made comment. But, having the advantage of age, and still capable of writing, I believe I should add in some way. I choose to reflect on the City of Lowell’s opportunity to build, maintain and project its historical significant properties. Every city in this country has an image and profile they value and most of these cities cherish their history. Every city in this country has limitations and ability to finance a plan and desire to develop and maintain that image. Lowell is no exception.

Anyone growing up in and around Boston knows the value of history to a city. You can not walk from one end of downtown Boston over to some of the neighborhoods without seeing buildings that seem to be ageless. Buildings that were there for Paul Revere to visit. Streets that defy change and challenge “progress”. These neighborhoods are magnets to those with financial standing. Neighborhoods like the North End, Charlestown, parts of the South End and Cambridge remain the most sought after addresses.

Visitors come to Boston expecting a link to history and are not disappointed. Visitors line-up to visit Fenway Park a 100 year old park that functionally is not comparable to some of the better minor league baseball parks in America. But still they come. In the 1950s the North End and the West End of Boston were aging similar neighborhoods. In the 1950s the North End was not considered for rehabilitation because there were more desirable sections (West End) of the city that could be developed. In the 60 years that have past since those days; the North End remains on the freedom trail and the West End remains in the archives at the Boston Public Library. The North End was, is and will continue to be the cultural flagship of Boston.

There is no doubt the City of Boston has found a delicate balance between the growth of “sky scrapers” and the preservation of its heritage. Lowell, a much smaller city, is a reflection of Boston. It to has a heritage it chooses to keep and honor. It to is struggling to balance growth and keep its assets. In comparison, Boston has what Lowell does not have. It has scale. But then again, Lowell has what Boston will never have. Lowell has the Merrimack River, the Pawtucket Falls Dam, the National Historic Park and many buildings remaining from the days of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Paul Revere did not ride down Merrimack Street yelling “the Brits are coming” while the historians in the background recorded his contribution to this country. And neither did he help dig the canals or develop the machines that made Lowell the great innovator the rest of the world had to copy. This, in essence, is Lowell’s contribution to the Commonwealth, to the country, and to the world. And all of this we are willing to sacrifice for a pittance.

John A Nappi Sr / Activists
I remain committed to stop this foolishness

LOWELL CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR MEETING
TUESDAY JULY 12, 2011
TIME 6:30 PM

CITY CLERK
1. Minutes of June 28th for acceptance.

GENERAL PUBLIC HEARINGS (Scheduled for 7PM)
2. Ordinance-Chapter 266, Vehicles & Traffic, Quarterly Ordinance.

UTILITY PUBLIC HEARINGS (Scheduled for 7PM)
3. National Grid to place 1 pole Broadway St.

CITY MANAGER
4. Communication-From City Manager, responses to Council Motions/Requests.
5. Communication-From City Manager, request approval of Out of State Travel.
6. Communication-From City Manager, appointments to Cultural Council.
7. Order-Dedicate corner Pine/Florence Ave. as Charles H. Cummings Memorial.
8. Order-60 Day Trial, Traffic Regulations, Various locations.
9. Order-Amend Order of Abandonment of Border St.
10. Vote-Accept gift $5,000 from Joann Weber Charitable Fund.
11. Vote-Apply/accept/expend grant FY12 State Formula Grant, COA use.
12. Vote-License Agreement w/Village Smokehouse 98 Middle St. sidewalk seating.
13. Vote-Year End Transfer $622,349.00
14. Ordinance-Amending Fee Schedule, Sealer of Weights/Measures Permits etc.

REPORTS (Sub/Committee, if any)
15.Economic Development Sub/Committee report re: Hamilton Canal Development.
16.Youth Services Sub/Committee report re:Communities That Care Survey Presentation etc.
17.Wire Insp.-Report of National Grid Pole Locations Perry St. & Parker St. and National Grid/Comcast conduit location Lewis St.

GENERAL PETITIONS
18. Misc.-Elia Ortiz 57 O’Brien Terr. Request Handicap Sign.

UTILITY PETITIONS
19. National Grid-20 ft conduit in Columbia St.

MOTIONS

20. C. Caulfield-Req. Mgr., regardless of funding sources, find ways/means to keep city pools open all season.

21. C. Murphy-Req. Mgr. report on potential use of New Urban Mechanics approach to improve reporting of municipal issues etc.

23. C. Murphy-Req. Mgr. develop Smarter Cities Grant proposal for LowellStat work with public safety depts. on more effective systems to support emergency response and prevention efforts.

24. C. Murphy-Req. Mgr. report on progress in making procurement decisions consistent with Local & Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy.

25. C. Descoteaux-Req. Mgr. report on feasibility of using Online Municipal Auctions as part of sustainability strategy.

School Committee member Alison Laraba has pulled her nominations papers to run for re-election.

Those that have turned in the required signatures besides Rita Mercier and John MacDonald are

Rodney Elliot – Armand Mercier and John Leahy along with Fredrick Wanjiku.

IF all 8 councilors and all but 1 of the candidates who has pulled papers returns them we will indeed have a Preliminary election to eliminate 1 candidate.

I emailed Marty Lorrey, Paul Belley, John MacDonald, John Leahy, Van Pech and Armand Mercier asking them Will you accept PAC money and or endorsements and advertising? Only Paul Belley responded:

Hi Gerry
I was not endorsed by the Lowell Sun or Move Lowell Forward 2 years ago and still managed a pretty good 12th place showing. Some of the challengers endorsed by both finished well behind me, so I don’t feel endorsements are all that important. I will not accept money from any PAC or advertisement from a PAC. My campaign is about looking after the middle class working man and woman and not special interest’s and not be beholding to any one group. The only group I care about are the residents of the City of Lowell.

Paul N. Belley
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Financial Filings for Council Candidates as of July 1 finds the following candidates with the $$$

Rodney Elliott – $7,692.22
Rita M. Mercier – $7,659.58
Martin Lorrey – $6,354.31
Kevin P. Broderick – $5,070.02
John A. MacDonald – $5,051.18
Bill Martin – $5,035.44
John Leahy – $3,328.75
Armand P. Mercier – $3,212.66
Paul Belley – $2,573.10
Franky Descoteaux – $789.55
Joseph M. Mendonca – $780.25
James L. Milinazzo – $731.32
Patrick Murphy – $119.41
Frederick Doyle – $11.09
Corey Belanger – $0.00
Edward Kennedy – $0.00

The following “candidates” have NOT filed with the state to date or the state hasn’t posted this information yet: Van Pech, Vesna Nuon, Fredrick Wanjiku, and Robert Merrill.

GN: The Manager responds to today’s Sun Editorial and fellow Bloger Jack Mitchell

Jack,

I’ll take the bait on this one. We’re more than happy to provide information on what vendors we use and how much we spend.

The Sun seems most interested in how much we have spent on Absolute Investigations, a private detective service that the Law Department utilizes in reviewing workers compensation and public safety injured on duty cases in which there is a potential of fraud, or in certain employee disciplinary cases where this is suspicion of wrong doing. We also use the company for pre-employment psychological exams. We have provided documents to the Sun on the amounts that have been paid to this company over the past five years for certain investigations and the psychological examinations. The release of these documents is in accordance with the Public Records law so as to provide overall information but exempting other information such as names, cases, etc which might jeopardize ongoing investigations or violate certain privacy rights. To give some perspective, we have been using the firm since 2009 and have averaged about $22,500 per year for all of these services.

The result of these monies has been finding many suspicions and claims of wrong doing to be unfounded but we have also uncovered fraudulent workers comp claims with resulting disciplinary action and savings in City salary accounts, and employees failing to perform work for which they were paid and/or taking part in certain illegalities with resulting disciplinary actions and savings to the City. In short, this expenditure of funds for investigations has provided savings to the City and hopefully greater sense by the citizenry that the City government wants to uphold the public trust.

The Sun, despite assurances to the contrary, continues to claim that this company was used to investigate former Councilor Kazanjian’s illegal sewer connection on Middlesex Street. This is untrue as such investigation was conducted by law enforcement agencies.

It should also be noted there remain ongoing investigations of several of the matters that have been worked by Absolute Investigations. Obviously, detail on these matters has not been made public to The Sun.

The Sun also notes the “secretive manager’s contingency fund” stating that this account paid for bills for private detective services. Again, untrue on its use and absurd in its characterization. The account is nothing new having been much larger in the past under prior administrations than the current $330,000. And, it is hardly “secretive” as it is clearly delineated in the City’s budget and voted upon by the City Council. In FY11 it has been used as follows:

$15,000 for environmental analysis work at Grand Manor Condominiums
$1,000 for marketing related costs
$6,350 for election equipment
$875 for City Hall portrait restoration work for the 375th Anniversary
$310.94 to LTC for television coverage of meetings outside the LTC contract
$180,000 for veteran’s benefits
$68,372 for Police and Fire injured on duty medical claims
$9,998.84 for Police and Fire medical claims for retired personnel
$42,107.67 for workers comp claims.

This leaves a balance in FY11 of $5,985.45. Almost all of these uses have obtained Council votes of transfer to other line items.

On the matter of the pools in general, we did include funding for the pools in this years budget. This was addressed at the City Council meeting before and during the budget. I believe this was a major accomplishment as other communities across the country have closed pools due to cost. We refused to take such action given the public good that results from such facilities. I’m not sure but I believe the Sun’s reporter was at these meetings and I thought may have reported on this.

In FY11, the City was fortunate to have state anti-gang funds and stimulus money to put towards the summer pool program. Plus, Eastern Bank stepped forward and wanted to contribute to the summer pool program as a community service to insure there was adequate summer recreation opportunities during a very difficult fiscal period. They provided $25,000 and helped raise another $25,000 from businesses and individuals.

This year some of the donors from last year asked if there would be a similar effort for FY12. I will confess that I am always willing to accept donations to the City from community minded businesses and individuals. Based upon the response we did work to set up a mechanism to allow such potential donors to step forward just as we do for the July 4th fireworks, Winterfest, City of Lights, homeless programs, etc. However, it is imperative and to my mind mandatory that there be a separation between the City administration and fundraising so as to avoid any possibility of real or perceived ethical wrongdoing.

Hope this information helps.

Bernie Lynch

Yesterday on City Life, I asked School Committee Candidate Kristin Ross Sitcawich if former Supt. Scott would be an issue in the upcoming race and she said NO, It was time to move ahead and support New Supt. Jean Franco.

So I asked the other 2 challengers the same question: Will Consultants and Supt. Scott be Issues in the School Committee Race?

Here are their replies: Robert Gignac

Hi Gerry,

Thank you for the question.

In regards to whether or not I will be making issues of the consultants and the former Supt-As of right now, I will not be stating these as major issues in my campaign for Lowell School Committee. However, I do have a position on each of the topics.

A few months ago, I spoke with a school administrator and discussed the tremendous progress that has been seen at the Murkland School. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only should the consultants be praised for their work, but each and everyone involved should be recognized as well, including teachers, students, parents, Dr. Scott, the School Committee and everyone else involved in the progress. I support the use of consultants in areas where needed. Consultants are another resource that certain areas in the school district need and are not always provided with.

I will admit my uncertainty towards how matters were handled with Dr. Scott. I am a tremendous supporter of the work she has done here in Lowell. I do not know each and every detail regarding the situation.I do feel the public was not thoroughly informed on the entire situation, which has caused much frustration and confusion. I will state-that I feel transparency is a major issue on the SC. The public should be informed/involved at every level.
Thank you,
Robert J.Gignac

Kim Scott

It is time to move on and show support for Jean Franco. However, I feel that we must look back because there are lessons to be learned. I learned, while serving on the Blue Ribbon Panel, that the position of Superintendent can be quite transient and political. We need to question:

1) How do we evaluate and hold our Superintendent accountable, and do we have a good evaluation system?
2) How is performance measured and directly attributable to our leader?
3) Are we clearly communicating with the public? How is excellent/poor performance relayed?
4) Should we be televising subcommittee meetings and questioning the use of executive session?

The School Committee and the public do not seem to have the same perception about the job done by Dr. Scott and communication must be faulted. As a parent, PTO Member, and City Wide parent Council member I still find myself confused over the sequence of events and the way it was communicated. The voters will decide in November if the correct decision was made by the committee and I will leave that decision to them.

In Today’s Sun there is an editorial regarding the city pools titled City has the money which in part states:

What is City Manager Bernie Lynch trying to pull with the city’s swimming pools? Lynch is raising property taxes for the fifth year in a row in a $300 million annual budget — one in which he gives every city worker a pay raise — yet he is crying poor-mouth over $50,000 to keep the city’s swimming pools open for low-income kids trying to beat the sweltering heat of summer.

Lynch has initiated a fundraising drive, hoping businesses, groups and individuals will send checks to the Lowell Plan, which serves as the city’s holding tank for pool donations.

If Lynch doesn’t get the $50,000, he said the two pools now in operation might be shut down earlier than usual, on Aug. 11. In other words, charity will keep the pools open, and a lack of charity might close them.

On his new expanded (now the whole 7:00 – 8:00 am time slot) Ask the Manager segment on WCAP this morning the Manager took exception to the Editorial. He stated it was the business community that came forward to offer donations and that the City is committed to keeping the pools open and MAYBE using this additional funds to keep them open longer hours or an additional week at summer’s end. He also pointed out that the City nor the Manager solicited the funds until businesses began calling and he asked the Lowell Plan to lead the cause because the City can’t and he is a firm in making sure the city and administration DOESN’T Solicit ANY funding. He stated the city is committed to keeping pools open when other cities throughout the country are closing pools.

In Jenn Myers original article on the fundraising Lowell raising funds to keep pools open the Manager is quoted:

While limited public funding is in place to open two pools through Aug. 11, the city hopes to extend that schedule so Lowellians can stay cool a bit longer this summer.

“Ideally all pools would be open all summer long but the fiscal realities of the last few years have forced us to close a number of them,” said City Manager Bernie Lynch. “This being Lowell, however, individuals and businesses have come forward and offered to help raise funds to keep the pools that are open available as long as possible.”

So it does make it sound like the City needs additional money to keep the pools open longer. I would have to agree with the Sun that if the city has $1.75 million in cash reserves and another $4.2 million in a stabilization account the City should be able to keep the pools open until at least August 19th not August 11th with or without an additional $50,000 in donations.

Has a proud past city pool rat I can speak first hand of the great times I had at McPherson’s Pool. We would get there at 9:00 for swimming lessons or swim team practise (We used to race city wide against the other pools for the City Championship) and would stay at the pool until they closed at 7:00 pm. It was a great place to spend the day with your friends and keep cool.

If you read the whole Editorial you see that the SUN also seems to have their own agenda and it isn’t necessarily the best interest of the kids but rather to use this Editorial to again attack a Manager that the Editor doesn’t like. How else do you explain this section:

He’s also got thousands squirreled away in his secretive manager’s contingency fund that he uses to pay for private-detective investigations, among other things. (The Sun has requested that Lynch release to the public how much tax money he has spent on the investigations, but he has refused. An appeal is before the Secretary of State’s Office.) But somehow Lynch can’t find $50,000 for the city’s kids

With Lowell NOT starting School until the week of Aug. 29th and if the City is committed to the Pools , the additional funding and any needed funding should be used to keep pools open until the 19th of August. After that college age students need to be getting ready for school and those still in High School look forward to a week off before going back to school. A win-win for all.

Use any donated money and any additional city money needed and show the city’s committment by keeping the pools open until the 3rd week in August and show the SUN and citizens that this editorial is all wet!