Rodney Elliot, President Lowell Youth Soccer : According to the Development Services, a paperwork issue seemed to have slipped through the cracks and a “formal comment” requesting the sewer-line extension was not submitted by the City, to the developer. We seem to have continual “paperwork” and “permit” issues in this city.

Adam Baacke Asst. City Manager : I have no recollection or record of stating that this would be taken care of during site plan review as he claims in his letter. I may have been asked at a Council meeting if it was appropriate to discuss the soccer fields in conjunction with the street abandonment vote they took. If so, I may have indicated that it would be more appropriate to explore that during the site plan review or special permit process, but knowing that there are some legal limits to what off-site work the boards can link to a project approval, I highly doubt I would have made or implied any promise that this would have been taken care of.

The City received a significant payment from the developer when the Council approved the sale of a portion of the site where the Walgreens is now being constructed. If the Council feels that this sewer connection is a greater priority than other public infrastructure needs in the City, they could appropriate a portion of the proceeds from this sale for this purpose.

GN: For $27,000 (estimate by Asst. City Manager) the Administration seems willing to incur some bad public relations, upset the Lowell Youth Soccer League and all the parents who have to drive around that construction project ? Why? To get some joy out of tweaking a political opponent? To be able to accuse the LYS President of being in Conflict of Interest? It seems petty that the City would NOT include the sewer hook up especially AFTER the League paid for the Bathrooms in the first place and they city at some points in this High Profile Project seemed willing to do so.

While I appreciate the Asst. City Manager responding to me I want to be CLEAR, this Blog is MY Opinion and while on many occasions I ask questions on issue, on many occasions I do NOT and am NOT obligated to do so. I do ALWAYS welcome and offer space to anyone who wants to respond with their side of the story to anything I post and appreciate the time and effort the Administration has given this blog and will give them FULL Post to get their message /information out if they choose to respond as I will to the LYS President if he so chooses.

While on the Administration, there is a lot of chatter circulating in the city that neither the City Manager nor Mayor attended the wake for Rep. Dave Nangle’s Dad last week. It was also noted that neither attended the Funeral nor was anyone there from the Lowell School Dept. nor Chancellor Meehan or anyone representing U mass Lowell. It may be old-time politics to pay your respects even to people you may not get along with but people still notice and talk when they don’t see someone at these occasions they think should be there.

No one but Rep. Nangle and Chancellor Meehan, the Manager or Mayor know if they contacted Rep. Nangle directly to express their condolences and all may have had legit reasons to not attend. However people talk about what and who they see or don’t see and the chatter is that the perceived snub by the Manager and Mayor especially did not go unnoticed.

There is also talk that the Manager may have been on Vacation this week but if so who was the “Acting Manager” and why wasn’t that on the April 10th Agenda. Usually the Manager notifies the Council and names an “Acting Manager”? I just reviewed the last Council Meeting on LTC and didn’t see this discussed. Did I miss something?

The former Yum-Yum shop on Broadway Road in Dracut is about to get a new Tenant. ALL MIXED UP CAFE will open sometime around June 15th. It will offer salads, sandwiches, Frozen Yogurt and you can find them on Facebook Good Luck to Ryan Rourke and I’ll be posting updates for my friend as the time for the grand opening draws closer. Ryan is a hard working kid and I wish him the best.

In Today’s SUN Jen Myers has a follow up story ion Friday’s Fire and Dave Peaver has a great story about Professional Wrestling and their long ties to Lowell. This on the heels of the passing of Chief Jay Strongbow last week. It brought back memories because my brothers, friends and I were regulars at the WWE events at the Auditorium and became friends with Dean Ho’s girlfriend who travelled with him and Tony Garea (WW TAG Team Champions)! LOL I remember during intermissions the ring would be flooded with kids who would toss each other around and out of the ring. My late brother Paul incited a huge fight by tossing a kid out TWICE and we ended up in a brawl with a group from the highlands…Good Times!

Speaking of the SUN if you missed JMAC and the Bear on WCAP on Friday you missed the Sun Editor announcing that the SUN has hired another Reporter who will be primarily covering Chelmsford (but doing other general assignment reporting). It appears that the SUN is positioning full time reporters again in the various towns and is a good sign the paper intends on sticking around despite those who refer to it as the BLOG OF RECORD or this dead tree rag that tries to claw for survival.

I may not always agree with the editor or may think that sometimes the stories are slanted or biased but I grew up with the Local Paper and Local radio and think both have a huge and important role in the city so I am glad to see a staff increase after recent decreases.

Robinson Middle School Legacy Wall Project
Come share your fondest memories, reunite with old friends and help us design the schools legacy wall by creating your own legacy tile.

Legacy Wall
C/O Robinson School
110 June St., Lowell, MA