Mike Hayden withdraw’s Interest

I received this note from former Greater Lowell Tech School Committee member Mike Hayden in regards to the possible opening on the Greater Lowell Tech. Board

Gerry

You can count me out of the running ok , On Friday I sent a email to 14 of the 15 people who will be involved in making the pick stating that I not interested in gaining support for the seat.

I left one person out who I suspected was the rat who sent my original email to the Lowell Sun and it ended up in the column. The fact that the paper did not know about the second email confirms my my thoughts of who the rat was.

Secondly the amount of negative talk and blogging on my interest was enough for me to realize that my family and I do not need this negativity in our lives. I spent 16 great years on that board and I am proud of it and that is how I want to remember it. My political days are over.

Mike

Let the Jockeying Officially begin !

According to the Breaking News Section of the Sun and reporter Sarah Favot ” Lenzi’s upcoming move to Dracut will open GL Tech Committee seat”

She states ” The mortgage of the property at 7 Brianna Way, was signed Tuesday by Lenzi and his wife, Sandra, according to documents filed with the Middlesex Registry of Deeds.
Lenzi also filed a Declaration of Homestead for Homes Owned by Natural Persons with the secretary of state’s office, which states the home will be occupied as the owner’s principal residence.”

So according to the Technical School Charter, the combined Lowell City Council / School Committee (15) will select 1 person to fill the seat ONLY until next year’s municipal election at which time someone would have to run to fill the remaining 1 year left on the term.

Already names being floated (but not all have confirmed an interest) are: Mike Hayden – Ralph Hogan – Dave Laferriere – Paul Belley – Cliff Krieger – Ray Boutin – and probably a few more.

Let the jockeying Officially begin !

Big Brother watching and fining you, at what age do we teach students about Plan E?

I was intrigued by two School Committee motions on tonight’s School Committee Agenda.

The first would involve placing camera’s on School Buses to catch drivers who pass when the busses are stopped with flashing lights and sending them a fine. A third Party Company Smart Bus Live would place the camera’s and collect the $$. They would get a share and the state,city would get a share. The motion is sponsored by Dave Conway.

[by David Conway]: To be recorded in support of house bill no. 3817, and further explore the creation of a pilot program with Smart Bus Live for the installation of surveillance cameras on buses to track and penalize motor vehicle moving violations.

While I realize that it is a danger and I get furious when I see people passing stopped school buses, I’m not sure we should ticket a car based on a video. We do that now I believe when people jump the toll booth but when do we stop? Why not set up camera’s and fine people who run stop signs, make illegal right turns or jaywalk? I know we are in the technology age and camera’s are everywhere but I’m not a proponent of this one.

The other motion involves the city running a Civic Day for the Elementary schools by Kim Scott:

[by Kim Scott]:Request the Superintendent report on the feasibility and price for our elementary students to attend a civics day field trip. The day should include a visit to Lowell city hall, the library, the police and fire departments, and a discussion on municipal voting and our plan E charter. Also, to be included in the report would be the pricing for a field trip to tour the state house for our middle school students.

While I like the concept of having a city sponsored Civic Day, I’m thinking that elementary school kids isn’t the right target for this. I’d think an 8th grade and then again at 11th grade Civic Day would be better.

Give the students who will be entering High School some basic lessons on their city, where City Hall is and what it does, talk with the police and fire and show them where the Library is. It could also include a brief overview of Plan E and the importance of voting and explain the voting process of municipal elections versus state and federal elections.

Then do it again when they are juniors and are a year or two away from being able to vote and give them a much more detailed view of plan E and include the State delegation and Congress person to provide an overview of their roles and the importance regardless of party affiliation of voting.

What are your thoughts on this?

School Tour Highlights need of Capital Plan for Schools

Last Friday I tagged along with the combined School Committee /City Council Facilities Sub-Committee to tour the Reilly, Robinson and Lowell High School. The idea was for City Councilors to see first hand the issues in these (and all) schools regarding repairs and maintenance issues. It was also an oppertunity to see first hand the benefit of the AMERESCO project at the Reilly School.

The committee consisted of Co-Chairs Jim Leary and Ed Kennedy along with School Committee members Kristin Ross Sitcawich and Bob Gignac and City Councilors Kevin Broderick and Joe Mendonca. I was pleased that Supt. of Schools Jean Franco, Deputy Supt. Jay Lang ,School Facility Manager Brian Curley, Mayor Patrick Murphy, City Councilor Marty Lorrey, City Manager Bernie Lynch and Asst. City Manager Tom Moses, Sun reporter Sarah Favot and ace photographer Bob Whitaker also attended.

We started at the Reilly School which when I pulled up, realized that all the windows in the front and cafeteria had been replaced and the building itself from the outside looked wonderful. For many years previous, you couldn’t see in or out of these windows and the draft inside from the outside was measurable. We met in the Library where Manager Lynch passed out an information packet that highlighted some of the man hours the city has spent on school maintenance issues and on Capital Projects including:

In FY 2010 the City Completed 1,317 school work orders
In FY 2011 the City Completed 1,222 school work orders
In FY 2012 to date the City Completed 1,379 school work orders
Between July of 2011 and May 9 2012 the DPW completed 23 bubblers work orders.
Between January 2007 and July 1 2011 the DPW completed 36,838 hours of straight time and 1036 hours of overtime on schools (Approx. 8,416 hours)
Gas Pipe kitchen replacements at the Wang and Lincoln Schools
Construction of the LHS MIS Computer Room
Replaced the Generator at the Stoklosa School ($95,000)
Approx. 11 million dollars of the 21 million dollar AMERESCO project will be spent in Lowell Schools

However as we walked around the Reilly we saw many bathrooms with urinals and toilets wrapped in plastic and unusable, water leaking, toilets that didn’t fully flush and one bathroom where the odor of urine was disgusting and the custodian explained that was after many many attempts at removing the smell.

AT the Robinson we saw a board placed over a spot where a truck had hit the building 6 years ago that had not been fixed. A wall in the Cafeatorium that was installed in 1969 when the building was opened that was filthy and had never been replaced, bathrooms with leaks, open electrical boxes, broken doors on stalls,,bent stalls, outside doors in need of weather stripping, windows you can’t see out of that the seals have been broken and lockers without handles.

At Lowell High doors that had no handle, stained ceiling tiles, broken windows, rust in bathrooms, water stained carpets and heaters in the feildhouse that haven’t worked in a few years.

The city in the past few years had been under tough fiscal times and has allowed many of these school buildings to get run down. Most schools haven’t had a coat of new paint in years. There are only so many dollars and so much personal but this city MUST take care of the buildings they own and must provide our students with a safe, clean, maintained building.

The Manager has indicated he has an aggressive capital plan and ideas to work with union 1705, the Greater Lowell tech and Community partners in getting some summer help to work on projects and spend capital on repairs throughout the city.

The school dept. has done an outstanding job in creating a Master List of needed repairs. It is time for the city to spend some capital on our schools.

Is Greek Community lacking someone with Pericles’ Orator skills?

Pericles was a leader of Athens who was responsible for rebuilding Athens following the Persian Wars. He was also leader of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, but he died of the plague that ravaged the city. Pericles was so important that the era in which he lived (during the 5th Century B.C.) is known as the Age of Pericles . For over 20 years, at Athens’ height, the city was dominated by the ‘Olympian’ figure of Pericles. A magnificent orator with a reputation for scrupulous honesty, Pericles deepened and extended the reforms that Cleisthenes had set in motion some 50 years before.

If as speculated the Greek Community is upset with the bust of Pericles not being in the Mayor’s Reception room the question needs to be ask, Has anyone from the Greek Community directly contacted the Mayor or the Mayor’s Office to ask / request / suggest / discuss that the bust be placed back into the room?

Pericles was a great orator, surely we have members of the Greek Community who are gifted speakers and could contact the Mayor or his office to set up a time to meet and discuss this issue.

So I asked the question if in fact the Mayor has been contacted and it appears that the answer is in fact…NO !

The Mayor or his office has not had a call, a concerned citizen stop by or been approached by anyone from the Greek community to address this issue.

So before we come down on the Mayor for not moving the Bust based strictly on the Lowell Sun report, should we not expect a concerned member of the Greek community to talk directly with the Mayor?

Supposedly concerned members are sending a letter to ALL the Council but it leaves the question open as to why the Mayor hasn’t been directly asked? Ironic that no leader of the community will step forward to talk with the Mayor over a bust involving a great leader and orator. Why?

Now a secondary issue could be brought forward and discussed involving once a gift is given to the city with no defined or direct “strings” or stipulations spelled out as to where it will be displayed, can and should the person or group giving the gift be allowed / encouraged to direct the city what to do with that gift?

That right now is a secondary issue, the main issue is:

WHY hasn’t a concerned member of the Greek Community directly contacted the Mayor or his office to arrange a meeting to discuss the issue of the placement of the Bust of Pericles?

Mayors Art project Defeated

Mayor Patrick Murphy is not off to a good start into his Mayoral term. He has alienated the longest serving Councilor(and perennial TOP VOTE getter) Rita Mercier, continues his battle with Councilor Rodney Elliot, is always fighting with the Lowell Sun and now the administration of Manager Lynch is slapping down one of his pet projects

If you recall the Mayor made the following motion with Councilor Nuon.
“Req. Mgr. explore a Percent for the Arts policy and other ways to encourage public art throughout the city.”

The motion passed but the Manager is coming back tomorrow night with this response:(Bold Mine)

“Percent for Art” programs have proven themselves to be effective vehicles for financing public art nationwide in two contexts. Many state governments and some cities have established programs of this nature which require a portion of the construction budget (typically 1% or 0.5%) for public capital projects be used for public art. Under these programs, public facilities ranging from educational buildings to courthouses to wastewater treatment plants incorporate art into their designs in a manner which lends visual interest and/or creative public engagement to projects that might otherwise be bland government facilities.

The Council might also consider establishing a similar guideline for larger municipal capital projects.

GN: Speaking of Cambridge I found this note in their 2012/2013 Budget proposal very Interesting:

In FY13, non-union City and School employees and one settled collective bargaining unit will increase their health insurance contribution percentage from 18% to 20% in exchange for an additional .6% increase in salary over the scheduled 2.5% increase.

In addition, effective September 2011, new non-union City and School employees and employees of some collective bargaining units which have settled have begun to contribute 25% towards their insurance costs.

This Week on City Life

City Life on Comcast Channel 8 from 6 AM until 8 AM (repeated weekday afternoons from 4-6PM)
George Anthes hosts with John McDonough at the controls.

This Week’s Line-Up:

Monday: Everybody’s favorite Bill Taupier

Tuesday: from the Acre Dave Ouellette and the note worthy Jim Peters

Wednesday: Lowell School Committee’s Dave Conway, Regional School Committee’s Fred Bahou and the international traveler Tyngsboro’s Linda Bown

Thursday: Lowell School Department Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Jay Lang, retired school committeeman John Leahy, Chelmsford Host School Committeewoman Evelyn Thoren

Friday: Lowell Cemetery’s Irene Finneral and Dracut Host and member fo the Housing Authority Brian Bond

Saturday: (repeat of Monday) Everybody’s favorite Bill Taupier

Sunday: (repeat of Tuesday) from the Acre Dave Ouellette and the note worthy Jim Peters