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Weekend mornings in downtown Lowell
On Facebook I just noticed a post by Kathleen Marcin of the Downtown (Lowell) Neighborhood Association in which she copies an email she sent to the city manager’s office this morning about the residue of nighttime violence in downtown. While the publicity about it has faded, the late night weekend violence apparently as not. Here’s what Kathleen wrote:
Henri,
I am writing to you about an issue we discussed last week; blood on the sidewalks downtown. I am also copying Councilor Martin and others because I think this may be a topic we can discuss at a Pulic Saftey sub-committee meeting.
As you know last Saturday morning the staff of Brew’d Awakenings arrived to open and found a huge puddle of blood (and a few teeth) in their doorway. They did of course clean the mess so that people did not have to step over it to enter their door.
Today I had calls from 2 business owners on Merrimack St. who asked who they should call about the trail of blood from approx. the front of Finn’s Pub across Merrimack and down John St. (where their employees park). I had nothing to offer them as I have no idea if the city has a resources available for such. I went over there this morning (Saturday, 24 hours later) and the blood is still there. After talking to several residents my understanding is an incident in the early hours of Friday morning led to a person being stabbed which led to the trail of blood being left behind.
It appears there is little that can be done to deter the incidents that lead to blood being left on the sidewalks for business owners to deal with in the morning. I do think this is contributing to an unfriendly environment for business owners; patrons and residents. I know that resources are scarce but I am hoping we might be able to discuss some options for cleaning up after these types of things occur.
Regards,
Kathleen Marcin
The fire department has biohazard and haz-mat decontamination materials available and a written procedure in place for these incidents. The ambulance company and hospital have the means to properly dispose of biohazards. This is supposed to be done immediately at the scene of an emergency incident BUT if no emergency services are called (which happens often when the patient self transports to the hospital), there is no way for anyone to know where the incident took place. While most blood borne pathogens like HIV die very quickly in open air, Hepatitis is one that does not, and can live up to two weeks in certain conditions. Business owners only need to call LFD. That said if they can’t wait and there is an immediate threat they feel they need to handle, a solution of 10 to 1 water and bleach will kill just about anything. The key is to avoid spreading the mess and contaminating yourself, which is a bit harder to do without proper equipment. When in doubt …call.
Thanks for the comment, Jason. It’s too bad we have to worry about such stuff, but since we do, we all want to handle things properly.
Jason,
This is very helpful information and one I’m happy to share with downtown residents, businesses. Thank you.