The Lowell City Council had a busy meeting on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. Funding the Lowell High construction and renovation project was foremost among the items discussed. Last month, the council rejected a proposed loan order of $39 million to pay the increased costs of the project. Now, the city administration brought a revised loan order for $36 million to the council, which passed it this time by a vote of nine to one with one abstaining.

For a spending vote to pass requires the support of two-thirds of councilors. With eleven members, that means eight votes are required regardless of how many councilors are present and able to vote. On the night of the December vote, two councilors were absent and two, Erik Gitschier and John Descoteaux, voted against it, which left only seven in favor which caused the vote to fail.

This time, both Descoteaux and Gitschier voted for it, while Councilor Corey Robinson, who was absent for the December meeting, voted no.  While all eleven councilors were present, newly elected Councilor Sean McDonough is an employee of the Lowell School Department and therefore abstained from participating in this matter, leaving just ten councilors to vote. Still, nine voted in favor so the measure passed.

Which is not to say that councilors were happy with having to vote on this in the first place. A big issue looming over Tuesday’s vote was the possibility that even more money will be needed.

As recently reported by the Lowell Sun, as renovation work commenced last month in the 1892 building, contractors uncovered potential problems with the structural steel that may need remediation. Tuesday, councilors pressed representatives of the contractors for more details, but the engineers are still analyzing and investigating the situation and won’t have conclusions to share for at least another week. Any additional work may be covered by the existing contingency fund, or it may require more money, but that won’t be known for a while.

Councilors are loathe to take spending votes such as this one, so they were inclined to send this order back to the city manager until the cost of any additional work is determined and then bundle it with this $36 million so the council need only vote on one more loan authorization.

The problem with that, as explained by CFO Conor Baldwin, is cash flow. Given the time required to take up a loan order, a multi-week delay in new borrowing risks the project running out of money before the new loan proceeds become available. That would cause work to halt, further delay the schedule, and likely increase costs. Given that reality, councilors, after vowing to not vote for any further borrowing, passed this measure.

Anyone who has ever done a home renovation knows that more often than not unexpected costs arise after the project commences. The older the original structure is, the more likely this is to happen and the more costly the issues are to correct. Consequently, it should not come as a surprise that this project is costing more than was originally anticipated.

However, due to unique circumstances, the timing of the discovery of these anticipated costs is more important here than in a typical renovation project. That is because of the state reimbursement process.

When the Massachusetts School Building Authority authorized the city of Lowell to commence this project, it came with the expectation that the state would reimburse the city for 80 percent of the cost with city taxpayers covering the remaining 20 percent. As City Manager Tom Golden explained on Tuesday, the reimbursement rate is more like 60/40. Still, 60 percent of a $400 million project is a lot of money.

Under MSBA rules, once the initial project budget is established, so is the amount subject to reimbursement. If additional costs arise, they are not eligible for reimbursement, and the city must cover them entirely. There are rare exceptions to that rule and Lowell has already benefitted from one when the cost of the project escalated due to Covid-related inflation for building materials. Our late State Senator Ed Kennedy prevailed upon MSBA to recognize that increase as something entirely out of the city’s control and that increase was deemed reimbursable. With this second tranche of additional costs, the city is seeking a third bite of the reimbursement apple, but the prospects of success are slim.

Because of this MSBA reimbursement ecosystem, the importance of identifying any unexpected complications in advance and incorporating them into the initial project budget was far greater than it would have been had the city been responsible for the full cost of the project from the start.

Which is not to say that anyone did anything wrong or did anything negligently. Those are complicated legal questions that are not easily or productively resolved at this point. Obsessing on those issues now risks further delays so it would be best for all to stay focused on getting the project completed.

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A motion by Councilor Sean McDonough requesting the “City Manager have the appropriate department take any necessary steps to provide a report to the council on ICE operations in the City of Lowell over the last 18 months including: who has been arrested; where are they being detained; how many immigration related arrests have been made in Lowell; any cooperation, or requests for cooperation, between ICE and the Lowell Police Department” generated an interesting discussion.

Coincidentally, Tuesday’s council meeting coincided with the first anniversary of the start of Donald Trump’s current term as president which prompted hundreds of protests across the United States – including one in Lowell – in opposition to the aggressive nationwide immigration crackdown but especially in Minneapolis where US citizens have been detained and two have been shot dead by federal officers.

The Lowell protest took place at City Hall at the start of the council meeting. Several participants remained to speak on Councilor McDonough’s motion.

Although the motion passed unanimously, many councilors expressed misgivings about it, arguing that the Lowell Superintendent of Police previously came before the council and explained that the department’s policy is to not aid federal immigration enforcement activities in the city.

The Lowell Police Department’s policy regarding ICE was set out in a memo dated February 3, 2025. Here are the relevant portions:

The Lowell Police Department recognizes and values the diversity of the community it serves. The enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws is a primary responsibility of the federal government and not the Lowell Police Department. A person’s right to request assistance, file a police report, participate in police-community activities, or otherwise benefit from general police services is not contingent upon the individual providing proof of citizenship or documented immigration status. Officers do not routinely question any person about his or her specific citizenship or immigration status when responding to that person’s request for assistance.

The Lowell Police Department cooperates and assists with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) when formally requested, as we do with all our law enforcement partners such as local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies (FBI, DEA, etc.). Our officers are also bound by law to make arrests when a judicially issued federal arrest warrant exists for an individual and where a potential threat to public safety or national security is perceived.

I found the argument that the policy has already been set to be disingenuous. Much has changed since that policy was announced. A year ago, the city of Lowell proudly proclaimed its commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), yet the moment that embrace jeopardized federal funding, the commitment to DEI was airbrushed out of all city documents. That behavior by the city invites questions about what else has changed over the past year. Given the fear that permeates our community – Councilor Vesna Nuon explained that his college-age nephew, a natural born US citizen, worries about walking or riding Ubers out of fear that he’ll be snatched off the street by ICE, a concern echoed by Council Sidney Liang who said it brought flashbacks to the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia – reassuring the community that the city is still committed to the policy set out a year ago seems not only reasonable, but important to do.

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This week in volume 3 of my Seen & Heard column, I review the 2024 movie Saturday Night; the 2025 book Bread of Angels by Patti Smith; a podcast about private equity; the Patriots v Texans telecast; and several other things. Please check out this installment and future ones which are posted each Wednesday.

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Immigration is a big issue in Lowell today as it has been since the city’s founding 200 years ago. In recognition of this bicentennial year, Maritza Grooms and Bob Forrant hosted me on the latest episode of “History in Lowell,” their Lowell History telecast produced at LTC. In this 30-minute episode, I covered the origins of Lowell, the city’s long decline, its rebirth, and the importance of immigrants to Lowell throughout this time. The program is freely available on YouTube, so please check it out and, while you are there, subscribe to the History In Lowell channel to receive notice of upcoming episodes.