City Council

Meeting opens with council recognizing all who participated in last Saturday’s Centralville neighborhood cleanup, especially the more than 100 Lowell High Jr ROTC cadets who participated (40 of whom were present at this meeting). Rita Mercier asks City Clerk Michael Geary to explain procedure for minutes of executive sessions.  Clerk…

Presentation by Lowell National Park Superintendent Celeste Bernardo and Paul Marion, author of Mill Power, a new book about the creation and legacy of the Lowell National Park.  Each councilor has been presented a copy of the book.  Since 1978 Lowell has received $275 million just from the Department of…

Disability commission will now provide close captioning of city council meetings on LTC. Council recesses regular meeting and resumes special meeting to elect a member of the Regional Vocational School Committee to fill the vacancy that occurred when Erik Gitschier resigned after being hired as head of the Lowell Water…

The Irish in Massachusetts A few weeks ago I got a look at the final schedule for this past week’s history conference at UMass Lowell.  Done in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast, “The Irish in Massachusetts: Historical Significance, Lasting Legacy” I saw that the conference would cover history, literature and…

I commend Councilor Rita Mercier on her remarks this evening regarding crime in Lowell.  My notes from the entire meeting are available online but I want to single out Rita’s comments, partly because she and I haven’t shared a lot of common ground on issues, but mostly because she’s right.…

My notes from tonight’s Lowell City Council meeting: Resignation of Erik Gitschier from Greater Lowell Vocational School Committee – City Council trying to schedule a joint meeting with the Lowell School Committee to select his replacement.  Special meeting on October 7, 2014 at 6:30 pm (council will begin its regular…

The City Council and Downtown Instead of travelling to a distant location for a summer vacation I stuck around New England and made short trips to cities like Boston, Salem, and North Adams in Massachusetts, Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine.  Anytime I go to such places I always compare…

City Auditor Report: 2009–2014 Surveillance Spending Report.  Mayor relinquishes chair to Vice Chair Leahy.    Mayor finds many things troubling including that names of investigative subjects were blacked out on original invoices.  This should be investigated.  Says the city should have a list of people who were followed.  Also dismayed that…

At the Lowell City Council on Tuesday, July 22, 2014, Mayor Rodney Elliott made a motion requesting the City Manager have the Chief Financial Officer and Superintendent of Schools produce a report regarding the costs incurred to educate newcomer students.  Besides Mayor Elliott, Corey Belanger was the only City Councilor…