City Council

Lowell City Council Meeting: October 21, 2014

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…

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Lowell City Council Meeting: October 7, 2014

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…

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Lowell Week in Review: September 28, 2014

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…

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Rita Mercier gets it right

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.…

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Lowell City Council Meeting: September 23, 2014

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…

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Lowell City Council Meeting – August 26, 2014

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…

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Lowell Week in Review: July 27, 2014

Lowell Folk Festival It’s the last weekend in July so the Lowell Folk Festival is upon us.  Walking around downtown yesterday afternoon was a lot of fun.  It wasn’t the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen but it was large enough to prove that the Festival continues to be very popular. …

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