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Following is an excerpt of a 1994 interview (oral history) of M. Brendan Fleming, professor emeritus of UMass Lowell and former mayor and city councilor of Lowell. The interviewer was Maryrose Lane. The full transcription of the oral history is available on the website of the UMass Lowell Center for…
Read More »For the second straight week the Lowell City Council zipped through its meeting tonight, sticking to the agenda and not wandering too far afield on any particular issue (although the buzz on Facebook speculates that as the city election draws closer, the meetings will get lengthier). Old favorites made their…
Read More »In today’s Column blog, the Sun’s Chris Scott writes about the ongoing construction of the Richard Howe Bridge and about the man for whom the structure is named, Richard P. Howe Sr. (who is also my dad). The first few paragraphs of Chris’s post and a link to the full…
Read More »On January 7, 1889, Mayor Charles D. Palmer delivered his inaugural address to the two branches of the City Council (the Common Council and the Board of Aldermen). The Mayor covered many topics in his remarks, from city finances (cash in the treasury as of Dec. 31, 1888: $59,265.27 [a…
Read More »I was late getting home tonight so I missed the first 45 minutes of the Lowell City Council meeting and I was pulled away from the TV shortly after 9 pm, but the portion of the meeting I watched for nearly two hours was quite a change from what I…
Read More »Earlier this evening I visited a UMass Lowell intersession class on Community Psychology as I have for the past four years. It’s always a fun class because the dozen or so students, few of whom are ever from Lowell, have just attended their first-ever Lowell city council meeting the night…
Read More »My level of civic engagement increased substantially this week. On Monday night, I attended a public meeting on the city’s draft Master Plan, Sustainable Lowell 2025, and last night I watched the city council meeting. Well, only the first two and a half hours of the city council meeting. After…
Read More »Congratulations to my dad, Richard P. Howe Sr., who celebrates his 80th birthday today. Elected to the Lowell City Council in 1965 (photo above), he served twenty consecutive terms for a total of 40 years (January 1966 to January 2006). He did not seek re-election in 2005 so his final…
Read More »From this week’s City Council agenda, here are the motions filed for tomorrow evening’s meeting: C. Mercier – Request City Manager outline steps to be taken to reassure Council that new phone lines will function during power outages so as not to interrupt or prevent residents’ emergency calls to police…
Read More »Here are the motions that have been filed for this week’s Lowell City Council meeting: By Councilor Kennedy – Request City Council amend the proposed changes to Section 176, Article 1 (rental property Ordinance) by excluding owner occupied two family properties. By Councilor Mercier – Request the City Manager have…
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