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February 4, 2008
ZBA vote stuns city artist, biz communities
Article Last Updated: 02/03/2008 10:32:55 AM EST
A Sun Staff Report
LOWELL'S ZONING Board of Appeals stunned the city's business and artist communities last week with a vote that seems to run counter to a major city initiative that everyone thought had widespread support.
Voting against developer Karl Frey's proposal to build nearly 50 artist lofts on three Western Avenue properties were ZBA members Vesna Nuon, Corey Belanger, Jack Knox and Kevin Cavanaugh. The lone vote in support came from Bill Bailey.
Some recent history here:
* The City Council voted unanimously last year to extend special zoning to those properties. The objective? Get artists up there.
* The Planning Board also voted unanimously and for the same objective.
* Even the state Department of Housing and Community Development supported the change.
The vote left Frey's lawyer, Jim Flood, scratching his head.
"Needless to say, I was very surprised and very disappointed," said Flood, who has a strong batting average when presenting development plans to city regulatory boards.
Nuon, who served as chairman on this proposal because full-time Chairman Steve Geary stepped down due to a conflict, said the board's vote reflects what neighboring industrial interests wanted.
"Owners of buildings wanted more business and commercial in that area," said Nuon. "Many expressed their disapproval of this."
Nuon said the city's previous actions on the property didn't matter to the ZBA majority. "The ZBA has to be an independent board," he said.
THE ZBA vote triggered a minor dust-up at the following night's City Council meeting.
Councilor Rodney Elliott, concerned the city is squandering a prime development opportunity of old mill buildings, asked City Manager Bernie Lynch for a report on the vote. In Elliott's view, the ZBA should have voted unanimously in favor.
City Councilor Alan Kazanjian, the former ZBA chairman, said he explained the ZBA process to Elliott. Kazanjian also said the ZBA members are concerned about residents living in an industrial zone.
"That's like oil and water," he said.
IS DRACUT School Superintendent Elaine Espindle really not interested in becoming Lowell's next school chief?
The Column suggested that she might be the right fit to replace Karla Brooks Baehr, to which Espindle replied: "Oh, that's funny."
So we asked her point-blank later in the week. Espindle said, "You can't ask me that, it's personal."
Espindle, who replaced Christos Daoulas in 1998, decided not to renew her contract, which expires in June.
She has been a tireless advocate for the construction of a new high school and talk around town is that she might be asked to stay on as a consultant. She initially refused to comment, but when pressed on Thursday's night's NewsTalk Live with Sun Editor Jim Campanini, Espindle said she would love to see the project through to the end.
But would she be able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with her replacement, W. Spencer Mullin? There are those who don't think so.
ESPINDLE IS credited with getting the state School Building Authority to take a good, hard look at Dracut's situation. Her application was one of 19 selected by the SBA for funding consideration. More than 60 school districts applied. Dracut's high school was built in 1957 and underwent a renovation in 1996. While the facility is functional, Espindle and School Committee members say it is ill-equipped to provide the science and technological learning that will be required in the future. "Globalization has changed everything," Espindle said on NewsTalk Live. "Our kids will need to be better prepared educationally than at any time in our nation's history. They deserve to get the tools they need to compete for highly skilled jobs."
School Committee member Nancy Mendonca-Gagnon also appeared on the show. Asked if she thought Espindle would do a good job as a project consultant, Mendonca-Gagnon answered in the affirmative.
THE DEADLINE for applications for Lowell's superintendent search is tomorrow. Assistant Superintendent Susan Mulligan said 18 applications had been received by the end of business on Friday.
School Committee member Jim Leary says the committee should actively recruit candidates past the deadline, or possibly extend it, depending on the number and quality of candidates who apply.
But committee member Regina Faticanti says recruiting "leaves a bad taste in my mouth that I don't want," casting a political pall over the process and making some candidates appear to be the favorites.
School Committee member Connie Martin said she would not be opposed to extending the deadline if it means finding the best person, but she is not wild about the idea of recruiting candidates.
"I don't have anyone in my back pocket that I have been thinking would make a great superintendent," she said. "People coming into this position need to be prepared, excited and enthusiastic. I'd be concerned about someone who has to be convinced."
Martin pointed out that a job as complex as that of Lowell school superintendent does not draw scores of takers.
"You have to hit people at the exact right point of their careers and we will never have 30 to 40 candidates," she said.
FATICANTI SAYS the rest of the committee should have listened to her in the first place.
Last December, she pushed to delay the entire process, including advertising the position until mid-January. Her colleagues disagreed and voted to begin advertising in late December, to prevent missing out on good candidates.
"Now I'm fine with moving ahead with the applicants we have, and I don't want to delay," Faticanti said. "The people who are now saying delay, delay, all disagreed with me asking to wait to post the position. You can't have it both ways, you should have voted with me in December."
THE NAMES of the 12 unknown voting members of the Superintendent Search Committee will be released by Mayor Edward "Bud" Caulfield's office tomorrow.
The committee will be chaired by former Mayor Eileen Donoghue, who does not hold a vote. The one known voting member is former Deputy Superintendent of Schools Ted Rurak.
Names expected to show up on the list include: United Teachers of Lowell President Paul Georges, Lowell Plan Chairman James Conway III, Citywide Parent Council Chairman Anita Downs and Cindy McAndrews of the Special Education Parents Advisory Council.
One local person who will not be a candidate for the superintendent's job is Ann Murphy, the deputy superintendent of student services. After giving it some thought, Murphy said she's staying put.
THE COLUMN has learned that city of Lowell lawyers are on the verge of settling a series of controversial and long-standing lawsuits filed against the city nearly a decade ago. The lawsuits, filed by four employees of a high-profile department, eventually found their way to federal court, where the settlement is being ironed out. If everyone does, however, sign on the dotted line and everything gets resolved, it will be great for the city as whole, the department involved and especially the key players.
STATE REP. Dave Nangle jumped on Kazanjian's bandwagon last week, supporting the idea of moving the Lowell Transitional Living Center from Middlesex Street downtown to the grounds of Tewksbury Hospital. But Nangle was careful not to step on the toes of the dean of the Greater Lowell delegation, state Rep. Jim Miceli.
Nangle said any plan to move the shelter to Tewksbury must have the blessing of the man who has represented Tewksbury since 1977. And considering Miceli's reaction, that is not likely: "I would look askance," he said. "What the city is essentially saying is that we want to pretty up that area, so let's stick this facility in a neighboring town."
NANGLE INTRODUCED House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi at a "Hillary Clinton for President" rally held at Lowell's Shedd Park yesterday morning. Nearly 100 supporters turned out on a sunny, blustery day to hear Mr. Speaker and other legislators back the U.S. senator from New York. DiMasi said leadership is the key, and Hillary has it all over her Democratic rivals. DiMasi joked, "29 years ago, when I was elected to the Statehouse, I said, 'It's time to give a young guy a chance. Twenty-nine years later, I now know 'It's all about experience.' ... Hillary's got the experience to get America back on track." State Reps. Kevin Murphy, Tom Golden, Colleen Garry and Miceli also attended the rally, as did Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steve Panagiotakos.
WAS THAT Hall of Fame Jockey Jerry Bailey in Nangle's Statehouse office Tuesday afternoon? Bailey, who rode the great thoroughbred Cigar to two consecutive Massachusetts Handicap wins, was doing promotional work for Suffolk Downs when he popped in on Nangle for a few words. Saints Medical Center CEO Mike Guley and Saints Foundation President Mike Kuenzler had also stopped by after attending a health-care hearing. Bailey was kind enough to pose for a photo with the Saints executives.
BILLERICA SELECTMEN and their sweethearts now are free to celebrate Valentine's Day. Some members considered holding a special meeting on the Hallmark-generated-day-of-love, to hear a presentation from Dr. Jack Spengler, the town's environmental health consultant on the power-plant project proposed for North Billerica.
"But that's Valentine's Day," echoed Selectman Bob Correnti and Town Manager Rocco Longo (possibly marking the first time they have agreed on anything).
Selectman James O'Donnell did not seem too worried, stating he would celebrate the following night.
"I thought you told me that every day is Valentine's Day at your house," Correnti teased O'Donnell, who warned him not to "go there."
In the end, the romantics won out. Longo was asked by Chairman Mike Rosa to ask Spengler for a Monday night availability.
"I think we are all going to have to go home and explain why we were so quick to sacrifice Valentine's Day," mused Selectman Kathy Matos.
We are sure that O'Donnell's wife, Brenda, left a very comfortable pillow and blanket for him in the doghouse.
WITH LONGO leaving for Marshfield in about a month, selectmen now have to choose an interim manager, who by charter must come from among town officials and employees. The leading contenders are Town Accountant Paul Watson, who held down the fort for five months in 2005 between the tenures of Town Manager Richard Montuori and Longo, and Principal Assessor Rich Scanlon, who unofficially acts as the town's director of economic development. But, don't be surprised if the name of another town department head is thrown into the ring.
But the charter limits the new manager to those with at least five years as a manager elsewhere, precluding anyone in Town Hall from taking the job permanently.
LOWELL NATIVE Kerry Ahern's nearly 14 years as a prosecutor came to end this month when she decided to leave the district attorney's office to stay home with her children. She will be forever be linked in cyberspace with some of the area's biggest criminal cases, including the conviction of Vuthy Seng in the triple murder retrial and suspected serial killer Adam Leroy Lane. Stepping up to fill Ahern's shoes is another Lowell native, Elizabeth Dunigan, daughter of the late Lowell Superior Court Clerk-Magistrate Brian Dunigan.
AYER SELECTMAN Frank Maxant, who has prostate cancer, is taking part in a study for the Veterans Administration.
Instead of a procedure to remove the prostate, the Army veteran is letting them freeze it, a procedure called cryoablation. That way the prostate dies and shrinks, killing the cancer with it. The study is to learn if the body can inoculate itself against cancer by absorbing the dead tissues. He has to travel to a VA hospital in New York City's Bronx for the procedure.
JAY BOOTH'S announcement that he won't run for selectman this year has ripped the Tyngsboro race wide open. So far, Ashley O'Neil appears to be the hungriest candidate.
O'Neil, a 21-year-old senior at Emmanuel College, has already printed bumper stickers, is launching a Web site and has a fundraiser in the works. The political science major is the daughter of Planning Board member Steve O'Neil, a sergeant in the Lowell Police Department and real-estate developer.
The only other confirmed candidate for the town's two, three-year posts is incumbent Rich Lemoine, the board's current chairman. But one possible -- albeit unlikely -- challenger is Fred Perrault, the former selectman and current Finance Committee member, whom Lemoine helped oust from office in 2002.
Perrault said he has been approached by people in town who want him to run although he maintains that the chances he'll actually go for a seat are slim.
THEY MAY be preaching for a united front in the face of a multimillion-dollar deficit, but Tewksbury officials still have some solidifying to do.
During a municipal retreat for selectmen and department heads on Jan. 28, the continuing tensions between some departments were undeniable -- not much of a surprise given that they will be competing for ever-shrinking dollars.
Police Chief Al Donovan was upset that the School Department has submitted a preliminary budget for fiscal 2009 that includes a 10 percent increase. All other departments are cutting from the current budget, he said.
"Every year, it's the same. We get the short end of the stick," Donovan complained.
That drew a testy response from Selectman Anne Marie Stronach.
"Not to sound disrespectful, but that's not what we're here to talk about," she shot back. "We need to get over the 'what they're doing, what we're doing' thing. We as a group have to talk in one voice. If we're not willing to do this, we might just as well go home now."
A CHALLENGER has entered the selectman's race in Chelmsford, but he is remaining somewhat of a mystery.
Boston Road resident Eric Dahlberg has pulled nomination papers to challenge incumbent Selectman Sam Chase for a three-year term. Chase currently serves as board chairman and is the only selectman up for re-election.
The town Web site lists Dahlberg as a member of the Stipend Committee, but few other details about the man were available late last week. The listed phone number and the number he provided to the town clerk's office were out of service on Friday.
To secure a spot on the ballot for the annual election, candidates must gather the signatures of 50 registered voters and return them to the Board of Registrars by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12.
This week's Column was written by City Editor Christopher Scott, Dracut reporter Dennis Shaughnessey, Billerica/Lowell Schools reporter Jennifer Myers, Ayer reporter Jack Minch, Tyngsboro reporter Chris Camire, Tewksbury reporter Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl, Lifestyles reporter Rachel Briere and Court reporter Lisa Redmond.
Posted by Admin at February 4, 2008 1:34 PM
