Snowbound
It was a real struggle filling 24 pages of this edition. Between being snowbound for a couple of days and the cancellation of so many events that we were planning to attend and write about, we found ourselves napping a lot or watching weather reports on television.
During the Blizzard of ’78 I was working at Channel 56 and as a member of a news organization, I was given permission to drive if I needed to go to work. Of course, I didn’t use it because I was not a newscaster but a producer. This time, the live programming on WCCM 1110AM was preempted and I didn’t host my weekly Tuesday CrossOver show. I would have loved to be there all day answering the telephones and providing live information to the public. I wished that we had local radio broadcast in order to learn about the conditions in surrounding cities and towns. It would have been an asset to city officials sending their messages to residents and for us to know what was taking place, such as fires or flooding.
Then, Tuesday, at 4 o’clock, Santiago Matías and Milagros Dominguez ventured out to do their show “El Tapón” on WLLH 1400 AM. Even Mayor Dan Rivera had a chance to call in and reach the residents – at least in Spanish. It is on days like this we realize the importance of radio.
Feeling the pinch
In our editorial last week we predicted that the $765 deficit found by Governor Charles Baker could affect Lawrence, a city that depends so much of state grants. Well, it happened! When the group of Lawrence merchants formed the Lawrence Partnership the state had promised the sum of $50,000 to get them going while they continue raising funds to help improve business conditions along Essex St. Recently, they were notified that the State reneged on that offer.
As we predicted last week, we’ll suffer the consequences but so will many cities and towns, as well as organizations depending on these funds.
Lean times await us!
Observing the parking ban
John Isensee, the director of the Department of Public Works told me that this winter the city has been very lenient with residents not obeying the winter parking regulations. While we didn’t get any snow, they were not ticketing violators but now it’s different. They will try not to tow cars as much as possible because it will place a hardship on working people but we have to cooperate.
