Great Inaugural Weekend
The public ceremony of the swearing-in of Dan Rivera as mayor of Lawrence at the North Lawrence Education Complex (former high school) was very nice. The Community Strings Program did a beautiful job. This is a group of very young students playing the violin.
The speeches were short but Danny was particularly meaningful. He tackled the main areas of concern in the city such as hiring more police officers and making sure that our teachers have a contract. While he criticized the actions of the Receiver/Superintendent Jeffrey Riley, he also reasoned about the desire of getting back control of our public schools. Mayor Rivera said that what good is it to get control back just for pride. Our concern should be first making sure that our students have the kind of education that will help them excel in life.
The ice skating on Sunday afternoon was a real treat for families. I recommended a 24-hour watch to protect the ice because when Rumbo sponsored a First Night celebration in 2001, the ice was ruined the night before by vandals.
The Unity Prayer and Concert on Sunday night at Lawrence High School was a huge success. It was a very emotional event. Danny promised that we will have another one in the spring at which time we hope more churches and audience will be able to attend.
Disappointment
I am very demanding with the quality of printed materials of historical nature because future generations will look at us by what we leave behind. I am referring the Inaugural Weekend Program.
I told Danny Rivera that if he needed anything translated into Spanish to let me at least look at it to make sure there were no errors. I know this doesn’t mean much to many people who consider it menial but, it was full of mistakes and typographical errors.
Broken promises
“If elected, would you take a police car for your personal use even though the City Charter doesn’t allow you the use of a city car?” That was my question to the candidates during the mayoral debate held at Lawrence High School last September. All four candidates (Marcos Devers, Juan “Manny” Gonzalez, James O’Donoghue and Dan Rivera) responded in the negative.
Two days after being sworn-in as mayor of the City of Lawrence, Dan Rivera was inspecting his brand new gray, Ford Explorer. We must remember that it comes with insurance, gas, repairs, etc. paid for by the city.
By the way, Marie Claire Kennedy got an old detective’s car. Patricia Dowling the same but it was later upgraded for a brand new one. Michael Sullivan had a couple of new cars in eight years. Only Lenny Degnan and Marcos Devers returned the keys during the brief period they were interim mayors. William Lantigua promised he would not take a city car – and kept his promise.
I sent an email to all city councilors with my findings and thus far only Councilor for District E, Eileen O’Connor Bernal and Councilor for District F, Marc Laplante responded. They both referred to the mayor’s use of a police car as “past practice” but Mr. Laplante said the car was purchased by the Water and Sewer Department. I hope the city council looks into this because being an Enterprise Fund, their surplus may not be used by any other department.
And if we are to go back to past practices, let’s bring Brian Cahoon back as soon as he’s finished with the sentence.
When I brought it up during my radio show last Tuesday, I was chastised for revealing the acquisition of the car three days after inauguration; they said I should have given him a few days.
Why? To see if he changes his mind and returns it? It is a fact.
Although unrelated, some callers also complained about Lantigua’s huge signs and that I never objected to them. Rumbo is on record complaining about political signs going back to the Patricia Dowling campaign when the variety store on Water St., in front of the Boys and Girls Club painted the entire side of the building with her name. Later, it was changed to Sullivan and finally Lantigua. We insisted that they should get them to comply with local requirements regarding the size of political signs but no one listened to us – and worse than that, now no one remembers the noise we made.
So much for keeping his word. I recommend that Mayor Rivera grows some thick skin quickly because I will continue to call him on the carpet when he deserves it.
Police list
Before leaving office, Mayor William Lantigua requested the Civil Service list in order to select the new police officers that will be added to the force. The funds for that came last December with a $900,000 grant. It is expected that they will start working by the end of January.
Let that be a lesson!
The other half of Rumbo, Alberto Surís, stopped by the Dunkin Donuts on Market St. a few days ago and asked for two coffees, one with milk and one black. The lady behind the counter gave the order to another employee and proceeded to handle a customer in the drive-through window. The conversation took place in English.
When he received the coffee with milk and asked for the black coffee, she turned to the first one asking in Spanish, if she had told her about a black coffee. That “lady” responded by using very vulgar language, not once but several times. Then, Alberto turned to some customers asking in Spanish, “Did you hear me say black coffee?”
The customers assented laughing and the employees were left in a state of shock because they didn’t expect him to be a Latino. Of course, Alberto didn’t leave without chastising them for using vulgarity in a public place. Just because they use them on radio and television programs is no excuse for being disrespectful to customers.
