Error on my part
Last week I listed the local legislators and how they voted for an increase in pay that amounted to an additional $18 million on the state budget. I mistakenly mentioned that State Representative Frank Moran (D-Lawrence) voted NO. He corrected me because he had voted in favor of the raise. I’m sorry Frank!
SCAM ALERT!
The Lawrence Police Department has a warning in its website www.lawpd.com about unsolicited calls about a bill you may owe from National Grid, Columbia Gas, Verizon, etc. or anyone demanding money by Money PAK or pre-paid card. Get the phone number from an old bill, or go to that company’s website. Do not call the phone number scammer gives. Call Lawrence Police at 978-794-5900 x 625 if you have any suspicions or questions of authenticity BEFORE you pay.
The city engineer
I watched the circus surrounding the hiring of the City Engineer and it was all very misleading until the end. There was a time that District F Councilor Marc Laplante was asking so many questions about the required license that I thought he would abstain from voting.
What happened was that we were all led to believe that Milagros Puello had a Massachusetts Professional Engineer License only to find during the interview process that her license is from New Hampshire. It was not made clear why if she went to UMass her license is not from here, but I digress.
First a little information on getting a Professional Engineer License. All Fifty States now give the exact same multiple choice exam and it is administered by a California based company. If she lives in NH or her work is primarily in NH, then it makes sense she got her NH License. She can obtain a Mass. License by filling out an application, providing a copy of her NH license and paying the Mass. fee at her own expense!
I don’t know what Chief of Staff Eileen Bernal is saying trying to justify the three projects she will be managing besides her city engineer duties and for which she will be getting a $15,000 stipend. Merrimack Paper, the last I heard, was privately owned and needed to be cleaned up by the owners.
The Water Department is independent; as an Enterprise Fund, if they need someone to manage some work they have to pay for it separate from city funds. The treatment plant on the other hand is run by Woodard and Curran. City crews respond to emergencies and do regular routine maintenance work. Larger improvement projects are under Woodard and Curran.
Historically the City Engineer has never been involved in redeveloping properties in the city. He job has been to review private plans for the impact they have on city water, sewer and traffic.
Don’t get me wrong; I am not boycotting this lady but she doesn’t have the experience and now we find out neither a license.
The questions regarding the license acquisition was explained by the DPW Director Carlos Jaquez. She will have to fill out that form I explained earlier and pay the appropriate fee but that agency will take “no more than twelve months” to approve it. There is also the confusion as to why this could take up to four years to resolve which was difficult for me to follow but Councilor Laplante was obviously upset about it. Ms. Puello is only getting a one year contract from the city, we might have a new mayor next year along with some new councilors and the whole thing could be forgotten by them.
Meanwhile, we are today in a worst situation than when the mayor fired Andrew Wall. He had his degree and 17 years’ experience on the job; he knew the city inside out but couldn’t pass the exam for the license. Dan let all that go and we have someone new to the job, no experience and still no license.
After all the grilling, I wondered how some of the councilors would react at the time to take a vote but, as usual, they went for whatever the mayor wants. Why then make so much noise and trouble so many people at that meeting pretending that you were doing your job.
Eileen, you said there’s nothing illegal about the stipend. Please remove the rose-colored glasses. It is!
Gangs in Lawrence?
Recently I was bad-mouthed at a meeting by someone who said that you cannot believe anything Rumbo says about gangs at the high school because Dalia lies.
Talk about pet peeves! That’s the worst for me.
Even Jose Alfonso Garcia, who works in the school department, said it is not true they have gangs at the high school; “they are outside, not inside,” he said on the radio.
Well, within three days two young men have been shot to death. A 23-year-old on Broadway died and another one injured on Saturday. Then on Tuesday, an 18-year-old was also killed at the corner of where Lee Manuel Viloria Paulino used to live. That neighborhood must feel secured, indeed!
The next day, on Wednesday, Police Chief James Fitzpatrick declared that it may be gang-related and on the same day, the mayor attended a meeting at the high school to discuss the gang issue.
I don’t have the answers as to what to do but it is their job to find a way to keep us safe and secure. Lying to the public, hiding information in police reports, praying for peace, complaining about what the governors of Maine and New Hampshire say about Lawrence is not going to solve anything.
Crime in Lawrence
Police Chief James Fitzpatrick appeared before the Public Safety Committee of the City Council and presented the list shown on page 17 as proof of the reduction of crime in the city. I check with many sources since I have no confidence on their figures and the information posted on the police department website is either skewed or missing and I am presenting the statistics for 2016 from Neighborhood Scouts, a site collecting information all over the country and from many different venues, not just relying on information from the local police departments.
Please take the time to check how Lawrence compares in some areas to the averages in Massachusetts and the entire country. Lawrence is considered number 52 among the 100 most dangerous cities IN THE COUNTRY!
In some areas of crime, we are doing even or better but we have 1 in 16 chances of becoming a victim of a violent crime in Lawrence compared to 1 in 256 in Massachusetts.
Notice that the chief claims that there were 63,238 calls for service last year. Were the residents ordering pizzas? If they called for service something was happening yet he said crime went down by 28%, 30% and even 40% in other areas.
Judge for yourself.
