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HAVERHILL, You'll Be Surprised
Bob Desmarais, Haverhill City Council

In spite of all the financial difficulties in recent years, “Haverhill on the Mer-rimac” con-tinues to grow with new housing, pop-ulation, fine dining and a reputation for good city government.

Haverhill is perfectly situated as it straddles the Merrimac River with 15 miles of shoreline that draws excited interest in recreation and development.  Our Bradford Yacht Club continues to thrive with many new members and events on the water that encourage growing use and fascination with the re-juvenated Merrimac.

A boardwalk along the river has long been a planned project, lacking the necessary state and federal funding, that would eventually lead to a walking path around the downtown area.

Housing along the south side of the Merrimac continues to be a dream come true. A recently announced project of 136 units to be erected on city-owned tax title property is the latest in several events of housing being added to the tax rolls from inactive, unused city property.  Housing on the north side of the river continues to expand from the current senior housing and multi-building condos.

New expansion plans on Washington St., Essex St. and Walnut St. will add nearly 300 new apartment/condo housing units. These plans are currently working through the permit process and are being facilitated by our recently passed “residential over-lay district” in the downtown area.

Coincidentally, the State of Massachusetts is encouraging this type of re-use in older cities and towns with its “transportation oriented housing” concept.  This state program will allow up to $3000 per unit if these housing units are near a train station.  Haverhill has two train stops and the planned housing fits right in with “live here and take the train to work” scheme.
Some new and some longer standing restaurant entrepreneurs seem to be ahead of the curve in business expectations as they continue to grow and multiply.  Recently opened “George’s” with fine cuisine and “Kreuger’s Flat Bread Pizza” join the already successful “Maria’s”, “Tap”, “Peddler’s Daughter”, “Keon’s” and “A-1 Café” for dining that will satisfy a wide variety of tastes.

Our city government continues to be stabile and resourcefull. Successfully working with the state delegation, our new Mayor, James Fiorentini, and Council President John Mitchitson, along with the full council, have done much to level off the devastating impact of less state revenue over the past few years.

Together, we continue to work on nagging problems of parking and metered parking in our downtown area. Other priorities are to sell unused city owned property for one-time monies that will benefit our capitol spending needs.  Along with our school department, we continue to find ways to make our school district better than it was last year, in spite of  the cuts in state funding.
In the very near future, we will be able to show a newly re-modeled high school that will maintain our long standing, fully accredited status and be the pride of the Haverhill school system.

 

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