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Ship Haverhill on Crash Course
Scott Wood, Haverhill School
Committee
09/01/06
 The message was sent from the
corner office in City Hall. Haverhill had turned the
corner. A budget was balanced without layoffs, downtown
was coming back and crime was down.
All was well in the city of Haverhill.
The summer came and recent events have shown the message
was “spin.” Haverhill has not moved forward and
is starving more then ever for a strong leader to occupy
the corner office. The summer months have shown the
faults with the direction we are sailing in and we must
change course soon or it may be too late. Recent events
have proven the claims from the captain of
Haverhill’s ship are simply false. I will only touch
on a few of those waves that are quite high as I’m
only allowed one column per month.
First is crime. We have been told by the mayor that all
is well. Haverhill is safe to live, work and visit.
However, the past few weeks in downtown Haverhill show
that it may not be as safe as we have been led to
believe. Two stabbings over a two-week period in downtown
Haverhill have resi-dents wondering can they dine there
safely and business owners worried about the
con-sequences of the sudden surge in violent crime.
The police chief has said we need more officers to make
Haverhill safe and despite the recent violent crime the
captain of Ship Haverhill disagrees. In my opinion, the
recent surge in violence, the fears of resi-dents and
business owners, along with the police chief’s
comments that we need more officers, may have a severe
adverse effect on the hope of downtown Haverhill coming
back.
The second big wave I want to touch upon is leadership
itself. An issue that required leadership this summer was
the stolen MCAS exam, yet leadership was the last thing
Haverhill got from its captain.
First, the mayor wanted the local police to investigate,
and then he didn’t want them involved and according
to the police chief would not answer the chief’s
request for information. The chief of police went as far
as to make a comment I have never heard any department
head make and get away with. He said that either he had
to go or the mayor did.
Then, last week the mayor claims he wanted the local
police involved from the beginning. Can you keep up with
all of these flip-flops from the captain? Because
I’m surely lost. It seems that there is no core set
of beliefs or values from the corner office and decisions
are made based upon which way the wind is blowing that
day.
The captain of any city must stand by his convictions and
stand up for what he believes in. When you stand for
nothing, you fall for everything. At the last council
meeting, President Hart claimed that there is a serious
problem with trust between the council and mayor.
The mayor led the council to believe one thing and then
he said and did another. That’s not leadership,
that’s an opportunist who is out to make himself
look good at the expense of anyone who crosses his path.
Haverhill is sailing in the wrong direction, without a
strong leader in place and if we continue on our current
path, Haverhill may have the same fate as the Titanic.
Scott Wood is in his first term as a
member of the Haverhill School Committee. You can contact
him at wood45106@aol.com
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The September, 2006
Edition of the Valley Patriot
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