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Improving our Tax Base
My plan for tomorrow was to improve our tax base by the reuse of old factory buildings. Two years later, our plans are working. Two years in a row, we balanced our budget with no layoffs and no tax override. Today, eight old factory buildings are slated to be reused as housing. However, Haverhill continues to have a structural deficit. A structural deficit exists when projected long term revenues do not match long term expenses. The long term solution is to grow our tax base. One way to improve the commercial tax base is to make it easier to do business in Haverhill. Our current zoning policies put unnecessary barriers in front of any large business that wishes to locate in our city, even if it is going into an area that is zoned for business. Businesses often have spend up to $100,000 just to do the plans, drawings, engineering work, site plan review and legal fees. Few other cities and towns have such a requirement. These same costly permit requirements create additional barriers to the reuse of old factory and commercial buildings in our downtown area. Large companies like Beacon Development can navigate the minefields. Smaller developers cannot. It is in the city’s interest to reuse old factory buildings. We have the beginnings of a Haverhill Renaissance. We need to keep this going, and removing regulatory barriers to downtown growth is one way to do that. Parking is an additional regulatory barrier. We require more parking than is needed for transit oriented development. Studies have shown that if a building is being developed near a train station, they are often occupied by young families who do not have two cars, and sometimes have no cars. Other communities have amended their parking requirements to reflect this reality. We have not. Our policy should encourage mixed use of old downtown buildings, and should remove regulatory barriers that have prevented the reuse of those buildings for decades. If I am reelected to a second term, one of my top priorities will be to change the rules to speed up the reuse of old factory buildings. The Mayor’s ‘Secret’ Shrimp Sauce Recipe At last year’s Italian festival, I gave you my mother’s recipe for marinara sauce. I was pleasantly surprised when I went door to door and Arthur Wilson of Bradford, who says he is French by birth and Italian by palate, said he used the recipe and loved it. So, today, just in time for this year’s Italian festival, here is my Grandfather’s recipe for Red Shrimp Sauce: Lightly
simmer two to three cloves of garlic and some parsley in
olive oil. Do not burn the garlic! Cook for 15 minutes, do not overcook. Add fresh peeled shrimp. Cook until done, about 5 extra minutes, do not overcook. Serve immediately over pasta —do NOT overcook the pasta! More on Spraying for Mosquitoes Because of the danger of EEE and West Nile virus in our community, we were able to persuade the state to step in and spray one time for mosquitoes. Spraying diminishes the danger, it does not eliminate it. If you go outside from dusk to dawn, please wear a mosquito repellent with DEET. The Tough Choice, the Superintendent of Schools In the next few weeks, the School Committee will choose a new superintendent of schools. Here are the finalists in no particular order: § Dr. Paul Dulac – former superintendent in Newburyport MA § Dr. John Metallo – superintendent in Middleburgh, NY, and a former principal of a large high school in Albany New York § Dr. Raleigh Buchanan - superintendent in Seekonk, MA We will make a decision by mid-October. Drop in Unemployment Rate shows ‘Haverhill is back’ Last week, we
received the unemployment figures from the Merrimack
Valley Work Force Investment Board. Those figures show
that Haverhill’s unemployment rate is below 5
percent for the first time in many years. The
unemployment rate today in Haverhill is 4.8 percent. A
year ago, Haverhill’s unemployment rate stood at 7.4
percent and two years ago, it stood at 8.9 percent. Sale of one parcel of land brings $1.2 million I am happy to
announce that the city of Haverhill will sell one parcel
of land for $1.2 million. The parcel is adjacent to the
State Line Shopping Plaza on the Haverhill- Plaistow, New
Hampshire border. The parcel is assessed by the city at
$150,000 and an appraisal valued it at $250,000. The city
negotiated the sale at the higher price to the
neighboring shopping mall. allow us to balance our budget. It also provides that a commercial establishment will go on the site, providing us with permanent new tax revenues. The key to rebuilding our city after the debacle with the Hale hospital is to rebuild our tax base. This is a step in that direction. Keeping Haverhill Cleaner I have had the great pleasure over the past month to work with the Haverhill Brightside program and with our volunteers who assisted the city in the America in Bloom contest. Although we did not win, we were given an honorable mention, and gained a wealth of knowledge. We plan to do better next year! This weekend, we will add new park benches in the downtown area. Next month, we add a new street sweeper, paid entirely with state funds. Fixing School Roofs Unfortunately, many of our school buildings, because of our severe budget problems, have been neglected for years. I’ve made it a point to start to reverse decades of neglect, and last year we were able to make $1 million in capital improvements. This year, we were able to fix the Tilton School roof, replace the boiler at the Crowell School, fix the outside brickwork at the Walnut Square. Our high school rehabilitation project is ahead of schedule. This month, I asked the city council to approve a bond to replace the roof at the John Greanleaf Whittier School, a roof that has leaked for about ten years. We cannot do it all in a year, but we are making progress. Good Job! On Thursday, on Boardman Street, near the Nettle School, a live power line went down, blocking the street. Our police and highway departments were on the scene immediately and cordoned off the area. At the Golden Hill and Nettle Schools, the crisis team went into action immediately. In the middle of a severe rainstorm, teachers, principals and Mr. Quatrale personally led the students down the hill and made certain they did not walk on Boardman Street. Several teachers and Mr. Quatrale personally gave some of the students a ride home. I was at the scene and, overall, it was a job well done by all! Not so good Part of my job is to point out areas where our city can improve and improve them. One of them is in the area of waste cleanup. A number of people went to deliver hazardous material to the highway garage on Primrose Street for a well-advertised hazardous waste drop off day. A certain amount was budgeted for waste cleanup, and when the amount was exceeded, Haverhill residents were turned away. It was unacceptable. I have ordered the waste-water department, which runs the hazardous waste cleanup program, to take immediate steps so that this never reoccurs and to rectify the situation. I have instructed our personnel to either schedule a second waste pickup day, or find some other way to service the people who were in line. MCAS We made some progress in public education. Because of improved funding, we have been able to reinstate the music programs in the middle schools, add three new teachers at the high school, and we became only the second school in the state to have mandatory summer school for some failing students. However, our MCAS scores went down slightly. The results were unacceptable. The fact that many area communities went down in test scores, and the fact that the decrease was small, is no excuse. I favor performance bonuses for superintendents and school principals who improve test scores and I favor making MCAS improvement a crucial part of the evaluations of principals and superintendents. Every superintendent candidate I spoke with made it clear that they expected to be judged on their performance in improving scores. Part of doing better is recognizing improvement and rewarding good performance. Later this month, I’ll be instituting the Mayor’s Excellence Awards for MCAS performance. I’ll be recognizing the school that had the best MCAS improvement and be recognizing the students who had the best performance. Trivia Last month’s trivia question was “What was Haverhill called before it was called “Haverhill”. Walter Ziminski, Tom Chapman, Ray Sierpina, Eric Shoemaker, city council candidate Dave Swartz, Bob Harb, Drea Carbone, Ric Page, John Ryan and Rich Gullo knew that the correct answer was “Pentucket.” This month’s question: “Who was the most famous baseball player to ever play at Haverhill stadium?” Till next
month, In the meantime, if you have any questions, or
would just like to chat about city issues, please stop by
on Tuesday for my open office hours, from 3-4. Jim Fiorentini is the mayor of Haverhill and is in his first term. He is seeking re-election in November. Fiorentini is a Democrat. Email Jim Fiorentini at: jimfior02@aol.com *Send your questions
comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com |
Two years ago when I ran for Mayor,
I outlined a “plan for today” and a “plan
for tomorrow.” My “plan for today” was to
avoid receivership by a tax amnesty, improving our
collections, reforming health care benefits, and
streamlining government.