>>Valley Patriot>> |
Crime is down in Haverhill — Second year in a row!
What pleased me the most is that violent crime is down in every category. There were 95 fewer assaults, a 14% decrease. There were 76 fewer housebreaks, a drop of 14%. There were 40 fewer car thefts, a drop of 22%. There were eight fewer rapes. Over the past 22 months, there has been a 30% reduction in violent crime. The
only troubling area this year where crimes were up was
larcenies (this includes shoplifting). Here are some of the steps we're taking: Last month,
I instituted a new Mayor’s Task Force on Gang
Violence. Our police have taken very aggressive action against gang violence, and we intend to keep that up. No one can take all the credit for this and no one has all the answers. Here is what we do know: Haverhill is safer today than it was 22 months ago. Now we have to find additional resources to add to our department to keep it that way. One way is civilian dis-patch. If we could take people off the tele-phones and put them on the streets, we could add re-sources with very little in-crease in our budget. Thus far, the police union, which loudly de-mands more police on the streets, refuses to allow this. Mayor arranges for inspection of city river wall Concerned
with high water readings throughout the region and with
reports of a dam buckling in Taunton, Massachusetts,
Mayor James J. Fiorentini today arranged for an
inspection of the city’s 70-year-old river
wall. Fiorentini, who spent a Saturday personally
inspecting areas along the river, plans to spend some
time with Army Corps of Engineers’ officials
inspecting the river wall. Fiorentini said he was satisfied that the city is prepared in the event of flooding. “Recently, with reports of flooding on the way, we held a training session with our emergency management team, which I attended. The team has mapped out areas of possible flooding, has detailed evacuation and notification plans in place, and went through a training exercise to make certain everyone is prepared. After Fiorentini received a telephone call from Governor Romney warning about possible flooding in low-lying areas, Fiorentini called another meeting of the emergency management team. Fiorentini spent time with police person-nel personally inspecting water levels in the Little River and the Merrimack. The city put extra men on duty in highway, police and water departments, in the event of flooding. After spending the day inspecting the river and talking to residents along the river, Fiorentini commented: “Our personnel were ready for a flood. The plans for an emergency evacuation were in place, the pumps along the Little River were working, the crews were prepared. Our crews did a great job of preparing and our highway crews did a great job after the storm removing trees and emergency items. All should be commended.” Reversing decades of neglect & fixing school roofs When my children went to the John Greenleaf School 16 years ago, the roof was leaking. It is still leaking today, and it is time to fix it. Last week, the city council approved my request for a bond order to fix the Whittier School and the High Street fire station. After the council meeting, I visited classrooms at the Whittier, spoke with the principal, the superintendent, many teachers, and with the school custodian. I found a serious problem in the school gymnasium, which is why I recommended replacing the roof. As the superintendent, Mr. Quatrale, said, there was never any reason to believe that children’s safety was at risk. In fact, he said that the roof was better today than when he was the principal several years ago. There was an air quality test at the school in December and the test found no evidence of mold or mildew. We have ordered up-to-date testing to be certain. Friday, I arranged for an engineer to tour the school with me. The engineer indicated that there is no imminent danger with the roof. At the council meeting, it was suggested that we put children in portable classrooms. The total cost to do so would be around $1 million. This would not be a wise use of our limited resources. At the Tilton, I have more concerns. This year, at my request, we allocated money to fix the roof. Some areas have been repaired, but at least four classrooms are still leaking. I have asked for further testing and we may need to allocate more money to fix that roof. We will have to wait until the testing is com-plete. I am not happy with the pace of the Tilton School roof repairs and will keep on that. Let’s make no mistake about it, though: we do not have the resources to make all of the repairs that are necessary to all of the schools. I wish we did. We cannot reverse decades of neglect in a year. It is going to take time, patience and planning. The toughness it takes to bring our city back Although we
have come a long way in 22 months, make no mistake about
it: we still have a grave fiscal crisis. We still face a
$7 million a year Hale debt to pay for a hospital we no
longer own. Our schools are in danger of running $900,000
over their budget for fuel costs. Our fire department
needs more men. Our highway department needs more people.
We have school roofs that have leaked for decades and the
police union loudly demands twenty additional police
officers. Historic Tax Credits clear final hurdle for Beacon project There are two keys to bringing Haverhill back from the financial brink. One is fiscal discipline. The second
is to grow the tax base. Our premier downtown development
is the Beacon project, which converts the old Cabot
Furniture building -- largely unused for decades —
to upscale housing. This is fabulous news for our city. The Beacon project, the linchpin of our downtown redevelopment effort, will break ground early next year. Terabeam moves to Haverhill A couple of weeks ago, State Senator Steve Baddour brought in Terabeam Millimeter Wave Products to us - they were debating a move to either New Hampshire or Haverhill. Steve wanted to keep them in Haverhill, so he brought them to us for a sales pitch. I learned once again at that meeting what a great asset our economic development director, Bill Pillsbury, is to our city. Bill used to be the economic development director for the entire state of New Hampshire, and was able to spend time with them, and go over in detail the New Hampshire versus Massachusetts tax structure and the numerous advantages of locating here. (I threw in my opinion about easy highway access, a new science and technology center at Northern Essex, grants from the Work Force Investment Board for job training, etc., etc., etc.) When Bill was done, the company decided to locate here - twenty to 100 new jobs for our people. Our thanks to Senator Baddour for bringing them in. Short Takes Want information about what is happening in our arts district downtown? Check out www.whatsuphaverhill.com. Two new residents of our city—welcome to John and Paul Smardz. Next year, I hope to have a party for new residents. Board and volunteer openings This administration is committed to historic preservation and to controlling growth in the outskirts of the city. The excellent volunteers on city boards have been a tremendous help in moving that agenda forward. We have several openings on boards in the city: Washington Street Historic District Commission - Downtown Parking Commission - Mayor’s Representative to the Community Action Commission - Haverhill Historical Commission If you are interested in assisting with any of these boards, please send a resume to mayor@cityofhaverhill.com. I also have openings in my office for interns and volunteers. We need volunteers to assist with press releases, with handling constituent services, researching projects, answering the telephones and typing. If you can assist, please send a resume to tvannahl@cityofhaverhill.com. Washington Street Sidewalk Improvement Project Begins This year, my budget, for the first time in many years, allocated some of our block grant money to fix sidewalks in the inner city. Improving the look of our city, the roadways and the sidewalks, are key concerns of this administration. This past week, the sidewalk improvement project on Washington Street began. Later this week, our tree-planting program resumes. We hope to plant over 200 trees this year, including some elm trees. Challenges that Await Us The Rappaport Institute of Boston, affiliated with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, has just issued an interesting study of municipal finances. They concluded that municipal governments “are inadvertently trapped by the convergence of four major factors, Proposition 2 and a half, the state’s landmark 1993 Education Reform Act, rising health care costs, and recent cuts in local aid.” They conclude that without some fundamental changes, including health care reforms and increased state aid, municipal governments are going to be forced to make more cutbacks in services over the next few years. You can read the entire report on line here: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/rappaport/downloads/policybriefs/brief_finance.pdf. Water and Waste Water Usage I asked the Water and Waste Water Department of the city to give me some statistics on water usage. Several residents have expressed concern to me about whether we are going to “run short” of water or if planned new developments will strain our capacity. The short answer is that there is no cause for alarm. In the area of waste water, we have a large excess capacity in our system. In water, even though our population is growing, we are using less water today than we were five years ago, and slightly less than what we were using 15 or 20 years ago. Surprised? I was. There are several reasons for this, among them: an excellent leak detection system, conservation, temperature variations (in wetter seasons, people use less water for lawn care), and loss of large industrial water users. While we have no need to panic about water usage, we do have a need for long term planning. Our planning effort should include a close examination of whether we should use the Merrimack River as an alternate water source. Preliminary studies are underway from our water department and from Camp, Dress and McKee, who handle our outside engineering work. Early next year, I’ll be appointing a committee to study our long-term water usage needs and make recommendations to the city on this. I am looking for qualified people with experience in engineering or water to be on the committee. If you are interested, please send an email to mayor@cityofhaverhill.com. Congratulations to the John Greenleaf Whittier School! Meeting with kids is the most rewarding parts of the job as mayor. Last week, I was at the John Greenleaf Whittier School to present the 7th grade kids there with the Mayor’s Award for MCAS Excellence. The Whittier School had the best improvement in the city on MCAS scores, and made Adequate Yearly Progress — a measure required by the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” — in every category. A good deal of credit goes to the kids, parents and teachers at the school for a job well done. The Annual Tax Classification Debate In late November the city council will take up the annual debate over tax classification. For those of you not familiar with issue, here is a brief summary. Cities are allowed to tax businesses at a higher rate than they tax residents. Most Massachusetts cities, including Haverhill, do that. The city council is required, on a yearly basis, to determine what portion of the tax burden is borne by business and what por-tion is borne by homeowners. This does not affect the amount the city collects; it re-distributes it between business and resi-dents. Would you like to know more about this critical issue? Here are some good reading points: An outline of classification from our city’s web site: http://www.ci.haverhill.ma.us/departments/finance/assessor/classification.htm. A presentation by the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce: http://www.masstaxpayers.org/data/pdf/bulletins/Classif.pdf. Twenty-three states allow some type of property tax classification. For an understanding of what other states do, see: http://www.iga.ucdavis.edu/property_tax_report.html. The city of Chicago has a similar tax classification to Massachusetts. A detailed study was done on the effects of tax classification on business growth and is available at http://www.lincolninst.edu/subcenters/valuation_taxation/dl/dye_etal.pdf . Helping our recycling program Our recycling committee is hard at work, trying to encourage more recycling in the city. They are planning to distribute thousands of flyers explaining recycling to the community and urging more. They need your help. You can volunteer by contacting our Brightside co-coordinator, Denise Johnson, at brightside@cityofhaverhill.com, or by calling her at 978-374-2356. Trails Committee The Haverhill Trails Committee, with little or no fanfare or recognition, has done a wonderful job this year of keeping our trails and rural areas clean. Almost every weekend this fall they have been out cleaning our walking trails. This week, this great group of volunteers cleaned up the Tattersal Farm and the Meadow Brook Reservation. Congratulations to a great group and to our dedicated city employees, Mark Sheehan and Denise Johnson, who work with them. Smart Growth Zoning Law to be Presented in January Early next year, I will present to the city council, a comprehensive set of ordinances to reform our zoning laws and remove regulatory barriers to smart growth. These ordinances are modeled after the state’s new smart-growth zoning law, General Laws, Chapter 40R. Our goal is to encourage growth in our old factory buildings, and to remove local barriers that make this difficult. We hope to be the first community in the state to adopt a smart-growth zoning overlay district. Under new amendments just passed to the state smart-growth law, this will allow us to gain additional state assistance including, possibly, more money for public education. To read more about the new Chapter 40R, see http://www.chapa.org/Ch40RFinal0704.pdf or http://www.bluewavestrategies.com/pdfs/news_40R.pdf. Trivia Last month, I asked what team wore blue and gold as its colors. I blew it! I have no idea what team had blue and gold—several people said Haverhill Trade School, and that could be right. I meant to write, “what team had Blue and White as its colors.” Let’s try again. ‘Till next month, if you would like to speak with me about an issue in the city, or if you need city services, do not hesitate to contact me at jimfior02@aol.com. *Send your questions
comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com |
For the second year in a row, crime in
Haverhill is down. Thus far this year crime in Haverhill
is down by 5%. Overall, there were 92 fewer crimes in the
city this year than last year. In 2004, crime went down
11% — there were 302 fewer crimes in 2004 than the
year before. 2005 is shaping up as the safest year since
we started this new computer system in 1999.