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Council seeks Injunction to Stop Stadium Fund from being Raided
(published 06/20/02)

Or many years Southwest Equities, a private developer has been in negotiations with the city to build a housing development on Beacon Street where the Essem Hot Dog plant use to operate. Through painful and tedious years of meetings and agreements the project was finally approved by the neighborhood groups, the planning board, the city council and the mayor.

At no time during any of the discussions was the city to be responsible for the cost of tearing down the existing Essem plant. At least not publicly. The planning board was told that the project would be no cost to the city. The city council was told that it would be no cost to the city. The Mount Vernon Neighborhood was told that it would be at no cost to the city.


But here we are four years later and it appears that there will be a cost to the city. That cost comes not only at the expense of the taxpayers, but it also comes at the cost of the stadium renovation project, which has still not begun.

In 1998 Mayor Dowling and the Lawrence city council lobbied for and voted to approve a Community Development Block grant for $210 thousand dollars for the stadium renovation. Since then the money has gone unused and sits in a back account controlled by the community development department under the authority of the mayor. As of the time we go to print, That money has been raided by city leaders to pay for the demolition of the Essem plant on Beacon Street, which only benefits the private developers bottom line profit margin.

City councilors were outraged upon learning about this on the Paying Attention radio program last Saturday and at least two councilors vowed to fight the raiding of that fund. "This is absolutely shocking to think that the renovation of the stadium was promised to the people of Lawrence and the money set side is being used to benefit a private developer," said Councilor Mike Sweeney.

Tuesday night the city council took a vote to order the city attorney to seek an immediate injunction in superior court to stop the transfer of those funds. State Representative Jose Santiago who was on the city council in 1998 said that the money set aside for the stadium should not be going to anything but Fixing the stadium. "When we took a vote to spend that money we intended it to go to the stadium fix up project. That's where the money should go, not to a private developer."

Lawrence Mayor Mike Sullivan told Rumbo that Mayor Dowling had entered into an agreement with the developers a few years ago to pay for the demolition of the Essem plant using the stadium funds and he has every intention on honoring that agreement. But members o the planning board have said that it was "always an understanding between Vin Manzi (the lawyer for the developer) and the city that the demolition of that building will be paid for by the developer."

According to planning board documents, the city was never asked or told in public that the demolition of that building would be paid for by the taxpayers. In fact, any time a question of cost was raised, the planning board and the Mount Vernon Neighborhood Association was told that there would be no cost to the city whatsoever.

If that wasn't bad enough, the lawyer for the developer, Vin Manzi, is listed as a campaign contributor to Mayor Patricia Dowling's campaign fund, giving $500 less than a year before this deal was made. Councilor Sweeney said at Tuesday's city council meeting that he is forwarding all documents on this land deal and the inappropriate use of the stadium funds to the Attorney General for an immediate investigation.

Council President Marcos Devers was visibly shocked when told about the money transfer of stadium finds to a campaign contributor's project saying, "I believe we need to renovate that stadium 500%. The money is put aside to fix that structure and the money should be used to fix tat structure."