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Dowling
Loses 1.5 Million Dollars
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| I am very, very confused about
something! And when I get confused I like to
review all the facts and then compare and
contrast them. It’s like reviewing for a
final exam. The best way to get to the truth is
to ask questions and compare the answers that you
get. Lets look at some facts while I try to clear
up some of my confusion about the Veterans
Memorial Stadium. The Facts Fact: Three years ago, former State Representative Paul Iannuccillo secured 1.5 million dollars in state aid to fix up the Veterans Memorial Stadium. Mayor Dowling has had this money available to her for almost three years but has not used it. Fact: The Stadium continues to sit in shambles and ruin. And from the looks of things that’s not going to change any time soon. Now state officials are saying Lawrence has lost the 1.5 million in Stadium renovation money because the deadline has already passed. Dowling missed the deadline and she cost us millions. Fact: Mayor Dowling was adamant about building a new high school on Haverhill Street in North Lawrence. She even went so far as to visit property owners to inform them of her decision and get them to sell their property to the city. She made those visits just one night before the School Committee voted on school’s final location. I even praised the Mayor for her wise decision of selecting the North Lawrence site as the best suitable location for our students. On the night of the School Committee vote, however, more than a dozen people spoke in favor of locating the new High School at the South Lawrence location. When they were done, Mayor Dowling said they had "changed my mind" about the location of the high school and voted for the South Lawrence site. Those are the facts and they are indisputable The Questions Why didn’t Mayor Dowling use the $1.5 million to fix up the stadium right away? She has had almost three years to find a contractor and get to work. What’s the hold up? Her answer is that she was going to build the new high school in South Lawrence and wanted to combine the 1.5 million with education money to construct the new high school/sports complex at the same time. We could have had a state of the art football stadium, sports arena, a park and a new high school all in one. But, here’s where I start to get confused. Remember those visits to property owners on Haverhill Street last spring? The ones where Dowling "informed" them of her decision to put the high school on their land? Remember her saying that her mind was "changed" on the night of the vote by those who attended? If she had planned to build the new school in North Lawrence from the very beginning, why was she sitting on the 1.5 million dollars for Stadium renovations in her first two years in office? Did Patty Dowling lie when she said she planned to put the high school in North Lawrence? Did she visit those property owners in order to whip up opposition to her stated plan? Or, is she lying now when she says she neglected the stadium because she was waiting for the new high school money to make a grand "all in one" plan? When she took office, the stadium money was already available but there was no plan at all to build a new high school at the time The State Steps In So, now state officials say they will not approve the stadium site location for a new school. Why? Because of environmental concerns. Didn’t anyone check with the state to make sure the Stadium site was environmentally acceptable to build a new school before committing millions of dollars to the project? (Especially when Rumbo published these concerns last winter.) Surely Bill Luster or Patty Dowling did all of that before sending the final plan to the Council and School Committee, right? Nope. Not according to state officials. They contend that environmental concerns were never addressed by this administration. They even stated publicly that the manner in which Lawrence has handled these two issues has jeopardized future grant money for the city. According to the Tribune one state official said "If the city’s performance (on future projects) is going to be anything like it was on the stadium park, I would have little faith in them that they would accomplish what they say they are going to accomplish." I guess it all comes down to credibility doesn’t it. Lawrence’s reputation with the state is one of broken promises, bad excuses and back room deals. What’s worse, the school committee and the city council didn’t do their jobs either. They are supposed to be our checks and balances when any mayor slacks off and doesn’t do the work. They dropped the ball too, and now it’s costing us millions, maybe even a new high school. In Summary The Mayor says she sat on the stadium money because she was going to use it for the new high school in South Lawrence, but she told us in March that she had planned on putting the new school in North Lawrence for the first two years of her term, only to change her mind the night of the vote. Why did the mayor really sit on that 1.5 million dollars? Was it merely incompetence? Was it by design? And what was her real reason for "changing" her mind the night of the high school vote? Was it her plan to locate the school in South Lawrence all along? Was she playing politics by pretending to advocate for the North side because of the large white voting block in South Lawrence who don’t want the high school in their back yard? I have never seen Patty "change" her mind on one issue before or since that night. So many questions, so much confusion. I guess I’ll just have to keep on asking questions out loud until all this makes sense to me. One thing for sure, I hate being confused, don’t you? [My original Paying Attention column this week was about the MCAD lawsuit against (now captain) Cal Deyermond and the police department. It was pulled out at the last minute but may run at a future date. RM, consider it a gesture of good will. Take advantage of the opportunity in front of you now because you will never see another one. Tick Tock!] |