LDNA Agenda – Monday, May 23, 2016
1. Opening greeting
2. Approval of minutes
3. Treasurer's Report
4. Police Report
5. John Leahy, Chair of the Lowell City Council Public Safety Committee
6. Update on upcoming Lowell “First Thursdays” events
7. General Information
8. Adjourn
LDNA Meeting – 03/28/2016 7PM
Present:
Carolyn Alphen
Jack Moynihan
Stephen Greene
Corey Sciuto
Start: 7:01
Motion to Approve Minutes: Carolyn. Seconded by Jack
Treasurer’s Report: $287.29. Reminder that there is a suggested $5 donation.
Captain Webb, LPD, Sgt Prescott: Police report. Gun crime down citywide in 201; up downtown. A few specific clubs blamed with actions being taken: http://www.lowellma.gov/police/Pages/Firearm-Crime-Decreased-Significantly-in-2015.aspx. LPD and LFD awarded over $5M in grants in 2015: http://www.lowellma.gov/police/Documents/2015%20LPD%20Grant%20Funding%20Memo%203-2-2016.pdf
Fred Faust, Lowell Heritage Partnership. Lowell: The Next Initiative for Lowell: Making Our Canals and Rivers Come Alive: http://www.lowellheritagepartnership.org/next
Nick Navin, Parking and Garages Dept. Roy (Market) Garage repairs. Contact Nick with any questions: http://www.lowellma.gov/parking/Pages/default.aspx
Announcements about cleanup, act to add income tax deductions for condo fees: http://cqrcengage.com/advocacycenter/app/write-a-letter?0&engagementId=186213
LDNA Meeting 02/22/16
Start 7:05
Accept Previous Minutes
Carolyn motions; Corey seconds
Treasurer’s Report
$277.29
Police Report, Sgt. Prescott
Nothing too remarkable this month. Question about cameras. Money being redirected to add new cameras to trouble spots, including mobile cameras.
Danny Rourke, Vice Mayor
Discussion about reaching out to Inspectional Services re: code violations, etc. Discussion about the Neighborhood City Council Subcomittee.
Derek Pelotte of 350MA of Greater Lowell
Find them on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/350MAofGreaterLowell/?fref=ts
Rapid Response Signup Form
Open Floor
Discussion on trying to get different businesses into the downtown; parking.
Cleanup!
April 9, 9AM, Mack Plaza.
Next Meeting:
Invite: Nick Naven and Madison Security
Adjournment:
Carolyn motions; Corey seconds
Adjourn at 7:49
Present: Jack Moynihan, Susan Purdy, Stephen Greene, Carolyn Alphen, Corey Sciuto
START: 7:07 PM
Last meeting’s minutes accepted.
Treasurer’s Report: $277.29
Annual Election: Susan to step down. Jack and Carolyn running as Co-Chairs. Stephen Greene as VP and Treasurer. Corey to remain as Secretary.
Motion to accept slate, seconded. Accepted.
L.t Siopes Police Report: Fairly quiet month. Discussions about bars and panhandling, etc.
Mayor Edward Kennedy: Discussion about Business Improvement District (BID), general downtown issues.
Update on Parking Garage Repairs: Lower Locks going along; Roy Garage next.
Adjourn – 8:37
LDNA Meeting – 10/26/15 7PM, LTC
Present:
Susan Purdy
Jack Moynihan
Stephen Greene
Corey Sciuto
Carolyn Alphen
Treasurer’s Report: $277.29
LPD Report: Lt. Siopes
No real major crimes this month; concern about vagrancy and criminal activity in front of the TD Bank building on Central St and in the tunnels and back alleys of Prescott St. Discussion about increased police presence (including the surveillance van) and/or cameras. Recommendation to call police and give address so hotspots show up in reports.
Craig Thomas, Chief Design Planner, DPD
Rehab facility building planned for the existing temporary parking lot by 110 Canal. New temporary lot built on existing snow field, on the side away from Canal Place III. Additional building over by Point Park where the National Park Service currently stores their boats.
Discussion about the garage planned for the lot next to Canal Place III. Asked to share out Shadow Study: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7i98ByItbw7bXJuanVveENfM1UzQ2JVa1Y0ak8yS3FWdHNF/view?usp=sharing
Public Meeting on 11/16 with regard to Pedestrian access around the Lord Overpass.
Yovani Baez-Rose, Neighborhood Planner, Katie Stoll, UML Intern
Discussion about Neighborhood Innovation Grants. More information here: http://www.lowellma.gov/dpd/planning/Pages/General/Neighborhood-Innovation-Grants.aspx. The DPD will be hosting a public meeting on November 19th from 6:00pm-7:30pm in the Mayor’s Reception Room at City Hall.
Closing Notes
City Election – 11/3
NO MEETING 11/23, No December Meeting. Meetings resume 1/25.
Lowell Walks, Lord Overpass area, 10/31 10AM-11:30AM. Starts at LTC.
Motion to adjourn – passes, 8:36 PM.
Present:
Jack Moynihan
Susan Purdy
Stephen Greene
Carolyn Alphen
Corey Sciuto
Approve minutes: Passes
Account balance: $277.29
Capt. Kelly Richardson discussed last month’s crime report. Available as usual at http://www.crimemapping.com/Map.aspx?aid=757087ee-5d73-4726-9505-4e1ac44d2f0b
Supt. Bill Taylor – adding cameras to Kerouac Park. Adapting a system like that in Worcester that allows LPD to network together any camera on the internet that wants to be part of the system, into a central location. Being rolled out to local businesses.
Kathleen Marcin recommends that the LPD talk to the condo associations downtown about installing cameras.
Supt. Taylor on panhandling – numerous interviews have shown that the panhandlers downtown are addicts. Panhandling laws are up to the Supreme Court.
Craig Himmelberger – Glad Lowell is much safer than it has been, but opiate issues are way up. Has anyone talked to Gloucester?
Supt. Taylor – Not opposed to the program and glad the conversation has been started, but nobody has actually turned drugs in in Gloucester. Heroin is a lot more addictive and a lot cheaper than it used to be and often cut with Fentanyl. Cruisers now have Narcan in them. Used eight times in the first 24 hours.
Sam Litvin – Can we look into some sort of marking system for locations, like the canal walks and alleys, that don’t have addresses? It’s hard to call in places.
Supt. Taylor – We’ll look into it more.
Susan Purdy asks if we’d reconsider the regional dispatch center
Supt Taylor thinks the last proposal was a bad deal for Lowell for numerous reasons.
Chris Hayes and Aurora Erikson, Lowell Votes.
Door to door canvassing to increase the vote. Handed out material about the current election season and is looking for volunteers.
Meeting ends.
After agenda conversation about economic development being a good topic for October, and how to reach out to more people.
Yovani Baez-Rose at Neighborhood Planning will be on the agenda in October.
Joe Laroque was here to reach out to us for Representative Mom.
Susan motions to adjourn, Jack seconds.
04/27/15
Start 7:07
$262.29
Steve Stowell, Jim Wilde, Dick Lockheart
Steve, Jim, and Dick discussed the history and the mission of the Lowell Historic Board.
Quarterly Newsletter, Sign up here: http://www.lowellma.gov/dpd/devservices/historic/Pages/default.aspx
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LowellHistoricBoard
Doors Open Lowell: May 14-16
Susan: Does the LHB aim to preserve a particular time?
Steve: The 19th century. We aim to be sensitive to this time period.
Corey: The Father John’s Building sign looks like it was blasted off.
Steve: Yes, there was a lot of problem with seepage there; there was nothing they could do. We had them stop work and verify. Similarly, the TDBank fence is temporary.
Carolyn: What is the situation with the lighting?
Councilor Belanger: We need to improve the bulbs, and reflection; in progress.
Councilor Samaras: It needs to be fixed. We want businesses to leave some lights on at night as well in their stores and put lights on their signs, façades, etc.
Capt. Richardson, Sgt. Langaways
Captain Richardson discussed the incident a few weeks ago where a gun was pulled in Kearney Sq. The suspect was arrested and the gun was recovered in the Roy Garage.
There is a new foot patrol route from the Library down Merrimack St. There is an officer dedicated to the homelessness problem downtown.
<related Q&A>
Website: http://www.cbacre.org/programs-events/mvte
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MerrimackValleyTimeExchange
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mv_time
230 member skill exchange program.
Skill Share – May 16, 26 Workshops: https://millcityskillshare.wordpress.com/
June 13th? In Lieu of meeting. Still in planning.
Increase voter turnout in the city. Turnout in local elections is about 11%, 40% in national elections. Meeting, May 4, Pollard @ 6:30
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LowellVotes
Join the Lowell Police Department, UMass Lowell Police and National Parks Police for Coffee with a Cop at Cafe UTEC on May 4th from 5:30 – 7PM. Thank you to Cafe UTEC for supplying the refreshments!
Adjourn, 8:39
Mike Kilmartin was the LPD officer giving the crime report. Fairly typical month.
Susan Halter of the Cultural Organization of Lowell (COOL) reviewed the upcoming events in Lowell. Newsletter signup is here http://www.cultureiscool.org/ and the City Event Calendar is here http://cityoflowellcalendar.org/.
The Northern Middlesex Council of Governments’ Chris Curry, Transportation Mgr. reviewed their purpose & asked for feedback on any and all transportation issues. In July possibly their will be an app for LRTA on which one can locate exact location of each bus to time one’s arrival at the stop you are at. Reminder to take the survey on the Regional Transportation Plan if you haven’t already done so: http://www.nmcog.org/RTP2040.htm
Jack Moynihan
LDNA Agenda – April 27, 2015
1. Opening greeting
2. Approval of minutes
3. Treasurer’s Report
4. Police Report
5. Introduction of Steve Stowell and Dick Lockhart of Lowell Historic Board
6. Introduction of Joy Mosenfelder of the Merrimack Valley Time Exchange
7. Stephen Greene will discuss LDNA Social planned for June
8. General Information
9. Adjourn
The City is working with UML Professor John Wooding and students to have an Earth Day Clean-up on Sat. April 25th 8:30 am to 11:30 am. Downtown residents are invited to meet at Mack Plaza and help the Lowell Canalwater Cleaners.
Posted in Uncategorized
Reminder That our March meeting is as regularly scheduled: 7PM on Monday, March 23rd at LTC. Agenda is as follows:
1. Introduction of Officers and Elected/City Officials
2. Approval of Minutes from 02.23.2015
3. Treasure’s Report
4. LPD report
5. Susan Halter, Ex Director COOL “ARTS & EVENTS IN LOWELL 2015”
6. Danielle Mucciarone, Energy and Environmental Planner
Northern Middlesex Council of Government
Regional Transportation Plan; Public input needed
7. Misc. Announcements
02/23/15 Meeting Notes
7 PM Start
Present
Susan Purdy
Jack Moynihan
Stephen Greene
Carolyn Mooney
Corey Sciuto
Approval of minutes
Passed
Treasurer’s Report
$2.13 in the bank
Board Elections
All running unopposed – Motion to keep current board. Passes
Lt. Matt Penrose, LPD
1/23-2/22 Incident Report
Lowell Police Department reports they are working well with the bars and the parking garages. The bars will turn the lights on and stop serving if things get too rowdy and the garages are opening their gets so LPD can get in.
Colleen Brady – Can we get cruisers patrolling the garages?
We have been following people into the garages when the bars get out. If we find people drinking in there, we act on it immediately.
Darryl – Can we deal with the crowds at Merrimack and Dutton at nights?
Lt. Penrose says they will look into patrolling there more. In general, they work to keep people moving.
Jack – People in cars are still not paying attention to the traffic lights, esp at Central and Market.
Lt. Penrose says they’ll police that intersection.
Corey – Citizen Police Academy starts up on Thursday
Misc.
Susan mentioned that Northern Middlesex Council of Governments (NMCOG) wants to meet up with us soon. Corey posted their Survey to the Facebook feed: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=HPRYN2aHbheyf40SXIGm59GNSGaGRpwqxdsxpoMnnEE%3d
Stephen is working on the neighborhood meet-up. Contact him if you are interested.
Councilor Belanger
We need to increase turnover in parking spaces on nights and weekends. In the next few months, we are going to begin enforcing the posted hours
Fr. Dwight – What about Sundays?
We will look into it.
Corey Sciuto – Can we require parking passes in condo fees?
It wouldn’t go over well.
Susan, Jack – Validated parking; passes not tied to plates?
We’ll look into it.
8:15 Adjournment
LDNA monthly meeting – November 24, 2014
Notes taken by Stephen
In attendance Stephen Greene, Jack Moynahan, Capt. Kelly Richards, Eric Sand, Lara Taveras, Counselor William Samaras.
Absent with notice Susan Purdy, Corey, Caroline
The meeting had sparse attendance because it was just before the Thanksgiving holiday
Minutes from October were accepted with Stephen making the motion and Jack seconding.
Capt. Kelly Richardson made the police report. He indicated that there had been a problem in the Roy garage and there are additional patrols especially in light of the holidays and the likelihood that there be more materials, or cash on people during the season. With respect to liquor establishments, Reservations has been a problem recently, this is on Central Street. In general downtown the kids have been a problem – combination of being disrespectful and also problem with bicycles and skateboards.
The city Council is concerned about the quality of life issues downtown and they are working on this.
Also, light in the downtown is being looked at as there are sections where light is poor or absent. In particular, a section of Paige street were ownership of the lights is not clear.
John Noto of Lowell Makes presented information about the organization which is a nonprofit and open for membership. They have a lot of fun useful equipment available and people can join. They have a number of different membership levels. They have teaching space, a computer lab, 3-D printing and refreshments, a bike shop, a laser cutter, an electronics lab, there is leather maker and a metal shop. So there are lots of things that people can do. They even have had their first entrepreneurial spinoff. They also have free Wi-Fi and recently added a pottery kiln. A Lowell Makes flyer is available.
Stephen talked briefly about the condo and commercial recycling through a city downtown program that the Solid Waste and Recycling department has discussed He pointed out that even though buildings have cooperative programs, these programs can have their ups and downs. The density of the units downtown will require a different way of handling recycled materials. He pointed out for example, Market Gallery was 22 residential units and that having 22 recycling bins would be an impossible task to deal with because of the lack of space.
Stephen also talked about community solar program it is something being put forward by Next Step Living. The program allows people who do not have the physical space for solar panels or are renters to participate in a solar program. The concept depends on having one major anchor tenant for a megawatt size solar field which is located somewhere else and then the rest of the project is divided up into ~2% shares. The advantage to being involved in the program is the approximate 5% savings on your electric charges. The anchor tenant gets larger savings which is quite significant and especially considering the fact that electric rates expected to jump approximately 30 or more percent this sound this year. Stephen will get more information from our January meeting.
During open discussion:
Interest was expressed in an electric vehicle charging station in the Roy Garage. Stephen will bring that information back to the Green Building Commission and see if there is some possibilities of having something like that made available.
There are charging stations at UTEC, the Earlie garage.
The City Council is looking into downtown lighting.
Bikes and skateboard issues.
It is time for traffic enforcement as cars are not yielding to pedestrians in cross walks.
A reminded that the full complement of police in Lowell was 260. We currently have 235.
Reminder for the City Lights Parade on Saturday 11/29. The will be parking restrictions on Merrimack, Central and Jackson. Free parking in the garages until 8 PM.
The next meeting will be January 26 and no meeting in December.