Present:

Jack Moynihan – Co-Chair

Susan Purdy – Co-Chair

Stephen Greene – VP

Carolyn Mooney– Treasurer

Corey Sciuto – Secretary

7:09 PM – Start

Treasurer’s Report:

Carolyn reports we had to close our account @ Mill42 as they are no longer doing commercial accounts.

We have $132.29 that will be put into an account with Enterprise Bank in 4-6 weeks when our paperwork clears.

Reminder that dues are back up to $10.

Mayor Rodney Elliott:

What has improved?

• Implemented new regulations around bars, etc.
• More patrols on the streets, esp. around closing time for bars.
• Reversion—with Councilor Belanger and others—to a Community Policing model.
  • Police will be more prevalent in hot spots
  • Also focus on a more comprehensive response with code enforcement, etc.

What can be done?

• Bring back the street-sweeping people.
  • Agreement from the Neighborhood Association.
  • Sam L – Can we use this as a community service role? Susan – Can we use it for elderly tax abatement?
    • Mayor – Good ideas, but we need somebody dedicated.
• C. Belanger – Remember that we’ve had a rough winter and things are worse than usual having been in snow banks, etc. Overall, agreed we need weekend cleaners. We need to be presentable to business owners, residents; visitors.
• Task force for businesses and economic development. To echo Belanger, parking is important.
• Reminder that the one-way street changes are happening.

Questions?

• Eric Sack – Questions about the “Asset Buildings” at Market Mills / Canal Place.
  • Mayor to look into it.
• Sam L – Stairwell cleanliness in the garages?
  • Jim Troupe, Parking Director – The garage maintenance company owns the garage but the power washer is only occasionally available. It’s currently in Hartford. There are also significant repairs scheduled by the city for the garage.
  • C. Belanger – we need garage cleanup to be more accessible.
  • Michael B – Is there an option of bathrooms? Usually not, they aren’t in accessible areas?
• Sam L – What about the broken garage gate in the Market Garage?
  • Jim T – working on it.
• George DeLuca – Is there a schedule for the two-way conversions? Will it impact the Folk Festival?
  • Mayor Elliott – It’s over a couple of months.
  • Susan P – Eric Eby will be here next month (4/28) to talk about the rollout. It should be ready by August.
• Susan P – Lowell has been looked at very positively in the Boston-Area Media lately. Why did Rep. Golden say that Mayor Elliott was going to save the city?
  • Mayor Elliott doesn’t know.
• Michael B – Perception of Lowell is lagging reality. Is there more outside marketing that can be done?
  • Mayor: Budget on marketing is tight but we have spent thousands. Further reductions in crime and things like parking and cleanliness can go a long way towards helping that issue as one bad event can cancel out many good ones.
  • Changing the image of the high school, continuing no-tolerance w/r/t gangs there, will help. We need to beat the gangs, although we have done a lot there already.We can also work more closely with the NPS to get visitors.
  • C. Belanger – Echoes what Mayor Elliott said. In addition, the .75% meals tax hike is NOT going to marketing as it should. It’s hard to market tourists from Boston as Lowell is a small city and far away.
• There is a livability issue w/r/t Boston however, and we can do better with that. Also, there are a lot of problem properties.
  • Mayor Elliott – Economic Development Tax Force will be looking at those.
• Corey S – Related: What’s up with the Red X on the old Appleton Bank Building?
  • Seems like it’s being repaired.
• Stephen G – We are getting more cultural events, BSO music, up from Boston, etc.
  • Mayor Elliott – How did you find this?
    • Boston Globe
• Stephen G – What’s going on with the Enel situation and the Eastern Canal bridge in Kearney Sq?
  • Enel and the city are in a legal battle right now over a change from a PILOT to a full assessment on the Boott Hydro facility. They are dragging their feet on this now.
  • The cost to improve all of the Enel Bridges, if the city owned them, is over $20M.
• Susan P – How can we improve the River Walk? Music, etc.
  • Supt. National Parks received grant funding to extend the Rvierwalk.
•  Corey S – How do we get more UML kids downtown?
  • Mayor: We have the UCard. We need more businesses to bring more businesses downtown.
• Sam L – What can we do about security on the Riverwalk?
  • Jack – Some of the Segway officers are going to be out there.
  • Sgt Cullen – We hope to get more officers.
• Corey S for Fr. Hoeberechts – Where will recycling be?
  • Mayor Elliott – Not Bagshaw Mills! Need to have a public process.

8:10 Mayor Elliott Concludes – further questions contact Celine Gettings.

Sgt. Cullen – We are re-organizing the department.

• Crime statistics for the past month were a little high. A lot of the assaults are domestics, which are very hard to handle.
• Going back to Community Policing with task forces per sector, data-driven analysis.
• Michael B – How do you look at Broken Windows?
  • We take it very seriously. Streetlights out, dead animals, etc.
• George DeLuca – Can we find the crime reports online?
  • Yes, they are still there…if they got lost in the website move, they will be fixed.
• Do we perhaps have too many cruisers? Are the lights an issue?
  • It’s a difficult balance between foot patrols and response time in cruisers.
• Carolyn – Do you work closely with the NPS police? There have been a lot of breaks in their lot.
  • Those usually go to us, yes.
  • We did have a rash of broken car windows—addicts—in the past month. Arrests were made.
• Darryl – March 3, 9:25 AM. Issues keeping cars out of the bus stop on Shattuck St. Police Dpt. not taking  it seriously.
  • Completely unacceptable—goes against police legitimacy. Talk after the meeting.
• George DeLuca – Commending the updates to Community Policing, having more officers on the beat. Also, the panhandling has cut way down. What are the changes in increased enforcement at the library?
  • Thanks, and yes, we are in the library more often. The library and panhandling are a very difficult balance between policing and civil rights issues.
  • Alpha Sector – Lt. Dan Laroque (Days), Sgt Cullen (Evenings), Night – no changes.

Old Business – Garage Security

(8:30) Rich Dillon, Matt Jarek from security company (US Security).

• Jack, speaking for Elaine Wood – What do we do about people driving the wrong way and the partying in the garage?
  • Rich D – We’re increasing patrols, the Roy Garage has been an issue. There are people patrolling on foot and in carts. We are being proactive – looked for parties in a car on a recent weekend and found none. We have a new regulation with no smoking in the garage to enforce as well.
  • The first point of contact for any issues should be the security in the garage.
• Sam L – there seems to be a wide range of guards working the garage. Some are really good, some don’t do much. What evaluation of guards do you use?
  • We brought on any old guards that could pass the background checks from the old company. We believe we have high standards.
  • There is a dispatch number posted in the garages (1-800-228-3840) call to report issues.

New Business

Spring cleanup – Saturday, April 26^th. Coordinated with Canalwater Cleaners. Kicks off @ Mack Plaza @ 9AM.

• Darryl – is there anything to do to clean the canals better?
  • Stephen and Jack – Enel won’t let us in the canals. There are live wires in there.

Eric Eby from the Traffic office and perhaps Eda Matchak from the Elections office will be here next month

Meeting Adjourned, 8:48