Matters going before the Haverhill City Council Tuesday night include funding additional inspectional services staff and an update on a forestry management project at Winnekenni Park.
Councilors are being asked to approve a $23,100 transfer from a salary reserve account to the Health and Inspection salary account to pay for a new compliance inspector position until the end of the current fiscal year, June 30. Inspectional Services Director Richard MacDonald will appear before the council, according to Mayor James J. Fiorentini.
“During the budget process, I indicated that we would need to add a few positions to our health and inspections office. This creates a new inspector who will work on both the building and health side to add additional capability to our department,” Fiorentini said in a letter.
City Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien.
Also, Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien is requesting a Forestry Management Committee member, Haverhill Democratic City Committee Ward 6 Chairman Graham Schwass, to address the council on the status of an ongoing “hemlock tree salvage project” and other grounds improvements around Winnekenni Castle. It would be the council’s first discussion on the project since December, 2014. As WHAV reported then, Councilor Thomas Sullivan, another member of the Forest Management Committee, supported the hemlock project moving forward. He said the tree-cutting projects at Winnekenni and other city trail sites are about taking care of long-neglected forest areas. He pointed out each tree-cutting area is different. “We’re not looking to wipe out 1,620 acres of forests.”
Haverhill City Councilor Thomas J. Sullivan.
“What we’re trying to do is preserve and regenerate forests that will be needed to be done somehow, someway, sometime. Why not get a good start on it now so that future generations can enjoy these public areas. And that’s really the goal. Particularly, for me, the goal up at Winnekenni, because there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of acres that deserve a little better attention than they have received over the past hundred years,” Sullivan added.
The Haverhill City Council meets at 7 p.m., Tuesday, in Theodore A. Pelosi Jr. Council Chambers at Haverhill City Hall.
Makes you wonder how the woods survived on their own for thousands of years?
All this talk of forest management from councilors who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, and yet not one word from anyone in city government about how much the City of Haverhill is making from the sale of timber harvested.
“Hemlock tree salvage project”? More like “Failurentini Forest Ruination and Revenue Generation Project” Two years ago when Kenosa was harvested many experts reported it was not necessary, as nature would manage itself without human intervention. But mayor Taxman saw and opportunity to make $11,000.00 from the sale of the timber harvested and so the east side of Kenosa lake was clear cut and wiped out. Deception and deceit then and here we go again now…all because this mayor is so incompetent running the city into the ground financially.