Haverhill City Council Vice President Melinda E. Barrett.
Haverhill city councilors are scheduled tonight to revisit complaints from some Bradford residents over ongoing noise and foul odor issues near the commuter rail train layover station.
On the agenda, council Vice President Melinda E. Barrett plans to update colleagues about a requested “response from the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA), Keolis and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about idling trains in Bradford.” It will be the council’s first public discussion on the future of the train layover station since a plan to relocate the layover station in Plaistow, N.H., as part of a commuter rail service extension proposal, was rejected by local voters during the March, 2015 Plaistow town election. As WHAV reported at the time, one Plaistow area resident told WHAV “the ultimate recommendation of the study—to foist Haverhill’s problem over the border into Plaistow—was pre-determined before it started.”
Among the Plaistow Commuter Rail Extension Study group’s three site alternatives, one would have placed a layover station on the Haverhill side of the state line, along tracks parallel to the upper Hilldale Avenue industrial park. The study group had recommended an alternative which would have located a commuter rail passenger station and layover facility in the Westville section, off Joanne Drive, in Plaistow. The projected total capital cost in 2015 was $50.5 million and was proposed to be funded by “a federal grant & Massachusetts matching funds; no capital or operating costs anticipated to be paid by either New Hampshire or the Town of Plaistow,” according to study documents.
In other council items, a public hearing is to be held tonight on the city’s plan to extend the Chapter 40R Downtown Smart Growth overlay district to the westerly, or Little River, side of Stevens Street. During last month’s state of the city address, Mayor James J. Fiorentini announced plans, pending approval of the district extension, for a $30 million redevelopment project at the former Stevens Mills building at the corner of Winter Street by Winn Development, Boston. Last September, that building was saved by firefighters battling an eight-alarm blaze behind it, at the former Hudson Machinery Company mill building, 14-30 Stevens St.
The Haverhill City council meets at 7 p.m., tonight, in Theodore A. Pelosi Jr. Council Chambers at Haverhill City Hall.
I think we should just close the bradford station. The parking lot is never full. Sell the land and move on.
Old story,Barrett got nothing but hot air.open Mike had this covered year’s ago.people wouldn’t know this is smoke screen if it weren’t for whav