The City Council meets on the second floor of City Hall (pictured) in the Theodore A. Pelosi City Council Chambers.
Unused commercial buildings on lots at 0-2 S. Grove St. in Haverhill’s Bradford section are poised to be renovated into 40 one- and two-bedroom apartments if the City Council grants permission after a public hearing planned for Tuesday.
Click image for Haverhill City Council agenda.
Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury recommends the council approve a special permit for the development proposed by J and J Realty and trustee James A. Allen.
The project will encompass a parcel formerly owned by Pan Am Railways, which the city had considered buying as part of a rail trail to provide access to the Merrimack River.
Pillsbury praised the developer’s plans to grant an easement to continue the Bradford side of the rail trail through the development.
“In the public dedication of a portion of the rail trail to afford public access to the river, the project provides maximum public benefit resulting from the redevelopment of the land,” Pillsbury said.
Architect John Sava, in application documents for the project, said the rehabilitation of defunct commercial buildings will improve the residential quality of the neighborhood, add green space, and provide construction jobs for local residents.
In addition to Pillsbury, the project has the backing of the city’s Conservation Commission and Building Inspector Richard Osborne.
The council will consider the project during a public hearing Tuesday in the Theodore A. Pelosi City Council Chambers on the second floor of City Council. The council’s regular meeting begins at 7 p.m.
“This leads me to ask the obvious question: are you a LaRouche follower?” – Certainly not, whack-jobs, all of them.
“writing an occasional hysteria-laced screed for The Valley Patriot is NOT what most would consider a ‘job’” – Please refer to anything I have written for VP that is “hysteria laced”? I write and research for Tom Duggan at my own leisure.
I usually reserve my right in not responding to trolls who don’t “walk-the-walk”, but I’ll make this an exception. Maybe your feelings got hurt by something I wrote? A friend of yours? Political ally? Let’s just be clear, I’m not really concerned with what you, a troll, actually thinks. I believe in The Bill of Rights and of course The First Amendment, even with the opinions of those whom I disagree with. Maybe your own hubris thinks that you have some omnipotent power to sway me (or others) into silence? Been dealing with keyboard commando’s like you for decades, didn’t stop then, won’t stop now. Maybe you can stop being a coward (like many of the politicians I write about) for once in your life and tell us who you are, and maybe, just maybe, add something to the discussion? Until then, there’s really no point responding (feeding) to anything you post here.
It’s pretty clear that one of us is a troll. It’s also pretty clear it’s not me; I’m not the one robotically posting the same general drivel day after day. I certainly am not trying to “sway you into silence” as I don’t believe that’s actually possible*.
While I’m not a troll, I AM a citizen of the city of Haverhill who gets concerned whenever I see a comments section such as this one be taken over by drivel-spewing one-note trolls such as yourself and Jack. I reserve my right to reply to such nonsense as a comments section (like WHAV itself) can certainly be a societal good…until the single-minded trolls take it over. It’s the Tragedy of the Commons in digital format.
BTW, you’re comment about decades spent fighting with people on the Internet brings to mind an old saying: if all you meet are jerks, the chances are that YOU’RE the jerk. Just something you might want to think about.
*Caveat: I have seen numerous people who take Paxil develop the annoying side effect of never shutting up whether online or in person. Not all Paxil users, of course, but enough to make the correlation noticeable.
30 minutes?
I drove from Bradford Square to Central plaza in two minutes at 245 pm.
It took 3 minutes for the return trip at 515 pm.
Congrats Jack! You’ve now used the same, slightly modified diatribe consistently for months. You used to entertain me …can you please get some new material? BORING!
Informing the public daily of how incompetent you are is far from boring, mayor. It’s so much fun.
Mayor, it’s an election year for you….have you forgotten? Your platform of turning Haverhill into a sanctuary city by welcoming criminal trespassers in the country illegally to Haverhill so they can deal drugs, use astronomical amounts of money of city services and resources, commit crimes and rape women isn’t going to work this time around. Your only hope for reelection is that you run unopposed … again.
I’m running my own campaign….to educate people in Haverhill of how incompetent and corrupt you are and how the quality of life for Haverhill citizens has significantly declined since you’ve been in office. If you knew anything about marketing mayor, you’d know it’s all about “reach and frequency”. If the statistics are correct and there are 1.5million views on the articles here on WHAV monthly, I’ve got a very big audience to reach. My comments here daily are driving the facts home of how incompetent you are. I’m happy to hear you’re paying attention!
Good luck with your campaign of photo opps from DPW trucks.
Why on Earth would the Mayor of Haverhill pursue the agenda you’re accusing him of (encouraging crime, bankrupting the city, etc)? What makes you think that repeating this drivel on a daily basis will convince anyone that you’re correct? As my old math teacher used to say, “Don’t assume you’ve given me the correct answer. Please show your work”.
So let’s see your proof, Jack. Show me your work. Show all of us the proof (real, incontrovertible evidence, not opinion, not shady innuendo, preferably not someone’s gonzo economic theories [I’m looking at you, DB]) that the mayor’s agenda is what you claim.
As for the perceived large audience you’re addressing: It strikes me as probable that you’re merely making a fool of yourself in front of said large audience…and you’re getting better at it every day.
“gonzo economic theories [I’m looking at you, DB])” –
There’s nothing theoretical about statistics I use, everything I write about I back up with governments provided data, whether it be Haverhill’s budget, our state CAFR’s, or the federal governments Monthly Treasury Statements. The math if you will is simple middle-school grade math, don’t blame me if others are too lazy to do it or fail to understand it. When it comes to an legal issues, I follow the law, as written, and cite the attributable case law on any particular issue.
To emphasize this point, I was working on a story of a Massachusetts CONgress Member and some potential irregularities in their campaign finance data. The Chief of Staff, in regard to a law I questioned pointed me to “Politifact” for their response. Seriously, true story. This is where we are, and it’s embarrassing.
On another point, when in correspondence with an area Legislator, I pointed out the federal and state increases in Medicare/Medicaid over the past five (5) years. This is is GRADE SCHOOL math, and it comes out to over 40% simply using MA CAFR’s and federal Treasury Statements. What we also discovered, is that roughly 40% of the entire budget in Massachusetts is dedicated to Medicaid payments. A cost of which can easily be converted and shows a 9.3% YoY increase (state/federal roughly same which makes sense). Anyone here or elsewhere I publish can easily check my work, I make it easy with citations to all of my writings.
So what?
Let me expand upon that: you quote numbers and links to said numbers (which anyone can do). However, you appear to be interpreting these numbers in a wildly incorrect fashion such that it appears you expect the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to morph into something resembling a Mad Max movie. You then attempt to tie your conclusions to certain political beliefs (your frequent use of the words ‘CONgress’ or ‘The People’ betray your non-mainstream political POV) in an attempt to create legitimacy and convince people that you’re correct. I’m not sure what your game, if any, is, but it seems to go above and beyond “noisy crank on the Internet”.
This leads me to ask the obvious question: are you a LaRouche follower? I thought your type were nearing extinction.
I’m sure all this activity of yours will all die down once you rejoin the labor force (writing an occasional hysteria-laced screed for The Valley Patriot is NOT what most would consider a ‘job’).
My comments here are based on FACTS, not subjective opinion. The mayor promotes his liberal democrat agenda for the sake of votes and the mental illness called Liberalism. That includes secretly and quietly promoting sanctuary city policies in the city that cause all the issues I listed. This issue alone of adding low income housing at every opportunity is proof he is hellbent on selling taxpayers further into debt for the sake of votes, and causing irreparable economic damage to the city in the process. I’m sure even you could do the math of generating just $3,000.00 in revenue for every unit built, while at the same time adding $16,000.00 for every child living in these units which will attend Haverhill public schools.
Since you’re asking me to comment on mayor failurentini’s resume, here are just a few of his glaring “achievements”.
~He advocated for the purchase and then sale of Hale Hospital leaving the city $100Million in debt.
~Created parking taxes downtown, which he is aggressively trying to raise.
~Bought a city vehicle and hired employees to drive around downtown to ticket as many cars as possible
~Created a meals tax on restaurants throughout the city
~Hired Trash Police to go door to door to fine people for not putting garbage at the street correctly
~Increases property taxes 2.5% EVERY year
~Taxes have increased over 25% in just the past 8 years
~Increased taxes in 2013 by 2.5% and then ended the year with a $3.5Million budget surplus and kept the money to give out in the form of raises
~Leaves the $3.5Million surplus in the budget every year leaving taxpayers to pay money that is a phantom expense in the budget every year.
~Water and sewer rates are set to increase by 50% because of his inaction to secure alternative water sources and adhering to state mandates.
~Got the city sued by trying to take private property of a downtown landowner by eminent domain so the city could turn around and sell the building for a profit.
~Used the power of his office to threaten a city property owner to take campaign signs down for the candidate he did not support.
~Inconvenienced visitors and business owners downtown to make a few thousand dollars from a movie studio
~Double dipping on all youth sports leagues by charging a fee to use fields they have already paid to maintain
~Intentionally falsified documentation to defraud the city council to bring a weed treatment distribution facility to the city.
~Threatened a female school committee member with intimidation who wasn’t going to support a dangerous solar panel issue on city schools.
~Lied multiple times about the savings to the city and taxpayers for energy conservation programs.
~Charges a fee to park in a garage downtown taxpayers already paid to build
~Charges a fee to drop recycling items off at DPW that he turns around and sells at a profit
~Entered into private sector investment again with Harbor Place using taxpayer funds
~Kept 29 city employee felons on the city payroll after they committed felony larceny by conspiring to steal over $54,000.00 from taxpayers.
~Allowed a city cop to easily retire after he was found to be literally sleeping every night while on duty
~Said and did nothing when two criminal trespassers in the country illegally dragged a teenage girl into the woods at Riverside Park and raped her.
~Praised city councilor Andy Vargas for his support of criminal trespassers from other countries illegally living in Haverhill.
~As Chairman of the school board permitted a non-citizen of this country to participate in public debate on a school issue.
~As Chairman of the school board printed “Yo Vote’ ” sticks to hand out to all non-English speaking criminal trespassers in the country who fraudulently and illegally voted in the presidential election.
~He even clear cut a forest to raise just a few thousand dollars for his failing administration.
Every issue listed here is FACT !! I’m sure I’ve forgotten more of Mayor Failurentin’s “achievements”. Don’t worry though…I’ll report on them when I remember.
Thank you for proving my point.
It takes 30 minutes just to drive from Bradford square to Central plaza. Keep building up with housing and it will be a mess. We need term limits and a mayor that cares about the people of Haverhill.
ANOTHER week went by and the mayor has yet to deliver the annual state of the city address.
The city is an absolute mess and even casual observers know the mayor has turned this city into a cesspool. The welcome mat laid out by the mayor to criminal trespassers from other countries who drag teenagers into city parks and rape them, bring drugs and rampart crime to the city now has Haverhill closely behind Lawrence as the safest sanctuary city in the Merrimack Valley for these invaders.
Andy Vargas made a very pubic pronouncement of protecting the rights of criminal trespassers in the city over the rights of taxpayers…but you now have to wonder….why hasn’t even one city councilor called on the mayor to update the council and taxpayers as to the state of the city?
Everyone knows things are bad in the city…but when we now have collusion between the mayor and city councilors to keep the public in the dark about the truth it’s time for a major change.
The mayor is up for reelection this year….voters need to remember this!!
Vargas needs to go !!!
That entire neighborhood was already in tough shape, now they’re completely screwed.