Haverhill

Feds Award Haverhill $452K Grant to Begin Healing 60-Year-Old ‘Scars of Urban Renewal’

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(Additional photograph below.)

The area east of Main Street in Haverhill’s downtown was reduced almost 60 years ago from a huge retail shopping district to a difficult-to-navigate and “one of the lowest-income areas in the city” “cut off from the city’s many benefits.”

Now, Haverhill hopes to reverse, what it called, an “historic injustice” with a $452,000 federal planning grant aimed at, in city officials’ words, “Removing the Scars of Urban Renewal.”

“This grant will support improvements in Haverhill that will better connect all residents to an emerging downtown area, quality job opportunities, education, health care and other services throughout the city,” said Mayor Melinda E. Barrett in a statement. The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Reconnecting Communities & Neighborhoods” program. On Jan. 5, 1966, a Summer Street tenement was destroyed by a bulldozer in eight minutes as Haverhill kicked off its federally funded “Pentucket Urban Renewal Program.” By May of that year, 58 buildings would be razed, including Sears, Roebuck and Co. facing Water Street.

Haverhill

Downtown Haverhill Businesses Ready for Major Demolition, Parking Changes Starting Next Month

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Haverhill business owners expressed both nervous excitement and heart-pounding concern over parking as demolition of an existing downtown parking garage begins near the middle of next month. Economic Development and Planning Director William Pillsbury Jr. last week showed the business community how the city will replace lost parking spaces with a “fairly aggressive, interim parking plan,” while still trying to secure more than what already exists. He reminded everyone to keep their eyes on the prize—a new $160 million redevelopment of the central business district with a new, more than 600-space parking garage. He went to great lengths to answer one question before it was even asked. “First thing I want to share with people is we will never entirely shut down Merrimack Street.

Haverhill

Haverhill Vietnam War Veterans Day: Mistreated for Years, Veterans Now Have Access to Array of Services

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(Additional photograph and listing of Haverhill’s Fallen 13 below.)

Veterans returning home from Vietnam 50 years ago didn’t always find much support, but their sacrifices were honored during a Haverhill ceremony Friday, where officials emphasized today’s vast array of help and services. Observing National Vietnam War Veterans Day under a tent in the rain at Haverhill’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Mill Brook Park, Veterans Northeast Outreach Center Executive Director William Kelly discussed how times have changed. “To our national shame, they were ignored when they came home and, for the longest time, wished away by society. It is only with the emergence of more recent conflicts that Vietnam residents are now recognized and revered,” he said. Kelly noted, however, “Ironically, right now, there have never been more benefits and services available to all veterans, but the Vietnam veterans I know find services hard to access, computer portals frustrating to use and they retain such a poor perception of the VA for the way they were treated back then that they no longer even try to apply for the very benefits that they earned.”

Kelly pointed to curb-to-curb transportation, twice-a-week by MeVa Transit to the Bedford Veterans Administration medical building, Massachusetts’ unique veterans’ services officers—such as Haverhill Veterans Services Director Jeffrey C. Hollett—located in every community, home care services, Veterans Crisis Hotline available to friends and families of veterans and the service center of Veterans Northeast Outreach Center.

Haverhill

Haverhill Swears in New Firefighters, Newly Promoted Officers as Surge in New Recruits Begins

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For the first time in at least many years, the Haverhill Fire Department is enjoying the beginnings of a surge in new recruits—both to replace retiring firefighters and fill 16 new federally funded positions. Mayor Melinda E. Barrett and Fire Chief Robert M. O’Brien late Thursday afternoon presided over the swearing in of two new recruits and three others being promoted. Assistant City Clerk Rose Leonard-Flynn administered the oath to officers Capt. Thomas Helps and Lts. Evan Kelleher and Robert Miles and Firefighters Paxton Lee and Nicholas O’Neill who graduate today from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy. O’Brien was beaming.

Beacon Hill News

State Grants Low-Interest Loans for $50 Million in Haverhill Sewer Work, $15 Million Groveland Well Project

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Haverhill is receiving millions of dollars in state financing help for its sewer projects this year, while Groveland will be receiving state help upgrading its well water treatment. Haverhill Public Works Director Robert E. Ward told WHAV most of the help comes in the form of low-interest rate financing—previously around 1.5% on a 20-year loan, but there is also a small amount of loan forgiveness granted to communities. “It is still a low-interest loan, but there is a little bit of forgiveness. Every little bit helps,” he said. Haverhill sewer projects include South Mill Street Pump Station, $14.6 million of a $57 million upgrade; Locke Street work including combined sewer separation, $23 million; closure of the northern mound of Groveland Road landfill, $10.1 million; and cured-in-place-pipe trenchless lining in various locations, $2.3 million.

Education

School Committee Pulls Second Whittier Tech Seat Off Agenda; City Lawyer Said to Have Found Errors

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The Haverhill School Committee is revisiting plans to fill, what were first described as, two available seats on the Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School Committee. While the existing appointment of Richard P. Early Jr. expires at the end of the month, a new policy that declared a vacancy in the seat now held by Scott W. Wood Jr. is now being reconsidered. Behind the concern, officials said, is a ruling by City Solicitor Lisa L. Mead that the Whittier Tech policy and eight others should have been heard and voted upon separately under the state’s Open Meeting Law. In light of the decision, the full School Committee will interview six candidates at its regular meeting Thursday night only for the seat held by Early. The agenda now lists candidates as Paul A. Bergman, Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien, Early, Debbie Gangi, Jeff LeBlanc and Warren Seitz.

Haverhill

Report: City of Haverhill Spending on Target; Gets Boost From Investing Federal Grant Money

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The Haverhill City Council is expected to see relatively good news when it undertakes its review tonight of usually rather mundane monthly finance reports. City Auditor and CFO Angel A. Perkins, in a written preview of her report, says the city has enjoyed substantial returns in its investment account by earning interest on federal American Rescue Plan Act money. “As indicated in the revenue report, the general fund revenue is trending on target including a significant boost in earnings on investments which the city has received from investing its ARPA funds. Year to date, the city has earned $1.5 million in investment earnings. Two years ago, before these funds were available for investment, the city earned just $156,834,” she wrote.

Education

Former Councilor O’Brien and Bentley Lecturer LeBlanc Seek Consideration for Whittier Seats

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A retired nurse who served 20 years on the Haverhill City Council and a Bentley University lecturer whose family runs a successful automotive business are among those wishing to serve on the Whittier Tech School Committee. Former City Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O’Brien and Jeff LeBlanc, who has taught business at Bentley, Boston University and Suffolk University, among others, both notified WHAV of their interests in one of the two available Haverhill seats at Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School. “My successful and fulfilling 46-year nursing career as well as serving 20 years on the Haverhill City Council make me uniquely qualified and that I can bring valuable knowledge and understanding to the board.” O’Brien told WHAV. She added “I am very familiar with budgetary concerns, administrator transparency, working collaboratively on a team and, most of all, putting Haverhill’s priorities first.”

LeBlanc said, “My connection to Whittier VoTech runs deep. My father, Kenneth LeBlanc, got his start at Whittier VoTech, where he received the foundational skills and training that paved the way for his successful career in the automotive field and business.