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Yesterday I attended a fun and quick (less than two hours) training session so I could be a researcher in Lowell Seniors Count, an ambitious project to do a door-to-door census and needs assessment of all 15,000 Lowell seniors. The project will kickoff with a breakfast for volunteers at the Lowell Senior Center this Saturday, and the first surveying will begin on Tuesday, July 22, starting with seniors living in high-rise apartments. The project will continue until seniors from every neighborhood in Lowell have been contacted, and according to Lynne Brown-Zounes, senior center executive director, the data gathered “will change the way we provide services to the elderly.”  

Currently, about 95 folks have completed the training to conduct the surveys, but another 100 volunteers are still needed. If interested in helping with this important community-research project, training sessions will be held at the Senior Center on Monday, July 28, at 9 a.m. and noon; Thursday, July 31, at 6 p.m.; Saturday, August 2, at 9 a.m., and Monday, August 4, at 9 a.m. and other times. Volunteers, who will wear identification badges and matching tee shirts, choose the neighborhoods and dates that fit their schedule. Volunteers are also needed to stuff the gift bags researchers will give to seniors–four thousand done so far, 11 thousand to go! The bags include information about tax abatement, water discounts, and prescription help, as well as dozens of other useful information.

Lowell Seniors Count is a coordinated effort between UMass Lowell, the Senior Center, the City, and the Lowell Police. It is also supported by many community groups and businesses, and more than $28,000 has been donated to provide emergency relief for seniors identified through the survey process. This project is a fun and interesting way to make a difference, maybe make a new friend, learn some things, and even get some exercise. Why not get involved and become a community researcher as we make sure every senior counts in Lowell!

I’ve only lived here 15 years, so I had never heard of the Center City Committee until I read Marie’s post which caused me to visit their excellent and informative website. I learned about the history of the committee, which started out in 1972 with a grant from the New England Regional Commission (now defunct) as a public/private partnership that endures to this day, now as a private non profit corporation that has been involved in many of the initiatives that have transformed the city in the last two decades. If you look at the list of members, you will notice an impressive mixture of businesses, agencies and citizen groups with the names attached of many of Lowell’s movers and shakers. Their meeting schedule is also impressive (weekly, informal gatherings as well as monthly stakeholder meetings) and indicates high energy and a sense of purpose. As Marie points out, the Center City Committee will now be blogging on the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) blog. This will be a great way to keep up with what this group is planning to do next, because we are all stakeholders in Lowell’s downtown!

Don’t forget about the African Festival also held tomorrow, from 11 am – 7 pm, at the Sampas Pavilion. After a few hours of viewing gardens, what could be better than music, food and dancing on the banks of the Merrimack?

Here’s an idea whose time has come – urban garden tours! (I’ve been on garden tours that have you driving several miles between gardens, when you get there you see a lot of lawn). Urban gardeners make the most of every inch of space and, as at Fort Hill Park this Saturday, you can walk between the gardens. Here’s the scoop: Saturday, June 21, 10 am – 4 pm.

Meet at Fort Hill Park for free parking and tour information. Light refreshments will be provided along the tour, plus a plant and gift sale and a chance to ask questions of an expert horticulturalist. From 10-12, you will be able to view the park from a tethered hot air balloon! Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the park on Saturday and cost $25/$45 for a pair; $10 for Seniors, teens or Friends of Fort Hill Park; children under 12 free. Proceeds to benefit Fort Hill Park restoration fund.

When I was in Barcelona last year, I marvelled at the amount of public art that enlivens that city; there are new and exciting pieces around every corner which refresh the eye and stimulate the mind.  Thanks to the wonderful Revolving Museum, Lowell is on it’s way to becoming a ‘mini-Barcelona’ – well, without the ocean and the fabulous, fresh seafood, the Gaudi buildings and Picasso and Dali museums  - okay, maybe it’s a stretch, but still, public art is a great thing, for tourists and residents, that we should celebrate! Tomorrow afternoon, at 4:00 pm,  come on downtown for the latest installation by the museum’s Teen Artist Group (TAG).  For sixteen months, the young artists have been working on panels reflecting concern for the environment that will be placed side-by-side between Enterprise Bank and Sovereign Bank on Merrimack Street. The completed mural, entitled “We Are One…Love Our Mother Earth,” is the fourth Merrimack street mural installed by TAG.  At the opening ceremony, you can meet the artists and learn about their thoughts, concerns and hopes for the future.  In addition, Gunther Wellenstein from Lowell’s Recycling Department will be on hand to share green solutions for everyone. 

Four Lowell city councilors and their fellow passengers met with a wet end when their bus broke down on Route 495 today after an instructive field trip to see how Worcester manages its recycling and trash disposal program. The ten-member crew, which included Mayor Bud Caulfield, councilors Rita Mercier, Rodney Elliott and Alan Kazanjian, as well as city staff, involved citizens and a state recycling coordinator, had to wait in the rain for about 25 minutes after their bus started blowing oil just before exit 32. As luck would have it, the bus, an LRTA Road Runner used primarily for seniors, ran well enough to get the crew to Worcester and tour the streets so its passengers could observe trash and recycling pickup as well as visit the city’s recycling center. Despite the wet ending, the trip was deemed successful since the group saw firsthand how Worcester, a city serving twice the households as Lowell, generates half the trash (23,000 tons compared to Lowell’s 40,000 tons) due to effective recycling. With 15 years of experience, Worcester provides a good model of how Lowell can do a better job of reducing trash disposal, and the council will be deciding how to move forward with improving its recycling program soon. Now if we can only do something about that bus…

It was a morning to celebrate giving and thank key volunteers who provide services to our community. It was also an opportunity to welcome Joshua Kraft, president of the New England Patriots Foundation, and learn about his family’s twin priorities: winning football games and supporting community work. Kraft was a speaker at today’s Greater Lowell Community Foundation Philanthropy Day Conference, which was the best I’ve attended. The speeches were short, the anecdotes poignant, and perhaps best of all for me, the connections to Lowell High School were palpable. Many of the speakers, award founders and recipients, and major players in local philanthropy are former LHS students and faculty—a tribute to our public schools and our future. In fact, the Youth Service Group Award went to Lowell High’s National Honor Society, one of the oldest, largest, and most diverse in the country. The LHS Honor Society started in 1927 with a Jewish student president under the guidance of a female faculty advisor—just seven years after women got the right to vote. (The second student president was an African American.) The current Honor Society president is senior Tim Bergeron, who also received the Coach’s Award for Track last night and was named LHS Idol a few months ago—a talented athlete, performer, honor student, community volunteer, and genuinely nice boy. Eddie Mercado, another youth leader honored at the breakfast, received the Rising Star Volunteer Award for his work at UTEC and his role in the creation of the Governor’s Statewide Youth Council. Mercado’s $1,000 award will go toward UTEC’s continued work with youth in the city. Although not quite as young but certainly as inspiring, Stephen Conant received the Banker’s Volunteer Award for Lifetime Achievement. Conant, a 1972 LHS graduate and successful businessman, has been committed to protecting Lowell’s natural resources for more than a decade. The annual event provided a glimpse of key people making a positive difference, and it offered an update on the foundation’s $128,000 in awards to 50 different groups this year—both significant in their impact on our communities.

A subcommittee meeting tonight, May 20, at 5 pm in Council Chambers may determine the fate of recycling efforts in Lowell, according to an update from my husband Jay Mason, who is a member of the Citizens Action Committee (CAC) for recycling. Interested folks should attend the meeting because even though it looks like the recycling program will continue—at least for now—how that happens has not been decided yet. The manager and council must modify the program, which has been costing the city millions, to see whether residents will improve recycling from the current rate of 10% up to 30% at least. The CAC advocates a plan that combines an increased base fee with a pay as you through (PAYT) program. The base fee would increase from $100 to $150 per year, and residents would pay $1.50 per bag for trash disposal. Even with this plan, however, Lowell’s recycling program will not pay for itself, but the city’s cost would plummet from a $4.4 million deficit to a $200,000 deficit—a major step in the right direction. Also, depending on ordinances for bulky items and electronics, the city could do better financially. The increased base and PAYT system will offer citizens a disposal program that incentivizes recyclers, makes those who don’t recycle pay for it, and provides an affordable way for the city to be environmentally responsible. How can we not do it? Note: Earlier posts on this topic can be found here, on Dick Howe’s blog, as well as on LiL.

As noted in today’s Sun, Lowell City Manager Bernie Lynch informed Superintendent Baehr yesterday that the city could provide an additional $200,000 in funds for the schools next year, enabling the restoration of four key positions to its FY09 budget. The enhanced communication between the city and its schools, along with an early commitment from the state on its education funding, have improved the school budget process—even though the approved budget required extensive staffing cuts due to limited resources. The school committee today voted unanimously to present the city with a total budget of $137,161,454, a less than 1% increase over last year and an amount that falls within the committed revenue. The loss of 60 positions will impact the quality of education students receive, effect class size and cause major staff disruptions particularly at the elementary schools, while demanding more from staff at all levels. This is the seventh year in a row of school cuts that total 360 positions eliminated since 2002. The committee also unanimously decided, however, to provide the council with a list of “priority positions” to be restored if additional funding is available. The superintendent will present that list at the next school committee meeting on Wednesday, May 21, in a tiered approach—with the most important restorations first. Despite the difficulty of making these cuts, the spirit of cooperation from the city has me hopeful (perhaps overly so?) that restoring more positions may be possible. The improved communication between the two sides of local government underscores how we’re all part of this community and we must all be invested in the education of our children even during difficult times. Without that commitment, I’m concerned the progress we have made in our schools will be diminished.  

Fellow bloggers LiL and Richard Howe both post today on the recycling debate before the Lowell City Council. At issue is the fact that the city recycles at a rate of only 10% which results in a $4.4 million deficit in the cost of running the program. To recoup these expenses and encourage recycling, Lowell should do a combination of pay-as-you-throw (PAYT)—one bag a week per household with additional bags costing $1.50 each—along with a slight increase in the base fee (from $100 to $150 annually). This way, the city’s recycling program will break even while also encouraging more folks to recycle. Consider this: Brockton, a city similar in size and demographics to Lowell, recently instituted PAYT along with an annual base fee of $280; initial results show improvement, with 23% recycling. Worcester, a much larger city although also similar in demographics, has been charging PAYT since 1988 with great results—44% recycling. In Lowell, landlords pay the base fee for each unit, condo residents do not pay for recycling but do contribute to the general fund which is impacted by the deficit, and there is no overall requirement to recycle. Lowell should have an ordinance that mandates everyone recycle because even though it’s the right thing to do, unfortunately that’s not enough motivation for some folks. (Nor is the fact that it will save us all money in the long run.) Disclosure: My husband, Jay Mason, is a member of the city manager’s Green Building Commission and has been actively involved in the citizens’ movement to improve recycling in Lowell.