The next meeting of the LSC will showcase a ironic battle of the rats. In one corner we have tomato tossing, lettuce eating rodents of the Ingalls School garden trying to remain undefeated by having their lease renewed versus the Lynn City Council and the Seacrest boys at Bennett Street looking to sneak in a new place to park.
It should be quite the night. Really I can't make this stuff up!
http://itemlive.com/articles/2010/11/12/updates/doc4cdda6de466df871354813.txt
lol!
ReplyDeleteStan, In my opinion, there is really nothing underhanded about the parking issue on Bennett St. The problem, as I see it, came from the council, trying to help a new business, believing that this property was within their jurisdiction. I feel that could be an easy mistake to make, as most property issues that arise within the city are in that realm. Crystal Foods had always been able to park in that small space and in fact did so while the Ford Annex was operating. This small strip of land is only assessable through the property that is occupied by Seacrest Foods. This is a company that has moved into the city with, as of now, 30 jobs, and taken over a vacant property in one of Lynn's industrial zoned neighborhoods. Perhaps the long term solution would be to either sell or lease this small space, but as of now I see no problem with allowing them to park vehicles on it, just as the city had allowed previously. Attracting businesses and expanding our commercial base is something that we should be striving to achieve. Presently the GE is expanding next door as it moves towards re-opening the Bennett St. gate, as it appears that they closing off the Lynnway gate which I hope will spark further commercial development on the Lynnway. While we are on Bennett St (pardon the pun), I would like to weigh in on the KIPP versus consolidated Lynn School administration offices in the building that formally housed the Ford Annex. Again in my opinion, that building was built to be an office building for the IUE years ago and it is just that, an office building in an industrial zone. While I am a proponent for the Ford K-8, I don't believe that it is or ever was an appropriate space for any school, KIPP or otherwise. It has always been my opinion however, that if we are going to own an office building, we should move our administrative offices into that space and open up the classrooms that currently house our central administration for the educational purposes for which they were constructed. Another plus with consolidating administration in that space is that it would allow us to vacate the former “New Medico” building that we own on Broad St., so that we can sell it off and cut overall costs.
ReplyDeleteThank you for providing a forum that allows for people to participate in spirited debate. It is what drives an involved community.
Rick Starbard
Thank you Rick for being willing and unafraid to take a public stand. And guess what I agree with most of what you say. Bennett St. is not an appropriate place for a school. Consolidating all of the administrative offices in one location just makes practical sense. Being head injured myself I have a little history with New Medico, but that is irrelevant. I digress. Maybe we could buy textbooks with the money we saved with divesting ourselves of it.
ReplyDeleteNow for the underhanded part of it. You may be right and it all was just an honest oversight. I hope so. The back and forth exchange between Councilman Phelan and Mayor Kennedy smells. I give Mayor Kennedy lots of props for standing up for the school department and in effect the students.
I really don't have a problem with Seacrest parking there but the school department ought to get something out of it. Lynn does seriously need any economic development it can reasonably get. Why not negotiate some partnership between Seacrest and Lynn VoTech? That way we get some educational bang for our buck.