MEETING MINUTES
March 31, 2009
Present: Suzzanne Cromwell, Capt. Thomas Kennedy, Ted Lavash, Bill Lipchitz, Jamie O’Hearn, Theresa Park, Anne Ruthmann, and Terry Williams
The meeting opened at 8:30 AM.
Captain Kennedy started the meeting off by recounting an incident of disorderly conduct along the canal next to El Rincon Restaurant in which the quick response of the police was praised by those living in the area.
Bill Lipchitz brought to the meeting a letter from Kathleen Marcin of the DNA in which she brings up the issue of disrepair in the parking lot at the corner of Central and Warren Streets. The brick wall along Central Street had been hit by a car several years ago and has not been repaired. The concern of the DNA is that this area will reflect badly on the City, particularly for those visiting and staying at the nearby Doubletree Hotel. Kathleen was hoping the Center City Committee would be able to help with this issue. After doing some investigations Bill was able to find out that in 2005 SAAB sold the parking lot and adjoining building to Reynolds LLC, owned by Dennis Cronin who also owns the Village Smokehouse building. Kathleen will contact Dennis directly. Captain Kennedy asked if the Building Inspector had been contacted and suggested this would be a way to put pressure on the property owner. Theresa suggested contacting the Historic Board to see if regulations would apply in this instance. She added that the Doubletree Hotel had a similar issue with a wall abutting their property which they had to fix.
Bill thought the Annual Meeting went well and said that Jerry Bisantz was very pleased about receiving his award.
Bill mentioned Community Teamwork’s annual fundraiser will be held Thursday, April 23rd this year from 6-10pm at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Tickets are $100 each, which enters ticket holders into a raffle for $10,000 as well as other prizes. Last year over $80,000 was raised. There will also be a silent auction as well as a live auction for more expensive items.
Suzzanne talked about the film festival taking place in Lowell this weekend. The Globe Magazine wrote an article about the event which is posted on the CCC website. Anne Ruthmann will be blogging about the event as well. Friday night’s movie has been sold out; however Suzzanne does have a few extra tickets.
Ted mentioned an art project Enterprise Bank has been promoting in which 50 wooden panels have been made available for artists to paint on. The bank guarantees it will buy the paintings for $500 each. The paintings will be displayed at area Enterprise Banks.
Theresa stated that information about the additional CDBG money the City will be receiving has been posted on its website. May is the launch of the City’s new branding effort with the tagline “Alive, Unique, Inspiring”. Theresa also reported that the week of May 18th is National Business Week. Events are scheduled during that week including a small business fair at the Early Garage.
The meeting adjourned at 9:35 AM.
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