IN HIS almost 77 years of living and working in Lowell, Dennis Canney has seen and done it all, but the hot weather that closed Lowell Public Schools for two days last week was a new experience for the former teacher and coach who now substitute teaches at the high school.
“For some reason, the sun really bakes the school,” he said by phone on Thursday. “I subbed on Tuesday, and I was supposed to sub on Wednesday, but I canceled because I know how hot it gets there.”
Canney has spent nearly 60 years walking the halls of the sprawling complex called Lowell High, attended by more than 3,000 students. He said that generally the building temperature in the morning is good, but by 1 p.m. on Sept. 5, with the outside temperature pushing 90 degrees, it started to get uncomfortable.
“After 2 p.m., it started to get suffocating,” he said. “And I was in the basement! The worst classrooms are up on the third floor on the Kirk Street side where the sun strikes first thing in the morning. It’s 10 degrees hotter.”
The extremely hot weather the past week caused heat-related illness among staff and students, such as dizziness and lightheadedness, Interim Superintendent of Schools Liam Skinner said during Wednesday night’s School Committee meeting.
His comments to the committee “…our buildings continue to get hotter — they absorb the heat,” tracked with Canney’s firsthand observations.
Skinner said the situation intensified during Sept. 6, and actual readings in classrooms showed temperature levels over 90 degrees, with other areas exceeding 100 degrees.
“The situation worsened quite a bit [Wednesday],” Skinner said. “The temperature in the connecting bridge at Lowell High School was 101.5 degrees,” and the decision was made to close the schools.
The committee noted that many of the district’s schools don’t have air conditioning and the windows don’t open more than 8 inches, which hampers ventilating the classrooms and other spaces.
Sustainability in the era of a changing climate is on the mind of Lowell leadership, who approved a new position to deal with the challenges of weather-related impacts on city residents and infrastructure.
In the fiscal 2024 budget, the City Council approved City Manager Tom Golden’s creation of a deputy commissioner of sustainability, which will report to Department of Public Works Commissioner Paul St. Cyr.
DPW provides core basic services that are essential to neighborhood quality of life, such as residential trash and recycling services, sewer and stormwater management, drinking water, maintenance of city infrastructure including streets, sidewalks, lights and signals, parks and playgrounds, and all city-owned buildings such as public schools.
The sustainability director position is responsible for managing, administrating and promoting “sustainability and resilience programs that further Lowell’s vision of becoming sustainable, resilient, green, livable, prosperous and equitable community.”
Significant federal dollars are tied to communities that have a sustainable position, and it is expected that Lowell will be able to apply for those monies once the position is filled.
For Canney, sustainability during hot days comes down to one word: hydration. He coached U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan during her high school volleyball playing days, coached against Lowell High Head of School Mike Fiato’s Lawrence team, and played baseball against radio talk show host Dan Rea in college.
Even in the era before climate change, but now, more than ever, he said it was important to drink lots of water. It’s a message the longtime sub says his students already follow.
“Most kids carry water bottles,” he said. “They’re well-watered.”
More flag drama ahead
BILLERICA WILL soon face more drama over the raising of flags on town property as a group plans to ask the Select Board during their Sept. 11 meeting to vote to allow a pro-life flag to fly in front of the Billerica Public Library for “Respect Life Month” in October.
After the board’s healthy debate over raising the LGBTQ+ pride flag for Pride Month in June, which resulted in the board voting 3-0 with two abstentions from Michael Rosa and John Burrows, they will again debate the raising of a flag, but this time it will be one with a dramatically different meaning.
The agenda item for the discussion says that it is being requested by Burrows, DeeDee Dorrington, Kelley Sardina, Christina O’Shea, Tina MacIntosh and Cathy DeCourcey. The measure may be unlikely to pass, Select Board Chair Michael Riley said, though he said it would not be taken off the agenda.
“There is a good possibility that three people on the board will vote against it,” said Riley.
The pro-life flag in question is, naturally, in opposition to abortion, a legitimate medical procedure that is legal in Massachusetts, but is becoming restricted in other parts of the country after the Supreme Court ruling last year that overturned the court’s previous Roe v. Wade ruling.
Riley said in a Sept. 8 phone call that he feels this effort to fly a pro-life flag is a ploy meant to test him and the board after the board approved the Pride flag earlier this year. Riley referenced the case last year where the Supreme Court ruled against the city of Boston after the city rejected a proposal to raise a Christian flag on city property, but he said that the main issue in that case was that the city didn’t have an actual policy spelled out on flag raising.
“Our attorney recommended that we put a policy in place. The board can put whatever policy we want, but we just have to have one spelled out,” said Riley.
That conversation will happen immediately before the discussion of the pro-life flag, as an agenda item was added to the Sept. 11 meeting to have a first reading of a proposed policy. As read right now, the policy only allows for the American flag, the state flag, the town flag, the flags of the various branches of the U.S. military and the POW/MIA flag. In an email to Confidential Executive Assistant to the Select Board Dawn McDowell Aug. 29, Riley said that other flags could be added to the policy as the board determines them to be government speech.
Burrows said in a Sept. 8 phone call that he believes if the town is going to allow a flag like the Pride flag to fly at the library, it should have to allow all others like the pro-life flag to fly as well.
“Once you let one group do it, you have to let everyone do it,” said Burrows. “It’s a flagpole. You fly flags on it.”
Dorrington said in a Sept. 8 phone call that she and the other proponents of the pro-life flag are going through the effort of trying to do so because they want to get some positive recognition for the movement. In 2019, she said they tried to do something similar during one of the Town Meetings, but that resulted in “chaos and dissension” in the town.
“People misunderstood and misrepresented our goals, so we withdrew it,” said Dorrington.
Dorrington said she sees the issue as a First Amendment issue, and that she is not trying to convince anyone in Billerica who is in favor of legal abortion to change their minds.
“We see it as a symbol for basic inherent dignity of life,” said Dorrington. “Understanding what the law says now, this is the perfect opportunity for it to not be political.”
Chelmsford takes up MBTA Communities discussion
THE LOOMING prospect of MBTA Communities zoning has finally hit Chelmsford.
At the Select Board’s next meeting Sept. 11, resident Doreen Deshler — a former Planning Board candidate — will share a signed petition requesting the initiative be put to a town vote at the next election. Deshler submitted the document and attached 117 signatures, hers included.
By the state’s guidelines, Chelmsford is deemed an “adjacent community,” meaning it borders communities — Lowell and Billerica — that are categorized as MBTA Commuter Rail communities.
Similar conversations are happening across the commonwealth, including in Tewksbury, where residents weighed in last month on possible locations for additional housing in order to comply with the law. Billerica will likely need to build at least 2,323 units, according to a representative from the Northern Middlesex Council of Governments.
It seems, at least in Chelmsford, that the path toward compliance may be rocky. Along with introducing her petition, Deshler wrote in a letter to the board and Town Manager Paul Cohen she intends to speak on the potential impact on the required multifamily housing units.
Abutters and community members will be able to learn more about the project and share their input at two public information sessions. Working with consultant NMCOG, the Planning Board stated it’s narrowed down four possible zoning districts they’d like the town to consider: UMass Lowell West area, Independence Drive area, Riverneck Road — where Davis had proposed developing a warehouse — and the UPS area by Brick Kiln Road.
The first meeting, scheduled for Sept. 19 from 7-9 p.m. at the Town Offices in room 204, will concern the UMass Lowell West area and Independence Drive area, while the second meeting on Sept. 21 from 7-9 p.m. at the Senior Center, will focus on Riverneck and the UPS area. Those living within 300 feet of the proposed districts and other abutting property owners should have been alerted to the sessions by mail.
Upcoming discussions preface a planned article on next spring’s Town Meeting warrant.
Besides zoning concerns, the board will take up less contentious causes, including one honoring late resident Sandie Rainey, the driving force behind the Chelmsford MA Rocks Facebook group that aimed to spread joy through painting rocks. She passed away in July.
In her memory, Friendship Park Playground may soon be home to a new garden, memorial sign and sculpture. Perennial fauna would be planted this fall, when the town also would hold a memorial service for Rainey, according to a flyer shared with the board.
Select Board members will also sign off on the 27-article warrant for fall Town Meeting, set for Oct. 16.
All smiles
MUNICIPAL MEETINGS hardly if ever end with everyone smiling. But the Tyngsboro Select Board did this past week.
In fact, it would be hard to tell who was wearing the broadest smile — Town Manager Matt Hanson, Select Board member Ron Keohane or former Assistant Town Manager Colin Loiselle.
Hanson is leaving Tyngsboro on Sept. 22 to become town manager of Bedford. That might have contributed to his smile. However, Hanson was an important mentor to Loiselle during their six years together at Tyngsboro Town Hall. And his smile hinted at pride in what his protege accomplished.
Keohane was another mentor to Loiselle, and he had the satisfaction of having a prediction come true. When Loiselle first came to town as an intern in 2016, he impressed Keohane with his success at a grant application.
As Keohane remembers the event, Loiselle was brand new to town government, heard everyone talking about grant applications and decided to write one himself. It was for financial software. Not only did the town receive that grant, but it was the largest one given out at that time. Keohane after that encouraged Hanson to keep challenging Loiselle. “I knew he was going somewhere,” Keohane said.
Of course, Loiselle had just been named Hanson’s successor as town manager, so perhaps Loiselle had the broadest smile. He starts on Sept. 20 and will have a couple of days to get last-minute tips and recommendations from Hanson.
The promotion almost didn’t happen, however. Loiselle left Tyngsboro on March 15 to join Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s staff. He discovered that a staff member in a city like Boston does one thing and one thing only. He missed multitasking and the variety of managing a smaller community. He saw an opening for an assistant town administrator in Milton and accepted that position.
He’d only been in the Milton job a few weeks — in fact the local newspaper published an interview with him on Aug. 26 — when the job in Tyngsboro opened up.
So, he is coming back with smiles of approval and a unanimous vote from everyone on the Select Board.
This week’s Column was prepared by reporters Melanie Gilbert in Lowell, Peter Currier in Billerica, Cameron Morsberger in Chelmsford, and Prudence Brighton in Tyngsboro.
