^The Mayor's Newsletter

From the desk of:  Mayor James J. Fiorentini

April 27, 2008

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NEW:  Fox 25 news to broadcast live from Haverhill.

Please join us on May 9 from 6 am to 9 am at Washington Square, across from the Haverhill Post Office, where Fox 25 will be broadcasting life from Haverhill.  Fox 25 will be featuring our downtown restaurant zone, with the best restaurants north of the North End.  

Please stop by and help us tell the rest of the State how great this city is!

Your opinion matters:  

Take this survey >

Haverhill residents express strong support for Mayor's plans

Subscribers to the Mayor's email newsletter have expressed overwhelming support for  the Mayor's plans to revitalize Haverhill.

Over 89% of the people responding the survey felt Haverhill was headed in the right direction.  (By contrast, about 70% of the  respondents to nationwide polls feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction.) Only 2% of the public felt that Haverhill was headed in the wrong direction, with the rest undecided or no opinion.  

 About 84% of the people responding agreed with the Mayor's plans to revitalize old factory buildings are housing and mixed use development.  

61% of the public supported using wells near the Merrimack River as backup water supply with only 9% opposed.  The rest were undecided, or wanted to see the results of tests being run on the wells before making up their minds.  

People responding by a better than 2 to 1 margin felt that Haverhill is safe, but many noted they would like to see more police.

A plurality felt that schools were headed in the right direction, but many people also expressed concerns about the schools.  Only 14% of the public felt that the schools were headed in the wrong direction.  .  

There are about 5,500 subscribers to the Mayor's email newsletter.  Of those, about 235 responded to the survey.  

Boston Magazine Plugs Haverhill in its "Best Places to Live Article"

THE GAMBLE: Haverhill
Boston Magazine, March 2008

"Haverhill has the assets (and now some of the necessary backing) to become a real turnaround story. Like Newburyport, it has an almost perfectly preserved 19th-century downtown corridor with a colorful history (before he hit Manhattan, Rowland H. Macy opened the first Macy's dry goods store in Haverhill in 1851; Louis B. Mayer ran theaters here before founding MGM). 

Attracted by the picturesque architecture and up-and-coming restaurant scene, a pair of big time developers are spending nearly $100 million on new mixed-use complexes in the town center, including a 300-unit conversion of a former leather factory near the commuter rail. (Median home price, $270,000; one-year change: -7 percent; five-year change: +8 percent)"

click here

Governor Patrick Chooses Haverhill as Growth District

Governor Deval Patrick today chose downtown Haverhill as one of the 16 regional growth districts throughout the State to receive an infusion of State infrastructure money.  State Representative Harriet Stanley called it a "modern day WPA.

Regional Growth Districts are State designations of areas that are primed for economic growth and development.  Governor Patrick has indicated that State money for infrastructure improvement-- money for roads, bridges, parking garages and other improvements-- will be prioritized for regional growth districts.

Patrick praised Haverhill's progress over the past four years, and noted that millions of dollars in private sector money is already flowing to our downtown area.

“Growth Districts are hubs of economic growth and housing development across the Commonwealth,” said Governor Deval Patrick.  “By identifying these districts in Haverhill and around the state, and focusing our collective resources on making each one development ready, we are creating the conditions for business growth and community vitalization for years to come.”

This is fantastic news for our city!  It means that Haverhill goes to the top of the list for projects like parking garages.  I'll be writing more on this later, stay tuned!

Road race update on Mayor Jim's blog:

More stories:

Fuel savings, click here

Lowe's Opens

Mayor wants cable competition

Mayor Visits Consentino School

Mayor on the High School:  

"We Will Find a Way to Do This"

Recently the State offered to allow us to do more work at the high school-- provided we pony up $1.9 million of city money to do the job.

I have been working proactively with the State Building Assistance Board, the Department of Revenue, our financial advisors, and others, come up with a plan to pay for our portion of the money.  I will have an announcement on a plan within the next two weeks.  

Providing a better high school at a fraction of what other cities are paying is an important project for the city.  Only a few years ago, it looked as if we could not fix the school without an override or a debt exclusion.  When the voters turned the project down, it looked as if our high school would not be fixed.

However, everything we do has to be done in a fiscally prudent manner.  Fixing the high school is important, and we will find a way to do as much of this project as is possible given our finances.  However, doing it in a fiscally conservative manner is even more important.  Fiscal stability has been the hallmark of my administration and holding the line on spending is the reason why our bond rating has gone up two years in a row and why we are in the position today to be able to fix the school at all.  

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Mayor Listens to Residents

Mayor Fiorentini met with about 20 residents at Broadway Variety, in the first of a series of "Coffees with the Mayor."  

The Mayor brought with him DPW Director Robert Stankovich, and Deputy DPW Director Robert Ward.

Together, they were able to address a number of resident concerns about broken fire hydrants, potholes, street lights, missing speed signs and other matters.