Chamber breakfast big success; Mayor Clancy pleads for bond

Journal Staff - The Lynn Journal

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

The Porthole Pub’s special venue room was packed to capacity last Thursday morning for the Chamber of Commerce sponsored breakfast featuring Mayor Edward “Chip” Clancy’s extraordinary State of the City appeal for the $10 million bond referendum coming before voters here in March.

With that speech, Clancy began a public relations government effort to persuade voters that coming out and voting in favor of the bond proposal on March 21 will be the right thing to do.

“We need to maintain our capital assets,” Clancy told the crowd of Lynn businessmen and women.

“I’m putting the message out there that we need this bond to make repairs that will not lead to ribbon cuttings or to political favor. The money is to be used scrupulously for badly needed repairs,” he added.

The mayor said the need for a boiler at the Fecteau-Leary School, the former Classical High School, is $1 million.

He said the Breed Middle School’s roof replacement will be an additional $1.5 million. The City Hall roof might well be another $560,000.

The city’s plows need to be replaced, and that will cost the city an additional $880,000.

The city’s total needs, Clancy enumerated, are approximately $7.8 million in order to keep a handle on things.

Non-critical projects relating to infrastructure total $14.5 million, according to the mayor.

City ordinances allow for the mayor to bond $4 million without going to the voters.
“Over $4 million, and it requires a referendum,” said the mayor.

The mayor attributed the city’s extraordinary need for the bond to the lack of upkeep of city properties over the decades.

“Without proper maintenance, this is what happens,” he said.

Clancy used the now torn down Manning Bowl as an example of a stadium that was built with nothing done to it until it couldn’t be used and until it almost crumbled into the ground.

The large crowd gave the mayor a warm round of applause when he finished his brief remarks.

Congressman John Tierney also addressed the large crowd.

Tierney told the Chamber members that he is fighting in Washington, DC for everything he can get.
He expressed frustration about the Bush administration’s desire to cut taxes and to continue spending on the Iraq war, which he was careful not to criticize.

However the congressman said the $400 billion deficit, most of which has been wracked up on expenses related to the Iraq War, could have been used to build all the schools necessary in every community in the United States – and with money leftover for other projects.