Sentinel & Enterprise Article January 7, 2018
Petition pushes to delay Fitchburg City Hall vote
By Elizabeth Dobbins | edobbins@lowellsun.com | Lowell Sun
PUBLISHED: January 7, 2018 at 12:00 am | UPDATED: July 11, 2019 at 12:00 am
FITCHBURG — Over four dozen people signed a petition asking City Council to approve an extended public comment process regarding the proposed $23.5 million City Hall renovation.
“I don’t think City Council has been particularly responsive to citizens, so if the informal email and calling doesn’t work then you’re looking at the formal mechanism. (It’s) an attempt to raise issues, raise concerns,” said Stacey Fenton, a Fitchburg resident who collected signatures and submitted the petition with her partner Robert O’Brien.
The petition — which will come before the City Council on Tuesday — makes two requests.
First, the four newly elected City Councillors “be fully briefed” by the architectural firm Lamoureux Pagano & Associates, which completed the study outlining five options for City Hall and presented their findings to prior City Council in mid-November.
Second, the petition requests three public meetings held with a 14-day notice and “adequate advertising” through newspapers, the city’s website, electronic road signs and other venues. Both viewpoints should be given 30 to 45 minutes to present their case, the petition reads.
O’Brien said the petition is a response to the public process of weighing the City Hall project last year, which he called “sneaky,” noting he believes the advertising for the November meeting on the project met legal requirements, but did not adequately inform the public.
“I don’t think unsatisfied begins to cover it with an issue of this magnitude,” O’Brien said. “Saying that I was unsatisfied is like saying the sailors at Pearl Harbor were unsatisfied about the early warning on Dec. 7.”
City Council President Michael Kushmerek said, though meeting attendance was relatively low at about 50 people, the November presentation to councilors and the public was advertised on the city’s website, in the newspaper and on “numerous” Facebook sites. The City Council also moved from its usual venue in Memorial Middle School to an auditorium at Fitchburg State University to accommodate a larger crowd.
More notice, better advertising and improved awareness of the project’s price tag would bring hundreds of the people to meetings, said O’Brien. He also noted the city’s website where information was previously posted was difficult to use.
Kushmerek said City Council will likely elect to move voting on this petition to the Committee-of-the Whole meeting on Thursday.
“All petitions are always referred to committees,” he said.
The petition was moved on the agenda to be read before the reading of two City Hall-related agenda items, which propose funding for the City Hall. If the petition is approved, the discussion of these later two agenda items could be delayed, according to Kushmerek.
“If councilors vote to (approve the petition), while we might not necessarily be bound in that moment to do so, I think the council would generally adhere to (the request),” he said.
Even if the petition is not passed, Kushmerek said the public will still have three opportunities to comment on the project before City Council takes a votes: once at the Thursday Committee-of-the-Whole meeting and two more times at separate readings during City Council meetings.
Addressing the second part of the petition about briefing new councilors, Kushmerek said the four City Councilors who were sworn in this year were all present at the November presentation and have also been briefed by city officials on the project. These officials are also expected to make a similar presentation at the Thursday meeting, he said.
Fenton and O’Brien both oppose the City Hall project, which they say will use funding better spent toward tens of millions in repairs to the city’s schools. O’Brien said he has a middle school student in the district’s schools.
Their complaints come after several months of public concern regarding the school district’s infrastructure, spurred this fall by severe roof leaks at Longsjo Middle School, which caused the closure of the building’s top floor. The concerns continued this week with the temporary closure of two elementary schools and several classrooms in two other district schools following damage sustained during the freezing temperatures.
Though city officials have previously said Fitchburg has the debt capacity to pay for the City Hall, Crocker Elementary School and a portion of the Fitchburg Public Library renovation projects, the two petitioners point to needs at other schools and say a new City Hall is a luxury.
“We have something in 166 Boulder that is good enough,” Fenton said. “For a hard scrabble working-class city, ‘good enough’ for right now is fine. We need to get onto the schools.”
Fenton said even if City Hall is approved, she believes she will see a change the conversation in the city.
“I think there’s been an assumption as citizens that these things were being taken care of for us and I think a lot of people are waking up to the fact they do not share the same values as we do,” she said. “Even if the appropriation passes … I think there will be an ongoing conversation about what the future of Fitchburg should be. Where we put our money and what we hold dear.”
