>>Valley Patriot>>
|
(02/06/07)
Haverhill's Future
Former Haverhill Mayor Jim Rurak
 On
January 30, I took the formal step of declaring
officially that I was running for mayor. Since announcing
my intentions to do so last November, I had heard from
and met hundreds of people who shared their concerns with
me. The message they gave me loudly and clearly is that
Haverhill’s growth is out-of-control. They were
right.
On the very same day, the Merrimack Valley Planning
Commission released a study that projected that Haverhill
would outgrow Lawrence in just twenty years. In fact,
they predict our population will swell from its current
all-time high of 60,242 to the saturation point of
72,737. Such growth comes with consequences.
For one, we will need more classrooms. The Tribune
reported that School Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan
believes we will almost certainly have to build a new
school. He sees growth coming and believes we must plan
for it. “I’m no fortune teller, but I can see
on the horizon we cannot put our heads in the sand and
forget about it (the population boom),” he was
quoted as saying.
The week before, the police chief was re-ported as
warning that big box retail stores generate a lot of
police calls. People shoplift, pass bad checks, etc.
inside the stores, and, there are often suspicious
people, auto accidents and the like outside. He
reportedly warned that retail development on the high-way
will further stretch his currently under-staffed
department. He already needs more officers. These new
stores are great symbols of growth, but they require that
we plan now for how to serve the new needs they’ll
bring to our city services. Councilor Hall wants the
mayor to budget for more officers. The mayor wants to
wait and see.
In fact, the mayor does want to wait, but there’s
little chance he’ll see anything. He’s already
in a state of denial about the pre-dictions of rapid
growth. He responded to the Merrimack Valley Planning
Com-mission’s findings about our burgeoning
population with ostrich-like simplicity: “it (the
population boom) is just not there.”
Mr. Mayor, are you living in “Who-ville” or
Haverhill? Dr. Seuss’ famous story of the grinch who
stole Christmas is set in the city of Who-ville. The
mayor there wants to hear or see no evil. He constantly
paints himself into the center of every picture of what
is good about the city. But his denial of issues makes
him an ineffective leader.
Here, our mayor touts the benefits of growth all the
time. He talks of downtown residential growth, of big box
retail. But economic growth happens because the
free-market supports it. It’s up to the mayor to
manage it. But with over 800 new residential units
planned for downtown, the mayor fails to implement a
parking plan. For all the growth we’ve already felt,
for new retail stores opening this year, he says it’s
too early to discuss the need for additional police
officers. And, while we sell school building after school
building, we ignore that our school population will soon
explode. And where will we get the water we need? How
much will it cost? Everybody wonders! Only the mayor
denies it!
We need a growth summit and we need it now! The mayor
should convene it, but so long as he buries his head in
the sand, he won’t. The one hope is that the
Merrimack Valley Planning Commission’s report,
together with this year’s campaign and election,
might wake him up. Convene the growth summit, Mr. Mayor.
Do it now, or ask the Merrimack Valley Planning
Commission to do it for the rest of us. City leaders and
city residents need a chance to shape our city’s
future before all the growth you cannot see changes our
lives forever.
Jim Rurak is a professor at Boston College and is
the former mayor of Haverhill. Email your comments or
questions to Jim Rurak at JARandKAS@comcast.net
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The February 2007
Edition of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 10,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland,
Boxford, Amesbury,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Hampton & Salisbury
Beach, and Lowell.
|
Valley Patriot Archive
Valley Patriot Story
ARCHIVES
Prior Lead
Stories
Prior
Valley Patriot Editorials
Prior Columns by ...
Tom Duggan
Dr. Chuck
Ormsby
Paula
Porten
Ralph
Wilbur
Hanna
Ted Tripp
Valley
Patriot of the Month
Griselsilva.com
Patrick
Blanchette
D.J.
Beauregard
Jim
Cassidy
D.J. Deeb
Marcos
Devers
Bob
Desmarais
Regina
Faticanti
Jim
Fiorentini
Bill Kelly
Wilfredo
Laboy
Peter
Larocque
Vilma Lora
Ed Maguire
Billy
Manzi
Paul
Murano
Mark
Palermo
Hartley
Pleshaw
Debbie
Quinn
Raise Em
Right
Dr. Peary
Kathleen
Corey Rahme
Barney
Reilly
Angel
Rivera
Jim Rurak
Grisel
Silva
Mike
Sullivan
Sandra
Stotsky
Mike
Sweeney
Ken Willette
Scott Wood
Jim
Xenakis
|