VALLEY
PATRIOT WEB EXTRA
Senator
Finegold Gets $631K Grant for Lawrence
Police
Video of Senator
Finegold's Announcement
 LAWRENCE – State
Senator Barry Finegold (D) Andover, held
a press conference Monday at Lawrence
City Hall to announce a state grant
approved in Governor Patrick’s
budget for $631,000 to beef up the
Lawrence Police Force.
“It’s something we are going to
fight for every year, something we are
going to keep advocating for,”
Finegold said admitting that the money
for Lawrence Police is not automatically
going to be renewed next year.
Asked if there were any restrictions on
how the grant money can be used,
Secretary of Public Safety Mary Ellen
Heffernan said, “The restrictions
are for the chief to decide how he wants
to deploy the officers. It’s for
police officers that were laid off. It’s
to bring them back, but how the money is
used is up to the chief,” she said.
Under the Charter of the City of
Lawrence, Police Chief John Romero is
considered a department head who must
follow the directives of Mayor Lantigua.
In essence, Chief Romero can spend the
money the way he wants if they Mayor lets
him, but Mayor Lantigua could direct him
to spend the money differently.
Finegold said that the money is part of a
grant awarded to several communities
“…to help out cities that had a
lot of [police] layoffs, …fall
river, Lowell, and other cities that are
high crime. To me the priorities have to
be public safety, because if we can’t
keep the city safe, then economic
development and education will fall.”
“We were able to give Lawrence about
2/3 of what they were looking for,”
Heffernan added.
“Because we had so many folks
looking for money from this line item, it’s
formula driven, and Lawrence was at the
top of the list.”
Mayor Lantigua did not speak at today’s
press conference and left the room when
the press conference started.
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All
pictures and written material are (C)
Copyright, Tom Duggan & Valley
Patriot, Inc., 2011, All rights reserved
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