Presents:
11th Annual Veteran’s Night
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
6:30-8:30 pm
Methuen Senior Center
77 Lowell St., Methuen, MA

Guest speakers:
Keith Jones: DVS Boston
Clarabel Monroy: Social Security
Eric Nelson: ValleyWorks; Employment & Training
Bill Davis: VA Healthcare
Nancy Sabin: Northern Essex Community College
John Dowd: Methuen Post 122 American Legion
Frank Shimko: VFW Post 8349; Methuen
John Cena: City Assessor-Tax Exemptions

Light refreshments will be served.

Mayor Manzi stated, “Ron is one of the many talented artists living and working in our community. It is an honor to display his artwork. I am impressed by his vivid depiction of the Searles landmarks that we in Methuen know so well. I encourage people to come to my office and view Ron’s paintings.”

The Methuen Artist of the Month Program was created by Mayor Manzi four years ago in order to give members of the Methuen Arts Community a forum to display their work and to encourage participation in Methuen’s growing and vibrant creative economy. Methuen artists interested in being considered as Artist of the Month should contact the Mayor’s Office.

METHUEN — Residents cheered as the Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously last night to deny T-Mobile’s request to build a 110-foot cell phone tower on Maplewood Avenue.

Dozens of residents crammed into City Hall to speak against T-Mobile’s request for a variance to build the tower at 24 Maplewood Ave., on land owned by Lorraine and Albert Gervais of Lawrence.

“Such a tower would loom over our neighborhood,” said Ellen Paine of 20 Maplewood Ave. Paine said the tower would be 65 feet from her property line.

If the tower were to fall, “it puts us well within it’s fall zone,” she said.
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“Maureen Donovan was instrumental and worked a number of years contacting officials at the local and state level, along with members of Citizens Against Unsafe Society, to get traffic signals installed at this location,” states a City Council resolution that councilors adopted last week. “Maureen’s tireless efforts resulted in the $200,000 project coming to fruition with the installation of the traffic signals at Railroad Square, in the best interest of public safety and the citizens of Methuen.”

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Methuen Annual Neighborhood Spring Clean Up

Saturday, May 8, 2010
9:00 Am – Noon
Lend A Hand….. Get A Methuen T-Shirt!

For Nearest Clean Up Location Contact
Jill Stackelin In City Hall At 978-983-8578

Trash Bags and Gloves Provided

Volunteer Cookout 12:30-2 pm
Tenney School Playground.

Take Pride In Your Community…your Street, Your Neighborhood, Your City!

$179,200.00 Grant Will Be Used To Fund Several Projects
Mayor William M. Manzi, III announced this week that Methuen has received $179,200.00 energy grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program (EECBG) is designed to assist state, local and tribal governments in implementing strategies to reduce fossil fuel emission, reduce total energy use and improve energy efficiency in the transportation, building and other appropriate sectors.
The grant will enable the City to continue making progress on two important municipal goals: the reduction of energy use and expense in city buildings including our schools, and the enhancement of recycling efforts and moving towards a single stream-recycling program. Methuen will use the funds in the following ways:

 Energy Efficiency Retrofits- the City will analyze and address energy efficiency in city buildings and schools. The initial targets include City Hall and the four K-8 schools. This activity will help the City meet its 10% reduction goal as committed to through the EPA’s Community Energy Challenge. The City will leverage National Grid and Bay State Gas incentive dollars for energy efficiency programs that reduce both gas and electricity use.

 Buildings & Facilities- a portion of the grant will be provided to the City’s Committee on Energy Efficiency and Green Government to develop community education programs and events where Methuen residents can learn about available energy efficiency resources.
Material Conservation Program- a portion of the grant has been allocated to move curbside two-stream recycling to single stream recycling. Using EECBG funds the City will promote and test the single-stream curbside recycling approach.

 Technical Consultant Services- a portion of the grant will be used to continue the relationship with the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission and its Regional Energy Coordinator in order to further support the development of projects and analysis of retrofit activities.
“Energy efficiency has been a goal of my administration since day one. We will put this grant to good use by funding retrofits, educational programs and recycling programs,” said Mayor Manzi. He also thanked the federal government and Rep. Niki Tsongas for the grant, and credited the hard work of his staff, the Methuen Community Development Department, and the Regional Energy Coordinator for completing and tracking the grant application.

Click here to watch the 4 part video of the presentation.

SALEM, N.H. — The buck stops with Gov. John Lynch when it comes to proposing a toll for Interstate 93. That’s what several speakers said among the 45 people who met last night at Woodbury Middle School to rally opposition to a border toll. Elected officials, residents and others brainstormed strategies to scuttle the state transportation commissioner’s plan to apply next month for federal approval to charge a $2 toll on the southbound side of I-93 in Salem.

Two of those people were Sen. Mike Downing, R-Salem, and John Stephen, a former New Hampshire Health and Human Services commissioner. “It all starts with the governor,” Downing said. Stephen, who announced last night he will file today to run for governor, said all Lynch needs to do is let the transportation commissioner know he doesn’t support the toll application and that would be the end. “It’s wrong,” Stephen said of the toll.

The governor’s spokesman, Colin Manning, said in an interview after last night’s meeting, “This is not something that the governor has supported and he has a number of questions and concerns.” Manning said the DOT was asked by regional planning commissions to investigate funding for the I-93 widening. The responsible thing to do is to explore all funding options, he said. “The governor said in his State of the State address it’s one thing to talk about the I-93 (widening) project but to ignore how we are going to fund it is not realistic,” he said.

The toll is being considered as a means of paying for a $260 million shortfall in the $780 million project to widen I-93, pay for the interstate’s yearly operating costs, and the projected bonding for construction, DOT Commissioner George Campbell has said.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts state Rep. Linda Dean Campbell, D-Methuen, said traffic being diverted to local roads would cause more congestion in Methuen than any other town along the corridor.

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From the Eagle Tribune February 14, 2010 12:30 am
Neighbors fight 100-foot cell tower
By J.J. Huggins

METHUEN — Property values have already dropped because of the economy, and people who live on Maplewood Avenue are afraid their homes will be worth even less if T-Mobile builds a proposed 100-foot cell phone tower there.

“We’re a blue-collar town. Most of us are in our homes that are worth, in some cases, less than what we owe on them, and this is just another situation where our property values are going to go down,” said Mark Paine, a 53-year-old painter and paper hanger who lives with his wife and daughter at 20 Maplewood Ave.

The proposed site for the tower is behind Paine’s house, on land owned by Albert and Lorraine Gervais of Lawrence.

T-Mobile has applied for a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals to build the tower at 24 Maplewood Ave., 120 feet away from the closest home (less than the required 250 feet), and to build a tower that would be more than 10 feet above the average tree height in the area, which is 77 feet. The plans also call for three fenced-in cabinets at the site, according to minutes from a recent zoning board meeting.

T-Mobile’s attorney, Jennifer Lewis, told the zoning board the tower is needed to address a gap in wireless service along Route 113.
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The zoning board plans to discuss the tower and possibly vote on it at its meeting on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in City Hall. Chairman Matthew D’Agostino said there’s a decent chance the tower will be approved.

DOT Commissioner George Campbell is moving ahead with the plan — despite heavy opposition from businesses, politicians and commuters in I-93 corridor towns, who object to the cost and in-town congestion they say a toll would generate.

A toll would raise an estimated $46 million a year, money that would go toward the $260 million shortfall to complete the $780 million I-93 widening, as well as pay the highway’s $11 million annual operating cost, and projected bonding expensesfor the project, Campbell said.

He said the widening is critical for travelers’ safety, and a toll is a fair and sustainable way to widen and maintain the now congested 19.8-mile corridor between Salem and Manchester.

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