Crystal Lake - Cleanup Soon?!!?

The cleanup and dredging of Crystal Lake and Elginwood Pond seems to be one BIG step closer to getting underway with a report to the City Council from Assistant Planning Director Blair Haney.

The Lynn Item: Peabody pond dredging projects estimated below price expectations

This is very welcome news indeed! Haney told the councilors that not only was the project going to cost significantly less, but the estimated time to complete the work is mush less as well!

And Haney made the STRONG POINT that all the studies that were performed during the past few years have PAID OFF WELL in determining the causes of the vegetation and how to control them in the future.

Score one for science and logic. Kudos to the Community Development Department on this one.

Despite some folks fear that this project will not happen until they are in the Torigian Center (wink @ OG) it looks like progress (and pride) is alive in Peabody still.

Mayor to ask City Council to Prioritize To-Do List

* --- UPDATED --- *

The Boston Globe North section has an article about the City's plan to FINALLY address the Crystal Lake/Elginwood Pond problems.

Read the whole story in the Boston Globe here.

The more interesting part of the article though deals with Mayor Bonfanti's plan to give the City Council a list of PRIORITY ITEMS for BONDING. The City can only bond about $8M according to the Mayor, but the list now totals more than $14M (down from an original wishlist of $170M).

So the Mayor is bringing this list of items to the City Council for them to discuss and advise him on their priorities for the coming year.

Frankly, wow. This is one of the first really positive moves toward some UNITY within the City that I have seen in a long while. In recent actions I have been quite critical of the Mayor (especially in the negotiations with unions), but this seems like a rather bold (and unexpected) move and one I applaud.

Now, of course, this good will must move from the Mayor to the City Council. And in a very uninformed way, Councilor Gamache has already declared that the City needs to do more than the $8M that the finance department has calculated.

Ward 5 Councilor David R. Gamache, who represents West Peabody, said that if Bonfanti offers a priority list that exceeds his bonding target, "I think we should look at the possibility of including more money over and above the $8 million to get these projects done." He said this might be a favorable market to borrow for capital projects.

Another uninformed and un-researched headline grabbing statement from someone on the City Council?? Perhaps Councilor Gamache has researched the financial situation in great detail and is somehow aware of more funding options that the City Finance Director, but I think not.

And if this is how they will proceed with this issue... as adversaries and not colleagues, I fear it is destined to become business (or rather gridlock) as usual.

Friends of Peabody Lakes?

Does anyone know what is happening with the Friends of Peabody Lakes?

I went to add their website, www.friendsofpeabodylakes.com to the list of Peabody websites... and it is NOT working.

I would hate to see ANY organization dedicated to making Peabody a better place simply vanish into thin air. Then again, perhaps it is only a glitch in the website and they are alive and well. Let's hope so.