No Rush to Cancel New Bedford Summer Events [OPINION]
The annual New Bedford Half Marathon has been canceled for a second straight year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So has the beloved Joe Jesus s 50s Night celebration that draws thousands to downtown New Bedford. Both events are good for business since they attract a lot of folks from outside the city.
The race was tough to schedule because it is run on or near St. Patrick s Day, which left little time for planning. Besides, things have not fully re-opened as yet. The 50s Night celebration, while still months away, still would have also been behind the eight ball for planning.
New Bedford City Council Flexes Political Muscles [OPINION]
Members of the New Bedford City Council are outraged with Mayor Jon Mitchell and his positions on public safety. Recent fires and shootings are motivating them.
Mayor Mitchell hasn t been able to successfully negotiate a contract with either the police or firefighter unions for years. Year after year has gone by and the tensions between the first responders and the former federal prosecutor have grown in part because of the unsettled contracts.
The city has recently experienced a rise in fires and criminals firing off illegal guns. Just after Thanksgiving, a man allegedly killed a person and nearly killed another with a stolen pistol. That suspect later attempted to kill four police officers in the city. A few weeks ago, a police officer s apartment was shot eight times and the suspect is still on the loose.
New Bedford Councilors Want Answers on Public Safety Issues
NEW BEDFORD The New Bedford City Council is asking Mayor Jon Mitchell not to decommission Engine 8 or close the downtown police station this fiscal year, with the hope that officials in the meantime will find the money needed to pay for those public safety expenses.
The city council voted 11-0 on Thursday to send a letter to Mitchell requesting that his administration and the council work together to find funding for those services that councilors said are vital to the North End and downtown area business district.
“We cannot get rid of Engine 8. It’s a vital part of not only Ward 2, but the whole city,” Ward 2 Councilor Maria Giesta said.
New Bedford Board of Health in the Political Hot Seat [OPINION]
Step aside COVID-19, New Bedford has a more political health issue to decide. The expansion of Parallel Products in the North End of the city is coming up.
The Finance Committee of the New Bedford City Council met last Thursday to discuss the situation with a city company looking to expand its operations in the New Bedford Industrial Park. Specifically, the councilors were getting an update from the team of lawyers Mayor Jon Mitchell has put together to stop the expansion.
Mark R. Reich from the firm KP Law (formerly Kopelman & Page) gave the council a wide-ranging briefing based on his 25 years of practicing municipal law. He has the unique ability to make the dry subjects of environmental law, local public health regulations, and state permitting interesting even in a remote meeting (full disclosure: I was a selectman in Freetown when the Board hired Kopelman & Page and I had a working relationship with numerous att