By John Lee Grant |
February 26, 2021
A number of parking spaces are off limits as a chunk of concrete had to be removed from the parking deck. (WHAV News photograph.)
Although the city wants a developer to buy and demolish the downtown Haverhill parking deck, it requires emergency repairs to at least temporarily restore more than a dozen parking spaces.
Council President Melinda E. Barrett told her colleagues Tuesday she noticed a number of parking spaces at the Herbert H. Goecke Jr. Memorial Parking Deck are out of commission.
“There was a crack in the upper deck there so, subsequently, some metal plates were put down. We’ve lost maybe seven spots up top and maybe nine spots down below, behind the Pentucket Bank,” she said.
By WHAV Staff |
(File photograph.)
The union representing Haverhill’s education support professionals returns to bargaining with the city in about three weeks after making little progress on a new agreement earlier this week.
The union’s contract with the city’s schools expired at the end June, last year. In an update to members of the Haverhill Educational Association, ESP Chair Maureen Zuber said the Haverhill School Department is “holding firm” on a differential of 50 cents per hour for ESPs to work as the technology or library teacher. The union countered, asking for a differential of $5 per hour.
“…The proposal was extremely disappointing as there was no movement on the (School Committee’s) proposed wage increase of 1.75%, 2% and 1.5% each year,” Zuber said. She added the School Committee did not make a counter offer to the union’s proposal for a “market correction” of $4,000 to bring members closer to earning a living wage or differentials for those
With the state returning Monday to Step 2, Phase III of its COVID-19 reopening plan, Haverhill likewise plans to fully reopen City Hall that day. Gov. Charlie Baker’s plan returns the Commonwealth to the December phase it was in before new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations followed the Thanksgiving holiday. One practical effect of the new […]
By WHAV Staff |
February 24, 2021
Gov. Charlie Baker wears a mask when not speaking at the podium during a Haverhill visit Nov. 7, 2020. (WHAV News file photograph.)
Gov. Charlie Baker is putting $4.7 million into a program to help vaccinate residents in Haverhill, Methuen and Lawrence and 17 other communities that are described as “disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.”
The effort aims to reduce barriers to vaccination in the 20 hardest-hit communities in the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth will work with Archipelago Strategies Group and Health Care for All to work with “local leaders and community- and faith-based organizations to strengthen existing efforts in these cities and towns.”
By John Lee Grant |
Haverhill High School gymnasium. (WHAV News file photograph.)
The Haverhill City Council on Tuesday approved spending $60,000 to pay for a feasibility study and design for a partial roof replacement project at Haverhill High School.
The study and schematic design are required by the Massachusetts School Building Authority as part of a possible state Accelerated Repair Program grant.
During the Schematic Design Study phase, the MSBA will work with the city’s project manager to find an economic, educationally appropriate and sustainable solution to the repair of the facility.
In a related matter, a request by Council President Melinda E. Barrett for a status update on the newly combined city and school’s maintenance department was put on hold after Council Vice President Colin F. LePage said new Maintenance Director Steve Dorrance plans to address the Council in person to discuss what has been achieved over the past three months as well as his vision going