Left In Lowell

Yesterday’s (Thursday, August 31) Northwest Section of the Boston Globe carried two stories connected to Lowell and today (Friday, September 1) there was another Lowell reference mention in the Business section.

Litle & Co., “a Lowell company that handles credit-card payments for the direct marketing and e-commerce industries is the fastest-growing privately held company in the United States, according to Inc. magazine’s ranking of the top 500 such firms.”

According to the Globe, the 5 year-old company has sales of $34.8 million with a three year sales growth of 5,629%. Pretty impressive! It employs 38 people and its principal is Tim Litle. Unfortunately, it is not our Tim Little.

The other story that should make Lowell proud concerned Jessica Wamala. She is a 15-year old Lowell High Sophomore who is the State’s top under-21 female chess player.

Her and her two siblings were encouraged to play chess by their father who immigrated from Uganda to the U.S. to earn his Ph. D. at UMASS-Lowell. The only issue I had with the article was the reference to the Lowell High Latin Lyceum as “elite.” Jessica attends the Lyceum. I think that word gives the uninformed reader an incorrect impression. It would have been more appropriate to use LHS’s description of the Academy, “rigorous,” “highly-competitive,” and “intellectually stimulating.”

The third story’s title “Waking up a river’s life: Efforts stirring to revive a Merrimack boathouse and put Lowell back on the water” is not accurate, Lowell’s portion of the Merrimack River is not sleeping. The author lament that the river awaits the return of kids from Lowell because the Bellegarde Boathouse is closed due to its badly needed repairs and the sail boats are left unused and some now unusable.

But the river and its shores are already full of kids and their parents. They may not be sail boats but I do see boats, people swimming, picnicking on the shores, jogging on the paths, walking their dogs, bicyclists and how about all those festivals and concerts. They may not be kids sailing but the river and its shores are alive and well. Even the article itself discusses one vibrant aspect of the current river life, the rowers.

As we all know, the State Legislature passed a bill that will transfer the boathouse to UMass Lowell and the bill had some funds attached to it, allowing the University to refurbish it. I am sure once the boathouse is renovated, it will add a lot to the activities along the Merrimack but to state that the river is asleep as the title of the article implies is misleading.

The fastest growing privately held company, a chess champion and a new boathouse: that is good press coverage.