Left In Lowell

Sadness in the midst of all the fervor of campaigning. Thank you, Madelyn Dunham, for the extraordinary grandson you helped raise. He will make a great president.

Tomorrow after a hard and full day on the campaign trail (I’ll be down in Eldridge/Benson territory), I think it’d be cool if any LiL’ers wanted to meet up to watch the election returns. I am guessing that this will be much less of a let down than the last two. I plan to stay up nice and late.

So local Demcrats, if you want to come and watch the election returns on a huuuuuge screen, come to the Brewery Exchange, 201 Cabot St in Lowell. I like the Brewery because of the setup they have on the second floor, it’s pretty nifty. Say, around 8:30pm or so?

PS - I will try to post election day updates tomorrow via PDA. If I have enough phone juice, that is.

Kurt Hayes is not even remotely a mainstream Massachusetts candidate. The Beacon asked the question that I did, and placed its answer in a sidebar to this article in its print edition, though it’s missing in the online one.

The sidebar says this with regards to Hayes’ views: “Support teaching of creationism in public schools: Yes, side-by-side with evolution.”

Uh, memo to Mr. Hayes, creationism is not a viable scientific theory, I don’t care what it’s dressed up as. It belongs in your church, not in our schools.

Nutty.

I don’t know if the Beacon read my post or not (they came out with this answer a day after I asked the question), but at least we now know. Which is why we need to send Jen Benson to the state House.

The city council will meet tomorrow night instead of next week (it was either election night, Veteran’s Day, or wait until Nov 18th, skipping three weeks instead of the newly customary two). The communications from the Manager include information on the new trash bin rollout affectionately named “Bin-Dependence Day”.

There will be an LTC-produced video for airing on LTC, as well as a kickoff press conference sometime this month in one of Lowell’s neighborhoods, including a demonstration of the bins, PAYT bags, and collection system (presumably complete with the new garbage trucks). We’ll post more details on the demo when we get them, and hopefully we can grab some video from it, as well as the one LTC is producing.

Other items of note on the docket this week, the city manager is appointing the members of the Solid Waste and Recycling Advisory Committee. I am pleased to see some names I know on there, people who I know will do good public service. I won’t name them just in case they don’t want to be associated with me.

Also interesting is that the city has now selected a energy services company to audit the city’s energy efficiency. Other communities have saved up to 25% of their energy costs. This will begin by auditing the city’s properties and use of energy, and then making infrastructure improvements based on the recommendations. The improvements are paid for by the savings gained, in a method called performance contracting. This means there will be no outlying cost to taxpayers, and no borrowing. If the promised savings do not materialize, the contracted company will pay the difference. The company chosen for this project is Ameresco. Note they have worked for the city previously doing energy efficiency with LHA.

Energy efficiency is key towards energy independence and the use of renewable energy. I for one am glad the city is taking such a step.

The suggested FY 2009 Tax Classification Public Hearing is November 25, 2008, in case anyone is interested. This still has to be accepted by the CC, of course, so this is not official notice.

There’s also an item of curiosity under the CM’s portion of the meeting - “11. Ordinence-Amend Chapter 4, Dangerous/Vicious Dogs.”

There does not seem to be any motions from City Councilors on the agenda.

The geek in me found this way too funny.

OK, kids, GOTV! Below is a post telling you how you can help Obama win.