Left In Lowell

In case you missed last night City Council meeting, the motion introduced by CC Rita Mercier “Require Cemetery Commission revisit Graveside Rules and Regulations” raised the emotional level in the CC Chamber at a level that I have not seen before. I assume a lot people who were watching were crying at home also. Dozens of family whose gravesite of their loved ones was “cleaned” of all mementos addressed the City Council meeting. Most of these graves are located at Westlawn II.

Although the Lowell Sun had two articles on the issue, there had not been a major buzz in the City. I think after tonight, there may be.

Westlawn II, unlike Westlawn I and Edson cemeteries is a relatively new. Therefore, the graves are those who have recently passed away. Unlike the other two, it is widely visited by family members and represents a large cross-section of the City’s residents. Furthermore, the graves are close to each other. So after last night’s discussion and vote, the rules and regulations, and more importantly the communication process will be reviewed and revised.

However, the issue is not the upkeep of the cemetery, it is how this whole thing was handled. CC R. Mercier did the right thing by bringing this issue to the CC chambers; allowing all these people to express their anger and deep pain caused by this action. City Manager did the right thing by his public apology but CC Caulfield was wrong in trying to explain or defend Tom Bellegarde, the park, recreation and cemetery department. Mr. Bellegrade was the target of the speakers frustration. His comments in the paper that he will not apologize added to the frustration.

It was the wrong time. CC Caulfield should have let these people have their pubic grief. Even more disturbing was CC Caulfield attempt to shift the responsibility of the action. He failed to understand that the pain caused by the removal of these material was exacerbated by the insensitive response from the cemetery administrative staff. The City Councils sympathy that evening should have been solely on the family members who came, addressed the City Council and shared their pain. The internal politics of City Hall, attempted and failed power plays inside municipal government should have taken a back seat tonight but unfortunately CC Caulfield did not see it that way.

All right, doing my best to get all the info that was out there, I’ve assembled into the right sidebar a list of candidate websites, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages. For Facebook, I only listed official candidate pages, unless I knew for a fact that the candidate is using their personal account for their campaign. I’m likely missing some information - well, you all had your chance, but you can post here or send me an email to add yours.

For some incumbents, we don’t know for sure if they are running. If I could find a site anyway, I added it, and incumbent Councilors have bios on the city website that I linked to. Everything is in alphabetical order (incumbency be damned) and so far I don’t think there are sites for the voke race but I will add them as I find out about them.