I attended the 2nd meeting of the East Pawtucketville Neighborhood Group this evening. It was well attended with about 30 residents and representative's of the Lowell Police, UMass Lowell Police, Rep. Tom Golden,CC Joe Mendona, Mike Demaris and Henri Marchand from the City Managers Office. The issue's raised this evening were parties and noise from students from UMass. Part of the problem is that these apartments are owned by absentee landlords. This was a issue during the last campaign not only about noise but maintaining the property's as to not bring down the value of the homes in the city's neighborhoods. I suggested during the campaign that if these landlords cannot maintain there properties we should find a way to force them to hire a property management company and work with inspectional services to insure the these apartments are also up to code.
Paul Marion from Umass Public Relations Office said the goal of the university is to house the students and plan to build a 350 bed dorm off Aiken St. across from the ballpark. He also said that students living on campus have a better experience and do better in school..and it's also good from business.
This neighborhood group is just starting out and the residents have real concerns about their quality of life.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend this meeting to follow up on progress with the Textile Memorial Bridge issue, as I had the Tanner St. and Downtown Group meetings. I'll try to make next one. Thanks for the update, Paul.
ReplyDeletePaul, Thanks for the quick report on the meeting. As I said, I will invite colleagues of mine from UMass Lowell offices that are responsible for student affairs and student housing to attend the next meeting to discuss the concerns.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul
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