Chairman Malliaros was still out on sick leave.. so we had Joe DiRocco chairing.

The meeting did review the articles for the upcoming Town Meeting.

TOWN MEETING MONDAY, 7:30 at the HIGH SCHOOL

There are only a few, and some are being tabled until June.

There is one fairly important one though. Back in June, the town meeting voted not to fund the Greater Lowell Tech as we negotiated increased transportation fees.

Following the meeting, they decided to accept the fees after all. We now need to authorize the appropriation for the test of the tech annual budget.

There is also the end of year budget items that the Town Manager needs authorization to do in preparation for closing out the year and starting up the next.

Louisburg Unintended Consequences?

The Louisburg square discussion had to be held. It seems that the Dracut Housing Authority still is refusing to communicate with the town. There has been no notification of the vote they held last week, so the board does not know where to go with regard to the Town Meeting article.

The last communication from them was via their lawyer, who was working with ours on the lease agreement, which was 99.9% complete according to Hall.

As to the information from the paper last week, where Mr Ken Martin of the Housing Authority said that he can have a project up and work begun in 6 months if the town really supported elderly housing, Jim O’Loughlin was very supportive.

Because of the difficulty with communication with the authority, to be sure we could provide all the support necessary to Mr Martin, O’Louglin asked that the Town Manager track all activities of the Authority through any town boards and committees, and report back to the Selectmen so that the board could provide any help they could to support Mr Martin’s project.

You could taste the sarcasm, but it will be interesting to watch.

He went on to say that board members are already talking with other organizations, and DiRocco noted that the property on Lakeview that the Housing Authority mentioned in thier meeting last week could only fit about 6 units, “So I don’t see where they’re talking 15. I guess I could say to Ken Cuhna that I’ve got a bridge to sell him.”

HALLOWEEN is SATURDAY 5 to 7

This reminder is that the annual trick-or-treating is moved up to 5:00 p.m on this Saturday to support the rec programs outdoor movie (Bolt) being played at the Junior High School starting at 7:45.

Contact the rec department if you want to participate in the movie. There is some sort of wristband system being used, I’m not sure why. I agree with Zimini that nobody from Dracut should be turned away that night. Maybe is a metrics thing.

If there’s one way to kill off future projects in town, its to keep destroying the relationship’s between the town and local developers.

Now, I’m not a great fan of the ongoing saga with Alan Kazanjian. Some out there stand up for him, others deride his every move.. but his selling that Canney Property to town was something he didn’t need, or want to do. Ultimately, we will have a great new park and recreation facility over there… but because of all the negative press I don’t see him ever wanting to get into another project with the town.

Now, I see similar results from Gerry Lussier and Draco homes. They did nothing wrong, and were convinced by local pols to sell a property to town that they had no wish to sell. Its a money maker for them, with no down-side to keeping.

With the failure of the deal, however, the cynics and people tending to jealousy of success aimed their weapons at Lussier as well this week, trying to attack him for not paying his fair share on property taxes.

Lo and behold, the Sun did some research and found the truth.

The Sun looked into one tipster’s complaints that local developer Gerald Lussier, president of the company that owns 1476 Mammoth Road, doesn’t pay his fair share of property taxes. Lussier paid $600 in property taxes on his four-bedroom Surrey Lane home during the first quarter of this year. That’s because two-thirds of his home is actually in Pelham N.H., according to Dracut accessors. Lussier paid $3167 to Pelham in property taxes for teh first half of 2009, according to Pelham officials.

With yesterday’s story summing up the fact that the bathrooms upgrades really look like little more than another stalling tactic, the DHA really doesn’t look too good on this one.

An earlier story, summing up the fact that the Dracut Housing Authority has not added any new units in over 20 years pointed to the fact that the commissioners think that the CPA money voted for the Louisburg project could quickly be transferred to another DHA project:

Authority Chairman Ken Martin said construction workers could break ground at 2197 Lakeview Ave. within six months, pending approval by other town boards.

“We would need some approvals, which won’t be an issue if people support senior housing,” said Martin, who also voted against Louisburg Square.

Fact is, it took years to get a project approved to buy a building.. the work to design and get all the necessary approvals (conservation, building zoning, etc.. not to mention state approvals to get it all accepted under 40B affordable status) will take considerably longer than six months.

And I find it interesting that Mr Martin, the chairman of DHA seems to imply that the “people” do not support senior housing. We just voted for a senior housing project, and the state liked the project plan so much (and were using it as an example to other towns) that they were rewarding us with nearly 3 million dollars to bring the building up to DHCD building specifications.

The people of the Dracut will continue to support elderly housing. We will review each proposal as it comes forward. I just don’t see any “partnership” between the DHA and town working out for quite a while.

There are alternatives, however, and I’m sure they’re already being looked at.

As a side note, again from the Sun Political Column, Tom Salem tells us that he will not be running for re-election next spring:

“This was my last year anyway, so I’ll be glad to get out.” said Salem, who turns 83 on Nov 12 and said he is not running for re-election this spring.

“We have some good times and we’ve done some good things, so I don’t really understand what happened here.”

No one else does, either, Tom.

There’s been a lot of political mudslinging in the wake of Dracut Housing Authority Commission’s decision to scrap plans for Dracut to buy a building at 1476 Mammoth road known as Louisburg Square. The now-defunct plan was to turn the 38 unit apartment complex into affordable housing for the elderly.

The Sun’s phones have been ringing off the hook from people on both sides of teh issue, wanting to drop dimes on their opponents.

The Sun looked into one tipster’s complaints that local developer Gerald Lussier, president of the company that owns 1476 Mammoth Road, doesn’t pay his fair share of property taxes. Lussier paid $600 in property taxes on his four-bedroom Surrey Lane home during the first quarter of this year. That’s because two-thirds of his home is actually in Pelham N.H., according to Dracut accessors. Lussier paid $3167 to Pelham in property taxes for teh first half of 2009, according to Pelham officials.

Commissioner Tomas Salem said he’s dissapointed he wasn’t able to see the affordable-housing project to completion during his final term in office.

“This was my last year anyway, so I’ll be glad to get out.” said Salem, who turns 83 on Nov 12 and said he is not running for re-election this spring.

“We have some good times and we’ve done some good things, so I don’t really understand what happened here.”

DRACUT — The state never planned to pay for bathroom renovations at a proposed affordable-housing complex for seniors, according to 2008 paperwork used to hire an architect for the controversial project known as Louisburg Square.

The revelation is important because Ken Martin, chairman of the Housing Authority Commission, said he only became opposed to the project six months ago. That’s when he said he found out that the Housing Authority would have to renovate the bathrooms and kitchens at the 38-unit building at 1476 Mammoth Road over a series of years and not all at once.

Martin wanted all the units at the complex fitted with senior-friendly walk-in showers immediately and voted to scrap the project Monday night. The project, rejected by the commission in a 3-2 decision, would have received $2.9 million in state funding.

(more…)

DRACUT — At least 200 senior citizens want to live in affordable housing in town and the waiting lists are growing.

“It’s a mess,” said Maggie Thomas, 84, about the lack of affordable housing for seniors in town. “It’s sad to see some of them asking, ‘How am I going to pay my rent?’ This is what’s worrying most of them here.”

After four years of planning, the Housing Authority Commission this week scrubbed the town’s plan to buy the building where Thomas is a tenant and turn it into affordable housing.

Selectmen and Housing Authority commissioners blame each other for the failure of the project known as Louisburg Square, but when all the dust settles, one fact remains: Dracut hasn’t added new housing for seniors in more than 20 years.

Thomas, who grew up in town, said she has lived at 1476 Mammoth Road, the Louisburg Square site, for 14 years. She pays $775 per month for her one-bedroom apartment. Thomas’ landlord can only rent to elderly tenants for the next 30 years, according to the building deed, but can increase the rent by up to 5 percent annually, said Mary Karabatsos, the authority’s executive director.

(more…)

A majority of the Dracut Housing Authority this week successfully shot down the controversial 38-unit affordable-housing project for seniors called Louisburg Square.

In winning the battle, however, did the majority lose the war?

Dracut hasn’t built any new units of affordable senior housing in about 25 years, and there are more than 5,500 people over the age of 60 residing in the town. There is a long list of seniors anxiously waiting for affordable housing to become available.

The town also now loses out on $2.9 million that the state Department of Housing and Community Development would have paid for much-needed renovations to the Louisburg Square units.

The need for additional senior housing is clear, but bitter arguments between members of the Dracut Housing Authority and earlier with the Board of Selectmen derailed this project. The unnecessary squabbling had stalled the proposal several times until it was finally defeated by the DHA Monday night.

So, now what?

(more…)

DRACUT — Did the elderly lose out on affordable housing because of political payback?

Selectmen Joe DiRocco and Robert Cox believe Housing Authority officials sabotaged the Louisburg Square project to exact political revenge.

“These guys should be ashamed of themselves,” Cox said. “It’s political, and it’s a real shame because the seniors have been slighted. There are more than 200 seniors on the waiting list” for affordable housing.

DiRocco and Cox helped broker the deal for Dracut to buy 1476 Mammoth Road from Draco Homes for $2.65 million in Community Preservation Fund money and turn the building into affordable housing for the town’s elderly.

As part of the deal, the state Department of Housing and Community Development would have footed the bill for $2.9 million in renovations for the 38-unit Louisburg Square complex.

After four years of planning, the Dracut Housing Authority Commission, the agency that would have managed the property, called off those plans in a 3-2 vote Monday night.

The two selectmen said they believe Housing Authority commissioners Ken Cunha and Ken Martin voted against the project to punish their political adversaries.

“Everybody was on board until last May,” DiRocco said of the project. “That’s when Ken Cunha got elected. Since that time, this thing has been going south.”

(more…)

That’s been the question since May..

Big headline article in this morning’s Sun.. “Housing denial called Revenge.”

DiRocco and Cox explain the issues from thier point of view. Martin did not get appointed to school board, others did not support Cuhna’s election. Was it all payback? They’ve thought so for months.

Jim O’loughlin picked up on the issue I brought up a few days ago about the upgraded bathrooms.

Go pick up the paper and check out the article. We’ll chat more about it later.

Update: Lowell Sun Article, Lowell Sun Editorial

It seems to me that there are some pretty upset people on both boards. The whole thing needs to settle. There are other things to focus on right now, and with the holidays coming up we’ve got a lot of people in town to think about (via the Food Pantry, Salvation Army, etc).

As the Beatles say, “Life goes on”

By Erin Smith, Lowell Sun

DRACUT — After four years of planning, the Dracut Housing Authority Commission called off plans to buy an affordable-housing complex for the elderly.

The commission voted 3-2 to kill the plan to purchase the 38-unit complex at 1476 Mammoth Road. The contentious project, known as Louisburg Square, has pitted the Board of Selectmen against the Dracut Housing Authority Commission with some selectmen stopping just short of accusing several commissioners of sabotaging the plan.

“In my opinion, it’s a terrible deal,” Commissioner Ken Cunha said before voting against the proposal last night.

The town was poised to buy the apartment complex from Draco Homes for $2.65 million in Community Preservation Fund money. Dracut would then have leased the property to the Housing Authority. The state Department of Housing and Community Development would have footed the bill for $2.9 million in renovations as part of the deal.

But Cunha said he wasn’t happy with those figures. He argued that the property should be worth more than the estimated $3.5 million after the renovations.

Commission Chairman Ken Martin, who voted against the project out of concern that not all the apartments would be fitted with senior-friendly walk-in showers, said the plan is all Dracut residents have been talking about lately.

“Not one of the those people who approached me said, ‘This is a good idea. You should go for it,’” Martin said.

Proponents of the plan — including commissioners George Nangle and Thomas Salem — argued that Dracut may never get another offer for $2.9 million in state funding for an affordable-housing project again.

They also point out the town hasn’t added any new affordable housing for the elderly in more than 20 years and has a long list of seniors waiting for affordable housing.

“My mother died waiting to get on that list,” Nangle said.

Cunha brushed off those concerns and said the Housing Authority should go back to the drawing board and build 15 new affordable units for the elderly on a property on Lakeview Avenue instead.

“There is land out there for senior housing,” Cunha said.

The town gifted the Dracut Housing Authority with the piece of property just down the street from the site of the future sports park at Canney Farm, and the commission must build affordable housing on the land by 2013 or give the property back to the town, according to Mary Karabatsos, executive director of the Dracut Housing Authority.

But Salem said he thinks the town passed up a good deal by shooting down the Louisburg Square project.

“I wish someone could show me a piece of property where we can put in 38 people and the state is going to give us $2.9 million,” he said.

Town Meeting is still scheduled to vote on whether to buy the property at 1476 Mammoth Road on Nov. 2. The Housing Authority Commission also voted 3-2 in favor of not signing an agreement with the town to manage the building should Town Meeting vote to buy the property.

“The Dracut Housing Authority is not interested in running this building,” Cunha said.

Commissioner Jerry Surprenant also voted against the Louisburg Square project.