And now for something completely different.
Time to pay compliments to the Department of Public Works, its city staff paver people and hired contractors for the excellent paving jobs around the city this spring.
The Gloucester streets look pretty darn spiffy coming into and out of Fiesta week. If only my rollerblades still fit.
There’s something about fresh paving, that black perfect surface that goes so perfectly with the deep blue sky, those crisp white lines, undulating green trees, the colorful backgrounds of downtown and, of course, a stunning harbor backdrop. It feels like the new paving rides higher against the curb than previous years. Makes it look like the tide is always in and makes the streets look cleaner. Except for today, the Monday after Fiesta — Hangover Day, some call it — where the bulging dumpsters and swirl of trash reduce the glamorous sparkle of diamonds to the everyday glint of rhinestones. The early morning silence is impenetrable absent revelers and the presence of sausage. Only the seagulls rule, going about their work with their normal, ratlike efficiency. It feels sad, but the opening doors of summer beckon the city forward. When it’s all swept up, we’ll still have our spiffingly paved streets.
But this city Thumbs Up sits aside a city Thumbs Down. My equivalent of the Times editor’s Cheers and Jeers, let’s call it Beers and Sneers or Hear-Hear’s and Bronx Cheers.
Last week, the headlines spoke of the School Committee’s overshoot of the budget target by a couple of million dollars. But as we learned from a Facebook posting from Councilor at-Large Jeff Worthley back in March, that for eight years, the city has been hemorrhaging money and electricity at West Parish Elementary School because the lights cannot be turned off. For nearly 75,000 hours, every light in every room has been left on. “A detailed analysis shows we have wasted approximately $150,000, increased the carbon footprint, polluted the night sky, and failed to follow our own rules designed to protect students under active shooter protocols,” Worthley posted.
When this was brought to the attention of the School Department, the response was that the school doesn’t pay its own electric bill; the city does. Regardless of which budget it comes out of, that’s our tax dollars wasted — and protocols ignored. But a big question comes to mind about Dore & Whittier, our perpetual city architect. We paid premium rates for these new schools and for eight years, they’ve been waiting for the parts to fix it. So did it refund our $150K? Does it warranty its work and if not, who negotiated that contract? If you buy a Mercedes and the horn doesn’t work, don’t they bloody well fix it within eight years?
How about the brand new $66 million East Veterans Elementary School? Since June 2023 until recently, all the lights in the new school were also on 24/7. To Public Works Director Mike Hale’s credit, he got the contractor to adjust the settings and some of the lights now go off at 10 p.m., while Hale worked with Mayor Greg Verga to finally order the part to fix West Parish. Hopefully, it won’t take another eight years to arrive. But will the contractor warranty the West Parish problem, too? Is the school district not concerned about wasting money on electricity because the electric bill is paid for out of a public properties line-item under the Public Works department? Whether it comes out of the school side or the city side, it’s all coming from the same place — the taxpayer pocket.
What other surprises lurk under the surface? Committees don’t like to be challenged. Bringing up issues gets their members angry and defensive. But it should be a front-burner issue. Gloucester will soon be asking for another mega-school project from the same cast of contractors.
Let’s ask them ahead of time, will we be able to turn off the lights?
Wish we’d asked on the last two schools.
Sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you don’t.
Gloucester resident Gordon Baird is an actor and musician, co-founder of Musician Magazine and producer of “The Chicken Shack” community access TV show.
'; var element = document.getElementById("sub_message"); element.appendChild(subMessage); console.log("Code Loaded!"); } else { var subMessage = document.createElement('div'); subMessage.id = 'sub-message-top'; subMessage.class = 'panel panel-default'; subMessage.style.backgroundColor = '#eee'; subMessage.style.borderRadius = '5px'; subMessage.style.padding = '10px'; subMessage.style.marginTop = '25px'; subMessage.style.marginBottom = '25px'; subMessage.innerHTML = '
Support local journalism.
Subscribe Today'; var element = document.getElementById("sub_message"); element.appendChild(subMessage); console.log("Code Loaded!"); }}
