Lynn offers events to help fund Stone Tower restoration

LYNN – Time and vandalism are threatening to topple Stone Tower in Lynn Woods, but local efforts to restore the tower promise to keep it in tact for future generations.The tower requires repairs to its exterior masonry, new steel doors, repairs to the spiral stairway connecting its five levels and deteriorating window bars. It also needs a new capped roof designed to keep rain from leaking into the tower.Built in 1936 on top of Burrill Hill, Stone Tower offers a panoramic view of the 2,200 acre woods and Lynn and surrounding communities. The stairwell’s deteriorating condition forced the city to close the tower to visitors 20 years ago.A structural engineering firm specializing in historic properties has prepared plans for the tower’s restoration and the city hired architect Dan Pierce and Roger A. Tremblay Contractors, Inc. to do design and construction work.City Project Planner John Moberger said nearly $230,000 has been raised to help pay for the work with money contributed from the state Historical Commission and the Friends of Lynn Woods.Local attorney George Richardson and his sisters are donating almost half of the money in memory of their parents and their extensive support of Lynn Woods.”Unfortunately, that still has left us $25,000 short of the low bid for the project,” Moberger said, adding the city is looking to several fund-raising events scheduled for October to help cover this funding gap.A golf day on Oct. 14 at Gannon Municipal Golf Course will provide some money and the Friends are sponsoring an Oct. 25 road race with proceeds going to the restoration project.The Blue Ox on Oxford Street is donating a portion of its Oct. 7 bar proceeds toward the project cost and an Oct. 29 comedy night will also raise restoration money.Three Girls and a Guy, as the evening in City Hall Veterans Memorial Auditorium is billed, features three headline comics in one night – Kerri Louise, Tom Cotter and Cory Kahaney – with local comedian Carolyn Plummer rounding out the evening with the show starting at 7:30 p.m.Louise moved from Boston 13 years ago to live in New York, is a regular correspondent on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” has been seen on “Comics Unleashed,” “Two Funny” with her husband Tom Cotter, “The Apprentice” and was a finalist on “Last Comic Standing.””The girls are going to love me,” Louise recently told The Daily Item. “Tell the girls to bring their boyfriends or husbands. The men will not only be entertained and laugh but they will learn things as well.”Tom Cotter leaves audiences clutching their sides and rolling in the aisles with his high energy and rapid-fire style of comedy. In the past year Cotter won the grand prize at the Boston Comedy Festival and was voted “Best Stand-Up” at the Las Vegas Comedy Festival.He has appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was featured in “Best of the Fest” at the Montreal Comedy Festival.Cory Kahaney is most easily recognized from Season One of Last Comic Standing (NBC), but she’s been pretty busy since then with three appearances on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS), two comedy specials on Comedy Central and HBO, seven Tough Crowd appearances on Comedy Central, four Politically Incorrect appearances on ABC and she’s a regular on the Big Idea with Donny Deutch on MSNBC.She has also been the recipient of the ‘BACKSTAGE’ Bistro Award for best Comedian in NYC and Manhattan Association of Cabaret Award for ‘Outstanding Female Comedian.’Tickets are $21 and may be purchased in City Hall room 311 or by calling 781-581- 2971.