Lynn businesses team up with inmates on neighborhood cleaning project

LYNN – Three local businesses collaborated Tuesday with Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS) and the Essex County Sheriff’s Department to rid a downtown neighborhood of unsightly graffiti.Paul Crowley, executive director of GLSS and a city councilor at large, said the cleanup had been on the agency’s maintenance task list since taking over the Silsbee Street agency a year ago.Inmates serving sentences at the Middleton Jail provided the labor. GLSS and landlord Tony Vlahos, owner of the produce warehouse at 50 Silsbee St. near the corner of Friend Street, split the cost of supplies – $200 each.After six hours of painting the wall – which is about 100 feet long and 30 feet high – it was again a blank canvas and more pleasing to the eye than the smear of graffiti.”It’s amazing what can get accomplished when everybody pitches in a little bit,” Crowley said. “It enhances the whole neighborhood.Crowley said the inmates worked approximately five hours, armed with brushes, rollers and paint. “We fed them,” he said. “The side of Tony Vlahos’ building facing the railroad tracks was just covered with graffiti. It was an eyesore.”Crowley said the owner of Willow Labs on upper Union Street joined the effort by repairing a parking lot fence. The city Parking Commission contributed the necessary weed whacking.”We want to upgrade the whole neighborhood. Earlier this summer, the mayor had the sidewalks paved from the railroad bridge on Silsbee Street all the way to Union Street,” he said. “It really needed it and goes to show what you can do as a community if we put our minds to it. This little project can stand as a model of what can be done in neighborhoods throughout the city.”