City Council audience seats getting makeover

LYNN – The seats of government inside the City Council Chamber are faded and worn, but a local upholsterer is gradually replacing their 65-year-old cloth coverings with fresh new green ones.Western Avenue upholsterer Julio Cruz said he is a couple of weeks away from restoring the 214 audience seats inside the chamber, located on City Hall’s fourth floor.”He’s doing it slowly – three rows at a time – because we’ve been having meetings in the Chamber,” said city Facilities Manager Lloyd “Butchie” Barnes.Barnes gave city Inspectional Services Director Michael Donovan credit for making the seat replacements a priority. Worn thin by the passage of time and an endless parade of posteriors, the original orange-beige seating fabric is ripped and frayed, exposing cushioning material, including pine wood shavings.Barnes said springs have popped up from the cushioning in some of the seats, threatening to expose users to a sharp jab or worse. Council President Timothy Phelan said the restoration work is overdue.”The upholstery on the seats is over 60 years old,” he said.Unlike rest of City Hall, the chamber is empty except for council meetings and so, Barnes said, the neglected seats are out of sight and out of mind until televised council proceedings begin.”They look terrible on TV,” Barnes said.Cruz is being paid $31,800 to restore the seats with an evergreen 100 percent polyester cloth that, according to a manufacturer’s description provided by Barnes, is good for 102,000 use “cycles.””That’s long after you and me die,” Cruz said. “It’s really good material.”Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].