Lynn City Hall can’t beat heat

The thermometer in Lynn City Clerk Mary Audley’s office read 92 degrees at 8:30 a.m. Thursday but by 2:30 p.m. it had dropped to 90 degrees.”It’s moving in the right direction,” said Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Executive Director James Cowdell, whose office is one floor above Audley.But it didn’t move fast enough. Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy let employees flee the heat and head home early, leaving only a skeleton crew in place.”Some of the offices on the upper floors like ISD (Inspectional Services Department) the temperature was over 100 degrees,” Kennedy said. “When the weather service is issuing advisories and we’re in our fourth or fifth straight day of these temperatures I figure we should let people go home and cool off.”While Lynn employees got to go home for the day, Saugus firefighters haven’t been able to escape the heat all week as the air conditioning for the Fire Department side of the public safety building hasn’t been working properly since Sunday.As one firefighter put it, the building has been like a “Bertucci’s brick oven.”Chief Donald McQuaid said firefighters on duty have been staying cool with fans and stand-up air conditioners, and since the police side has air conditioning, McQuaid said they’ve been keeping the hallway door open.”It’s been warm,” said McQuaid. “Everybody has a fan. We’re just trying to move the air.”McQuaid said he has his fingers crossed that workers can repair it by today.Town Manager Scott Crabtree said a motor failed on Sunday and after it was replaced, another one failed. Crabtree said one of his goals as Town Manager is to put together a capital improvement plan, which includes replacing aging HVAC systems to prevent problems like this one.”They’re on the roof now,” said Crabtree on Thursday. “They bought some air conditioners and fans ? but it’s like in the middle of a blizzard trying to buy a snowblower ? We’re going to do whatever it takes to get up and running.”Lynn opened a cooling shelter Thursday at the Lynn Vocational Technical Institute’s annex on Commercial Street and it will reopen today at noon and remain open until 6 p.m.Those workers who remained in Lynn City Hall for the afternoon were able to seek respite in the auditorium where tests being run on the new air conditioning system kept it churning all day long.Kennedy’s Chief of Staff Jamie Cerulli said employees were invited to use the space as a cooling station at the discretion of the department heads. Cerulli’s third floor corner office caught an afternoon cross breeze making it slightly cooler than offices on the other end of the building and a virtual paradise compared to the fourth floor where temperatures topped 100 degrees.City Council Administrative Assistant Terry Young decided to sweat it out for the day. She worked under three ceiling fans and had another two box fans trained on her but she admitted the heat was still oppressive.”I’m praying for snow,” she said before adding, “it’s hot, it is what it is, what are you going to do?”Kennedy said City Hall would be fully staffed today since the hall is open only four hours on Friday.”By the time the heat is at its worst we’ll be gone,” she said. “And it’s supposed to break Saturday afternoon.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected] Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].