Lynn councilor happy with road, sidewalk improvements

LYNN – Driving around with City Councilor Rick Ford is like driving with a proud father, but instead of showing off his kids, on this ride he’s showing off paving and other improvements in his Ward 7.”Look at that,” he said, slowing down to gaze at a new section of sidewalk on Cottage Street. “The did all the worst spots. They couldn’t do the whole thing but I was psyched. The corners were just a disgrace.”When the city budget was approved in June it included a $180,000 cut for the DPW and the frustration among city councilors was clear. Ford struggled to support the cut because the DPW was backed up with requests, many of those his.”I used to be able to keep track of the requests I filed,” he said, pulling out a stack of paperwork nearly an inch thick. “But then they just go so far behind.”Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy blamed the backlog on a lack of leadership but Ford said the cause is more basic.”They need at least 10 more guys over there,” he said. “I still stand by that.”He said, however, that the hiring of Andrew Hall as DPW Commissioner, backed up by Deputy Commissioner Lisa Nerich, seems to be a positive change.Ford turned onto Boston Street and got excited when his car thumped onto a stretch of grooved pavement. The lower end of Boston Street up to the Saugus line has been milled in preparation for paving.”When you come into Lynn from Saugus this is the entrance and it was embarrassing,” Ford said.Wyman Street is also milled and ready for re-paving, and Prudence Road was done but Ford said he couldn’t squeeze in Sunnyside Street.”But we’ll do it next year,” he said.Ward 3 Councilor Darren Cyr pointed out that paving isn’t necessarily being done by DPW. Like Ford, he spoke up in June regarding what he called a seven-year back up in requests. He said he is happy to see some of his streets getting done as well but trees and tree stumps are what he really needs addressed.”I still need trees, sidewalks and curb cuts,” he said. “I will admit the city looks cleaner and we seem to be getting a handle on some issues like rats. Hall has done a marvelous job, and Lisa (too).”But like Ford, Cyr agreed the DPW needs “at least 10 more people.”Ford did get one curb cut for a Myrtle Street resident whom he called very patient. He said he first filed the request under Jay Fink, who resigned in 2012. Manuel Alcantara, who stepped in as commissioner, said he could do it but the resident had to move her fence, which she did.”Then it just slipped through the cracks,” he said.DPW gave the woman, who was sharing a driveway with her neighbor and often had to park on the street, a curb cut this summer and in doing so her own legal parking space.”She waited a long time,” Ford said. “I was so happy this got done.”Ford took a spin through Breed Middle School as well, to show off the new tennis and basketball courts going in. The money to fund the project is through the $4 million bond the council approved in December 2013.”It’s bond work but it’s still exciting,” he said. “If you saw it last year, it was a disgrace.”While he is excited that work is getting done, Ford said the DPW still needs additional personnel and perhaps younger.”I see them out doing potholes and I think, ?geeze, those are guys I went to school with,'” he said with a laugh. “They’ve got to get some younger guys in there.”