New Lynn CVS just what doctor ordered

LYNN – When one door closes, another opens, at least for customers of CVS Pharmacy #1899 on Boston Street this weekend.”Last night at 8 p.m. I pulled up (to the old location at 102 Boston St.) and they told me it was closed but I could show up here today,” customer Adrianne Frene said Sunday at the drugstore chain’s new location on Boston Street.Saturday night, CVS Pharmacy #1899 at 102 Boston St. closed. Sunday morning, the new building diagonally across the street opened. The new location faces the intersection of Boston and Ford streets on property formerly occupied by Ernie’s Harvest Time, Over Easy and Happy Valley Automotive.The project was proposed in December 2012, but local business owners soon protested what they said would be increases in traffic at the new pharmacy. A nearby business owner also filed a short-lived lawsuit challenging the proposal.City officials supported the project, citing the proposal’s agreement to pay for new lights at the intersection of Boston and Ford streets and to improve signal timings at Western Avenue and Franklin Street, Boston and Franklin streets, Washington Street and Western Avenue, and Boston and Washington streets.The opening, however, caused much less to-do than the proposal.”It was a very quiet opening,” assistant manager Bryan Card said Sunday. He said he was not aware of any planned ribbon cutting. “Other than the physical location, nothing really has changed.”There are a few changes that shoppers may notice. The store is a slightly bigger at approximately 13,000 square feet, and it is open 24 hours.”I’m glad they’re going back to 24 hours, because I work until midnight,” customer Sherilyn Hicks said. She and her fellow General Electric late-shift workers frequently found themselves at the former Boston Street location (which she said had once been open 24 hours) for “one last stop before heading home.””I live right up the street and have been waiting,” Hicks added. Card noted that the new location has a drive-thru pharmacy.Frene took the whole shift in stride, saying the pharmacy had no problem changing her prescriptions.”They have everything straight through, it seems very flawless,” she said of the new location. “It’s exciting, kind of like when the new Walmart opened.”