The city is expected to match the funds, bringing $1.2 million in repairs for the crumbling cultural center.

"This is wonderful news," said Tom Mckay, general manager of the auditorium. "The building is structurally sound, but we need to put some work into and make sure it stays that way."

The Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund board also granted $21,000 to the Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust. Sen. Steve Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, said both grants are the result of hard work on the part of Lowell legislators, including Democratic Reps. Tom Golden, Kevin Murphy, and Dave Nangle.

"We worked hard to first get a program statewide, and then make sure that the auditorium would be eligible," Panagiotakos said. "Other than the ballpark and the arena, it is one of the largest cultural attractions in the city and it is in serious need for repair." Both projects were chosen from a field of more than 200 applicants seeking over $80 million for facilities.

Officials at the auditorium began to detail serious decay in 2004, and officials found the building needs $22 million in repairs, with the repairs to the roof and exterior walls could cost about $5.5 million. City Manager Bernie Lynch credited the Lowell legislators with helping to preserve on of the city's important structures.

"It's an important building and important facility for the city and one we want to preserve," Lynch said. The city must now take the next step and apply for a matching bond to begin work, Mckay said. Work on the roof and a new HVAC system could start in January and be wrapped up within nine to ten months, McKay said.

Other repairs include update to the water-drainage system, the fire-alarm system along with the facade and a new auditorium floor.
The $21,000 for the parks will be used to continue the urban parks initiative.

Tom Moran is fed up.

Every year, Chelmsford misses out on its fair share of money the state gives to local school districts, Moran said. Somewhere in the “convoluted formula” that determines that Chapter 70 distribution, said Moran, Chelmsford has fallen through the cracks.

”We used to have a great school system and we’re losing that big time,” he said. Moran, a former selectmen, said that Beacon Hill is counting on Chelmsford to solve the school budget with Proposition 2 1/2 overrides. Moran doesn’t think the town should be forced to solve a problem it didn’t create.

“There’s something wrong with the formula,” said Moran, “ I strongly believe we should sue the state.” Rep. Tom Golden, D-Lowell, who represents Chelmsford Precincts 2, 6, and 8, agrees. “if it has to be a lawsuit, I don't take it personally, I want to see it done,” Golden said. “Sometimes you have to rock the boat.”

Chelmsford has been drastically under-funded since Gov. Mitt Romney cut the budget in 2002, said Golden. “It actually angers me. Chelmsford is not even back to the 2002 level,” Golden said. “Chelmsford is continuing to be penalized wrongly.”

Selectman Phil Eliopoulos is ready to start talking about a lawsuit. He said it was important to meet with elected officials from other towns to discuss “bonding together with those communities and bringing the issues before the court.” It could be as simple as gathering 10 residents’ signatures to file a lawsuit on behalf of the town, said Eliopoulos. Attorney James Hartounian of Billerica, said Chelmsford will have “ a long road ahead of it,” if it chooses to file a lawsuit.

The last time towns banded together to sue the state over education, the trial took more than five years and was shot down by the Supreme Judicial Court, said Hartounian. The court decided the case of “Hancock v. the Commissioner of Education” should have been dealt with in the Legislature rather than the courts, Hartounian said. “The plaintiff’s remedy as it always is with political questions, is at the ballot box,” Hartounian quoted from the court’s opinion.

Chelmsford would have to prove the commissioner of education is violating the state constitution, said Hartounian. The violation could be arbitrary or discriminatory, Hartounian said. A decade old case settled in 1993 was “McDuffy v. Secretary of Education” was ruled in favor of students. Shortly afterwards, the State House passed the Education Reform Act.

It’s unlikely for any new legislation to be passed if the state wins that case in court, said Hartounian. The suit’s more vocal supporters argue even if the town loses the case I would bring welcome attention to the issue.

“This is all about raising awareness,” said Golden. “Chelmsford is being short-changed,” said Eliopoulos. The town has “exhausted” all the alternatives and now Eliopoulos said he’s ready to consider the “last resort.”

“ I think there’s more people that now agree with me in Chelmsford,” said Moran, “We need to step forward with a lawsuit.” School Committee member Kathy Duffett has been outspoken about the inequality of Chelmsford’s Chapter 70 funding, but she isn't so enthusiastic for a lawsuit. “[We need to] explore all our options,” she said. return to top

Parow believes a law signed by Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday, providing $15,000 toward funerals for

Talk at the last Board of Selectman meeting centered around possible amendments to the 40B statute, when, D- Lowell, and Rep. Geoffrey Hall, D- Westford, visited and presented their ideas. If 40B developments continue to be the only means toward building affordable housing, Chelmsford will be “built out” before reaching the state’s mandate of 10 percent affordable housing, said Selectman Bill Dalton.

Because developers only need to have about 25 percent of their units at affordable prices, new construction alone is not likely to make affordable housing in Chelmsford reach that 10 percent mark. The simplest way for Chelmsford to solve its affordable housing shortage would be to loosen the requirements so that more units could be consider affordable, said Sam Chase, chairman of the Board of Selectmen.

Hall and Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means committee introduced legislation that would count more for houses toward the state mandated minimum. To be counted, those homeowners would have to earn 80 percent less than the median income in the area, but unlike the current law they could live in any house they could afford; they wouldn’t have to live in a house designated as affordable housing.

“It has to be subsidized [to count]. That’s the way the law was written in 1969,” said Hall. He would like to expand the law to include all houses that are deemed economically viable for people in the lower income brackets. “You have retired people, who’ve been living in their houses for years. Those should be counted as affordable units,” said Hall. He said that under his new definition a lot of North Chelmsford would be considered affordable housing.

There is also the mobile home park on Littleton Road. “If they’re not truly affordable, then I don't know what is,” said Dalton. “It’s frustrating to know that there’s 300 units [at the mobile home park].” Based on the 2000 census, Chelmsford needs about 400 additional affordable housing units to hit the mark, said David Hedison, director of the Chelmsford Housing Authority. “We’ll never get to that 10 percent,” said Dalton. “It’s like the dog chasing its tail. We’re still talking about 40B and nothing has changed.”

The frustration comes from a feeling that they have no control over the process, because if the Board of Selectmen rejects a project, the developer can appeal their decision. Or the developer can go around the local government from the outset, and get state approval to build in town.

Golden and Hall co-signed a petition recently with three other members of the house. They want to repeal the sections of 40B that provide the steps a developer can take to circumvent the town government, and go through the state for approval. Repeal of those sections would mean any developer who wanted to build a 40B, would have to build a Local Initiative Project (L.I.P) and get initial approval from the selectmen.

Through the representatives said they do not expect the bill to pass, filing the petition will start a discussion of the problem.

“It’s a starting point to get their attention,” said Golden. “At least four years, we’ve been talking about it. Reps from Western Mass., they voted not to change 40B, because it did not affect them.”

The state legislature will debate proposed laws concerning 40B on Sept. 4, the day after Labor Day. The selectmen are planning for a meeting on 40B too. Rather than cramming right before a meeting with the Zoning Board of Appeals, residents will have the opportunity to ask lawmakers questions about the statute. The meeting is planned for sometime in May. return to topto $5,000.

Acting on a tip in August 2004, Billerica Sgt. Roy Frost logged on to Sutton’s favorite chat room as “jenygrl” a fictitious 15-year-old named Jenna. Sutton, 28 at the time, wasted little time sending “jenygrl” an electronic message. The two chatted online for about a week, discussing shared interests in muscle cars, as the conversation gradually turned sexual.

Frost arranged to meet Sutton one night in the North Billerica train station. Sutton, driving a black Pontiac Firebird, pulled into the parking lot with an unopened box of condoms stashed in the glove compartment.

Frost brought his badge. “I can’t stress enough that every kid gets out of school at the end of the day and goes home and logs onto their instant messenger,” Frost said. “They don't necessarily look at relationship as we do as grown-ups, physical, tangible relationships. “They can fall in love with someone they’ve never met.”

The vulnerability of children on the Internet is exactly what state Rep. Thomas Golden, D- Lowell, had in mind when he filed five pieces of new legislation earlier this month aimed at aggressively targeting and monitoring sex offenders and Internet predators.

A recently released 2006 Emerson Hospital survey of 8,000 junior-high and high-school students found that almost 14 percent of seventh-graders and 15 percent of high-school students had met someone in person that they initially met over the Internet.

Golden’s most potent bill would explain the state’s Child Enticement Statute to criminalize the act of “grooming,” a term used to refer to the ways Internet sex predators gain the trust of their victims.

Golden wants it to be a crime for any adult to knowingly engage in sexually explicit conversations with children under 16, whether or not they follow through on the lurid talk. He is also pushing for the timely classification of sex offenders and the right for the public to have access to the names of all sex offenders classified as Level 1, 2, or 3.

Current law makes the identities of Level 3 offenders available on the Internet, while information on Level 2 offenders must be requested in person at local police departments. “I honestly think it’s 100 percent wrong and should be illegal for an adult to be in a chat room with a child trying to lure them to an off-site location,” Golden said. “Chat rooms can be just as scary as a child walking down the street and a car pulling up to the child,. They’re only looking to hurt the child. Even if they don’t go through with it, it’s still wrong.”

He won’t get any arguments from Frost or some other law-enforcement officials who said anything that helps them do their job and get predators away from children will be welcomed. “I think it’s fantastic,” Frost said. “ If I wasn’t an undercover officer and really was a 15-year-old girl, I would have been reaped. Just because they didn’t follow through with the act doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be held culpable.”

More than 40 separate pieces of legislation relating to sex offenders or the protection of children from online predators were filed for the new legislative session, including 28 bill in the House of Representatives and 14 bills in the Senate.

Some of the proposals seek to regulate housing for sex offenders or create an e-mail database. Others want to explore treatment options for offenders and lifetime parole, while one promotes chemical castration, the use of drugs to cause impotence, as a method of punishment. House Minority leader Brad Hones, R-North Reading, proposed several new laws, including a bill that would plug any loopholes in the enticement statute by including all forms of communication between adults and children, from letters to cell-phone text messages.

He is also seeking to convene a task force to study the possibility of tracking high-0level sex offenders’ online activity after they are released from prison. “As a father, I have great concerns,” Jones said. “We pass laws, and sometimes we may not manage them the way we should, but bad things keep happening. We have an obligation to try and to prevent bad things from happening up front and punish bad things when they do happen.”

Criminalizing sexually explicit online conversations with children, however, may not be as simple as it sounds. Jones favors drawing a “bright line” in the sand, but said he realizes communications can be protected as free speech.

Frost agreed it could be tricky to glean the intentions of predators from only online conversations. “You would have to be very, very careful in what is being said, and make sure that you can decipher from those chats that the intent is to have a physical meeting even if the meeting never takes place, “ Frost said.

Many police departments also face the challenge of not having enough manpower to actively monitor chat rooms, instead of pursuing leads from the public or using information from other investigations. State and federal laws make it far more difficult to subpoena online chat-room conversations from Internet companies than telephone records and recordings, Frost said.

Golden said he plans to work with the attorney general and law-enforcement officials to fine-tune the bill, but stands by the basic principle. “The detective’s point is absolutely well-taken, but I still say there is no reason an adult should be talking to a child in any way that can be construed as sexual,” Golden said.
return to topDirectors Association. Those prices can often skyrocket for firefighters as thousands of their brethren from