Tag Archives: quality of life

Quick response in seeking to make St. Adelaide Church crosswalk safer

1 Feb

By Bob Croce, EOP Publisher

Lately, we’ve been seeing more action by our elected officials to ensure that they are indeed doing the peoples’ business when it comes to quality of life issues in Peabody’s neighborhoods.

A few weeks ago, Mayor Ted Bettencourt ordered a cease and desist order on a Route 1 developer who is destroying residents’ property near Winona Street, and yesterday – after hearing the concerns of City Councilors Anne Manning-Martin and Tom Gould – the Mayor ordered a cease and desist on a billboard monstrosity on Lowell Street near Route 1 that might violate the terms of a special permit.

Councilor Barry Sinewitz

Councilor Barry Sinewitz

Now, we add to this list some quick action on a safety issue in front of St. Adelaide’s Church.  After an elderly parishioner was tragically hit by a car in the crosswalk and died while leaving mass, parish leaders – including Ms. Colleen Derrivan – reached out to Ward 6 Councilor Barry Sinewitz.

Doing what a ward councilor is supposed to do and recognizing this as a safety issue for those residents he represents, Sinewitz immediately asked City Council Safety Committee Chair Mike Garabedian if he could convene a meeting at City Hall to talk about ways to make the crosswalk on Lowell Street in front of the West Peabody church safer.

The public meeting at City Hall will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m., and while it’s unfortunate that it took such a tragedy to make everyone realize that something needed to be done about that crossing, it’s great to see immediate action by our elected officials yet again.

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Mayor moves quickly to defend quality of life for residents in Peabody’s Ward 5

10 Jan

By Bob Croce, EOP Publisher

We talk all of the time in this blog about Peabody becoming more “business friendly,” and while we still need to approach it that way in an effort to find the money we need for infrastructure and schools, there’s one credo we still need to embrace:

Quality of life for our residents should always trump our goal to be “business friendly.”

We want more business in Peabody.  It’ll mean more tax revenue,  and allow us to eventually put less of the burden on residential payers.  But we also want businesses that will hold up their end and respect the needs and the rights of the residents.

So why am I on this soap box today?

Well, it appears that Mayor Ted Bettencourt is embracing the credo. Without hesitation yesterday,  and after hearing numerous complaints from neighbors in an around Winona Street, the Mayor placed an immediate cease and desist order on Marchese Properties on a project  it is developing on Route 1 South.

Why? Well, if you’ve been by there lately, especially during a big rain storm, you’ve observed rivers of mud flowing from the project, and into the backyards of neighbors, destroying pools and other property, and making life miserable for people who take pride in their properties and pay their taxes on time.

But don’t just take my word for it.  Watch this video from one of that neighborhood’s residents to see what grief this has caused homeowners. Watch this video, and then put yourself in the shoes of this homeowner.

There are a lot of reasons for the problem, but as a resident myself of Ward 5, I can tell you that the previous administration didn’t do enough to alleviate the problems here for theses affected neighbors.

Developer Richard Marchese has agreed to stop the work for now, which includes a commercial building and a small housing development. He’ll come before the Planning Board on Feb. 7 to determine if he is in violation of his permit.

Bettencourt ordered the cease and desist during an emergency meeting of the Planning Board. After meeting with residents, and having the building inspector go to the area to confirm what he was seeing in photos and videos, the mayor shut it down.

This mayor definitely gets it. The rights of the residents needs to always come first.

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Peabody joins state program to help bring dilapidated homes up to code, and ensure safety

3 Jan

By Eye on Peabody
Responding to safety concerns about abandoned and dilapidated homes in some Peabody neighborhoods, Mayor Ted Bettencourt this week announced that the city would participate in the Abandoned Housing Initiative, sponsored by the Mass. Attorney General’s office.

The idea of the program is to help bring these neglected properties up to code. The Attorney General’s Abandoned Housing Initiative assigns blighted properties to court-appointed third party receivers. Those receivers assume full responsibility for bringing the property into compliance with state and city building code regulations.

Here are some of the details from a press release issued through the mayor’s office:

To join the program, the mayor directed the city’s Code Enforcement division to create an inventory of problem properties within the city.  Problem properties include those which have fallen into disrepair and for which there has been no response from the owner of record when the city sought repairs.  The city submitted a total of 12 properties to the AGO for possible inclusion in the program.

After conducting a title search on each property, the Attorney General’s office typically provides notice to all parties who may have an interest in title as to the conditions of their property and allows them to make the necessary repairs to avoid a receivership action.  If the parties in interest are unable/unwilling to make the necessary repairs at the property, the AG will petition the appropriate court to enforce the state sanitary code and for appointment of a receiver.

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