New Police Officer
Congrats are in order for John DiVenuti who was appointed an Everett Police officer by a unanimous vote of the city council Monday evening.
Approval of city budget
The city’s Fiscal Year 2024 city budget, the largest in Everett’s long history was approved Monday night at the city council hearing.
The amount: $267,538,386.00!
Now that’s a budget number that one can’t easily take their eyes off of!
Tax receipts have increased following the downturn during the COVID crisis.
But the city will have to work with the Department of Revenue to justify proposed revenue increases again in 2024.
Budgets are always unpredictable because the economy goes up and down.
Encore is the bonus ball in all this budget talk.
The Host Agreement is apparently being renegotiated upward, and we hope, by a hefty amount.
The city deserves many more millions for hosting the giant gambling enterprise and its hotel and the new entertainment venues that are going to take shape and form very soon.
Water and Sewer Enterprise fund
The Fiscal Year 2024 Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund budget is also a record setter.
The amount: $21,610,128.00.
And by the way, the city budget extends over 213 pages and is available online for residents to peruse.
Academic Honors
The following Everett students were acknowledged by Stonehill College as honors recipients among the nearly 1,000 Stonehill students named to the Spring 2023 Dean’s List.
Lerch Gomez-Henry, Desiree Ruiz Ramoz, and Jacob Jackson, all of Everett scored honors. Stonehill is a noted Catholic College of higher learning founded in 1948 and located on a sprawling campus of 384 acres in North Easton, Massachusetts.
At Regis College, Dean’s List students from Everett included: Aimee Duclos, Arianne Lariviere, Swechha Maharjan, Jose Martinez Zepeda, Omayma Salih and Krysonia Tavares.
Regis is located in Weston, Massachusetts with 3200 students and a reputation for providing a rigorous education to its students.
At Lasell University, Everett resident Leah Figuerido was named to the dean’s list for his academic performance.
Lasell is a private university located on a gorgeous campus in Newton, Massachusetts.
Devens School Lease
A public discussion about the Devens School lease and the future of the Devens School was sent into executive session because of the possibility the public discussion of such particulars about the school might lead to a compromised situation for the city.
The measure to go into executive session passed with a unanimous vote and took place while technicians were trying to fix the faulty television and audio city council meeting.
This is the third or fourth time since more than $400,000 was spent to perfect the audio and television systems that were put in more than a year and half ago.
When the audio and visual doesn’t work, the meeting has to be called off.
Monday night’s council meeting featured ECTV at its worst.
The audio and visual would go on for maybe ten seconds and then cut out. It was near to impossible to capture the speakers and what they had to say.
One wonders what is wrong with ECTV?
How can it be so difficult to broadcast a city council meeting with brand new equipment?
Councilors should ask ECTV to appear before the council and to determine who ought to be fired or maybe someone who knows what they are doing can come on board and make the city council hearings easy to watch and to follow.
Monday’s meeting was a joke for those of us trying to follow it – and for several thousand viewers, it was also a joke.
The meeting should have been cancelled.
Most of us couldn’t make heads or tales of it.
The primary message throughout the two hour meeting Monday night.
September 18, 1970
We were just cruising on the Internet when we came to September 18, 1970. If you are old enough to have been near to an adult on September 18, 1970 and claim to recall the day, well, you’re better than many of us who lived through that era.
September 18, 1970 is the day the great guitarist Jimmy Hendrix died of an overdose of sleeping pills in London. He was 27.
His legendary music even today has stood the test of time and some consider him the greatest rock and roll guitarist of all time.
Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin are all members of the “27 Club.”
They all died of drug overdoses when they were 27.
They rose like meteors, achieved fame and fortune, and left way too early.
Animal Breeding in Everett
Councilor Vivian Nguyen is making the case that animal breeding should not be allowed in Everett – and there are presently no restrictions placed on animal breeding and that the city would be a better place if animal breeding was restricted or at the very least, controlled.