Public safety – Everett Leader Herald

Around the city…

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.

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School Security Questioned Following Response to High School Lockdown

**Everett High School.** (Photo by Jim Mahoney)

Intense Statements/Discussion About Safety

By Josh Resnek

Nearly two hours of heated and at time passionate debate, and a succession of gut wrenching statements from parents of Everett High School students delivered during the public speaking session before the meeting produced profound interactions between School Committee members, police officials, the school superintendent and the public.

The issue: the safety protocols in force and what is being proposed and in the pipeline to tamp down violence which has been plaguing the high school.

Secondarily, a great deal of time was spent detailing the response of all Everett public officials and school administrators to the lock down of the high school necessitated by a call indicating there might be someone carrying a gun and planning to use it inside the school.

Police Chief Steve Mazzie told the School committee he believed the right call had been made and the right thing had been done by nearly everyone involved during the incident.

He said no one was arrested. No weapons were found. The situation was resolved successfully without any students being injured.

That lockdown and the resulting angst it caused, was evident throughout the long debate about what was done, what should be done and what can be done to stop a situation like that from happening again.

Four parents of Everett High School students recalled their fears and terror after learning of the lockdown. They all complained about feeling helpless and of being left out of the loop when they believed their children’s lives were apparently being threatened.

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High School Safety Paramount

I make all the none-home deliveries of the Leader Herald every Wednesday to a wide variety of locations throughout the city.

My Wednesday odyssey takes me everywhere in this city – and I go into and out of dozens of stores, and public places, where the newspaper is distributed.

Since 2019, I delivered the Leader to Everett High School each week of the school year with the exception of vacation weeks and the summer, when high school is not in session.

Each time I delivered the papers, the front doors have never been open. They are locked. Every time I arrive it is this way – locked.

I must press the door buzzer to gain entrance.

I have written about the COVID-19 inspired violent outbursts plaguing Everett High – and most other urban high schools throughout the state. I have watched the videos of students fighting outside the high school. They are a disturbing fact of reality in the new world order we live in.

However I have never witnessed violence during my deliveries to the high school or at sporting events, or musical events, or graduations.

In addition, I notice the police presence at the high school nearly each time I deliver.

I find this reassuring.

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Public safety and the Schnitzer fire

The fire at the Schnitzer recycling facility near to the LNG plant last week revealed that the city needs more fire protection, not less – more firefighters, more equipment, another station and a more aggressive fire safety program.

The city has neither the apparatus nor the firefighters to meet the demands of the many new developments and industrial businesses still operating daily in this city.

Fires such as that last week should not occur – but they do. When they occur, and this isn’t very often, they must be met with overwhelming force or they go out of control.

If the fire at Schnitzer had gone out of control, that entire industrial area could have gone up in flames.

That fire could have led to a conflagration.

Luckily, it didn’t.

The city needs to address the current public safety hazard that exists because the fire department is understaffed and without enough apparatus and resources to make a difference in a fire that goes out of control.

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