By Richard Gaines
Mayor Carolyn Kirk yesterday dedicated her second term as Gloucester's mayor to rebuilding the city aging infrastructure, keeping a grip on expenses and developing the economy around the fishing industry — including the purchase of the long-vacant I-4, C-2 lot at the heart of the city's waterfront.
To accomplish those tasks, Kirk, a former corporate consultant-problem solver, prescribed "good government, a well-managed city and citizen participation."
The revelation of her inaugural address was an announced entrepreneurial initiative — a commitment complete the acquisition of "I-4, C-2," the undeveloped keystone waterfront property whose complex history and division into a municipal pier and private lot has frustrated public and private development schemes for nearly half a century.
Kirk said she would ask the council to complete the acquisition of I-4, C-2.
"Once acquired," she said we will clean it up, erect a sign that says 'Under Idea Development," and then turn to the community for ideas for what to do with it."
In May, she convinced the Governor's Seaport Advisory Council to allow $800,000 for harbor improvements to be used to acquire the two-acre upland portion of the property from Boston real estate developer Jeffrey Cohen.
Although she declined to announced the price due to the continuing negotiations, she did say that the $800,000 state grant approved by the council for use in the acquisition, was "more than half the money that we need."
She did not discuss where the rest of the purchase price might be found in this city of chronic penury.
Kirk also urged residents to join her in attending a national fishermen's demonstration in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 24.
The protest is being organized by many of the same industry activists who brought off a protest in October at the East Coast regional offices of the National Marine Fisheries Service in the Blackburn Industrial Park. Kirk sent her chief of staff Jim Duggan to represent the city at that event, and that drew fire from many in the fishing community.
Kirk's 20-minute address yesterday was delivered to a packed Kyrouz Auditorium filled with the city's elected and community leadership, and to friends and family — including her father, Jay Anderson, who was down from Clinton, N.Y., where Kirk was raised. Anderson, now in his 80s, had been too ill to attend his daughter's first inauguration two years ago.
"She was always a self starter," he said before the start of the event at 4 p.m.
Council, school chiefs
The new School Committee and City Council were sworn in yesterday, too. Afterward, Valerie Gilman, in her second term, was unanimously elected to chair the committee, and Jackie Hardy, the third-term councilor for Ward 4, was unanimously chosen as the new president of the council.
The biennial event included a number of other presentations, including a poem delivered by the city's poet laureate, John Ronan.
Iain Kerr, executive director of the Ocean Alliance, was the first speaker. He urged the city to find ways to encourage a new generation to the waterfront, and urged the city to keep the waterfront open to the public. The alliance is raising money to redevelop the Paint Factory as a jewel in the future harbor.
Two years ago, Kirk promised a series of "State of the City" updates, and provided them both in 2008 and 2009.
'Infrastructure' updates
Yesterday, Kirk — elected to a second term unopposed after challenger Sharon George pulled out after advancing through a September primary — said she'd issue a "state of the infrastructure" update within 100 days, and hold neighborhood meetings to discuss the problem.
Kirk said the residents had earned the right to know precisely where the city stood in the expensive and lengthy effort at modernizing the city's infrastructure.
"You endured a 20-day boil water order. You pay extraordinarily high water and sewer rates," Kirk said. "Your children attend schools with leaky roofs. You need to know, and deserve to know, about the state of the city's infrastructure."
Kirk underscored the influence the aging infrastructure has on the city.
Reminding the audience that Gloucester was in the midst of a $50 million combined sewer overflow project mandated by federal and state environmental agencies, a $20 million sewer treatment plant overhaul and at the beginning of an $8 million water system upgrade "which doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the infrastructure needs for clean drinking water."
"I characterize this infrastructure as being in state receivership, and I anticipate that fully 50 percent of my time in the next six months will be devoted to ensuring that the city is on track with these projects, drinking water especially," she said.
Rebuilding work
She also said that infrastructure is "not just limited to water and sewer." Kirk noted that the schools and most municipal buildings as well as the roads and sidewalks also needed rebuilding.
Kirk's analysis of the future economy centered on the beleaguered fishing industry.
She also announced the decision to revive the Gloucester Fisheries commission, established by state legislative act in 1954, to strengthen the focus the city's voice in what has become a broadening national struggle by sister ports against federal policies.
"With stringent federal regulations being forced upon the industry today," Gloucester's voice needs to be heard," she said.
Kirk also pointed to her senior staff — including a new interim police chief, Mike Lane, and interim fire chief, Phil Dench — and encouraged "citizen involvement."
She urged citizens to come out to the neighborhood meetings for the discussions on the state of the city's infrastructure.
Kirk made clear she would continue to zero in on costs, and noted that she had promised at her first inaugural to review every purchase order over $100. She said she did that, then promised to spread her scrutiny to contracts,
"I will not sign any contract that does not carry with it proof that at last two other quotes were obtained, that the city is getting the most competitive prices for goods and services," she said. "This includes contracts for Special Education services."
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or via e-mail at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
