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Aug. 12, 2022 - Campaign signs on front lawns of supporters of Tara Hong, who is running for the state representative seat in the 18th Middlesex District. Hong says at least 100 of his campaign signs have gone missing from the HIghlands neighborhood since July 30. COURTESY TARA HONG
Tara Hong, of Lowell, has announced his candidacy as a Democrat running for state representative for the 18th Middlesex District. (Courtesy Tara Hong)
Aug. 10, 2022 - Brothers Steven DeRosa, center, and Christopher DeRosa, right, represented by attorney Jay Lee of Lowell's Gallagher & Cavanaugh LLP, are arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, charged with violating the Massachusetts Clean Air Act by illegally demolishing, storing and transporting asbestos waste at four Lowell apartment buildings marketed to college students. JULIA MALAKIE/LOWELL SUN
Aug 9, 2022 - Republican gubernatorial hopeful Chris Doughty and his chosen running mate for lieutenant governor, former 17th Worcester District state representative Kate Campanale, hold a news conference at South Common in Lowell. JULIA MALAKIE/LOWELL SUN
Aug 9, 2022 - Republican gubernatorial hopeful Chris Doughty and his chosen running mate for lieutenant governor, former 17th Worcester District state representative Kate Campanale, hold a news conference at South Common in Lowell. JULIA MALAKIE/LOWELL SUN
TARA HONG first noticed that some of his campaign signs were missing from the front lawns of his Highlands neighborhood supporters the morning of July 31.
“I drove around Stevens Street, and half of the signs were gone,” an incredulous Hong said Friday.
A candidate for the coveted 18th Middlesex District seat, freshly graduated from UMass Lowell, Hong needs all the name recognition his signs can give. He’s running against incumbent state Rep. Rady Mom, D-Lowell, and School Committee member Dominik Lay.
The second time the signs went missing — about a week later — Hong found out through a phone call from a resident who reported that campaign signs had been taken overnight from her neighborhood.
“At least 100 yard signs were stolen, plus one of the big banners that we had at Stevens and Parker Street,” Hong said.
That banner hung on a fence along the busy four-way intersection facing Lowell Catholic School.
The campaign issued a statement on social media on Aug. 5, that read in part, “Someone has been stealing Tara Hong campaign signs from lawns and fences in the Highlands. Our team has placed more than 200 signs in the district. Each one of those signs represent a conversation with a resident or business owner; it represents money donated by supporters; it represents hours of volunteer time. People are welcoming both the signs and the type of change Tara’s been talking about, and it is sad that this very basic part of the democratic election process is being compromised.”
Replacing the signs is pricey, and with only a little more than three weeks before the Sept. 6 primary election, Hong said he is losing valuable curbside exposure. He said he’d be happy if whoever stole the signs and banner would “give them back so we can run our campaign.”
“The signs aren’t cheap, Hong said. “We ordered 150 more for a little more than $600 — about $4 each.”
Hong said his campaign received surveillance video from community members around the district, and there is a witness to some of the sign-stealing.
“We gave all that information to the police already,” Hong said, adding that, “there’s a detective assigned to the case.”
When reached by phone, Lowell Police Detective Joseph Borodawka said he couldn’t “comment on an ongoing investigation.”
Echoing his campaign statement, Hong said each sign represented a hardworking person.
“This is a grassroot campaign. All that money is from hardworking people from around the district, and outside the district as well who support our campaign and believe that it’s a time for change for the betterment of our community and the state of Massachusetts,” he said.
Hong says he feels like his campaign is being targeted.
“A small amount had been missing before, but now it’s a big amount,” Hong said. “The other campaigns aren’t losing signs like this.”
On Saturday, Lay was asked about the status of his campaign signs in the Highlands area.
“I’m amazed that happened,” Lay said. “For me, not that many signs are missing. It doesn’t look like they’ve been sabotaged.”
Mom responded by text that, “Yes, my sign was stolen from a couple of locations!”
“Not that many” and “a couple of locations” combined is still a few campaign signs short of 100 (and a banner) within a one-week period.
When asked if he had an idea of who the culprit was, the soft-spoken Hong said, “I have an idea of who it is, but I’m going to let the police do their job.”
Spoken like a seasoned politician.
AN INTERESTING nugget gleaned from a close reading of the statement of the case file in the DeRosa brothers’ arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court this week was the name of Shaun Shanahan, formerly Lowell’s building commissioner.
The DeRosa brothers pleaded not guilty at their Wednesday arraignment on charges that they violated the Massachusetts Clean Air Act in handling asbestos at apartments marketed to Lowell college students.
According to court documents, in 2017 and 2018, Steven and Christopher DeRosa were renovating numerous Lowell tenement houses, mostly in The Acre neighborhood, which they would then rent out to students at UMass Lowell.
In the case statement provided by Assistant Attorney General David Wittenberg, the allegations from the hearing involve the illegal demolition, handling, transportation, storage and disposal of debris from the thermal insulation, asbestos-containing cement siding, flooring and other construction and demolition waste material at four Lowell apartment houses near the UMass Lowell campus.
The statement goes on to describe that because the DeRosas were significant residential developers in Lowell, and “had completed dozens if not hundreds of jobs in the city,” the Lowell Building Department staff was familiar with them and their work.
“In the normal course of events, a local building inspector would handle building permits in his district, including the type of permits involved in this case,” Wittenberg wrote in the case file. He noted that in this instance, however, Shanahan “handled nearly all of the Lowell Site permits personally.”
Shanahan had a meteoric rise in the department that placed him in the path of the DeRosa brothers.
In 2008, he worked as a mechanic in the Department of Public Works, before rising to the top departmental job. The 2018 job description required “working knowledge of municipal government procedures and operations.” Higher education was preferred, but a high school education was required, as well a valid driver’s license and some other basic conditions for a position that paid between $78,671 to $92,373 annually.
Shanahan is a member of the politically connected family that owns the Owl Diner on Appleton Street. Ten years later, and during the time of the asbestos investigation, Shanahan became the building commissioner in Chelmsford, a job he ultimately left in early 2021 due to a medical-related issue.
Shortly after that, Shanahan was arrested after the black Porsche he was driving rear-ended an unmarked Lowell Police vehicle operated by a police captain who was off-duty and driving home. Shanahan was charged with operating with a suspended license, no inspection and no insurance, but the charges were dismissed at his arraignment in Lowell District Court. No other vehicles were involved and no one was injured in the Dracut crash.
But back to the asbestos case. Ironically, Shanahan may have been the person who helped break open the state’s investigation when he emailed the investigator for the Department of Environmental Protection a waste shipment record for the initial site located at 67 Varney St., purporting to show the DeRosas’ proper disposal of asbestos materials from that property.
When asked by the inspector why a city building commissioner was arranging contractors and cleanup of a private developer’s property, according to Wittenberg’s case statement, “Shanahan replied that he wanted to make sure things were done right, and that the DeRosas had done good things in the city.”
The documentation from Shanahan, however, listed a different site, that of 38 Wannalancit St. — about a mile away — rather than the Varney location under investigation. A subsequent investigation of Wannalancit Street in December 2017 revealed more than 160 bags of asbestos-containing waste materials. Some of the debris matched the asbestos siding from the Varney site, and some of it was from an unknown location. All of the samples tested positive for asbestos, according to Wittenberg’s report.
As part of the DEP’s investigations, it identified a total of four DeRosa properties in Lowell that were cited for illegal asbestos work, including 28 Wilder St. and 7 Rockdale St.
Ironically, Shanahan did his job for the residents of Lowell when he “wanted to make sure things were done right” by the DeRosas. His paperwork error broke open the state’s case.
The Column attempted to reach Shanahan for comment on the asbestos case at his last known cellphone number and on social media, but did not receive a response.
REPUBLICAN GUBERNATORIAL candidate Chris Doughty made the rounds again this week to announce his tax reform plan, stopping in Boston, Lowell and Haverhill to hold press conferences.
The 10-step reform agenda includes reducing corporate income tax in the state from 8% to 7%, preventing property tax increases and decreasing sales tax from 6.25% to 5%, among other measures.
Doughty, a businessman from Wrentham, said he is the first candidate in the race to release a “comprehensive” tax policy.
“We wanted to come up north because you guys are really impacted by the sales tax with New Hampshire, which doesn’t have one,” Doughty said before the conference.
Doughty and running mate Kate Campanale, candidate for lieutenant governor, first announced the proposed policies at the steps of the State House before coming to Lowell’s South Common for basically the same address.
But upon arriving at the Lowell presser, attendees were met with a podium in the middle of a walking path between the STEM Academy and a set of basketball courts. The address for the conference wasn’t immediately clear from press releases, and only after a reporter contacted two different Doughty representatives were they able to get an address.
A member of the team said they “didn’t realize how big it is in here,” referring to the South Common.
The only people at the conference were about five staffers and a Sun reporter and photographer. But Doughty and Campanale were more than happy to answer the paper’s questions in one-on-one interviews before and after.
Given the location, there was nowhere for onlookers to stand, as Doughty and Campanale faced a phone broadcasting their words to Facebook Live. And weirdly, when they were done with their spiel and opened the floor to questions, the campaign staffer recording the conference stopped the livestream and packed up the equipment.
Doughty said he wanted to visit Lowell given its proximity to New Hampshire, which benefits from having no sales tax. Despite what it may look like, Doughty said he was happy to be here.
“What a treat to be here in the beautiful city of Lowell,” Doughty said. “We’ve really enjoyed being up here and connecting with these communities, so it’s good to be back.”
It was just a couple months ago when Doughty and his team mistakenly reported the campaign had stopped in Lowell to feed homeless people, only to realize that it wasn’t Lowell but actually Lawrence.
And in June, Doughty was purposefully not invited to a GOP rally in Lowell, where opponent Geoff Diehl and other Republican candidates for local and state office gathered at Athenian Corner.
It isn’t clear if Doughty has actually met with constituents or held other events in the city, as he clearly did not meet anyone new on Tuesday.
Maybe the Boston crowd was bigger or maybe the Doughty press team considered Lowell as just another short stop during the day, but either way, the conference was at least an opportunity for the Doughty-Campanale team to make an appearance.
Diehl, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, appears to be the leading Republican candidate in the race, though neither he nor Doughty are expected to beat the sole Democratic candidate and current Attorney General Maura Healey.
“JOCKEY” — NOT the underwear brand and not someone who races horses.
The word was thrown around several times at Wednesday night’s Chelmsford Planning Board meeting, as one resident indirectly accused developers of submitting incomplete applications to the town.
Brian Latina, a Precinct 9 Town Meeting representative, was the only person to provide public input at the start of the meeting, first “correcting the record” on a different matter regarding a previous statement he made about a property’s cost per square foot.
But then, wrapping up his comments, Latina said that those applying to obtain town-owned properties are not doing their due diligence by properly filling out paperwork and sharing how their plans will benefit Chelmsford.
“I am very concerned, I do see there’s some jockeying of applications,” Latina said. “You shouldn’t have to do the research, the developers should do their research. … When they apply and put a different application in to jockey around, like maybe I saw tonight, that’s probably a different application and it needs to come back to you again, and the public should be told about it in advance.”
When asked by the board what he meant by “jockeying,” Latina returned to the podium to say he does not feel supported by the board.
Though he wasn’t speaking in specifics, Latina referenced a warrant article at Town Meeting that attempted “to adjust something that we believed was protected.” He then talked about housing in the center of town, which he said “is just not going to happen” given the parking limitations.
“The Planning Board is supposed to represent us,” he said. “When we go in and we help the developer adjust to our zoning, what you’re essentially doing is hurting, I’m gonna say me, the town.”
Vice Chair Deirdre Connolly said Latina was accusing a developer of a “bait and switch,” which Latina confirmed.
The board discussed “a particular warehouse in town” sometime in April, Latina said, but in May, the same proposal was filed under a different application. A proposed warehouse project on Billerica Road was a new administrative review item at the board’s April 13 meeting, but nothing else regarding the plans appears on May agendas.
Because of that, Latina said the board is siding with these out-of-town developers instead of the people who live here and know the area.
“It’s kind of inappropriate to say, ‘Here’s a way around our rules,’” Latina said. “You’re supposed to protect the town. If you don’t, you’re hurting my property and the value of my property.”
Representatives involved in the 270 Billerica Road industrial warehouse plans did not acknowledge Latina’s statements. This was the second public hearing regarding the project, the first being June 22.
LATINA STAYED for the remainder of the meeting, offering further input into zoning, which came up quickly afterward when resident Luke Fougere presented his case for obtaining a special permit to construct a large garage for his business at 150-152 Dalton St.
Jack Luskin lives at 34 Stedman St., which abuts the proposed garage. Luskin said he initially did not even know there was a business run at that residence, only noticing the occasional dump trucks traveling in and out.
He and his wife have lived there for several years now, but over time, the traffic volume has soared, he said, with 18-wheelers now driving through what was once a quiet block.
That is the central factor that brought Luskin to the meeting, as he claims previous town discussions regarding the project failed to consider neighbors and traffic.
Luskin then turned to Fougere, who was seated behind him, and said there is a huge potential for an increase in truck traffic should Fougere choose to expand.
“In your previous statements, at the last meeting, you talked about neighbors saying what a great job you’ve done,” Luskin said. “You never came to us. We never heard from you.”
Fougere responded from the audience, saying he did send Luskin a letter to his residence, but Luskin replied that the illustrated rendering of the project was incredibly unrealistic, as it supposedly depicted a waterfall on the property.
Luskin then became a bit more heated, engaging Fougere in a back-and-forth and telling the board that, last meeting, Fougere said he wasn’t even sure what he would do with the extra space.
“That’s a little disingenuous, to have your kids sign the letter, more disingenuous,” he said to Fougere. “You look like a pretty sharp guy. You’re not going to do all that, spend all that money, and not have a clue what you’re going to do with it.”
At that point, the Planning Board intervened and, minutes later, motioned to continue the public hearing on Sept. 14.
WHICH CAME first, the chicken or the egg? That circular conundrum has a parallel in the town of Dracut.
A 2% surcharge that residents pay on their property tax bills, with some matching money from the state, funds the Community Preservation Commission. In 2015, the CPC awarded $2.8 million to the town for the purchase of Beaver Brook Farm.
Taxpayer money was involved at both ends of the transaction. So who owns the farm?
Town Manager Ann Vandal felt some blowback from the CPC after comments she made at an Aug. 2 goal-setting meeting suggesting the CPC owns the land.
Discussing a goal proposed by Selectman Heather Santiago-Hutchings asking for “maintenance and upkeep plans for land post-purchase not covered by CPC funds,” Vandal cited Beaver Brook Farms as an example of a purchase which had no plan for maintenance, recalling a kerfuffle over haying the property in the summer.
“They (the CPC) bought the farm and didn’t know what to do with it,” Vandal said. “They have not made a plan for one piece of the property they bought.”
At the selectmen’s Aug. 9 meeting, CPC Chairman Bruce Cote took issue with Vandal’s remarks. He was speaking on his own behalf but partly for the committee, he said.
He called the use of the pronoun “they” a denial of ownership. The Community Preservation Act is the mechanism.
“’They’ implies the CPC buys and owns things. The CPC does not buy or own anything,” Cote said.
Over the years, several attempts have been made to determine how best to use the land, but the town is still struggling to find the answers. The Beaver Brook Farmhouse finally sold last year for $100,000.
However, conservation restrictions should have been defined before Town Meeting was asked to acquire the property. Now, several years later that work is underway. “But it will take time,” Vandal has said on several occasions.
Expressing some frustration with the absence of plans for the property, Vandal said, “To be quite honest, it’s one of the ‘Jim’ problems.”
That would be former Town Manager Jim Duggan. Litigation against the town stemming from Duggan’s tenure has been popping up on Middlesex Superior Court’s docket recently.
Cote objected to a statement Vandal made about the CPC not having meetings. The CPC has not had a secretary or clerk to take minutes. Cote, however, said, “I have been diligent in creating and posting them myself. Then I hand-deliver them to Town Hall.”
This week’s Column was prepared by reporters Melanie Gilbert in Lowell; Cameron Morsberger in the governor’s race and Chelmsford; and Prudence Brighton in Dracut.
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