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http://blogs.eagletribune.com/mvsports/2008/11/14/someone-used-the-term-bizzaro-the-city-of-haverhill-should-be-ashamed-of-the-stadium-its-a-dump/ -
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Why doesn't Haverhill get the state money Lawrence gets?
I'll answer it for myself. Because in 20 years, this city hasn't had a politician with the brains and the agenda that is for this city alone. Everybody has an agenda here, a stack of people that have to be taken care of. It's despicable.
Look at Lowell, forget Lawrence for a minute.
And look at Haverhill.
Lowell equals progress. The dumpy field in town, Alumni, has no rival in Haverhill. They complain about Alumni in Lowell. In Haverhill, there'd be a waiting list for permits.
Lowell has minor league hockey and baseball. Haverhill has some incredibly weak tale of how the Patriots almost came to town. Hey the Pats play a charity hoop game in Haverhill once a year. Matt Cassel has been in the Mansfield Gym once or twice, firing up threes. Take that Lowell.
Lowell has a plan for downtown with a theme and ideas.
Haverhill equals people whining about some condo's facade on River Street.
Lowell has youth programs, thriving with coaches entrenched with one goal in mind, making Lowell sports a positive experience for children.
Haverhill has a basketball coach trying to turn a program around the right way, who begs to get gyms for youth leagues and gets rejected because nobody in the city wants to bother.
It has a splintered Little League which is now two misguided organizations instead of one.
It has a city rec director, who has nothing to do with the recreation of the city for the people.
HAVERHILL DOES NOT HAVE A YOUTH BASKETBALL PROGRAM FOR ITS KIDS!!!
Again, it has a little bit in the schools, a little bit at the Y, a little at the Boys Club, etc.
What Haverhill does have is a Rec Director diligent and proud about developing doggie trails at Winnekinni. Page 1 in the Eagle-Tribune. You can't make this stuff up.
Hale Hospital is a spectacular crutch that anyone in this city leans on when questioned. It's also over.
Time to move on. The pols should have put it behind them 5 years ago.
Haverhill has a gigantic tax base, one that Lawrence doesn't have. You don't see Target BJs and Lowe's moving into Lawrence. Houses have gone up around here in the last 10 years like tents at the Salisbury Reservation on Memorial Day weekend.
That money here is blown on agendas, Riverwalks and all the other garbage we don't need.
Anything but spending it wisely on the kids.
People pounce on Haverhill educators for sending their kids to private schools. My son's second-grade teacher did it. The former girls basketball coach did it. Almost everyone does it.
Sending your child to that repugnant, outdated, disjointed, dilapidated high school borders on abuse. I don't blame them. Again, the building, not the people are to fault there.
There's a reason why the state won't toss any money this way. The reason is the present and past work done by the pols in this town, taking care of their cronies while the taxpayers get:
A pathetic high school.
A downtown area that can't make up its mind the direction its going.
Horrendously-kept facilities.
And a bloated payroll.
My son attends Silver Hil. I and a fellow taxpaying parent volunteered and ran a Fall Ball program at the adjacent field.
I walked on the field for the first time in late August, the grass wasn't cut. The dirt infield was grown over with weeds to the point that it was bright green. The pitching rubber was lying on the ground, not in it on it, able to toss around, and home plate was in the ground, a good four feet behind and to the right of where it was supposed to be.
You took the time, you dug the hole and you couldn't put it somewhere near the right spot. Check it out, it's laughable.
Oh no, folks, there's plenty of money out there, but as always there aren't enough workers and there are too many overpaid administrators, pillaging the city a la Lawrence circa 1985.
The one thing Haverhill does have is an absolute lack of accountability. There's gobs of it going around here.
Nobody can take the budget, find the problems and develop a plan.
They hire grotesquely overpaid consultants who do studies and make us all pay for stagnation.
I'll say it again. If I'm paying $350 to play football, the least the city can do is rent the Stadium in Lawrence or maybe ask Whittier to share its field.
If not, push for a refund. You all deserve it.
Note: Sorry for the rant. I just hate to see my city and its vast resources ravaged like it is.
Well, seven years and 10 million dollars later, we have the nicest high school stadium in The Northeast US. And guess what? No state money like Lawrence.....just PEOPLE working hard and volunteering to raise money. It took time; but, when the visiting teams walk into our stadium, they are in awe. It blows the Lawrence FIELD away.
How 'bout starting something here Hector....get some parents together. That's who started ours.....a football mom.
I've never gone to an Amesbury-Port Turkey day game, but this might be the first.
No work detail for me in the morning, so I may head down the river.
It promises to be a classic.