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Residents urge moving Laurel precinct and ask council to fix downtown clock
Summary
Two residents asked the council to relocate a Laurel voting precinct because the current church location bars campaign literature, and multiple speakers urged the city to pay roughly $6,900–$7,300 to repair the historic Verdon clock rather than require citizen fundraising.
At the public-comment portion of the April 8 meeting, resident Thomas Gillespie asked Lowell City Council to move the Laurel voting precinct from the Presbyterian Activity Center at 2011 East First Street to the Laurel Recreation Center at 701–715 North Main Street, saying the church location does not permit distribution of campaign literature and parking is insufficient. He told the council that board-of-elections chair Adam Reagan said an August deadline applies for a change to affect the November election.
"The Laurel Recreation Center would be an ideal spot for the November election," Thomas Gillespie said, urging the council to submit a request to the elections board by the August deadline.
Later in public comment, Ed Jackson described work to diagnose the downtown Verdon clock. He said the clock’s control board appears to be sending signals but the mechanical clockworks are failing, and that a vendor quote to replace the internal works was previously about $6,600–$7,300. Jackson said the clock was given to the city, should have been maintained, and recommended the city either pay to fix and enroll the clock on a two-year maintenance plan or allow volunteer fundraising if the council decides not to accept responsibility.
"Once you get it up and running and put it on a maintenance program, we won't have this problem anymore," Ed Jackson said.
Candy Thunderbird, another resident, told the council she believes the city should pay for the repair rather than making citizens raise the money.
What happens next: council members agreed to add the clock repair question to the next meeting agenda for formal discussion and possible action. On the precinct request, Gillespie said the deadline to file the location change is in August and urged staff and the board of elections chair to act in time.
