The payment of more than $40,000 in back water bills by the owner of a downtown building that suffered fire damage a month ago has cleared the way for Glenn's Galley and Cool Bar to reopen May 1.
The money was owed by the owner of the building, which on the assessors database is listed as Geonautics Inc. Is that the same Geonautics as this, I wonder?
According to Water Department Chairman George Lawler, the $40,000 bill owed to the Water and Sewer Departments was built up over the last few years. Because of the bill, the city would not allow new permits to be pulled for the building's tenants, causing Glenn's owners and operators, Glenn Mayers and Charlene Ferreira, to fear they would not open on time.
I'm certainly glad someone is on the ball with this.
But late Thursday afternoon, building manager Tracy Jan made a full payment to the city's Water Department to make sure nothing was owed.
"The owner didn't mean to fall behind on payments," Jan said. "These things happen with vacancies, etc. We don't want a problem and we certainly want to be good landlords to Glenn's."
These things happen? What the heck? If there hadn't been a fire, would anyone have ever forced them to pay up?
This reminds of last year, when no one was forcing the marinas to pay up for the moorings they were "renting" in bulk from the city ... Ralph Steele, the harbormaster, told me recently that the issue had been resolved ...
And why didn't the Daily News name the owner? They had no problem throwing Robert Finneran's name all over the place, and his similar offense was much lighter.
Perhaps the commenter to the DN story, DDS, is correct in questioning what exactly is the budget deficit, given how poor the city's collection methods seem to be ...
But we have a new treasurer now and hopefully she will be right on this problem.
2 comments:
Yes, Gillian, the same company owns both locations. The DN missed the mark on naming the owner as Tracy, Jan is the one and only Jan Tracy, daughter of the late Hank Tracy that founded the Geonautic business at 44 Merrimac Street and found future expansion at the Old Coke Plant further up Merrimac Street.
If and when the MGL laws are again followed and a list of dead beats are released to the public and liens are placed and funds collected or properties sold at auction for repayment, the public may be very taken aback at the size and the names published on this list.
(see Mass General Laws Chapter 40 Sec. a thru k just for starters). http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/.htm
This administration as well as some recent administrations have stated that staffing issues and process along with the economy has solidified their decision to forgo these laws. At least 'they' do not mind spending my money in order to be well liked by the voting public and gain votes with these little gifts. I would be appalled to find my name on a City Lien List.
The public (yourself included) was present during a recent discussion with the Water/ Sewer Commissions and our Mayor on these issues. Department Personnel actually took their time to show up and speak on these issues. They were denied the time to speak.
A new study was required of this Mayor at a cost of $10,000to the Water /Sewer customers (after several requests dating back to 20060 to determine if this is an issue and if the process needs more staff that the Water/ Sewer Department would need to pay for and not the taxpayer due to the overload in other city departments and the lack of manpower in those departments to produce required lien lists etc.
Anonymous not by my own choice ;)
Thanks, Anonymous ;)
So she was referring to herself when she was talking about "the owner?"
Oh I see - her name is Jan Tracy, not Tracy Jan ... lol.
Good grief.
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