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| Newburyport Daily News, August 5, 2000 | | Bill to benefit local road, bridge projects |
Many North Shore roads and bridges received a major boost earlier this week when the Legislature approved a bill designating nearly $3.2 billion for transportation projects across the state.
The latest transportation bond bill, which still needs Gov. Paul Cellucci’s approval, doesn’t guarantee that the local projects included the bill will be funded. But it’s a critical step that authorizes the administration to release the money for those projects during the next several years.
“The local road and bridge programs are really suffering,” said Rep. Harriett Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat who served on the committee that created the final agreement for the bill. “We’ve made more money available and we have to be much more diligent to make sure the money is spent the way it’s designated.”
Stanley is among many legislators who say the Big Dig is pulling an inordinate amount of money away from projects in small towns and cities because of cost overruns at the public works project in Boston.
The transportation bond bill’s conference committee finished its negotiations over the weekend. The Legislature promptly approved the $3.2 billion bill on its last day of formal sessions Monday.
Stanley said most communities probably won’t see the money for another few years, at the earliest. The administration tries to limit the amount of bonds it sells each year with a self-imposed cap of $1 billion a year.
“I’ve told all the local officials they should expect a three- to five-year window,” Stanley said.
The legislation designates money for the following local projects:
- $640,000 for engineering and reconstruction of River Road in West Newbury.
- $1 million for improvements at the intersection of routes 113 and 97 in Groveland for preserving the historic character of Groveland Square, near the Bates Bridge.
- Another $2 million for improvements at the intersection of Groveland Street and Lincoln Avenue in Haverhill in conjunction with the repair or replacement of Bate Bridge.
- $750,000 for improvements to the intersection of Main Street and River Road at the approach to Rocks Village Bridge in Haverhill to preserve historic character of Rocks Village.
- $375,000 for improvements to the intersection of Church and Bridge streets at the approach to the Rocks Village Bridge in West Newbury.
- $1,214,000 for a bus depot at the proposed Haverhill civic center that’s now being considered for a technology center.
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| Georgetown Record, August 4, 2000 | | $1.5 million in access road funds restored to state budget |
When Sen. Robert Bernstein (D-Worcester) temporarily took over the gavel for state Senate Pres. Thomas Birmingham late Monday night, Bernstein brought the $1.5 million override for Georgetown access road up for action, and it quickly passed the Senate.
This is good news for Tenney Street residents. The access road, once constructed, will relieve a large section of the quiet, residential neighborhood of heavy industrial traffic. The trucks presently lining up on Tenney Street to get from I-95 to various industries and businesses will take National Way to the 3,610 foot long access road, then enter the eastern section of Tenney way via Norino Way and Long Hill Road.
Georgetown is going to get its long awaited access road funding as a cash item in the state’s operating budget. Both the Massachusetts House and Senate overturned Governor Paul Cellucci’s Friday veto of the access road funding during the final day of their current legislative session. The legislative session ended Monday July 31.
Long-time access road advocate State Rep. Harriett Stanley (D-West Newbury) was jubilant Monday night.
"It’s thrilling because this saga is over," she said. "There’s more than one way to get a piece of legislation done, and last night we got this project done."
Stanley asked for help from Bernstein this year. She says in order to do this she bundled the Georgetown road funding into a package with the 10 highway projects vetoed by Cellucci last Friday, "instead of leaving Georgetown out there by itself."
The $1.5 million access road has been in the works since 1996.
At 9:15 p.m. Monday, the House overrode the Cellucci vote by a vote of 136 to 20. The bill went to Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) and the Senate at 9:20 p.m. Shortly after 10 p.m. the override passed the Senate, thanks to Bernstein, said the elated Stanley.
"He got the job done in less than an hour," she said.
Stanley was criticized in the media last year after introducing a bill to freeze the salaries of Mass. Highway officials until they reimbursed Georgetown for money already spent on the access road. She remains unrepentant.
"I got their attention," Stanley said.
Stanley has been working to appropriate state funds for the Georgetown access road since April 1995. As assistant vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and as a member of the six-member budget conference committee, Stanley placed the Georgetown access road on the state operating budget for the past two years.
This year her hard work paid off.
Georgetown Selectman Paul Thompson couldn’t say enough about Stanley.
"Superlatives to Rep. Harriett Stanley," said Thompson. "If anyone could get this done, and I’ve said this year after year, it would be Harriett, and she got it done."
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| Newburyport Daily News, July 25, 2000 | | Stanley pushes whistle ban |
When Rep. Harriett Stanley received word that a legislative committee had reworked Newbury’s petition for a ban on routine train whistle use at crossings in the town, she knew she’d have to do something to keep the original proposal intact.
So Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat, quietly substituted the Transportation Committee’s bill to limit the ban to hours between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. with her own bill, which would create a 24-hour ban.
Stanley said the maneuver was important to ensure the people who live along the tracks in Newbury, as well as those who live nearby in Rowley, receive the same courtesy as those who live in other North Shore towns with 24-hour bans.
Stanley substituted the bill last week, and it was then engrossed by the House.
"This is not a practice we should be doing very often here, but in some cases you have no choice," Stanley said. "This is about public safety, but it’s also about equal treatment."
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| Newburyport Daily News, July 25, 2000 | | Jajuga seat belt bill hits snag |
House members dealt a serious blow yesterday to a bill that would allow police officers to pull drivers over and cite them for not wearing their seat belts.
The House voted 78-71 against the measure, which the senate overwhelmingly approved on July 13, after several legislators said they feared the bill would unfairly infringe on individuals’ rights.
Voting against the bill was Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury.
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| Newburyport Daily News, July 24, 2000 | | Troubled bridge: Parker River span likely to be replaced |
The deteriorating condition of the Parker River Bridge on Route 1A is likely to lead to the bridge’s replacement.
The 70-year-old bridge has received what is called a "sufficiency rating" of 22 points, out of a possible 100, in recent inspection by the Massachusetts Highway Department. Any bridge with a rating under 50 is a good candidate for replacement, officials said.
"Structurally, it’s in bad shape," said Gautam Sen, who is managing the project for Mass. Highway. He said he expects the bridge will be replaced and not rehabilitated. Apart from a granite base, the bridge is made of concrete and rapidly deteriorating.
Construction on the new bridge would begin as late as spring 2002 when final design is expected to be complete, according to Sen. Replacing the bridge would cost an estimated $3.5 million.
Despite the recent activity, critics say the highway department has moved far too slowly on the project and put the public at risk.
"It’s a burr under my saddle and it’s a problem for the residents of Newbury," said state Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury. She has collected and inch-thick stack of papers regarding the condition bridge.
Citing reports concerning on the bridge’s supports, she said, "On a zero to nine scale they’re a three with zero being in the water."
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| Eagle Tribune, July 19, 2000 | | Needle exchange bill moves forward |
Gov. A. Paul Cellucci is the last obstacle in state Sen. James P. Jajuga’s battle to pass a mandatory needle exchange program in the state after lawmakers yesterday included the measure in their compromise budget bill.
State Reps. Harriett L. Stanley, D-West Newbury, and Barry R. Finegold, D-Andover, also scored big wins in the budget bill.
Rep. Stanley succeeded in protecting last year’s budget agreement which called for 70 percent of the state’s tobacco settlement money to be put in a trust fund. The remaining 30 percent will be spent on health care and smoking cessation program.
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| Newburyport Daily News, July 19, 2000 | | Education hot topic in budget debate |
A proposed change to a law governing special education services continued to generate controversy on Beacon Hill yesterday as both the House and the Senate approved a $21.55 billion state budget.
Critics blasted legislative leaders for including a provision that would ease the standard for special education services to match one that exists in 49 other states.
Rep. Harriett Stanley, a Democrat from West Newbury and another member to the conference committee, said she had some reservations about the change to the new standard, which still become effective in 2002. But they weren’t strong enough to convince her not the vote for the budget.
Stanley said she hasn’t seen enough evidence yet that changing the standard will either save money or benefit children.
"I think special ed. does need to be reformed or streamlined," Stanley said. "I’m not positive that the change in the standard is appropriate right now."
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| Newburyport Daily News, June 26, 2000 | | Editorial: Bridges in need of repair |
Newbury residents have had their eye on two bridge sites for some time now.
The first, the reconstruction of White Bridge on Newman Road, has been under construction for several months and is due to be finished by the middle of July.
The second, the bridge spanning the Parker River is not so obvious because the surface, while worn, hides the real and dangerous problem beneath, where boat owners have reported seeing chunks of concrete falling into the river when heavy trucks happen to be passing overhead.
Rep. Harriett Stanley has done her part by calling attention to appropriate authorities at the state level, but wheels regarding such matters turn with paralyzing slowness. Appropriations are one thing, but bridge redesign, contract processing and related red tape are another.
And there are other problems.
Trying to figure what to do about the Big Dig deficit does not make for ready cash for other needs.
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| Newburyport Daily News, June 19, 2000 | | Stanley’s efforts to save tobacco deal pay off |
When Harriett Stanley learned legislative leaders could decide to go back on an agreement outlining how to spend the state’s tobacco settlement money, she knew she would have to be patient and persistent to rescue the deal.
The West Newbury Democrat helped craft the agreement last year and promised anti-tobacco activists at the time that the state would live up to the deal’s terms.
In the end, she was able to keep her word.
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| The Haverhill Gazette, June 8 - June 14, 2000 | | Children are scared, Exchange Club told |
State Rep. Harriett L. Stanley told Exchange Club she regularly teaches classes and goes before scouts and other youth groups in her election district stretching from Haverhill to Newbury.
"You’d be very surprised at what your kids are telling us, the Democrat legislator said.
Stanley says she hears from children that school is irrelevant and uninteresting and that schools are too big and crowded. Worse, she said, children are wondering not whether they will be victims of some kind of violence, but how they will cope when they get caught up in it.
She said the issue of violence needs to get incorporated into state spending, her forte. Stanley said half of the state budget now goes to health and education and the other half to running state government and programs like transportation.
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| Newburyport Daily News, June 8, 2000 | | Stanley appointed to budget conference committee |
Essex County has strong representation again on the six-member committee that’s expected to have the final say on the Legislature’s proposed state budget.
Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury, and Sen. Fred Berry, D-Peabody, started to serve earlier this week on the conference committee assigned to reconcile differences between the versions of the budget proposed by the House and the Senate.
It’s the second year on the committee for Berry, who is vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and the fourth year for Stanley, assistant vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee quietly began meeting Tuesday.
Leaders in both the House and the Senate want to try to avoid the protracted budget negotiations of last year.Stanley said the philosophical differences between the two budgets are just as large this year as they were last year, but the committee began its deliberations in a more efficient manner this time around.
Some of the controversial issues that need to be resolved include special education funding; Senate proposals to withdraw from a regional dairy compact and to give the state power to open needle exchanges without local approval; the House’s decision to effectively delay the state’s "Clean Elections" law; and disagreements about how the state should spend its share of the tobacco settlement money.
Stanley said the budget must go to Gov. Paul Cellucci’s desk no later than mid-July to give the Legislature time to act on any of the governor’s vetoes before the formal session ends on July 31.
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| Eagle Tribune, May 26, 2000 | | AG wants laws to combat cyber thugs |
Massachusetts has a thriving high-tech economy. But when it comes to policing computer crime, the state’s laws are outdated and lack teeth.
To combat the, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has proposed new computer crime legislation that will define new criminal offenses, criminalize e-mail harassment, increase hacking penalties and improve the ability of law enforcement to investigate computer crimes.
State Rep. Harriett L. Stanley, D-West Newbury, and Sen. Cheryl A. Jacques, D-Needham, are sponsoring the legislation.
"E-commerce is where the action is right now, so as a result there are people out there who are hacking in, invading privacy, and stealing numbers and identities, and when we catch them we can’t even prosecute them properly," Rep. Stanley said.
Right now, computer-related crimes carry a maximum penalty of 30 days in prison.
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| Eagle Tribune, May 19, 2000 | | Mentally ill to get equal treatment |
Gov. A. Paul Cellucci and Lt. Gov. Jane M. Swift signed a bill this week that levels the playing field for consumers with mental health claims, ensuring they receive the same insurance benefits as people with physical illnesses.
The new law eliminates the discriminatory insurance practices facing many people with psychiatric disorders, while protecting patient confidentiality.
State Rep. Harriett L. Stanley, D-West Newbury, served on the conference committee that drafted the final version of the bill.
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| Newburyport Daily News, May 5, 2000 | | Pentucket grads ‘lead the way’ |
They are the symbolic bridge between the 20th and 21stcentury: the class of 2000.
On Saturday, commencement speaker Rep. Harriett Stanley wished 164 graduating Pentucket Regional High School seniors luck in a future where the pace of progress and change will only increase.
"People today are wearing more computing power on their wrist, than we had in an entire high school in 1968," said Stanley. "It is truly a new world."
"You were chosen by simple destiny to lead the way," said Stanley.
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| Newburyport Daily News, April 17, 2000 | | Stanley compromises on money for anti-smoking efforts |
When Rep. Harriett Stanley learned the state might go back on its pledge to fully fund anti-tobacco programs, she started looking for ways to make sure the promise wouldn’t be broken.
As part of a deal Stanley helped arrange last year, the state agreed to use 30 percent of its annual settlement award for health programs, and to use 25 percent of that amount specifically for anti-smoking efforts.
Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat and assistant vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said she was surprised to learn nearly two weeks ago that the House Ways and Means budget proposal would take $10 million from what was pledged for anti-smoking efforts and allocate that money for school nurses instead.
Stanley and other advocates filed budget amendments to return the money and to find the funds for the nurses somewhere else. She campaigned recently to build support. Eventually, about 110 other House members signed on to the effort.
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| Newburyport Daily News, April 7, 2000 | | Legislators support tax cut |
On the verge of budget negotiations, local legislators indicated their support of a cut in the state income tax rate yesterday.
The legislators spoke at the breakfast hosted by the Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It brought together State Rep. Kevin Finnegan, Rep. Harriett Stanley and Senator Bruce Tarr.
"For me," Stanley said, "not to vote to cut the income tax rate is saying that I believe the budget is as lean and tight as it can be. And that’s not the case."
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| Newburyport Daily News, March 23, 2000 | | Perilous journey of $1 million amendment |
A $1 million amendment for the Square that was contained in the 1999 Transportation Bond Bill is not dead, said State Senator Bruce Tarr, who was before the Selectman recently to explain the Senate’s rejection of the amendment.
Tarr said the Senate, and particularly the Senate Ways and Means Committee, believed that the Groveland Square project was "not a transportation issue and not deserving of inclusion in the bond bill."
The bill, which was approved by the House, will go to a conference committee of the two legislative chambers, said State Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury. Stanley asked to be appointed to the six-member conference committee "to protect Groveland’s project," she said.
(Editor’s Note: Stanley’s negotiating efforts were successful. On July 31, 2000, the Transportation Bond Bill passed with the Groveland project included it.)
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| Newburyport Daily News, March 1, 2000 | | Girl Scouts plan badge fair on March 3 |
"Women of the World" is the theme of this year’s Girl Scouts’ badge fair to be held that the Newbury Elementary School on Friday, March 3, from 4 to 7 p.m.
At least 20 troops will display the results of their research about important women such as Christa McAuliffe, Sacagawea, and the local state representative, Harriett Stanley.
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| Newburyport Daily News, February 10, 2000 | | Stanley vows fight over toll hikes |
Governor Paul Cellucci yesterday refused to rule out bridge and tunnel toll increases, delayed plans for a lifetime driver’s license and came out against a ballot initiative that would give drivers a tax credit for tolls and auto excise fees.
The governor’s plan drew immediate fire from lawmakers and commuter advocates.
"Why should my constituents have to pay more than their fair share of the Big Dig?" asked State Rep. Harriett Stanley, a D-West Newbury.
Essex County lawmakers said earlier this week that they want the state to hold off raising tolls until the Cellucci administration comes up with a better plan for dealing with the Big Dig’s $1.4 billion overrun.
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| Newburyport Daily News, February 2000 | | Audubon Society gives Stanley top rating |
Harriett Stanley was among the most eco-friendly legislators on Beacon Hill last year, according to a state environmental group.
Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat, garnered a top score of 100 on the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s annual legislative report.
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| Newburyport Daily News, January 21, 2000 | | Education Chief promises support for school reform |
What now?
That was the question local school officials asked State Education Commissioner David Driscoll as he visited Pentucket Regional School District yesterday.
He came at the request of State Rep. Harriett Stanley to discuss the future of the 1993 Education Reform Act.
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| Newburyport Daily News, January 14, 2000 | | Female political leaders honored |
Women are emerging as local, state and federal political leaders as never before.
To celebrate the accomplishments and influence of these women and all the other female political leaders in Northeastern Massachusetts, the Winning Opportunities for Women Committee of the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce in hosting "Influential Voices: Our Women in Political Leadership," a luncheon program on January 18. Invited guests include State Representative Harriett Stanley.
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Email Representative Harriett Stanley with any questions or concerns.
Rep.HarriettStanley@hou.state.ma.us |
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