The first meeting in three weeks of the Lowell City Council features a number of significant items that bear watching.

The board will gather at City Hall tomorrow night for the first time since the July 23rd meeting that led to the appointment of Corey Belanger to replace John Leahy as the District 3 representative. Belanger’s name is attached to three motions, including requesting updates on Cawley Stadium upgrades and flooding issues at the Douglas and Winward Road area.

There are 19 council motions in all, plus 13-manager responses to previous motions. The one that I’m most interested in is the presentation from Jim Dowd, owner’s project manager for Skanska, providing a requested update on the high school construction project.

“Deep Drill,” my most reliable source in the construction industry, has been whispering for months about change order after change order eating up the contingency dollars set aside for the nearly $400-million project. Those change orders have ramped up as work has shifted to the most challenging phases of the build; the renovation of the older facilities.

As “DD” recently cautioned, “we’re just now getting into the belly of the beast.”

As for the new motions, the one that jumps out is Councilor Wayne Jenness’ request for information on the city’s readiness for the September 3 and November 5 elections, along with any actions that can be taken by the council to ensure voters can be certain their votes will be counted.

Last week, InsideLowell ran a podcast with former Director of Elections, Greg Pappas discussing how roughly 5% of  those who bothered to vote in the 2023 Municipal Election never had their ballots counted because they arrived late in the mail. A follow up article revealed that late arriving mail ballots, along with improperly completed forms, led to about 50% of those who voted by mail never having their votes counted in the final, official tally.

Given the reported large number of mail in ballots already requested for next month’s primary, a repeat of the above percentages could impact what is expected to be a very tight race for 18th Middlesex State Representative, and even the Mill City’s impact on the hotly contested Register of Deeds race.

And as if all the motions and responses aren’t enough to keep the council on its toes, there’s also an Executive Session planned to discuss litigation surrounding an Open Meeting complaint, along with a request to address the council by “legendary” guest speaker Norma Von Fricken, whose chats on the council floor often meander into what can be described as “interesting” areas.

Pull up a seat and enjoy the show!