TO:                  Mayor William F. Martin, Jr.

                        And

                        Members of the Lowell City Council

FROM:            Bernard F. Lynch, City Manager

DATE:             March 30, 2007

RE:                   Council Motion of 3/27/07 by Councillor Elliott

“Request the City Manager explore the possibility of implementing a resident hotline for pothole damage and reports, etc.”

Regarding the above mentioned motion, I asked Mike Demaras from Neighborhood Services to look into this request.  Mike stated that the Division of Neighborhood Services currently has a dedicated telephone hotline for our Graffiti Removal Program (978-970-4035).  This line has an answering machine which takes messages during weekend and evening hours.  The message will be changed to include potholes and other resident concerns in addition to the Graffiti Removal requests that we are now receiving.  Residents may also contact the Division of Neighborhood Services with a complaint by accessing the City of Lowell website via the internet and send an email directly to Neighborhood Services (they can go to “Navigation” menu and look for “Departments and Programs”).  Another way to contact the Division of Neighborhood Services through email is to access the “Navigation” menu, click “Contact the City” and click “Compliment, Complain, Correspond or Request a Service”.  All of these messages are sent directly to Neighborhood Services for follow-up.

I hope this information is helpful and if you have any questions, please contact me.  Thank you.