GLEC Service Leadership Program's Petition Helps to Produce Spicket River Signage and a New Ordinance


Lawrence Mayor Michael J. Sullivan cuts the ribbon to celebrate the installation of signage for the Spicket River in Lawrence (in the rain on Wednesday, May 25, 2005).	This sign appears on each bridge crossing the Spicket River in Lawrence, 10 in all.

Maggie Super Church, left, is the Executive Director of Groundwork Lawrence, an organization dedicated to the development of the Spicket River Greenway as a recreational resource for Lawrence. She and her staff worked with many organizations and agencies to bring about the signage, including the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, the Urban Ecology Institute, Arlington Community Trabajando, and the City of Lawrence. Mayor Sullivan (right) announced that the city has installed video cameras on 24 hour surveillance to discourage any further dumping and will vigorously enforce the new ordinance.	This is one of two Spicket River Petitions produced by the GLEC Service Leadership Students. More than 1,000 people signed these petitions. SInce 1987, GLECsters have done many cleanups in Andover, Lawrence, North Andover, Haverhill, and Methuen -- focusing on many sites along the Spicket River, the Little River (Haverhill), the Shawsheen River, the Merrimack River, and Den Rock Park.

On May 25 many people came to the Daisy Street Bridge in Lawrence, near Central Catholic, to celebrate the installation of signage along the Spicket River. Until this time, the river had been without identification anywhere in Lawrence. The beautiful Spicket River logo was designed two years ago and would be familiar to anyone who has participated in cleanups, as the GLEC Service Leadership students have in years past. Now it appears on signs on every bridge across the Spicket. In addition, a "No Dumping" sign (see above) now announces steep fines for anyone who litters or dumps materials into the river or along its banks, thanks to a new ordinance passed by the Lawrence City Council and a state statute.

The GLEC Service Leadership Program played an important role in this effort by creating a petition, which received more than 1,000 signatures.

Congratulations to all the people and organizations who played a part in making the signs, ordinances and awareness a reality, and especially to the past members of the GLEC Service Leadership Program, and the advisors, who worked so hard on many cleanup projects and the petitions. GLECsters, this is one of your legacies to the people of Lawrence. Congratulations!

Spicket River

GLEC Service Leadership Program's

SPICKET RIVER PETITION:

Let’s All Help to Keep It Clean!

September 18, 2004

Whereas, the Spicket River has suffered from many years of abuse and neglect; and

Whereas, the Spicket River has great potential to be an important recreational resource for Lawrence; and

Whereas, there are no visible signs identifying the river by name anywhere in Lawrence; and

Whereas, there are many areas of fence along the river which have been pushed down or destroyed; and

Whereas, there is chronic careless littering and considerable illegal dumping into the river and onto its banks; and

Whereas, this dumping and littering pollutes the river, obscures its natural beauty, hinders recreational and educational use, and restricts the flow of water, thereby increasing the chance of flooding of parks and neighborhoods along the river, thus putting life and property in danger;

Therefore, We, the undersigned, by signing this petition, urge the City of Lawrence to:

· post signs along the Spicket River to identify it by name and to

· post signs to discourage littering and dumping, and to

· repair the broken fences along the river, and to

· enforce the littering and dumping laws and ordinances of the City of Lawrence and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and to

educate the public on this matter.

And we also encourage all people to:

· obey these laws and ordinances and to

· work individually and in groups to clean, maintain and respect the Spicket River and to educate others, so that the Spicket River becomes a source of pride to all Lawrencians and to the people of the Merrimack Valley.

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