TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2018 Loan’s cost is not just money By Thomas Grillo ITEM STAFF LYNN — The city’s bond rating has been lowered and its nancial outlook termed negative, accord- ing to Moody’s Investors Service. Following the recent borrowing of $9.5 million to ll this year’s budget de cit, Lynn’s creditwor- thiness has dropped one notch from A3 to Baa1. “The downgrade re ects the city’s ongoing struc- LYNN WOMAN tural imbalance and its need to issue de cit - nancing notes to plug bud- getary gaps in scal 2018 SIGNS UP and 2019,” the Moody’s report said. “The negative outlooks re ects our ex- pectation that the city will FOR HELP continue to be challenged to effectively match re- curring revenues with re- By Bella diGrazia dent and hopeful kidney recipient put curring expenditures. The FOR THE ITEM all of the money toward getting the outlook further incorpo- billboard up and running. She chose LYNN — Miranda LeBrasseur has rates the continued pres- the location and the month of April so sure from rising mandated taken the extraordinary measure of everyone who stops at the red light will education costs.” posting a billboard in the center of Wyo- clearly see her message. Like a person’s individ- ma Square to get the word out that she “My family can’t donate because there ual credit score, a city’s needs a kidney. are too many cancer and diabetes genes bond rating describes its “I’m diabetic and I have been since and I’m on a ve-to-six-year wait for credit worthiness to po- I was 17 years old, I have high-blood the transplant list, so no one is going to tential borrowers and in- pressure, and my grandmother and my know that I need a kidney unless I tell vestors. mother both had kidney disease,” she “The city is slightly more said. “So between the high-blood pres- them,” said LeBrasseur, who says her blood type is O. of a credit risk than it was sure, the diabetes, and the genetic kid- before,” said David Jacob- ney disease, my kidneys deteriorated She has been on the kidney transplant list since June 2016 and has been on son, a Moody’s spokesman. Miranda LeBrasseur is looking for a really fast and it’s been four years now Mayor Thomas M. Mc- dialysis since July 2016. LeBrasseur, new kidney — and let it be known to the since I’ve been really sick.” Gee placed the blame for a mother of two, spends every Monday, world with a billboard in Wyoma Square. After a fundraiser in January helped the lower bond rating on ITEM PHOTOS | OWEN O’ROURKE her raise about $2,000, the Lynn resi- Wednesday, and Friday for four hours at former Mayor Judith Fla- KIDNEY, A7 nagan Kennedy. “The downgrade is a re- sult of the policies and de- cisions which I inherited when I got elected which Rain can’t dampen spirits were part of the concerns INSIDE I expressed throughout the campaign last year,” of North Shore marathoners he said. “It’s not helpful In Peabody for us as we work towards Money to study trolley By Lindsey Ryan the rain soak right through the poncho he’d worn -- stabilizing the city’s nan- service from Peabody to ITEM STAFF ostensibly to protect himself from the elements — cial situation.” Salem OK’d. A3 and he ended up getting cramps and sore feet. Kennedy did not return Weather was on the minds of many Monday — es- a call seeking comment. • Nahant’s Ellen Goldberg nished a full 40 seconds pecially the local runners who braved the elements, The six-page report Times, New Yorker win over her fastest time ever, although she, too, strug- put on their sneakers and running clothes, and said the city’s nancial Pulitzers for reporting on gled with the rain. sloshed 26 miles and 385 yards in the 122nd Boston challenges stem from ris- Weinstein scandal. A3 Vassallo, 32, running in his second Boston Mar- Marathon. athon, nished in 2:27.50, behind Japan’s Yuki ing school enrollment, In Opinion Despite the wretched conditions on the course from Kawauchi, who won in 2:15.58, and ve other Amer- increases in its share of Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay, some runners fared icans nished in the Top 10. school funding, and the A taxing situation. very well. Peabody’s Dan Vassallo nished 10th over- Brotherton A4 The 2003 Wilmington High and 2007 Colby College state’s requirement that all among the men, and Lynn’s Karen DiLisio ran graduate (“where I majored in track and minored in the city x years of under- In Sports her fastest time ever. school”), stuck to his game plan and kept his focus funding schools. Woman’s winner almost But some didn’t have quite as successful a run. on what was in front of him, methodically picking off Moody’s said the city’s dropped out of race . B1 Maria Cameron of Lynn called the driving rain and one runner after another on the route. rating could rebound if it biting cold “historically horri c.” “I had no idea I was 10th until I crossed the nish establishes a balanced op- St. John’s Prep basketball coach John Dullea felt line,” he said. “There was a lot of attrition out there eration, grows its reserves, MARATHONERS, A7 BOND, A3 No break for the MCAS worried By Gayla Cawley each school have signed up ITEM STAFF to attend, according to Dep- uty Superintendent Patrick LYNN — While many stu- Tutwiler, who is running the dents are spending their program. week off from school relax- The acceleration acade- ing, nearly 170 of the city’s mies are held during school middle schoolers are using it breaks, where motivated stu- to improve their math skills dents from underserved com- ITEM PHOTO | in hopes of boosting their munities are paired with the OWEN O’ROURKE MCAS scores. nation’s top teachers for an Mario De Leon Monday kicked off week- equivalent of one month of Robles, left, and long Acceleration Academies, focused instruction, accord- Jonathan Men- facilitated by Sontag Prize ing to the Sontag Prize in Ur- dez, right, work in Urban Education, which ban Education website. on fractions by us- are being held at Breed and Tutwiler said the program Thurgood Marshall Middle is also about celebrating ing playing cards schools -- 84 students from wonderful teachers. The at the Breed Mid- dle School Accel- MCAS, A7 eration Academy. OBITUARIES ..............................A2 POLICE/FIRE .............................A6 COMICS/DIVERSIONS ........... B4-5 HIGH 55° VOL. 140, ISSUE 109 OPINION ...................................A4 LOOK! .......................................A8 CLASSIFIED ........................... B6-7 LOW 35° NATION .....................................A5 SPORTS ................................ B1-3 BUSINESS ................................B8 PAGE A8 ONE DOLLAR A2 THE DAILY ITEM TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2018 OBITUARIES MASSACHUSETTS BRIEFS Mayor calls video of officer awarded until it reached Richard J. Lynch the $25,000 threshold, Donald P. McCormick punching man ‘disturbing’ which it did in December CAMBRIDGE (AP) — with a gift from Collier’s Richard J. “Dick” John the Evangelist Mr. Donald P. Mc- his son, Donald P. The mayor of a Massa- family. Lynch, age 91, of Church, Swampscott, Cormick, 65 years McCormick, Jr. and chusetts city is calling a Collier was a 2009 grad- Swampscott died where he began the of Peabody and his wife Kristen Col- video that shows a police uate of Salem State. He peacefully on Sun- Parish’s CYO Basket- formerly of Lynn, angelo of Haverhill, officer punch a black Har- died April 18, 2013 at age day April 15, 2018 ball program. Dick died unexpectedly his daughter Danyelle vard University student 26. at Massachusetts could always be at home on Sunday, McCormick and her several times while he’s General Hospital, found in the stands April 15, 2018. He is wife Cristy Martel of pinned to the ground “dis- Authorities ID woman who surrounded by his for all of his grand- the husband of Mrs. Meredith, N.H., his turbing.” died after crashing into train family. He was the children’s games. Deborah (Coughlin) grandchildren Kayla Cambridge Mayor Marc SPRINGFIELD (AP) husband of JoAnn In addition to his McCormick. McCormick of Lynn, McGovern said in a state- ment Sunday that the — Authorities have iden- (Joyce) Lynch, with whom he wife, he is survived by 4 chil- He was born in Lynn and is Trinity and Declan McCormick police department has tified a woman who died shared 67 years of marriage. the son of the late Merle and both of Haverhill. He leaves dren; Michael Lynch and his assured him the alterca- when she crashed her ve- Born and raised in Lynn, he wife Mary Ellen of Winchester, June (O’Blenes) McCormick. his brothers and sister, Rich- was the son of the late Joseph tion on the video is being hicle into a moving train Terry Lynch and his wife Ce- He was raised in Lynn and ard McCormick and his wife investigated. McGovern in Springfield. and Margaret (Geraty) Lynch. leste of Needham, Maura Mc- was a graduate of Lynn En- Cindy of Old Orchard Beach, He attended Lynn Schools says “Cambridge affirms The Springfield Republi- Mahon and her husband Mark glish High School. He lived in Maine, Debra Lozzi and her that Black Lives Matter, can reports that Kenisha and was a graduate of Lynn of Swampscott, and Tara Ka- Lynn most of his life and the husband Nick of Peabody, and English High School, class of but it must be true in Forbes died early Satur- linowski and her husband Jer- past 8 years in Peabody.