PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy gives her State of the City address at the Knights of Columbus on Tuesday.
BY LEAH DEARBORN
LYNN — Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy mourned the loss of Union Hospital on Tuesday.
The closure of the facility was one of the more emotional topics the mayor reviewed in her sixth annual State of the City address at the Knights of Columbus.
While Kennedy was optimistic about keeping emergency services at the hospital, the mayor made it clear that the decision to close the facility by the state was final.
Last week, the Public Health Council of the Department of Public Health approved a $180 million expansion of North Shore Medical Center by Partners HealthCare that will shutter Union and move the beds to the new Salem campus in 2019.
In a question and answer period following the speech, Lynn resident Estelle Revelotis expressed concern about the closure. She asked the mayor where Ward 1 would receive medical care.
Kennedy said regionalization of medical care is widespread, but she is committed to keeping emergency services at the hospital and no final decisions on a date of closure have been made.
On a more hopeful note, Kennedy said Lynn has become the first city in the state to erase homelessness among veterans, an achievement which the mayor credited, in part, Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND).
“We have now ensured that every veteran who seeks to have a home in Lynn has one,” she said.
Kennedy’s 40-minute address also referenced the Market Basket development on the 22-acre former General Electric Co. Factory of the Future site in West Lynn.
“I couldn’t be more excited about use of this property lain fallow for too many years,” said Kennedy, who also expressed hope that the new supermarket will spur development in the neighborhood.
The mayor said the new Market Basket is slated to open next summer and will provide at least 400 job openings after the company signed an agreement with the city to give residents priority in hiring.
“Lynn is in a constant state of transformation,” she said. “It’s a transformation that we’re excited about.”