ITEM PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Rick Ford is running for city councilor at large.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Rick Ford, the former city councilor who gave up his seat two years ago, wants back in.
“I miss being involved,” he said. “I got three calls from constituents during the last snow storm who don’t even know I’m out.”
Ford, who served as the Ward 7 councilor from 1998 to 2016, chose not to seek re-election following a foot injury. On Tuesday, he pulled papers from City Hall to run for councilor-at-large.
The 60-year-old is co-owner of the Little River Inn, the popular diner on Boston Street where the McNulty sandwich — a fried egg with bacon, ham or sausage, topped with cheese on an English muffin — is a customer favorite.
He joins a field that includes incumbents Buzzy Barton, Brian LaPierre and Hong Net. Daniel Cahill chose not to seek re-election, leaving one at-large seat open.
Additional candidates include Taso Nikolakopoulos, owner of John’s Roast Beef & Seafood, Jaime Figueroa, a 28-year-old Suffolk University student, Brian Field, who works at Solimine Funeral Homes, and John Ladd, president of Precision Property Brokers.
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The top issues facing the city, Ford said, are police protection, building new schools, and development of the city’s waterfront.
“I’d like to help police,” he said. “We don’t have enough officers on the street and anything I can do, like finding grant money would be good. The waterfront development is key to the city’s economic growth.”
On last month’s school election, Ford said he voted for the controversial $188.5 million project to build a pair of middle schools. But the measure failed by a lopsided margin.
“My son is a teacher at the Thurgood Marshall Middle School,” he said.
Ford’s proudest accomplishments as councilor, he said, included constituent work helping to get homes built on the former Lynn Convalescent Home site on Boston Street, supporting construction of a new Washington Street police station, keeping the Ward 7 fire stations open, and ensuring environmental cleanups at the former Empire Laundry and Carr Leather sites.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
