Mayoral candidate Maura Hennigan promised to halt the plan to build a Level 4 Biolab at Boston University and announced a proposal to establish a City Service Center during a campaign fundraiser on Friday that highlighted what Hennigan called the current mayor’s “mismanagement.”
Hennigan has often criticized Mayor Thomas Menino for supporting the biolab, saying Menino does not understand how dangerous it will be for Boston.
According to Hennigan, Menino often cites Atlanta’s Level 4 biolab to support his position, but the only Level 4 disease studied at that lab is Herpes B. The proposed lab in Boston would house toxic bacteria such as tularemia, which infected several employees at a Boston lab after an accident years ago.
“I don’t know what is more scary, the fact that Tom Menino doesn’t know the Level 4 lab in Atlanta doesn’t have Ebola, tularemia or smallpox, or whether he knows and is just not telling us,” Hennigan said.
Hennigan said Menino would not be able to protect Boston from any disasters that the biolab could potentially cause. She said Menino would not be able to deal with diseases because his administration has not been able to deal with stray voltage, exploding manhole covers and broken water mains.
She added that if she is elected, the biolab will not reach Level 4 status.
“I will stop it as mayor,” she said. “I will immediately take steps to revoke its permit. It will not be here in this city.”
Hennigan told The Daily Free Press that BU will not deter her efforts to stop construction of the Level 4 Biolab.
“BU knows my position,” Hennigan said. “I’m not asking BU’s permission. It’s not about asking BU, it’s about being a mayor of a city and recognizing there are some things that are too dangerous to have in our city.”
Hennigan also unveiled a plan to create a City Service Center to manage citizen complaints and requests. Each request would be logged in city records and residents would be able to see how long the request takes to be addressed.
Hennigan’s appearance at what was termed the “Rusty Wrench Awards” encouraged Boston residents to submit stories about city mismanagement. The entries were read aloud and those in attendance voted on which stories deserved to win the Rusty Wrench.
Mitch Kates, Hennigan’s campaign manager, blamed the incidents on Menino.
“These things don’t happen by accident, they happen because someone’s not paying attention,” he said.
Kates added that the Hennigan campaign will watch Menino’s campaign carefully on the Nov. 8 election day.
“We are going to be at every poll in the city to make sure they don’t play their favorite games,” he said.
David Balerna, the owner of Midway Café in Jamaica Plain, who hosted the event at his bar, said the mayor has accomplished a lot during his 12 years in office, but that it is time for change.
“Boston has moved forward tremendously, and I give the mayor credit,” Balerna said. “But a lot of people have been left behind. I believe in change.”
Balerna said Menino should let someone else take control of the city and return to the position later if he thinks the new mayor fails.
He described the campaign event as “light-hearted and not mean- spirited.” He said Hennigan campaigners had some fun at Menino’s expense, but that they did not want to focus on personal attacks.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
