Winterfest will be taking place downtown on Saturday with some parking bans and road closures beginning today. The weather for Saturday looks relatively balmy, which isn’t so great for the ice sculptures but is nice for us humans! Lots of stuff will be going on to browse and enjoy. Check out the link above for more info.

From Georgi: I made the mistake of buying the shredded wet food made by Friskies rather than the pate, which is what my cats prefer. Tried the shreds—they stuck their noses in the air and walked away.

So I’m checking to see if anybody out there with feline fur babies would like some free food. Because I’ve taken these out of the box a while ago And there’s no returning them. The flavors are ocean white fish & tuna, beef, turkey & cheese and chicken & salmon.

Email me at GeorgiSMay@cs.com and let me know if you could use these.

If I don’t hear from anybody in a week, I’ll just take them over to the local Humane Society for them to use there.

A snow emergency has been declared for 4:00 with a parking ban starting at 10:00pm. All cars must be removed from our surface lot by 10pm or they risk towing. Free garage parking is available starting at 4pm at both the Roy garage next door and the Hamilton Canal garage on the other side of Canal Place 3.

From City Hall: The Snow Emergency Parking Ban will be lifted today, Saturday, February 21, at 12:00PM noon. Drivers will have until 4:00PM today, Saturday, February 21, to remove vehicles from City garages without incurring any costs.

Oops. I totally missed that a parking ban went into effect last night. If you’d like to be helpful to our plow driver and your car’s in the surface lot, please consider moving it to the garage. The Leo Roy is currently free until the ban ends.

I’ve been told that the City will begin a major snow removal project downtown tonight at around 10PM which may go until 7AM (thank you, Brian, for the info!). So if you’re wondering about the noise, or have to navigate around equipment coming home this evening, that’s what’s going on!

The City’s parking ban ends at 7:00am Thursday morning. Any cars remaining in the city garages without a regular monthly pass will begin incurring charges as of 9:00am.

There are, unfortunately, still several surface lot spaces with snow blocking them. Management is working on getting them cleared. 

If you have a purple Canal Place parking sticker and have assigned parking in one of the garages, please DO NOT park in the surface lot for more than a few minutes at any time while we’re so short spaces.

If you are unable to find a space in the surface lot once free city garage parking ends at 9:00am on the 29th, and you have a valid, yellow, surface lot sticker, please save your receipts from the city garage.

Current weather forecasts are predicting 1 to 2 feet of snow between midday Sunday and midday Monday as well as wind chills around 0ºF. The City of Lowell has already declared a Snow Emergency Parking Ban starting Sunday. If you park in the surface lot you MUST move your car from our lot by noon Sunday or you will either be towed or plowed in. The City is offering free parking at both the Hamilton Canal garage and the Leo Roy starting at noon tomorrow; this gives everyone 24 hours to move their car to a garage without incurring charges.

The info below is from the City website at https://www.lowellma.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/995

A Snow Emergency Parking Ban has been declared for Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 6:00am.
The parking ban will go into effect at 12:00 noon. No parking will be permitted on any City streets starting at noon until the ban is lifted. Vehicles parked in violation are subject to ticketing and towing at the owner’s expense.
Free parking for City residents without off-street parking will be available beginning Saturday, January 24 at 12:00 noon at the following locations:
• Leo A. Roy Parking Facility – 100 Market St.
• Lower Locks Garage – 90 Warren St.
• Hamilton Canal (HCID) Garage – 350 Dutton St. at Broadway St.
• Joseph M. Downes, Sr. Garage – 75 John St.
• Edward J. Early Jr. Parking Facility – 135 Middlesex St.
Additional free parking will be available beginning Saturday, January 24 at 8:00 PM at:
• George A. Ayotte Parking Facility, 1 Post Office Square
Once the Snow Emergency Parking Ban is lifted, residents will have two hours to remove vehicles from free parking locations before fees apply.

I just got an email supposedly from our old, longtime property manager. I’ve seen this Amazon scam before and assume someone hacked her email list which would include addresses for a number of us in this building. Don’t fall for it. More info at the link above.

Jack Shanahan’s obituary is now available online. It appeared in today’s Lowell Sun and is available (without the paywall) at the funeral home’s site. Details about his wake and funeral mass appear in his obituary, as well as in the previous post on this site. The obituaries also contain links/information for sending flowers or donating to the LGH Cancer Center in his memory.