Accomplishments
Re-Elect Mayor Mike Cahill
What is the job of Mayor?
At its core, to lead, to deliver great services and to fix things.
Mayor Mike Cahill has been invested in Beverly his whole life. He volunteered on campaigns at a young age. He taught in the Beverly Public Schools. He ran soccer camps for Beverly youth. He has coached Beverly High School and Beverly youth sports for many years. He has volunteered as a Board member for The Good Friday Walk, Beverly Main Streets, Greater Boston PFLAG, and is a longtime member of the Beverly Rotary Club. Here are a sampling of the great things Mike has already accomplished on behalf of the people of Beverly.
As Mayor, our parks and beaches are maintained to high quality, and they are staffed to ensure full and safe community enjoyment of our beautiful open spaces.
Education
As Mayor, Mike Cahill has:
- Increased our Beverly Public Schools budget by 77% over 12 years, from $48 M to $85+ M annually. Over the last two school years, the school budget has increased by $12.7 Million ($5.6 M or 8% last year and $7.1 M or 9% this year). This school year, Beverly’s schools have 25 more Teachers and Paraprofessionals than we had during the 2019-2020 school year when COVID hit.
- Built our new world class Beverly Middle School – on time and under budget.
- Created the Summer Literacy Program, which for 11 consecutive years has provided rising 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade Beverly Public Schools students with daily literacy classes and afternoon summer camp at our local Greater Beverly YMCA. He built our world class 21st Century Beverly Middle School on time and under budget – one of the finest educational facilities in Massachusetts.
- Ensured that all city and school employees have strong, fair contracts, competitive and in line with their peers throughout the region, including an outstanding health plan with 80% of the premiums paid by the city.
Public Safety
As Mayor, he:
- Built our new 21st Century Police Station – the finest in the state – on time and under budget.
- Increased Police staffing and consolidated fire, police, and EMS 911 dispatch, freeing up one additional police officer on every shift of every day to do police work in the community.
- Bought the first new fire ladder truck this century, increased fire department staffing by 8, two on every shift, and he added a fourth truck in regular service to protect our community. He has bought two new fire pumper trucks, fixed the North Beverly Fire Station floor, which could no longer support the weight of a truck. He is now modernizing Central Fire Station.
Seniors & Veterans
As Mayor, he has:
- Increased staffing, programming, and services to Seniors and Veterans.
- Supported and facilitated the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park at Ellis Square, a collaborative community effort spearheaded by the Beverly Veterans’ Council with strong support from the Mayor’s office and Beverly Main Streets.
Infrastructure
Mayor Cahill has done all this – coming into office in 2014 – at a time when the city had a huge backlog of deferred maintenance and very limited reserves. Specifically:
- Our road, sidewalk, and intersection infrastructure was old and needing repairs
- Our DPS equipment and fleet was old and needing repairs and replacement
As Mayor, Mike Cahill has secured over $100 M for Road, Sidewalk, and Intersection repairs and improvements; Rebuilding roads and sidewalks, improving safety and performance of intersections throughout the city; further, Mayor Cahill has built sidewalks where there have never been sidewalks – improving safety for all users of our streets, improving movement and easing congestion.
Finance & Economic Stability
As Mayor, Mike Cahill has improved Beverly’s bond rating to AA+. He has developed and formalized strong financial policies. He has built a strong stabilization fund and strong cash reserves to guard against economic downturns; Simultaneously, he has been able to deliver the high quality critical services our residents rely on. Today, Beverly is on stronger financial footing than in many decades.
As Mayor, he has grown and managed cash reserves while still investing in things our community needs, such as:
- Roads and sidewalks, two fire trucks, a new floor at the North Beverly Fire Station and major renovations at Central Fire Station, a new 911 computer aided dispatch system; new electric switches at BHS; two new softball fields, new track, new turf field, new lights and stands – all at BHS
- New roofs for Department of Public Services buildings
- Purchased two Simon St. lots and created neighborhood parks for residents’ enjoyment in one of our city’s most densely populated downtown neighborhoods
- Designed and permitted projects for flooding and erosion control at Lynch Park (including seawall repairs) and Obear Park
Open & Green Space
As Mayor, Mike Cahill led the effort to place the city owned Norwood Pond woods into a permanent conservation restriction, protecting them forever, spearheaded the city’s protection of the former girl scout Camp Paradise property as city green space, worked with the Trustees of Reservations to protect the 66 acre Project Adventure land within Moraine Farm, and to open the larger property as a nature and agricultural preserve.
Clean Energy & Climate
As Mayor, Mike Cahill passed a Climate Action and Resilience Plan that focuses on protecting our valuable coastal resources and cutting carbon emissions. Today, Beverly has 13 electric school buses in our school fleet. Mayor Mike Cahill bought the most recent 8 buses by securing federal and state grants and a federal tax credit totaling over $3.1 Million, cleaning the air our children breathe on our buses and in our school yards and cutting carbon emissions.
As Mayor, Mike Cahill also negotiated a municipal electric aggregation rate that has saved Beverly residents money on the electric supply portion of their electric bill for the past two years, while increasing significantly the amount of clean, renewable energy that makes up our electric supply.