What Has Been Scanlon's Top Accomplishment?

For Beverly High School students, they may not remember any Beverly mayor other than Mayor Bill Scanlon.

Scanlon was first elected in 1993 and has been mayor for all but two of the past 20 years. Scanlon was out of the corner office from 2002-2004 when Tom Crean was mayor and Scanlon taught at Endicott College.

He announced Monday he will not run for reelection for a 10th term, citing largely he reticence at embarking on an 11th "hotly contested" campaign.

His 18 years as mayor will come to an end in January 2014.

Scanlon has been involved in many projects over the years, reaching all across the city. Here are some of his top accomplishments.

• Getting the city out of an $8 million budget hole after taking over

• Solving drainage and flooding problems on Chase Street, along North Beverly Brook, Lawrence Brook and Chubbs Brook.

• Pushing for the redevelopment of "The Shoe" into the Cummings Center

• Working to even the amount of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch at each of the city's elementary schools

• Renovation of five elementary schools and construction of the McKeown School

• Construction of the new academic wing and renovation of the core facilities at Beverly High School

• Improving the city’s parks and playgrounds, including Beverly Common

These are just a few of Scanlon’s accomplishments and includes many of the successes he cited when announcing he will not seek reelection - but there are many others.

What do you think? What was Mayor Bill Scanlon’s top accomplishment in his 18 years as mayor?