Flynn's role in Nashua cleanup celebrated.

• Position: LOCAL NEWS

Byline: Matthew Bruun

FITCHBURG - Forty years ago, the youngest mayor in the city's history staged a brilliant publicity move by canoeing down the filthy, fast-moving Nashua River. William G. Flynn, just 25 years old when he was elected in 1968, was trying to draw attention to the sad state of one of the city's prime resources.

"The joke was, `What color is the river today?'" Mr. Flynn said yesterday, after recalling a meeting with a prospective developer who told him he would never do business with a city that allowed a sewer to run through it. The decades-long effort to clean up the river was under way, including millions spent on water treatment plants to clean the dye-stained effluent from the city's then-thriving paper mills.

Several of the mills have gone, but a cleaner river remains, and many, including Boy Scout Ben Lessard, hope it can still be part of an urban renewal for Fitchburg. This one, though, will be centered on recreation.

For several years, the city has been working to build a recreation corridor, dubbed the Steamline Trail, along the Nashua River. The route parallels the pipes that carried power-generating steam for the mills in West Fitchburg. Ben, 16, took on the task of putting up information signs along the trail for his Eagle Scout community service project. He also sought to commemorate Mr. Flynn's role in the ongoing health of the Nashua River.

Yesterday, in a well-guarded surprise, the former mayor found himself the guest of honor at a ceremony marking the dedication of the Mayor William G. Flynn Point on the trail. Ben, about to start his junior year at Fitchburg High School, served as master of ceremonies and guide during the events.

"Your leadership in preservation of the Nashua River did not go unnoticed," Mr. Lessard told the former mayor before a crowd of family and friends. "You need to know you touched many people along the way."

With the lulling sounds of the river audible behind them, speakers talked about the Nashua River as a source of renewal and revitalization for the city through which it runs.

Ellen M. DiGeronimo, former city councilor, read a letter from Nashua River Watershed Association founder Marion Stoddart, herself an institution in the Nashua River preservation effort, which described Mr. Flynn's leadership and devotion to community service.

Mayor Lisa...