Where are we heading? Seemingly nowhere.
It is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Been a bit of chill in the air lately to make it feel like New Year's Eve is coming.
Taking a look at the town calendar a day late no meetings yesterday. Four posted for today.
What else is going on? Locally it seems Rochester voted down the imposition of the CPA tax. From reading the various letters in publications and an article or two, it seems the big push to adopt the tax was land preservation. Might not have been the angle to go with. As one Rochester native put it to me jokingly, well perhaps he was joking, "Why do we need a CPA tax for land preservation, we want to preserve land we just get Fairhaven to pay for it."
Truth be told, I fault no one in this day and age for rejecting a new tax. Saying that, one does have to ponder what shape certain things in town would be without its CPA tax. My biggest pet peeve with it though, the fact that a community preservation tax can be used for outside the community. No joke on that one.
Interesting little tit for tat going on between the pro and anti turbines factions in town online.
Interesting "fan" e-mail received yesterday. Related to the former schools and the fin com transfer. First, money was given to winterize the buildings. It is correct that money to "fund" the "maintenance" cost for the full remainder of the year was not provided. Sufficient funds were provided to fund such costs until the next anticipate STM. If that does not occur when anticipated, Fin Com will further address the issue.
The issue of ongoing maintenance as to the extent of maintenance, duration and amount of funding is a matter not for fin com to decide, and quite frankly not for any board or committee to decide. Appropriations in the first instance for any matter are the province of Town Meeting. This was not a request to supplement a budget shortfall due to an extraordinary or unforeseen circumstance. This was a request for a new budget essentially.
Until properly before town meeting, funding should be at a "life support" level. Decisions will on a treartment plant will have to wait until the entity with the actual proxy is available. There is a significant difference between dealing with matters that have been approved by town meeting and matters that have not. At least in this person's opinion.
Enough on that.
What else?
A couple of points. Blogging has gone off the everyday/nearly everyday schedule. Will probably continue on a reduced scheduled. Way back at the inception of this little exercise, I noted this would not be a forever thing. Not quite sure it has run its course yet, however at least for the present, the zeal has waned a bit.
Also, complaints about comments not being posted. I know, I said no more comments here about that, however again this is a kind of new twist that perhaps deserves a note. I have recently dealt wit the "new" comments rules and procedure. The twist to note, there is a point at which comments will be shut off for old posts. Nothing set in stone. Let's just say after a week, plus or minus, or when it is pretty clear the comment chain has become nothing more than a gunfight between two commentators.
Okay enough of that, just wanted to give you a bit of notice why comments for some posts will be shut off.
Any ideas for man and/or woman of the year? The Standard Times is looking for suggestions.
One thing brewing on the state level involves, well breweries (and distributors). The S-T has an article in the paper on page A7 (or follow the link for online version). To be honest, I never new that was the status of things. Very interesting business concept. Amazing really how the evolutionary process applies even to business.
Some valid arguments on the distributors end, but even more valid on the brewery end I think. If the past is any indication on how things will change, it will be the typical extreme shift for action on the part of the state. Rather than adjusting the inequities, the pendulum will shift to the opposite side.
Maybe not a topic that fills your class. Anyway, just a thought fermenting in my head on the matter. Yeast we forget, shaking a bottle to vigorously can cause it to bubble up and foam over.
What else can we throw in the pot today, besides pot that is?
I think that's enough for the day.
Stay dry and Be Safe.
Here we have 2 schools that have been on life support maintenace for years,now the powers to be want to change the rules.The school dept. got rid of the problems with there transfer of surplus property.We now have 2 white elephants,and a committee that wants funds to perform feasability studies to find uses for the buildings. Destination nowhere was the perfect place to bring up this piece,like the writer says,town meeting is now the correct avenue to use to correct the situation.
ReplyDeleteThere's a need to quickly determine what the building/property can be used for so someone else can take over the burden. The committee wasn't formed yesterday. Now is not the time to blame the school dept. for the current conditions of the buildings. It has been reported for years and only a few complained.
ReplyDeleteIts not like someone else used these buildings,they were in the control of the school department.We dont know what was reported an what was done all we see is the results of neglect by someone.Hopefully the new buildings have contingency plans for ongoing maintenance or we will be looking at a similar problem in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe buildings have been allowed to be run into the ground. Parents went into the buildings for concerts, open house, teacher conferences. There was more outrage based on the schools closing, than operating under those conditions. Where did the argument come from for building the new schools? From the stated condition of the old schools. The condition was not a secret. Needless to say, I wouldn't let a school committee member borrow my classic car. I can only imagine the condition in which they would return it. We were told the new school will be used for the next 50 years. Only if they have a maintenance schedule and abide to it.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the messages we are sending on this blog reach the powers to be that run the schools.Many of the parents went to these schools an felt that the teachers an not buildings were more important.The school system took care of them an neglected the buildings.They now have the oppurtunity to reverse this trend,because now they have new buildings an well trained teachers
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a sort of forgotten point. How many of the Rogers' and Oxford's teachers are Fairhaven residents (who would have had a vested interest in maintaining the buildings)? They had access to all areas of the buildings, but they weren't vocal about the conditions of it. While some of the neglect was visible from the street (like the tree growing out of the tower,) they were exposed to much more every day.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point,any out that might know how many teachers are Fairhaven residents.Many teachers an residents only became vocal when a new school EF was built an the school department used this as ammunition so all the children could have new.They claim the new environment would help the student get better state test scores.Only time will tell,but I still believe proper instruction an not buildings will help the students..
ReplyDelete