Crossing Bridges

Several items of note today.  First let's start over the bridge across the river.

The S-T "Our View" addressees the process revealed for the search for a new School Superintendent.  You might ask yourself why that would be a matter of interest here in Fairhaven, or anywhere in the South Coast.  

The answer is as simple as what happens in New Bedford has a direct impact on the surrounding communities.  The City is the "hub" of our little corner of the universe.  In today's world that hub dictates a great deal of what goes on.  It and the rest of us need a viable and educated work force for businesses to want to come into the area and for businesses to stay in the area.

The S-T also has an article on school attendance.  It goes hand in hand with the need for strong leadership in the Superintendent post. You can put the best captain you can find at the helm of a ship, but if half the crew is missing that ship simply isn't going to be able to sail a true course.

And while we may be running out of hands here, if the new captain continues to be hampered by the same internal politics and policies of the local government as the last one, the journey isn't going to be a very successful one.

The paper was absolutely right in being concerned about the need for an "open and transparent" hiring process.  Everyone also needs to be concerned about the actual command policy.  Don't think for a minute that good, qualified candidates are going to ignore what has recently transpired.  

It may be a search for the best candidate and it may actually find the best candidate, but whether the best candidate ends up willing to take the position will be another story.  I doubt the captain of the Titanic would have assumed command, being told the end of that journey and at the same time being told that the ship's course could not be altered per the Board of Directors of the shipping line.

Also an interesting tidbit in the S-T about the possibility of establishing a salary for the School Committee members in New Bedford.  Seems really nice some in the city council are willing to explore establishing salaries for the committee, even when the committee itself isn't looking for one, at least not all members and definitely not by committee vote.  I read the article and one word came to mind, camouflage.

Anyway, crossing back over the bridge ...

Tuesday's blog had a small piece on the allegations made at the end of the Selectmen's meeting Monday night concerning issues regarding comments made by a Town employee.  The gist of Monday's statement being to raise the issue, but more specifically, the concern over the lack in Town about a defined complaint procedure.  As I noted, it seems there would be additional action on this one.

The Fairhaven Neighborhood News and The Standard Times both have pieces providing specific details.      At this point, based on the information in the FNN article, the town employee is denying the allegation.  The complaints need to be addressed, and most assuredly will by the state agency MCAD.  

It also I think calls for more than a wait and see attitude from the Board.  Mind you, given everything as is at the moment, the investigation of the specific allegation at this point is probably best left to MCAD.

The Board does seem to need to look into some subsidiary issues, most importantly actual complaint procedures and policy manual.  

Not to side step an issue, but at this point we are at the allegation stage.  If there is a finding supporting the allegation, it must and will be dealt with.  At a minimum there will be state action.

There are a whole slew of other matters that now certainly also have to be considered and dealt with, not the least the underlying matter with Con Com.    Pending the outcome, Con Com would most certainly be at a point where there is an "agent" problem for the project wrapped up in this allegation.  

Let us not forget though that the specific matter being dealt with by Con Com should be looked at as just that, a specific matter.  Enforcement and oversight now becomes a new and distinct problem.

While the allegations certainly cast a cloud over the ongoing "enforcement" issues, it would seem to me it shouldn't cast doubt on what has led to the same.  Not based on what I have read over the matter.

This one has created a spider's web with strands shooting out in multiple places.  That is not a reason to try and side step the allegations.  It is a simple observation. 

Okay, now heading over a different bridge ...

This is a quote taken from the very end of the S-T article about the rally for the closing of the Brayton Point coal fired electrical plant.

“What they ought to do is get rid of the coal entirely,” he said. “Now we have all those other things like wind and solar to fire up people’s boilers. We don’t need to be using coal and giving people asthma and health problems all up and down SouthCoast.”

Anyone one else see the dilemma we face in meeting energy needs.  The speaker obviously doesn't live in Fairhaven, nor Dartmouth.  We do in fact have all these other things, but not to the point you can simply say shut down the coal plants.

The three coal fired units at that site generate up to 1,015 megawatts.  That would be 677 wind turbines capable of generating 1.5 megawatt, operating at full capacity, 24/7, located near enough to an infrastructure close enough to allow for transmission.

The largest solar farm in the world is under construction in California, at 550 megawatts it will cover an area of over 6 square miles.  To put that in perspective for the Fairhaven folks, that is approximately 1/2 the entire area of the town.  In Somerset, where I believe a good portion, if not all the plant is actually located, it would be 75% of the Town.

Try proposing another nuclear power plant be built in this area.

People don't want trees cut down to put up alternate sites. They don't want their views ruined, or anything located close enough to them to diminish property values.  They don't want to hear it or see it, and they don't want the by-products.  I do get the issues.  I understand them, I sympathize with them, and cannot honestly say I would react any differently if I had to live with the same issues.

If today's energy issues aren't a modern "Catch 22", I don't know what else would be.