Overall, last night’s Town Meeting was productive and civil, with a few minor exceptions. Of the 100 or so people in attendance, only TWO stood up and spoke out against Article 8 aka “the investigation.” Chris Stewart, who usually does his best to avoid conflict, unpleasantness, and leadership at all costs, seized this opportunity to sarcastically attack Jeff Bennett, a Selectman currently serving in Afghanistan. Well played, Chris! I’m not sure how many people picked up on this between the poor sound system and the audible gasp from disgusted citizens in the audience.
And then there was the PCB Queen/Environmental Engineer Virginia Wilder. You can always count on Ginny for some entertainment. Bless her heart; she’s the best dear friend/foot solider anyone could ever ask for! (Scrappy was just taking up space as usual and didn’t say anything. Probably didn’t get breakfast this morning.) Virginia claimed that she did not know that the Casella issue would be part of the discussion, which is interesting because she signed the warrant and would hopefully have read all articles prior to signing. Shouldn’t be a surprise Ginny! And what about that comment about the $50,000 and the Casella Settlement? Sounds like a preprogrammed message from someone who had been part of an executive session in the past. Not a wise slip of the tongue! Once again, the town voters benefitted from your well-informed commentary…
Now, I may not always agree with Julie Farrell, but when she speaks, people quiet down and listen. She doesn’t shoot from the hip, and she doesn’t provide anec dotes; she provides information. It was very powerful to see her hold up the containers of documents. Notice the differences in the audience’s response; when Ginny speaks, people laugh and wonder what she’s trying to say. When Chris speaks, people gasp and wait or another oops moment. But when Julie speaks, people listen and weigh the facts.
Meanwhile, over at Echo Hill Farm, a large plume of smoke was seen coming from the chimney. Apparently, a lot of documents had to be thrown into the fire last night. Ginny sped over and helped fan the flames. Slow down! Baldwinville Road isn’t a NASCAR speedway!
Anonymous
You all know I can not say enough good things about Julie. She has taken her share of abuse, the worst part about that is, the abuse she has gotten, is because she is right! She does not get emotional about things, like I do. Julie has a goal, and does not take her eye off it. She is so much smarter than the average person. We do not always agree about everything, and she is quick to let me know if I am wrong. I am fine with that, if I am wrong, I want to know what is right. Wouldn't we be so much better off, if people would take the time to look at a different view point. We would beable to avoid some of these painfull events. Well, I do believe in the Easter Bunny, but I don't think that getting people to listen, when they don't agree, will happen, soon, Hee, Hee. I do know one thing, the people in this town are learning to trust, Will and his AB. The will learn who, Julie is, with out all the negative press, if Mark H. stays off her back. Even if he continues his negative feed back, they will figure it out anyway, by just watching, and listening. If Mark and the Gsnooz keep promoting Ginny, it will bite them in the end. What is the old saying? You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. My opinion, Bev
ReplyDeleteTom J. did a nice job last night too. His pledge of cooperation is an example that we need more of in this town. I also understand where he's coming from in terms of the $135,000. We have to do what we can in the mean time to deal with this problem. Hopefully the investigation will help.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy that we had people take a stand. I Thank You, all for going to that meeting. I feel it will prove to be one of the most important meetings we have had in two hundred years. If it turns out we were done wrong, it could make a huge difference in our town. Time will tell. Bev.
DeleteVW was correct in her statement that $50,000 was the settlement from Erving from the lawsuit. This amount was supposed to be top secret. It was foolish to spend any more money on Ervings responsibilities at the WWTP. $135,0000 is a lot of money and once spent will not come back. The Sewer Commissioners had already spent $100,000 on testing the lagoon. If Templeton voters knew what it took to get that place back in the black they would not be so quick to piss all the money away.
ReplyDeleteOk, I think the best thing that came out of last night was, The WWTP is back on peoples radar. Let the EPA come after us for more testing, and we can tell them NO!! THEN WE CAN GO TO OUR REP AND SENATOR, for support. We do have people who can say enough, so the lady at the EPA, will get off our back. The line in the sand has to be very visable. We can not roll over every time they tell us to. We probably should have done this, this time, but it is ok, people will be ready next time. Bev
DeleteBev - I agree with the vote on the AG investigation. But I don't have much faith that the likes of Denise Andrews will get Big Government off our backs.
DeleteThe solution isn't to get them off our backs, in this case. We have laws, and the woman at EPA is presumably following the law. The solution is to make those responsible, Erving paper mills perhaps, accountable.
The whole question of getting government off our backs is whose backs do they stay on? A town like Templeton must follow the same laws as a private company would. We already have too many examples of government entities being exempt from the laws that private citizens must follow. Like TML not needing to bother with the same net-metering requirements as National Grid.
Would anyone be crying for a private business faced with the expenses that Templeton faces over the lagoon? I would. Would you?
Mark, Thanks for your comments. I think we will try any and all ways to get this old problem solved. I do not care who gets the credit, we owe it to the people in this town, to go back, see how bad we were taken for a ride, and then see, what we can do about it. It is about seeing who, or why,? Someone with more authority, needs to review the deal! Someone needs to follow the facts, Charlie,{he owned Bald.Prod,& Still owns Erving) or our imfamous law team, K&P, back in the day, to see where they dropped the ball. The remark about getting help from our politicians, is because, it seems we have tested, and tested some more. Where do you draw the line??? How much money do we spend? The election is over, Deniese won, she is our Rep., If we need her, she will help. Just as if the other girl won, it would be her! Wait and see what happens, thats all I can say. Bev
DeleteDear anonymous,
ReplyDeleteWell done! Love this blog posting! Rest up over the week end and Thanksgiving. We have much work ahead of us! Last night was just the beginning. The real work is ahead of us. I know. I'm tired too. But it's a good tired.
Thank you to everyone who worked to make article 8 a reality instead of a footnote in an Annual Report. I want to thank Bev for her courage to keep speaking out . To Pauly for keeping this blog going . To Bart for almost getting thrown out of Town Meeting but still speaking out! To Dave Bergeron, way to go. This was the best run town meeting in quite a while. It went very smoothly . Thank you to the advisory board for working tirelessly on behalf of the town. Thank you to Dave Smart for gathering those signatures door to door and educating people about our town. Thank you to Tom J for speaking up about the sewer department. I disagree with you, but thank you for participating in the discussion. ..have I got some documents for you!
Could this well run special town meeting be attributed to our new town counsel? Or maybe our town coordinator? Could be. Hey Echo Hill, Hey Echo Hill what do you think? What do you think?
Sue,
Take care of Pauly. I know you will. Take care of yourself too. Let's help each other out . We have had a victory of sorts, but I am worried about our future. We need to stick together. Stay alert and post anything that is curious or out the ordinary. The threads are unraveling. We need to take those threads and start reweaving our future.
While everyone is looking at financial, how about some election stuff. ask for minutes of the election registras for say the past 2 years. Ask for the minutes and posting of the meeting of the registras who checked the signatures of the recall sheets for Feb 2012. While it is allowed under state law, ask why the sheets certifying registered voters were not singed by the people who were checking them. Might be nice to have someone under oath attest to the fact that the registras actually did the work rather than someone else. Be sure to check the state law on election stuff and you will see how this process is suppose to work. Remember, you are entitled to look at public records on the spot without a written request, during normal business hours. Maybe a good question for this upcoming meeting of the selectmen is why were receipts recorded without account numbers by the previous town accountant, does this practis mean there is no audit trail? Are there records showing where money came from departments but never paired up with any account numbers? Just a thought / question from over here in vacation land.
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