Saturday, January 10, 2015


Heat and the Law

The peoples Democratic Republic of the Commonwealth


This has been contained in a previous post but....for your reading pleasure and information of wrong doings against the children..........it is all about the kids!

Massachusetts General law, chapter 149, section 113 says every factory, workshop, manufacturing, mechanical and mercantile establishment, railroad freight house railway express terminal, public garages & premises used by express, trucking & transportation co., and any other building in which a person is employed, other than a building under construction, shall be well lighted, well ventilated and kept free from unsanitary conditions and work rooms therein in actual use shall be properly heated during the period from October 15 to May 15, according to reasonable rules and regulations adopted by the Attorney General establishing minimum requirements with reference  thereto; 

Perhaps the district can claim the building is under construction so we don't need to heat it according to the law.

Here in the Democratic Republic of the people, the Department of Labor 7 workforce development, debt. of labor standards have minimum temperature guidelines listed for schools as 66 - 68 degrees.


Perhaps there are some people who remember the construction of the central office, when the district took $84,000.00 (approximate) from the district excess and deficiency account (similar to the town's free cash, according to John Columbus) and with the promise that a new music 7 art area "for the kids" was to be built. I wonder if that was ever done.


While on the board of selectmen, I voted to move this project forward in putting the question on the warrant to put it before the town folk. We were told by the district, the superintendent that they wanted to move quickly so they could have this done by the beginning of the school year of the fall of 2014. Personally, I did not feel either the timeline or the project it self was a way to go but as I always believe that the people should have the option to vote yes or no and they should always have the right to here and speak on things, I had to give them that option. Clearly (again) this district has demonstrated that their goals and desires are for everything except the kids.

In the past, taxpayers, most of whom are also parents of kids attending these schools have voted against increase in taxes for among things such as the school budget and projects involving schools. Clearly these parents are not interested in their taxes going up. The record of votes speak for themselves. This chip boiler is another example of why those votes happen. It is my opinion that people simply do not trust how their money will be spent. On the town side, at least in the instance of the Templeton town hall in the eastern part of Templeton, there is a shining example of what can be done, a building that the district and some town residents said was too old, to moldy, to outdated to be of use for anything.  Somewhere in Templeton, there are some residents who are not happy that they did not get to spend 6.8 million dollars on a building built in the 1970's. That project is another lesson of history that started out with the story that is was going to be cheaper and save money, when in fact the numbers showed it was going to be about $50,000.00 more per year to have the building done and to have one stop shopping. My opinion was and is, that increase would be fine, as long as you were honest with the people, but the sales pitch was not.

It looks as though this chip boiler may be in the same company and that will probably hurt the district in a quest for a new elementary school. It looks as though there will be no savings to show for this year by switching from oil to wood chips, there will be no contract, on paper, as my old friend use to say, for this year. Looks as though the only thing that happened was the kids suffered in an institution where they love to chime in all the time, "it is for the kids."

Jeff Bennett

4 comments:

  1. Why is it that all these Educators seem to make the most Uneducated decisions. WHY in the world do voters continue to listen to the school committee and superintendent and let them do these off the wall decisions like a Wood Chip Boiler, History has taught us that Oil has always and will always be the fuel of choice. Ruth Needs to GO

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  2. It would seem that wood chips are a more labor intensive form of heating a building than oil but having the wood chip resource local is appealing. Kids are a lot more resilient than us adults give them credit for and this project will give them memories to last a lifetime. Here is a short article on the resiliency of our forefathers. Forefathers

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  3. Citizen , please remember peril ... only the Ocean is alter-mit solution : OPEC will not do this forever , and this history lesson in law is history / creative thinking must per.... veil The continue repetition of old ways must end , fact is: if people would vote too shut down school and had class in base in summer months generally because again citizen we are not farmers any-longer ..... the bill for heating be it heating oil or wood naturally would do what ? The earth here in Massachusetts is a steady 68deg even in dead of winter not taping that resource make me wonder WHY ? add generation collector panels aim at south side and oh boy free solution .... and great winter vacation instead of summer ? who would not want that >?

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  4. wood burn furnish was a mistake... in time you all see this waste of million + fact is when we all need trees . not that am tree hug-er but the issue is simple one as said the school is the problem its cheaper to send each student to other schools by voucher then to keep this going )0( teacher )0( liability (0) insurance ,zippo... for retirement , 0 building expenses I think in fact the kids would dig going to schools having control of there lives and future Thinking logic wise kids would be addressing the lives putting since to school , new carrier would come to interest then when they come to study there own choice of curriculum you wasting tax payer money in my view

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