Pols takes pole position in polling of council, school board

As we said the other day, we like to give credit where credit is due, and Councilor Benet Pols deserves credit.  

         

He’s the first one across the starting line following Side’s waving of the green flag on Monday.

             

He’s stomped the throttle, and belched a cloud of carbon footprint that would make an idling Amtrak Downeaster jealous.

In so doing, he’s setting a bad precedent.  Hearing back from town councilors or school board members, especially in a public forum such as this, is crossing ‘a red line’ that defines the great and scary unknown. 

And he’s not even a candidate this time around.  Which, now that we think of it, could be why he was so quick on the throttle.  On the other hand, other things could be at work.  Only the shadow knows.

We suppose we may have to create a “Front Side” award in his honor.  We don’t know yet what we’ll use to mark the level of the award, like we did with the one through five donkeys for the Back Side award.  So for now, we’ll just use generic ‘atta-boys.’

We suspect that even a town councilor knows that one ‘aw-sausage’ incident can cancel out a bushel of atta-boys, but we’ll leave those details for another time.  Put another way, atta-boys can turn into donkeys with the raising of a tail.

Pols has submitted a partial response to the questions in this post.  For clarity, we’re going to repeat our questions, and follow them with his answers, which will be indented and displayed in red.  (We may have a parenthetical note or two mixed in.)

1. Do you think an Amtrak Maintenance and Layover Facility should be built at the Brunswick West location, adjacent to the Bouchard Drive neighborhood, and if so, why?

2. If not, where do you think it should be built?

Questions 1& 2. Attached is a copy of my remarks at a NNEPRA rail forum from August 2011. It was televised so I can't hide from what I said. Some of the info may be a little stale but I still believe what I said then, particularly with respect to Bouchard. I'm sure I could be convinced that the industrial park site is as good as Crooker. I haven't looked at that in close detail recently. In one sense I think building it in Brunswick at all is a bad move----they're just signaling this is the end-of-the-line. Will Amtrak want to extend north in 5 or 10 years without a new expensive, controversial layover facility at the new end-of-the-line? WHat will become our our fancy layover facility if the Downeaster runs to Rockland or Bangor?

Rumor has it the powers that be recruited a candidate to run against me in 2011 based on my having said this. But I got re-elected anyway.....

(Ed: the remarks Pols refers to can be found at the link below; we tried to embed the actual document here, but were unsuccessful. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/175605328/Councilor-Benet-Pols-statement-to-NNEPRA-at-a-meeting-of-August-2011

We strongly urge you to read the document; it is extremely thoughtful, well-written, informative, wide-ranging, and dare we say, surprisingly blunt as well.  It captures the circumstances better than anything we’ve read, or written so far.  It’s almost enough to make you wish Pols was on the town council.  [That’s a ‘witty remark,’ for the humorless out there.])

3. Do  you believe the Amtrak train, all things considered, has provided an economic benefit to Brunswick?  Please explain your reasons for your position.

Question 3. Who knows? There's no objective data at all.

(And in keeping with the normal pattern of governmental entities implementing a foregone government decision, there isn’t likely to be any, at least any you can believe.  We’ll have more to say about that before long.)

4. Who do you think the assets held and dispensed by the Brunswick Development Corporation belong to?  Are these funds private or public?

Question 4. These funds belong to the town of Brunswick. They are public funds.

(Careful, there, councilor/counselor.  It isn’t nice to fool with Johnny Protocols.)

5.  Do you think the BDC’s grant of $247,000 to the Brunswick Taxi Company was a legitimate use of their assets, and that local businesses should expect such preferential treatment?

Question 5. I need to separate this question into two pieces. 

Do you think the BDC’s grant of $247,000 to the Brunswick Taxi Company was a legitimate use of their assets?  No, I do not.

and that local businesses should expect such preferential treatment?  Compared to who, other in-town businesses that aren't connected? out of town businesses? businesses that do business in several communities including Brunswick?

(Geez!  Now you’re really stepping in the Brunswick Sausage!)

6.  Do you believe there is an upper limit to the tax rate that residents should be expected to pay, and if so, what is that limit?  If not, how do you explain that?

Question 6. Are you referring to property taxes?

(That’s an affirmative, ghost-rider.)

7.  What is the primary responsibility of a town councilor?

Question 7. That's a little philosophical for 10:00 PM. In addition, I'm not running now so I don't have my handy "thoughtful" response ready.......I'll return to Q's 7-15 another time.

I hope this counts as half a goose-egg.

(As we’ve already suggested, your effort rates more than half a goose-egg, and that’s no yolk.  We do think that going ‘philosophical’ may read more into the question than we intended, but we can discuss that.  We’re not worried about whether you feel in perfect alignment with the natural order of the cosmos.

We were looking more for starting at the beginning; you know, ‘why am I here and what am I supposed to do?’  Not that you can’t bring your background in Newtonian metaphysics into that as well.)

That concludes Pols’ first submission, and we congratulate him and thank him for his insights and willingness to address some ‘tough’ questions.  Though as we see it, they’re only ‘tough’ if you’re more worried about your own hide than saying what needs to be said.

And we urge you again, if you haven’t already done so, to read his statement from two years ago:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/175605328/Councilor-Benet-Pols-statement-to-NNEPRA-at-a-meeting-of-August-2011

And even if you already have, read it over again now that you’ve seen his answers to our questions.  It will be worth your while.

We’re about to put a wrap on this, but we’ll close with a few musical questions:

Will Pols be the only one there at the finish line in this candidate forum?

          

Will the others go sideways to avoid approaching the finish?

      

Or have their wheels come off?

            

Maybe they’ll simply turn yellow, lose traction, and otherwise get lost in the weeds.

            

It shouldn’t be too long before we know.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,candidate forum,town council candidates,school board

Other Side gets a ‘big break…’

 

Yours truly has been invited to do ‘a segment’ on talk radio this coming Saturday.  On WGAN, AM 560 in Portland.

             

If you go here, you’ll see a ‘listen live’ tab in the upper right corner, should you like to listen and want to do it digitally.

Dennis Bailey, a well known PR consultant in Maine is subbing during the 10AM to 1PM slot on Saturday, and has asked Side to join him in the 11AM segment, so we should be on following the 11:00 news report.

Dennis has been retained by the Brunswick Northwest Neighborhood Association to advise them in their campaign to have the Amtrak MLF built somewhere other than adjacent to their houses.  We’ve gotten to know him through those efforts, and that’s how the connection was made.

“See you on the radio."

Technorati Tags: WGAN,radio spot

Introducing the Other Side ‘Back Side’ awards

                    

As many of you know, or at least should know, this ‘media outlet’ was founded to provide a different view of what goes on in Brunswick; the proverbial “Other Side” of the story.

You’ve surely heard the old saw about how there are three ways to do things: the right way, the wrong way, and the Navy way.

We like to think that there are three sides to every story: the back side, the front side, and The Other Side.

The ‘front side’ of the story is the typical pap spewed out for public consumption with the least possible effort, for the lowest common denominator reader.   The ‘back side’ is far more provocative, and is a distant relative of what  you sometimes hear called the ‘back story on this item.’  

We speak from experience when we tell you that we’ve been exposed to the ‘back side’ of Brunswick more times than we can count.  Or said another way, that Brunswick displays its ‘back sides’ on an all too frequent basis.

So we’ve decided to institute a “Back Side” award that we can bestow on deserving individuals, events, and other civic miscellany here in the town we affectionately call Cape Brunswick, except when we’re calling it Lake Basebegone, or Perfect, or the richest little town in America.

And we’ve decided to make the award at five different levels.  This is akin to some national news outlet, we can’t remember which, assigning one through five Pinocchio’s as it evaluates the factual accuracy of news reports elsewhere.

But instead of Pinocchio’s, we’ll be using Donkeys.  Let us begin with our inaugural awards, of which we have two.  The envelopes, please.

    

The first award, at the four donkey level, goes to……(the tension mounts)…..rip…..Jim Grant, Chair of the Brunswick School Board, for this performance in a ‘leading role:’

Despite the board's last-minute maneuver to approve the trip, board Chairman Jim Grant said it was an easy decision for him to support.

"I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is to show how good we are competing against private schools and charter schools," Grant said. "I hope to show that we are an educational leader throughout the world. ... It's a price Brunswick should be willing to pay for this kind of cultural exchange and educational experience."

We almost awarded him four and a half donkeys, because it’s clear that he’s not putting his money where his mouth is; he’s putting OUR money where his mouth is.  But it’s not worth ruining a perfectly a good donkey on his behalf.

                    

The next award, at the three donkey level, goes to….(rim shot, please)….rip….Suzan Wilson, Chair of the Brunswick Town Council, for this performance in a ’non-leading role:’

"PS: I don't think you need to be upset.  Bigger fish to fry.  Tempest in a teapot, in my humble opinion.  Regardless, it is/was not a Town "loan" ; or taxpayer money.   Private funds property of nonprofit econ development entity.  There are many of them in the state,  and indeed, the USA.”

We’ll close for now by doing as Hollywood says: “always leave them wanting more.”  So here’s a glimpse of the five, two, and one donkey award symbols:

                 

              

The suspense of who these might be awarded to in the coming days is probably more than you can bare, but you’ll just have to.  And know that the four and three donkey level awards can be replicated as often as needed. 

Donkeys love to breed, you know, and if the past is any indication, we’ll be needing lots of them to recognize the deserving. And we’re all about giving credit where credit is due.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,back sides,awards,town council,school board

Where is Jane Millett?????

Oh where, oh where can she be?

Do you remember this column that appeared in The Ostrich in June?  It was written by Jane Millett, and in it the lovely and gracious author made these comments about your humble correspondent:

He speaks out against the schools and their budget, but has been not only absent from town meetings but mysteriously silent as well.

While the Brunswick Town Council negotiates its way from less than 30,000 square feet of combined office space for “town office needs” (police, municipal and recreation offices) to more than 95,000 square feet of space in new or newly acquired office spaces, I have wondered at many of these council meetings, “Where is Pem Schaeffer when it really counts?”

So, I’m wondering where you’ve been, Pem? I’ve been tempted to call you, but figured you just got tired of no reponses (sic) from much of the Town Council, like so many others I’ve heard from.

No, it seems you just want to shortchange the schools, but not the municipal budget. What gives?

We didn’t realize it at the time, but this was Sally’s Jane’s way of beginning her campaign for the Cape Brunswick Town Council, which sends shivers up and down your spine.

Jane wondered where we were ‘when it really counts.’  To which we say, back at you, ma’am! 

             

We recently posted an on-line candidate forum consisting of questions for town council and school board candidates.  And we subsequently added incumbent councilors and school board members to those invited to post their on-line answers.

Going the extra mile, we even emailed the incumbents of both bodies at their official addresses to provide the questions and request their response for publication here.

So far, the response from both incumbents and new candidates has been a resounding

            

So, we’re ‘wondering where you’ve been, Jane,’ to borrow a thought.

You might remember Jane as the one who spoke at budget hearings to insist that the number one reason people move to Cape Brunswick is ‘because of our excellent schools.’  As we’ve pointed out, she never talks about why people move out of Cape Brunswick, to provide those listings and vacancies for her to fill with new residents.

Jane, along with every other addressee for our questions, is a no-show so far.  Maybe we’ll have to schedule an ‘open house’ somewhere in town from 1-3 on a Sunday afternoon to see if we can get her to show up.

For now, though, apparently these questions haven’t spurred her to show up ‘when it counts.’ So to up the ante to attract her attention, we propose these additional questions just for her:

1.  When you drive a prospective buyer around town and tell them about our ‘excellent schools,’ do you take them past Jordan Acres School and tell them how our School Department allowed it to fail structurally, and that it’s now scheduled for the next round of our demolition derby?

                  

2.  Do you drive them by Coffin School and BJHS on Columbia Street so they can see the rotting temporary classrooms, and tell them about the sinking floors, cracking walls, busted toilets and other deferred maintenance that has both heading for the same ash heap as JA?  And with replacement costs that should raise their property taxes by a boat-load?

                      

3.  Do you drive them by that architectural nightmare known as HBS School, and tell them about the Brunswick High School that used to be located there, but was allowed to fall into such shameful disrepair that ‘there was no choice but to build a new one?’

4.  Do you drive them by the former Longfellow School, a long-time, much loved neighborhood elementary school, and tell them how, according to School Department officials, and the always objective architectural consultants, the school was no longer fit for use, and could not be cost-effectively saved?

        

5.  Do you tell them how Bowdoin College, not known for it’s thriftiness, was magically able to restore the school to fit for use status, and at the same time completely rebuild it inside for far different purposes, for the pauper’s sum of $6 million?  Or about 25% of the cost of a new school these days?  As shown in great detail in these two links?

http://www.bowdoin.edu/academics/campus/edwards-center-for-art-and-dance/longfellow-school.shtml

http://bowdoinorient.com/article/7923

6.  Do you tell them that nowhere is the Cape Brunswick School Department’s commitment to excellence for ‘the children’ more obvious than in the stewardship of the buildings we educate them in?  Or in the crowding we brought on by tossing aside two neighborhood schools?

7.  Do you tell them that in the face of these circumstances, our per student costs have virtually doubled in recent years?

We hope, Jane, that you can ‘show up’ when it counts.  You know what Woody Allen says.

And you could help us avoid a less than encouraging ‘turnout’ for our on-line forum so far.

                

Because this is when ‘it really counts,’ Jane.  Or are you determined to add to the customary responsiveness you referred to with these words:

but figured you just got tired of no reponses (sic) from much of the Town Council, like so many others I’ve heard from.

Heck, you haven’t even been elected yet, any you’re already showing expertise at the ‘optics’ of speaking with the council.

It’s up to you, Jane.  You do want potential buyers to think as highly of our council candidates as they do of our schools, don’t you?

                 

Let’s not break any more eggs than we have to; they’re awful messy to wipe up.

(A question for our readers: do any of you know who the Architect was for Jordan Acres School, and what construction firm built it? – Ed.)

Technorati Tags: Cape Brunswick,town council candidates,candidate forum,schools,stewardship

For the ‘interested student:’ some Brunswick Economic Development history.

A studious reader of ours passed along some interesting historical references yesterday.  We’re going to pass them along to you without much commentary, so you can do your own independent study and report back to us.

                  

Suffice it to say that we had not paid much attention to Brunswick’s varied and sundry efforts to engage municipal government in ‘economic development’ initiatives until we stumbled, quite literally, upon recent BDC benevolence to local enterprises.

The root link for your assignment is this one: http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Steve-Weems/305384165

When you examine it, you’ll find several other links to cached articles, etc, that are no longer available elsewhere.  We’ll list them here to make things easier for you:

http://www.brunswickbiz.org/BoardMembers.htm

http://www.zoominfo.com/c/Brunswick-Economic-Development-Corporation/27954708

http://www.brunswickme.org/council/minutes/m031006.html

http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/2B61E54C089D1F8C85257560005FBFF3?Opendocument

http://www.timesrecord.com/WEBSITE/MAIN.nsf/0/2A5F435535B153A305256CE70054B1C4?Opendocument

http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/A2BA7D10F9438AFD8525752400620408?Opendocument

We have not yet studied all these items, but we can tell you that some of the names popping up in the references ring a bell.  Like Scott Howard, the ‘business consultant’ hired by Dale King, owner of Brunswick Taxi, to help him find grants or government money.  Turns out he was once President of the BEDC. 

Other local luminaries, like Forrest Lowe, were also involved.  And Steve Weems. long time principal at CEI, the entity engaged with BDC in the transactions to relieve the town of its Federal Street facilities.

None of this gives us a very good feeling, given what’s transpired of late.  We’re especially aggrieved by the flagrant (or should we say fragrant) pomposity on display in statements such as these:

The four nominees, Weems said, point to an effort by the board to "follow through" on one of the goals in the BEDC Statement of Operating Philosophy: "To bring diverse perspectives into its work to promote economic development in Brunswick, through the composition of its board of directors, a receptivity to the perspectives of a wide variety of people and enterprises."

"We're intentionally looking for diversity on the board, which we feel we already have, but just to emphasize that further ... we're looking to be a Renaissance group, if you will, and to have Renaissance-type people on the board," Weems said, noting that the board is "extremely pleased" with the nominees.

Among the nominees, "There's definitely an emphasis on diversity and a wide range of points of view about the community and economic development in Brunswick," Weems said Monday.

Altogether, Weems said, the board is "an astounding group of people and experiences and backgrounds and perspectives, with one thing in common, that all of us feel a passionate commitment to diversified economic and community development for Brunswick."

                

“Renaissance-type people?”  “An astounding group?” 

Oh, puhhhleeease!  Can you imagine any more self-serving, gratuitous, sanctimonious bloviating than this?

And people say Side gets carried away?  Are you kidding?

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,economic development,CEI,BDC,BEDC

Stronger Reader Comment on Dan Ford’s “Strong Commentary”

Just 10 days ago, we published this post documenting Dan Ford’s very strong commentary in The Ostrich about the Brunswick Development Corporation’s quarter million dollar grant to Brunswick Taxi. 

Turns out Dan isn’t the only town resident who is ‘mad as hell.’  Shortly after we published the item, we received this message from a reader we had never met (which we have edited only for typos, etc):

Dear Curmudgeon: 

In spite of being your polar opposite politically - even as a bleeding heart liberal and Elizabeth Warren supporter, lol. I love this piece and so appreciate your coverage of this boondoggle! 

Thank you for publishing it and thanks to Daniel Ford for the cogent expression of outrage. 

I am beside myself over this insider gift . . .how can this be legal? 

Perhaps someone in the DA's office should investigate this and prosecute the BDC board for conflict of interest, if not outright corruption?  Who's in charge here?  Grrr.

I am also furious at the town council's lack of oversight and responsibility here, not to mention their laissez-faire attitude about the BDC.  When I first heard about this, I e-mailed (Council Chair) Suzan Wilson, who responded that I shouldn't worry since it wasn't taxpayer's money.  Here are her exact words:

"PS: I don't think you need to be upset.  Bigger fish to fry.  Tempest in a teapot, in my humble opinion.  Regardless, it is/was not a Town "loan" ; or taxpayer money.   Private funds property of nonprofit econ development entity.  There are many of them in the state,  and indeed, the USA.   Generally speaking,  most are oriented towards assisting business retention, growth, services, branding, and also community-benefit iniatives (ex: community sports/recreation facilities, farmers markets, MRRA in our local area, etc..)"

This is unreal. I am so glad you are holding their feet to the fire.  Keep it up!

I tried to post this on your blog without success - I am having some strange IP issues today.

We sincerely appreciate the reader’s inference that we’re impartial when it comes to expressing umbrage at what we see as violations of the public trust. 

                           

You might even say we’re blushing a bit, because compliments for Side’s efforts are pretty rare.  Not that it matters at our age.  We’ve already got enough tests of our humility, if only when we look in the mirror in the morning.

We’re even more pleased that yet another resident has decided to engage in speaking out on matters of such importance to us all, especially as they reflect on underlying  principles and ethics of our local governance.

Thanks again, Dan, and thanks to the reader who wanted to make sure you know she appreciates your fine effort.

We hope both keep up the good work.

Technorati Tags: BDC,Brunswick Taxi,Dan Ford

Thoreau: today’s inspiration

                       

 

 

   Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

 

Maybe you noticed this “quote of the day” from Thoreau in our side bar area, maybe you didn’t:

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

It’s well known that Thoreau is an inspiration and demi-God to many in our area of the country, including many in our region, state, and town.  It could even be said that he’s a founding father of the environmental/naturalist movement.

So we come to remind you that the very self same Thoreau also voiced this famous truism:

That government is best which governs least.

Many who claim to idolize him and his naturalist tendencies may find this ‘inconvenient.’

Regardless, we don’t believe anyone can say with a straight face and clear conscience that our municipal, state, and particularly federal governments are ‘governing least.’  In fact, the reality is they’re doing exactly the opposite.

Don’t like our view?  Deal with it, because it’s the truth.

Have a nice evening.

Technorati Tags: governing class,thoreau

Side Seeks Volunteers in Service to Brunswick…

You’ve probably heard of a program called VISTA, or ‘Volunteers in Service to America.’  We recall reading in the past that the program was begun during the Clinton presidency, in the last century.  We looked into it once, and were surprised to discover that the program wasn’t seeking ‘volunteers’ in the sense we usually take that term, but in fact pays those who join up, and offers other benefits as well.

As you can tell, we’re really flummoxed by the mystery surrounding the intransigence of NNEPRA and Brunswick town government over  the positioning of the MLF adjacent to the Bouchard Drive neighborhood.  Especially considering that other locations superior in every way are readily apparent and available.

Our instincts tell us that somebody (maybe several somebodies) knows something (or things) that we don’t.  And we see this as a perfect time for them to Volunteer In Service to Brunswick.

It used to be you could make a call on these things for a dime.  Now, if you can even find one, it must cost at least a quarter.  Or maybe you have to use a credit card.

                     

But no one has changed the idiom to “drop a quarter.”  So we’re still looking for someone to ‘drop a dime.’

                 

And we have lots of dimes in the office petty cash account.  So don’t hesitate to call; we’ll be happy to reimburse you.  If you’re worried about being found out, be assured you can trust us to protect your identity.  But you may have to protect yourself from others.

Maybe, just maybe, if we can get to the bottom of this, we can return to a situation where the standards of rational discourse and ‘public servant’ conduct are a bit more scrutable.

Wouldn’t that be a welcome change around here?

And it’s easily worth a dime or two.  Or ten or twenty.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,NNEPRA,MLF

Federal default in the offing? But why?

         

Like us, you’ve probably been hearing all the huffing and puffing about the possibility of the US ‘going into default’ if the debt ceiling isn’t increased by October 17th.

Interesting irony there; it’s ‘got to be increased’ by 17 October, and we’re about to cross the threshold into $17,000,000,000,000 (that’s 17 trillion) in debt.

As we listened to the reports, we began to wonder why default would happen.  Isn’t the revenue stream flowing into Washington, D.C, just like it always does?  Have they stopped withholding federal income tax and social security and Medicare contributions from employee pay checks?  Have they stopped revenue flowing in from hundreds or thousands of other sources, like fuel taxes, excise taxes, and a bewildering array of others?

We think not.  So what’s the problem?  If they’re still getting the same revenue, why can’t they make the same payments?

Or are they telling us they need to borrow more money to pay the interest on the national debt?  Wouldn’t that be like saying you can’t make the payment on your credit card because you maxed out your card and you can’t charge the payment due to the same account?

Are we really this utterly, completely, totally screwed up??

           

Is this the ‘train wreck’ we’ve been hearing about?

Which reminds us; why hasn’t Amtrak stopped running?????

Technorati Tags: default,debt ceiling

Oops! We almost forgot….

We posted our very own on-line “Candidate Forum” yesterday in this  item.

We hereby augment that post by announcing that we ask incumbent town councilors and school board members who are not running this time around to submit their answers for publication as well.

Specifically, that means we seek answers from:

Councilor Suzan Wilson

Councilor John Perreault

Councilor Gerald Favreau

Councilor Sarah Brayman

Councilor John Richardson, Jr.

Councilor Benet Pols

School Board Member Corrine Perreault

School Board Member James Grant

School Board Member William Thompson

School Board Member Michelle Joyce

School Board Member Christopher McCarthy

School Board Member Joy Prescott

We think it might be even more interesting to hear their answers, given their experience base.

We can’t wait to pass them along to you.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,town council,school board

Illuminating things for you with….

                       

Good afternoon.  If you watched last night’s council meeting, as we suggested you do, you know that the two agenda items we alerted you to didn’t provide much entertainment value.  (If you didn’t chances are that the VOD capability on Cable 3 is still OTL.)

The first, regarding a possible workshop about the MLF with NNEPRA, was rescinded.  The second, about the McClellan Building, offered a smattering of typical GBL rhetoric, but no insights into the final cost of the project, which we were told, should be available ‘next week’ or so.

But there were two items that caught our attention.

The first was a comment by Councilor Ben Tucker, who is nearing the end of his current term, and is not seeking re-election.  He began a riff on the subject of consultants, attorneys, and advocates with this lead in: “as our budgets get more and more constrained….”

Tucker cited as context his ‘six years on the council.’

Well, Side and Tucker have two very different understandings of budgetary ‘constraint.’  But this is typical linguistic license coming from council chambers, where one of the focus group tested winners over the years is ‘we’ve been cutting school budgets FOR YEARS!’, uttered with moist eyes and wringing hands.  Followed by upraised fists and knowing nods from the Mommy Mafia.

So we just took a look at the record to test Tucker’s assertion.  If we take 07-08 as his first year, we find that since then, the property tax rate has increased from $22.20 to $26.54 (~20%), and property tax revenues have increased from $27.8 million to $35.6 million (~28%).  Total spending has increased by ~$5 million in that period.

If this is ‘constrained,’ we can only wonder what he and the rest of the council would have spent if they were ‘unconstrained.’  And how much more our property taxes would have increased.

The other item that woke us up was when Councilor Protocols and Mr. Manager had a little exchange about the split of town finances between the school department, the municipal operation, and county obligations.  There was apparently some disconnect as to whether J.P. had originally asked for the expenditure split, or the property tax commitment split.

To which we suggest, will somebody please provide Councilor Protocols with a copy of town budget documents?  We thought he was around for most of the budget cycle this year, but perhaps he was busy texting, Facelooking, tweeting, or shuffling papers when the budget was briefed, documented, and approved.

Because otherwise, all he had to do was look at Page 3 of this document to get the answer to his question, in either context.

But you know what?  We can just hear him responding to our barb with “I knew the answer; I just wanted to make sure EVERYONE ELSE KNEW,’ which is a tried and true political comeback in cases like these.

So Councilor, thanks for squeezing this terribly hidden data out of the bureaucracy for us and making it public; we’ve had ever so difficult a time trying to find it.

           

Switching gears, remember when we raised the issue of idling trains and the explanation given?  First, the answer was that at winter temperatures below the mid 40’s or so, the engines need to idle to stop the fuel from gelling, yada yada yada.  Then we remember reading somewhere recently that they had to idle in the summer to make sure the passenger cars were kept cool and food didn’t spoil or some such.

Well yesterday, we happened to be driving down Cedar Street and noticed a train idling away right there at the Park and RIde lot.  It was cloudy, with rain on the way, and no more than the high 50’s in temperature.  So based on the empirical evidence to date, we conclude that we’ve been sold some fine Brunswick Sausage, and that the train has to idle all the time regardless of the temperature.

That’s all we have left on our plate for right now.  But we’ll be back as soon as we find another piece of cake to share.

               

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