Scholarly discourse

                         

Over the years, as we’ve written on this, that, and other things, we’ve imagined what fun it might be to be a practicing ‘scholar,’ sitting in a warm, cozy, spacious office, thinking and reflecting on whatever subjects strike our fancy at the moment, and then writing learned treatises that illuminate the central issues.  We could satiate our never-ending thirst for knowledge, revel in our intellectual curiosity, and bore the living crap out of the general populace and our readers.

We’d take a vow to be gentle to our fancy, because at our age, we’re not sure how much more striking it can survive.

A few weeks ago, we told you of an event to be held here in Brunswick, specifically addressing the focus of ‘higher education’ in the modern era.  It was organized by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), and sponsored jointly by that organization and the Maine Heritage Policy Center.

                           

We attended the event, and were duly impressed.   We resolved to become a member of NAS, and finally got around to it today.  As we navigated their web site to do so, we noticed this posted item: 

Indignation: Abusing the Language of Dignity

The opening paragraph reads as follows:

The academic left has created a great deal of mischief by appropriating wholesome words for unwholesome ends. This game has been perfected with diversity, inclusion, social justice, and sustainability—all words that mean roughly the opposite of what they sound like.  Diversity on college campuses denotes both lockstep conformity on identity group politics and radical stereotyping of people by race.  Inclusion means excluding anyone who dissents from the prevailing orthodoxy.  Social justice often means overriding fundamental freedoms and individual rights to impose arbitrary rule by elite redistributionists. Sustainability means transferring authority to decide how to use our resources from the marketplace to ill-informed bureaucrats. 

We find this brief introduction to be exceptionally pithy and ‘spot on,’ as the British like to say.  You can read the entire column here.

We commend this column to you, and the National Association of Scholars as well.  Take a look around their web site, and if you feel so moved, read more published columns, and maybe go so far as to join and/or follow the organization.

Then you can become one with the ‘intellectual corridor’ running between Brunswick/Bowdoin College and Boston.  This won’t lower your property taxes, but you should feel a good deal more altruistic for paying them in such high measure.

                       

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,academia,scholars

Stand by for incoming…

 

We attended tonight’s town council meeting specifically to hear The McLellan budget discussion, which was not all that lively or informative.

But we did hear a brief summary of the upcoming budget outlook from Mr. Interim Manager John Eldridge.

If we heard him correctly, here’s where we are at the moment.  As things stand right now, we’re looking at an 8% increase in the property tax rate.  That’s assuming that $1 million is taken out of our reserves to soften the blow.  Without that, the increase would be 11%.

The good news, if you believe the more we spend the better, is that this is just on the municipal side.  So you can add to that the increase requested by the School Department, whatever that turns out to be.

           

And we expect it to be sizable, for any number of reasons.  Number one, “because it’s in their nature.”

To be fair, Mr. IM did say something like “nobody expects this to be where we end up,’' but no action was taken to see that holds true, and we don’t believe any councilor commented one way or the other about what lies ahead.  And ‘nobody’ is always hard to find when things get tight.

So we think the best advice for now is to be afraid, be very afraid.  You know how things are; we’ve got two new schools to build, and then we must have that Aquatic Center.  And we haven’t even begun to talk about a new Central Fire Station that’s way overdue.  We could go on and on and on, but we don’t want to give you the vapors.

          

We don’t know what plans you might have for improvements around the old family homestead, but we suggest you may want to lower your expectations.  Looks like you’ll have more important obligations to tend to.

The community comes first, you know.   And the town has its ways of seeing that you put it first. 

Or else.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,town council,budets,property taxes

Council cobwebs, nattering nabobs, and The McLellan Index

                 

In recent weeks, we’ve used the old saw “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.’'  We’ve decided, however, that it needs some updating if it’s going to make sense in our little town of Perfect.

So we’re changing it to “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we stumble to deceive.”  And we refer, of course, to the falsehoods told by a couple of nattering nabobs on the town council.

Councilors Jerry “Stumbles” Favreau and Dave “Weaver” Watson seem intent on continuing to flaunt their faux self-righteousness to any reporter who will give them some ink.  The sad thing is that they don’t possess the self-awareness of a snow bank in mid-July between them.

                                        

Take, for example, the article in this week’s Forecaster.  In it, the former Mr. Manager blamed ‘personality conflicts’ for the recent council decision to shorten his time with the town.  Brown is quoted further:

“I can’t think of a single thing that I didn’t have the full support of the council,” he said. But he added, “There’s been an accumulation of issues that have divided the council, divided the community. The accumulation is probably what made it difficult for me to continue in this role without there being a frictional relationship between the manager and the council.”

Paragraph 6 of the Separation and Release Agreement between Brown and the town says that both parties promise not to say anything ‘defamatory or disparaging’ about the other.  We take that to mean that both sides would just shut up from here on out.  Doesn’t look like that’s true, at least for Brown.  You can argue whether his comments in the article are disparaging or not, but they certainly aren’t meant to be complimentary, are they.

The same article quotes Favreau and Watson, who rather than  offer apologies for the fibs they told, seem intent on demonstrating they still don’t have a clue as to what they did or what has happened right under their noses.  Take this quote from “Stumbles:”

“What ticked me off was him not going to the rest of council or going through Suzan,” Favreau said. “As far as I’m concerned, he violated the [agreement] right there.”

Is he kidding???  Not going to the rest of the council?  Apparently he was having an out of body experience on the night of February 10th, when the Executive Session called by Pols was voted down, and the discussion and vote to approve an earlier departure took place in full public view.  Perhaps Favreau should watch the meeting recording.  And he could also read the Separation and Release Agreement, which clearly speaks in  Paragraph 3C to a council option to call for an early release, and the specifics of doing so.  This procedure was adhered to on the 10th, but again, it looks like Stumbles was elsewhere when that happened.

                               

“Weaver” Watson was not to be outdone in the article:

“My understanding of the agreement was that if the council was to ask for an earlier departure of Gary Brown, it would have been the result of a major transgression or problem,” Watson said. “And if there was any, there was no discussion of it, no executive session discussing any problem.”

He’s got to be kidding as well.  If he were to read the agreement, he would see it says nothing of the sort, and he would also grasp that the meeting on the 10th, with the town attorney present and giving his OK, fully adhered to the agreement.  Watson continued to exhibit his lack of self-awareness:

“I expect honest and honorable behavior and in my mind, that did not happen,” he continued. “I don’t think we acted honorably.”

                      

Apparently both Stumbles and Weaver lying to the public about the circumstances of the meeting in the Town Hall on January 29th is ‘honest and honorable’, but adhering publicly to the terms of the written agreement is not, because Weaver doesn’t agree with the council action.

As we told you in this post, 

some of the supporting actors in this melodrama still owe the citizenry apologies for lying about the specifics of how they encountered the Pols’ meeting with developers on the Cooks Corner road plan.

In the same post, we told you about the word “compous” that we coined, suggesting in a not too subtle way that it applies to said councilors.

                                  

We’re still waiting for their apologies to the town citizenry, and it looks like we’ll have to keep waiting.  Maybe we should send LT Ben Dover to the council meeting this coming Monday to publicly ask them for their apologies.  They seem to enjoy seeing their name in print; a public apology would guarantee more column inches.

By the way, the meeting will be the first in the new ‘chambers’ in The McLellan.  What fun!

The McLellan Index:

Speaking of the McLellan, let’s shift gears.  It occurred to us that watching the price of the McLellan become our new town hall is like watching the growth of the national debt, or the stock market on a wild ride of ‘irrational exuberance.’

Beginning in the range of $100,000 just a few short years ago, the figure is now climbing steadily beyond the $1,000,000 level.  The council packet for the meeting on Monday, which you can find here - http://www.brunswickme.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Agenda-Packet-February-24-2014-Part-1.pdf - contains an updated budget on page 55.  The latest figure is $1,232,611.  And that doesn’t include any work to deal with the exterior deterioration.

                                       

It occurred to us, in that fanciful way things often do, that if we dropped the last three digits, we could call the figure “The McLellan Index,” and use it to keep track of progress the same way the financial news reports on the Down Jones Index, NASDAQ, and S&P.  We might even find a place for it as a permanent fixture of the right hand column on our page.

By this convention, The McLellan Index, or “TMI,” came into being at 100, and just a few years later is now at 1232.  And TMI ‘futures’ look headed for substantially higher levels in the short term.

Too bad you couldn’t have invested some funds in the index when it was created; your wealth would have grown by a factor of 12, with a lock solid guarantee it will go substantially higher.  Turns out you’ll have to think of it in the opposite direction.  Whatever your personal cost for occupying the building was a few years back, that cost has now grown by a factor of more than 12, and your share of the cost is headed even higher.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?  Such is life in the richest little town in America, where other peoples’ money is the currency of community pride.  And don’t forget, after we wrap up this project with another roaring success, we have the Aquatic Center to plan for!  We don’t know how we can keep our shirts on with all the popping buttons!

And as long as we’re talking about Bowdoin (we are, aren’t we?), we want to pass along the news reported in the same issue of the Forecaster that the college plans to build:

a $2.4 million, three-story, 3,440-square-foot administrative office building to replace a building at 216 Maine St. that used to house a travel agency and flower shop.

Here’s how Google Earth portrays the current building and lot:

       

By our estimates, the lot is less than 10,000 sq ft, and the building to be replaced has a foot print in the range of 1600 sq ft or so.

Given the figures cited, the college will spend about $700 dollars a square foot for the new office building, which by any stretch is a princely sum.  Think of two 1700 sq ft houses costing $2.4 million.  The mind boggles.

Erecting a three story building there that costs this much might seem a challenge to some, but we're confident that Bowdoin can spend all that and more.  Presumably they won’t use cedar siding and wood trim, unless they have plans for this to be a temporary structure that they can trade to the town for oh, who knows..perhaps the High School…in ten years or so.

You may be thinking this will make a nice addition to the town tax rolls, but you’d be wrong.  Bowdoin is a ‘non-profit,’ so they won’t pay any property taxes on the building at all.

That aside, we sure as hell hope they take far better care of it than they have of The McLellan.  We have to protect our image, just like we are over on Pleasant Street across the street from the Library.

Technorati Tags: The McLellan,Brunswick,Town Council,tangled webs,Bowdoin College

Follow-up on “Government Help:” Statewide property taxes

This graphic takes on even more relevance after listening to yesterday’s hearing (at least as much as we could stand) and gathering some more info.

                         

This hearing was clearly about rearranging the deck chairs, as the old saying goes, not about reducing property tax burdens.  It was about reallocating the tax burden, as it almost always is.  It is never, ever, ever about lowering spending, which is what tax burdens derive from. 

It’s almost bizarre to listen to proponents twist themselves in knots to avoid the ever present elephant and make sure that their vocabulary is completely devoid of any hint of the core problem.

Picking winners and losers was the focus, which is more and more what government is about.  The social welfare Non-Profit Industrial Complex was there in force, arguing that others should pay more of the overall tax burden so that their favored constituency could pay less.  Just think of it in the simplest of terms: income redistribution.

To be more fully informed on the subject of a state wide property tax, you’ll want to read this article in the Maine Wire that discusses the history in Maine, and the words of the person who fought to  have it repealed in the 70s.

“This bill is a phantom bill, it’s just a title and sentence. And yet we’re having a hearing on it,” said Mary Adams of Garland, the lone citizen who testified against the bill.

Adams is the chair of Maine’s center-right coalition and a longtime crusader for fiscally responsible government. She fought against the statewide property tax in the 1970s, leading a petition effort which resulted in the repeal of the tax on Dec. 5, 1977. She recalled the turmoil the tax caused in Maine cities and towns, and said reviving the long-defeated tax would be a terrible idea.

- See more at: http://www.themainewire.com/2014/02/revival-statewide-property-considered/#sthash.rwOj8eGE.dpuf

The article also references this document, which is the bill Sponsor’s testimony last April.  (http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/getTestimonyDoc.asp?id=6870)

Johnson first introduced his bill to the Legislature’s Education Committee in April. At the time, his testimony emphasized the need to bring about an education funding model similar to that of Vermont.

“We must redesign the way Maine raises revenues necessary to fund the costs of providing a good education,” said Johnson.

Johnson’s reference to Vermont’s education funding model largely confirms Adams’ suspicion. Since 1997, Vermont has assumed sole responsibility for funding local education via a statewide tax on property.

Of real concern is that the bill heard yesterday as a ‘draft concept’ is a totally blank canvas and empty vessel, devoid of any detail that could be supported or opposed.  To make matters worse, Johnson, the sponsor, stated that once the bill is actually drafted by the Education Committee, it will likely no get a hearing, ‘because it’s already been heard.’

Remember ‘we’ll have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it?’  Looks like our friends in Augusta are taking their behavioral cues from Washington.  So much for integrity and transparency.

By the way, the Maine Constitution contains this language on Education:

Article VIII.

Part First.

Education.

Section 1.  Legislature shall require towns to support public schools; duty of Legislature.  A general diffusion of the advantages of education being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people; to promote this important object, the Legislature are authorized, and it shall be their duty to require, the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools; and it shall further be their duty to encourage and suitably endow, from time to time, as the circumstances of the people may authorize, all academies, colleges and seminaries of learning within the State; provided, that no donation, grant or endowment shall at any time be made by the Legislature to any literary institution now established, or which may hereafter be established, unless, at the time of making such endowment, the Legislature of the State shall have the right to grant any further powers to alter, limit or restrain any of the powers vested in any such literary institution, as shall be judged necessary to promote the best interests thereof.

In other words, Brunswick should be paying for the cost of operating its government schools on its own.  The Legislature is obligated to require the town to do so.  But it clearly isn’t.  Not that Constitutions matter – at least if they seem inconvenient.  Think of them as intellectual curiosities; something to see in a museum, perhaps, but not to be taken seriously.

        

Just for fun, we can estimate how much property taxes would increase if the Constitution were complied with.  Brunswick received $10.3 million in GPA for the current school year.  Making that up in property taxes would amount to a 35% increase in your bill. 

Lordy lordy ala magordy!  As someone said at a budget hearing in Cape Brunswick a few years ago, if you don’t like the taxes, you should leave town.

What a moving sentiment.

But not to worry.  As this visual shows, we get free money from the state to make things more affordable.  You might call this GPA and revenue sharing in one easy lesson.

                

Technorati Tags: Property taxes,statewide property tax,LD 369,Maine legislature

The Government is coming to help us…again

 

            

We just learned that the Maine Legislature, in the persons of the Taxation Committee, is having a hearing at 10 am today on a draft concept for a bill that would appear to propose a statewide property tax.  This was tried in the 1970’s, and led to a statewide revolt to repeal it.

You can look up the ‘document’ here:  http://legiscan.com/ME/text/LD369/2013

And you can listen to the hearing today at 10 am here:  http://www.maine.gov/legis/audio/taxation_cmte.html

             

The text for the bill reads as follows:

An Act To Redesign Maine's School Funding Model

CONCEPT DRAFT SUMMARY

This bill is a concept draft pursuant to Joint Rule 208.

This bill proposes a redesign of Maine's school funding formula to achieve equal educational opportunity for Maine students and statewide equity in property tax burden.

Just for grins, contemplate this as well:

Technorati Tags: Taxation,legislature,education,property taxes

The Maine Wire: Maine’s Human Capital Problem

 

“When the birth rate falls below a critical level, population recovery, or even stabilization, becomes numerically impossible. Unless we do something to turn this around, a desirable and vibrant future for Maine is not possible.  Government purchase of private lands is the last thing we need to worry about and prioritize.”

      

“Instead, we need to attract, raise, and retain people if Maine is to have a future, and we need to provide abundant opportunity for these people if they are to have a future that keeps them here, prospering and raising our next generations.  And strengthening the basic societal construct of nuclear family.”

“It’s time to put aside programs like “Land for Maine’s Future” that play to unwarranted and outdated fears, and put the focus where it belongs:”

“People for Maine’s future, and a future for Maine’s people!”

- See more at: http://www.themainewire.com/2014/02/schaeffer-human-capital-maines-future/#sthash.6QmyySa3.dpuf

Technorati Tags: Maine Wire,demographic winter,human capital

Global & Gender Issues; Frosty’s Donuts; and Peace and Reconciliation

Looking at this title, you’re probably wondering whether we’ve gone off the deep end.  Don’t worry; we went off the deep end many years ago, and we keep coming back up for air, just long enough to offer an observation or two on the passing folly.

                             

In this case, we’re harking back to a post of not much more than two years ago…..December, 2011.  It’s this one: http://othersideofbrunswick.blogspot.com/2011/12/friday-frivolities.html

Can you believe it?  At that point in time, Frosty’s had not yet reopened under new ownership, and here they are, just two years later, successful as all get out, and as best we can tell, making sure that their delectable offerings are available every day, even if they frequently run out earlier than we might like.  They have outlets in Bath, Freeport, and elsewhere.  Their wares are available at Hannafords, Bow Street Market, and other ‘fine establishments.’

Back to that post.  It talked about a Coastal Journal article discussing the ‘occupiers’ of that time.  It included these passages:

Brunswick resident Joe (redacted) said that while Americans are typically greedy, he thinks people deserve a lot in life they can't get.

As we said then, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.  That’s either one of the most inscrutable comments we’ve read in a long time, or an example of incompetent reporting and editing.  Or, more likely, a combination of both, considering those involved.’

We added these words from the article:

Dan (redacted) is Mike's son, and is a graduate student at the University of Maine studying peace and reconciliation.

“All of these issues are connected,” he said, referencing Mahatma Ghandi, who spoke of economic violence and of his studies. “The one percent on top of the hierarchy exploits everyone else.”

                      

We moved on to the next highlighted ‘victim’ in the CJ article:

Here’s another example of a total lack of common sense, or if you prefer, cluelessness amidst our current generation of college students:

For Betsy (redacted,) who is from Brunswick and is studying global and gender issues at New York City's New School, the Occupy movement goes beyond economic frustration. Like a lot of college students and graduates, she and her mother are deep in debt to financial institutions that funded her education. She (sic) believes, however, the Occupy movement also involves human rights issues, class warfare, and racism. She has participated in Occupy protests in New York.

We had these comments at that time:

Good luck, Betsy, on finding a job as a global gender specialist, or analyst, or whatever (hamburger flipper?) once you graduate.  That’s a fine choice of major, right up there with pursuing government dependency studies.  Perhaps you’re minoring in the latter, since we have a hunch you believe that other people (id est, taxpayers) should be funding your education, even though there were a lot less expensive options open to you, and majors that might actually prepare you to make your own way after graduation.

Call us unjust and insensitive, but we don’t have a bit of sympathy to spare on those who have allowed themselves to be sent down the primrose path of aimlessness, often with the encouragement of their parents.

So here we are.  Which leads us to ask whether anyone can tell us how we got here.

No matter; we have some updated information on Betsy.  Since she’s become a very public figure since our original post, we no longer feel obligated to redact her name.  She is, in fact, Betsy Catlin of Brunswick. 

    

You can read about how she’s turned that ‘global and gender issues’ credential from New York City’s New School into a major return on her’s and her mother’s investment in her education.

The first place you can do that is here:

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Portland_tar_sands_protesters_chain_themselves_to_downtown_bank_doors_.html

And then you can read about her other exploits here:

http://wagingnonviolence.org/author/crysbelandbetsy/

Remember what they say: the children are our future.  And we have little doubt that Betsy and her mother have either already found, or are working hard to find, a way for the rest of us to pay for the debt they incurred in funding her ‘education.’

To which we say fuggedddabouddit.  You made the choice, you pay for it. 

And don’t come looking to us for one fracking cent of what you spent on those four years of self-absorbed and irrelevant ‘higher education.’

              

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,occupiers,silly protests

The “Village Review Board” and the UU Church

We expect most of you, especially those more attuned to Cape Brunswick’s concern for its self-image, are familiar with the Village Review Board (VRB), if not the details of its role in preserving our precious and unique identity.  Especially as it relates to registered historic landmarks and the like.

You can find a relevant document here: http://www.brunswickme.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/village-review-bd-summary.pdf

It’s not hard to recognize that our little community is one of a kind in its place in America’s and Maine’s history, architecturally and otherwise.  Even if we do have a penchant for tearing down buildings that no longer please us.

We formed our own view of the VRB role more or less by osmosis.  We understand them to be overseers of the style, consistency, preservation, and appearance of the town’s historic zones, and approval authorities for any proposed changes, modifications, or developments that might alter things in a detrimental way.

As an example of what the VRB has a role in and what it doesn’t, we’ll use the case of the Harriet Beecher Stowe elementary school.

                      

You can’t live in Brunswick without eventually becoming familiar with the McKeen Street neighborhood.  It’s where HBS school is located, and where the now forgotten‘old’ Brunswick High School, dating back to the 1930’s, once stood.

                   

Your correspondent is an engineer by vocation, which means we aren’t all that sensitive to aesthetics.   But you’d have to be from outer space to believe that the new school is ‘consistent with the character’ of the neighborhood. 

We’re not even willing to accept that it’s consistent with rational architectural design.  We think the damn thing is plug ugly, but we’ll gladly publish the opinions of those who think it’s a wonder to behold.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s move on to the inner Pleasant Street area, and in particular, the rebuilding of the Unitarian Universalist Church just across the street from the Curtis Library.  The prior home of the Church, at the same location, burned down a few years ago.

The subject property is in the historic zone that falls under the purview of the Village Review Board.

As we watched the new replacement for the old Church being built, we couldn’t help but wonder how the VRB rationalized that the new building is consistent with the established character of the neighborhood and the rest of the adjacent buildings.  And why it should be allowed to have a near-zero setback from the sidewalk.  And a ‘face’ pointing towards the street and sidewalk that looks like the backside of a building of unknown purpose and character.

                  

Oh, sure, it’s in the block with the building that displays the “Dance of Two Cultures” mural.  As if that is consistent with historic Brunswick architecture and character.

We think the ‘pill-box’ architectural detail atop the HBS school is asinine, if you want to know, and you probably don’t.

The ‘architectural details’ atop the new UU Church seem even more discordant with the character of the in-town historic neighborhood.  And inexplicable from any point of view.

             

Which leaves us verklempt and disoriented.  We have no idea where the richest, most perfect little town in America is headed if we’re to judge by it’s buildings.

Surely someone must.

Shirley?  Are you there?

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,Village Review Board