An Eye on Mendon Massachusetts

Welcome Back

2007-08-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

It's been over seven months since we communicated. Apologies for the absence, but there is more to life than blogging about Mendon although that is very dear to my heart. Thanks to the 40 or so people who have checked in every week to see if the blog was active.

I am open to any suggestions for a starting point. What's on your mind?

HG

"looked at them menacingly"

2006-12-15T08:07:00.000-05:00

Oh really! A mighty sensitive bunch up at Miscoe, don't you think? It adds new meaning to the rhyme, “no more teachers, dirty looks”

If in fact the details of this story are correct as told by Cheryl Powers to the MDN, we all have a lot to worry about. Change the time and place and this story could have come out of the Stalinist era in the old USSR. This is just another reason why government schools are a problem.

A gun? What gun? A middle school student says someone has a gun and a full-scale invasion of privacy is unleashed! Certainly an investigation was warranted but unless there is far more to this story the reader is forced to the conclusion that a paranoid school administration backed by an overzealous police department trampled on the civil rights of citizens. This is particularly egregious given the age of the child.

Fiscal Irresponsibility

2006-11-13T09:34:00.000-05:00

Well it’s that time of year when the Board of Selectmen set the tax rate for the upcoming fiscal year. Look for some interesting things here.

Will Momma Cutler get her way and push an onerous tax increase on local businesses?

What will happen with Free Cash? Last year the town had $600,000 and they spent every dime. This year they have about 15% of that amount and all departments are waiting like a nest full of hungry robins.

Will the Assessors raise property values even thought prices are down by 10-15%? Milford did. The rubber will meet the road this year. The BoS has spent wildly with the blessing of the Finance Committee. The only place left to get money from is your pocket.

A suggestion, watch or attend the selectmen’s meeting Wednesday night. If Opie and the DJ cave in to Big Momma we are all going to pay more for our front row seats at the circus.

2006 Election Post Mortem

2006-11-09T12:20:00.000-05:00

The following post was left on the last thread:

Anonymous said...
Hey Gardens! Off subject but after yesterday's election you must be down right petrified! All hail the new order! Yipeeeeeee!
November 08, 2006 4:21 PM

Although the post is somewhat childish it provides an opportunity to comment on the election. We will finish with the effects of Tuesday on Mendon so this will be local.

The first thing to say about the mid-term election is that the Republicans had it coming and they got it in spades. Good for the electorate. The republican party had promised for years that they would clean up the government and end the waste, fraud and corruption that the democrats had cultivated for themselves with exclusive control of the congress for decades. What they did in fact was enlarge the feedbag to include their own special interests and began to squander our money at an unprecedented rate. The republicans proved they were/are no better than the democrats at good, honest effective national government.

Enter Election 2006. Voters turned out in huge numbers nationwide and changed the face on national politics. They voted for moderate democrats and republicans. The margin was razor thin in most races. Tuesday was the return of the middle class to the polls. Tired of the far left and far right the voters went right down the middle. The collective message from the people was: Most of us are in the middle and that is where we want you. Yes the war had a lot to do with it but only in getting middle America to the polls.

The Democrats should have been more careful in what they wished for. They own it all now and everyone is watching. 2008 is just around the corner and the moderate republicans will be looking to take it back. Look for Mitt Romney to emerge as the favorite next year. His platform will be inclusive and positive. If the democrats waste their energy on endless hearings, witch hunts and in fighting while not addressing the nations problems, Romney and the moderate middle will toss them out on the street in 24 months. You heard it here first.

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The Local issues: We said early on that Patrick was a bad choice for Massachusetts. Now you will see what we meant. Look for the following things to happen:

The New England Home for Little Squanderers (Mass Legislature) will with Patrick’s blessing begin to pass exceptions to Proposition 2 ½. One by one they will happen and the result will be that Prop 2 ½ will be gutted and your property taxes will begin to rise. Within a few short years the will soar and be on a par with Rhode Island. Count on it.

The Moonbat lefties on Beacon Hill will with PB (Patrick’s Blessing) push through “reforms” that make residence here for Illegal aliens even easier. That coupled with universal health care and generous housing and education benefits will explode the state population and your wallet at the same time. If you object you will be called a racist. Look for playing the race card to be the pass time of choice here in the Bay State.

These things are just the beginning. Patrick sold his soul to the teachers unions, Bechtel Parsons and the Bulger wing of the Winter Hill Gang and they all expect payback.

There is no watchdog anymore, only the lap dogs are left. You wanted one party rule with no checks and balances back in Massachusetts and now you have it… and it’s going to hurt.

Press 1 for Nobody

2006-11-06T00:15:00.000-05:00

We blogged about the travesty of the BOS ignoring the DOR report nearly one year ago. You can review what we said here, here and here. You can read the DOR report here.

Basically we said at the time that ignoring the DOR report and hiring another toothless Administrative Assistant would be a waste of money. That was, as it turns out, a major understatement.

The current AA, Michael McCue has become a $63,000 perk laden virtual no-show. In the style of the typical cheesey bureaucrat he is rarely in the office, and does very little when he is there. This is only slightly mitigated by the fact that avoiding Mother Cutler is job one for Mike and everyone else for that matter.

So what has happened under McCue’s “leadership”? The inmates are running the asylum once again. Phones ring and no one answers. Messages left are never returned. Offices are closed at the whim of the employees who work in them. Coffee breaks are boisterous talk orgies that go on for more than an hour a few times a day and are only broken up by lunch. This leaves people who need town hall services wandering about the building too intimidated and embarrassed to ask for assistance.

The selectmen are clueless or complicit in this depending whom your talking about. Lawney Tinio regularly attends these daily hen parties. Any party works for Lawney. David Breen is clueless; he still thinks this is some kind of college class, a workshop that really doesn’t have any real consequences. Note to David: If not you, who? If not now, when? Cutler on the other hand despises the town hall employees and makes their life difficult at every opportunity. This further exacerbates the “us against them” mind set that fuels the current morass.

What a mess. All the while the point man (McCue) is MIA most days except on pay day. It’s your money… do you care?

Business Beware

2006-11-02T08:15:00.000-05:00

Here we go again. Sharon Cutler is "leaning" toward a duel tax rate in Mendon. What this woman doesn’t know would fill lake Nipmuc.

A duel tax rate, one for residential and one for commercial properties would establish a higher rate for business and lower the taxes that home owners pay. Sounds good (for home owners) until you look into it. The fact is that there is not enough commercial tax base in Mendon to offset the residential rate in any meaningful way. To have an impact on the residential rate local business would suffer under a huge increase in property taxes.

Boards of selectmen going back to the early eighties have looked at this idea. The conclusion has always been the same; it's a bad idea. It does nothing for home owners and will drive the Mom & Pop operations out of town. Other than one car dealership all we have are Mom & Pop businesses.

Lets hope that Mother Cutler doesn’t drag her apron string boys down the road and get them to indorse this dumb idea. If the BOS wants to help homeowners they can start by listening to the Finance Committee and tightening the belt. Stop trying to buy all the real estate in town and follow the law by putting contracts out to bid.

Back to Local Issues

2006-10-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

These two pictures were taken on the same day, 15 minutes apart.The top photo was taken in Mendon, the bottom one taken in Uxbridge.

Why the huge disparity in price? It has always been this way. Mendon gas prices are consistently 10-20% higher than the lower prices in the area. The argument has always been that Mendon has no self-service gas pumps. If that were true the price in Milford (also a full serve town) would be as high as Mendon but it is not.

This may not be a huge issue for you but there is another consideration. We are under the impression that all the gasoline used by town vehicles is purchased in Mendon. That is a lot of fuel when you consider police, fire and highway.
Questions: Does the town get a break on the price? If so how much? If not, why not? We will reserve judgment on the possibility of a sweet heart deal here but given the fact that the town’s bill for gasoline each year must be somewhere north of $25,000, by law it should be put out to bid. Anyone know if we bid gas out? Our guess is there are no bids, just a handshake and a wink.

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TRASH: On another local issue we are asking if anyone is having a problem with trash pick-up. We have gotten 3 emails in the last week complaining about trash pick-up or the lack of it. Is this a widespread problem?

Mark Steyn

2006-10-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It

For those of you who are familiar with Mark Steyn, he needs no introduction. His latest book (Released today 10/16/06) is a great read. His take on the war on terror and a look down the road 10-20 years is an eye opener. If you have young children, Mark paints a picture of what the world may be like during their adult lives. The book is both entertaining and sobering. I have included the review links here. They will connect you to some of people who are still awake in this world. HG

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"This is the best book I've read since the founding of American Compass in '04."Brad Miner, American Compass Book Club

"Mark Steyn at his best: funny and irreverent, even while assembling well-reasoned and complex arguments in support of serious insights."Mac Johnson, Human Events

"For anyone who has constraints on their time but a desire to know how we arrived here and what is ahead, there are four indispensable books... Mark Steyn's America Alone is exactly the sort of unsparing dose of realism that Americans need to absorb, and soon."Hugh Hewitt, "The Indispensable Bookshelf: The Books You Absolutely Positively Must Read", townhall.com

"An absolutely fantastic read."Neal Boortz(Mark will be on Neal's radio show on Monday October 16th at 10.30am Eastern)

"Mark Steyn's excellent and important new book"Stanley Kurtz, National Review

"Mark Steyn is one of Canada's most gifted political writers, a man weirdly able to provoke laughter while forecasting the end of the world"Linda Frum, The National Post

"Mark Steyn fa la Cassandra (witty)"Giulio Meotti, Il Foglio

"Mark Steyn's superb new book."Michelle Malkin

"Mark Steyn is the funniest writer now living. But don't be distracted by the brilliance of his jokes. They are the neon lights advertising a profound and sad insight: America is almost alone in resisting both the suicide of the west and the suicide bombing of radical Islamism."John O'Sullivan, editor-at-large of National Review

"The best thing about Steyn's latest isn't that it's clever and funny and beautifully written - of course, it's all those things - but that it's persuasive. Buy a copy for yourself and another for a friend who perhaps hasn't reached a conclusion on this whole terrorism deal. Also, there's a paragraph on page 152 that will cause peacenik heads to implode."Tim Blair

Bad News for Gays

2006-10-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

Anyone remember this weasel? David Scondras, former Boston City Counselor. One of the elite left wing with a holier than thou attitude and a chip on his shoulder for any heterosexuals who might question self imposed elite version of what is acceptable in modern social circles.

He was busted for attempting to rendezvous with what he thought was a willing15 year old. Turned out his mark was a security guard for Lawrence General Hospital, not the young child he thought he was hitting on. Tough luck David, you stupid ass pervert.

‘‘You know a lot of people have prejudices against guys who like to have sex with children,” David Scondras said in a cell phone conversation with his intended mark. Yeah David we have a problem with that. It's the same problem we would have with a 60-year-old guy hitting on our 15 year old daughters. You don’t get it because you are a predator. I will bet you thought the murderers of Jeffrey Curley were misunderstood.

Too bad. I have a number of gay friends who are no different than the heteros we all know. They suffer from the same issues that plague the rest of us and labor under the same rules that we all deal with, except, they don't covet underage children and they respect our values and expect us to respect theirs.

This bozo and Foley should be made poster children for what is wrong with Gay Pride in modern America. Very good people with a different view of their sexuality will suffer because of perverts like Foley and Scondras.

China

2006-10-07T17:27:00.000-05:00

Take 6 minutes of your time and watch this video from Sky News in England.

China is a country that will soon be one of the most powerful in the world.

Think about this the next time you read the label, "Made in China"

China’s Execution Busses

Be Afraid.. Be Very Very Afraid

2006-10-03T07:35:00.000-05:00

If the polls mean anything, Massachusetts is in BIG BIG trouble. Deval Patrick is a runaway favorite to become the next Governor.

Remember Pee Wee Dukakis the liberal, nightmare who drove business out of the state and turned the Massachusetts Miracle into an economic meltdown. He proposed giving phony social security numbers to illegal aliens so they could get right on welfare. The list goes on but this is about Deval.

Deval is far to the left of the Duke. He favors open borders, in-state tuition for illegal aliens, reparations for slavery and will pay for all this with your and your employer’s money. He is a true blue Moonbat and the darling of the Cambridge Commies.

Politics is bad enough in this state. Deval will be the icing on the cake. Plan your escape now. Pack your bag early and avoid the rush. The lines at the tollbooths will be long.

Comment Moderation

2006-10-02T16:46:00.000-05:00

COMMENT MODERATION IS OFF - Please keep your posts on the appropiate threads.

Unfortunately we have a keyboard terrorist who insists on copying 1 post and repeating it on all the threads.

We have enabled comment moderation to weed out the BS posts from this lunatic. We will upload posts several during the day. Sorry for the inconvenience.

HG

Don't Buy from this Guy

2006-09-28T08:10:00.000-05:00

MUDDY WATER

2006-09-25T08:13:00.000-05:00

WMRC's Ed Thompson reported this morning that Tussie Kimball has offered his land and building on Providence road to the town for a fire station. Nice timing. So now we will spend another bag load of money to review this new site.

Tussie, where were you 5 years ago? Why now on the day the PSBC votes on the Grey building?

We smell a rat here. Unfortunatly she is out of town this evening. Stay tuned!

20 Ceiling tiles = Catastrophe??

2006-09-23T21:17:00.000-05:00

We have blogged here about the need for new public safety facilities. We feel that the Gray property is a huge step in the right direction and have complimented the PSBC for their indefatigable efforts to present a viable solution to Mendon’s infrastructure woes.

BUT…………

What is all this BS about a few ceiling tiles falling down in the fire station? We get statewide press for this story? Yeah right. The Chief should have quashed this incident before it ever got any legs in the media. IT IS A NON-STORY unless the Chief has no control (we have seen this before) over his department(s).

This is an embarrassment to the town. The Chief, Sharon Cutler and Lawney Tinio should have known better than to gush to the press. What the hell are they thinking?

In the old days when the whores of the media came sniffing around after they heard something juicy on the scanner Chief Grady would tell them to pack up their stuff and hit the road. They hated him. The way it should be.

Mendon doesn’t need it’s laundry aired on channel 5 so they can look for stains. Our elected officials and our highest paid employees should know that. Shame on all of them, they do not help their cause or the cause of public service in our community.

Upton parents push for joint Town Meeting

2006-09-19T07:35:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: 10/4/06

Read the article the today’s Milford Daily News Here

Upton's crowd of crybabies were out in force last night. They want what they want, when they want it and screw anyone who has a different opinion. They will dismantle the school district over $180,000. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Wahhhh. Get a life.

Who raised this entitlement generation anyway?

They want a joint town meeting so they can get Mendon residents in a room and insult them and then FORCE them to pay for their dream school. Will the school committee cave in to this suicidal request? There are only a few thick skins on that committee. All it will take is one weak member from Mendon and we will have our own version of the Hatfields and McCoys. Stay tuned.

The new Super Duper isn’t helping much. He panders to the spoiled brat parents and gets them all worked up. They actually believe that their children are forced to use 30-year-old textbooks. This Fernandes guy is going to be a huge problem.

Hats off to Jay Byer and Judy Leonelli for attempting to point out the obvious but it probably fell on deaf ears. They WANT WHAT THEY WANT> Whaaaaaa.

On a Personal Note...

2006-09-14T19:46:00.000-05:00

In the interest of somewhat full disclosure we will tell you that we author another blog on national and international issues. Yes it is an anonymous blog and no we do not use the HG handle.

That endeavor requires a fair amount time. Although the issues facing our community are serious and affect all of our lives, events and trends in the world at large will in time have a greater effect on all of us living here in Mendon than our local issues.

We try to keep up with both of our blogs but with Riff Raff coming on line and Kevin Rudden going into his second year we feel that there is a lot of exposure to Mendon issues. We are not going away (apologies to Mendon Tao and the various anonymous crazies who dislike us) but we will be inserting some of the broader issues that we are passionate about.

If you have an issue with that we are sure you will let us know. In any event here are some of the hot buttons from HG’s other blog.

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Illegal Immigration: 17% of the population of Mexico now lives in the US; half of them are here illegally. They broke into our country and they intend to occupy it. There will be no melting pot with these people.

Government Corruption: It is rampant on the state and federal level and is working it’s way down to the local level. Neither political party is innocent; in fact there is very little difference between them. They are both on the take at your expense like never before.

Political Correctness: This social/legal movement is crippling the United States. It is used by those who would do us harm to keep us from making common sense decisions. For example, profiling. If it smells like a skunk, keep your eye on it.

Secular Nation: The manic legal obsession with separation of church and state only serves to create a government established “church of secularism”, exactly what the Founders were afraid of and what the First Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits.

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If anyone would like to discuss any of these issues and how they relate to Mendon, have at it. If you would like the dialog to stay Mendon only we will try to respect that but be warned, there are 800-pound gorillas in the countryside and they don’t care where you live.

Hanging Gardens

`

"Katie, bar the door"

2006-09-07T08:10:00.000-05:00

Anonymous said...

It was voted down by 37 votes.

September 11, 2006 11:33 PM

Just when you thought it was safe to count your money. The Mendon Upton Regional School District and their minions will lob another override at the taxpayers of Mendon on Monday.

Empowered (or intimidated) by Edu-crats, pandering politicians and special interest groups of all ilks’, they will attempt to wear down the voters of Mendon with another of their never ending demands for money.

This is simply the arrogance of a government we created to educate or children. This is not about the money. This override is for bragging rights within the self-anointed circle of “educators” that they shook us down for cash after we said no.

Truth is, schools were better educators 40 years ago than they are now. For example, the SAT tests have been dumbed down twice in the last 15 years to make the numbers look better.

Remember this: Government’s first mission is to protect it’s cash flow and make itself bigger. The Pentagon brought you the $900 toilet seat. Public Education has handed you the “Administration”. We’ll be voting no.

More BS from the Gal Pals

2006-08-28T22:30:00.000-05:00

We are getting blasted over on Riff's Blog. Mendon Tao has emerged from the cocktail hour once again to explain to all how we are wrong, have an agenda and are actually her... oops, Sharon Cutler's political nemesis in drag. Read the following and note the dates.

"Example, the most recent post on Eye on the Gray property makes the statement that the building comm brought the selectmen to the Morrison property " at least one of them kicking and screaming ". Of course they are refering to the BOS chair that eye has an obvious political agenda against. Do you want to know the real story? The drop dead date for the buyer to come up with the money for the Gray property was Aug 20. The building comm had scheduled a tentative meeting for the 21st in the hope that the buyer would fail to get the money and the town could jump in. However, the buyers realized they would not get the money and notified the Grays a little over a week before the Aug 20th drop dead date. The BOS chair got wind of all this and emailed the building comm with the new info. She further suggested that the building comm post a meeting as soon as was legally possible for the purpose of touring the property and voting on a recomendation to the BOS for them to act upon which they did. To say that anybody on the BOS had to be dragged kicking and screaming is a gross misrepresentation of the facts and a blatant example of someone pursuing their political agenda at the expense of the truth." Mendon Tao 8/25/2006 12:22:00 AM

If the above is true then how do you explain the following. These are from the minutes of the Public Safety Building Committee meeting on JUNE 19, 2006:

"J. Cronin states there is a new development that M. Ammendolia and J. Reed are exploring, and G. Smith presented property at 8 Morrison Drive to the committee.

Looking at plans, J. Cronin states that the Fire Department could move in tomorrow.

J. Reed asks if we bring the Morrison Drive property to the town, will we get a reprieve from the DOS? L. Tinio states yes.

N. Bradley would like the architect to look at this property. S. Cutler wants to wait and consider this property after the survey results are compiled.

J. Cronin states the committee is not leaving without a decision. The BOS needs to pursue this alternative.

S. Cutler states she will not put this on the agenda at a Selectmen’s meeting till the survey results are in. If G. Carell wants to look at it great, at no extra cost. "

The Committee wanted to look at the Morrisson propertya full 2 months before Augest 20 and Cutler said no way. Why you ask? The fact that her good buddy Judy Lionelli was the broker that had a potential buyer may have had something to do with it. Sharon didn't want to cut her friend out of a six-figure comission. Note to self: Do you get a finders fee for NOT bringing in a buyer? Only after Leonelli’s client fell through did Sharon become interested in the Morrison land. Coincidental timing? You make the call.

Yes we do attack sometimes but they usually have it coming. Judy Lionelli and Sharon Cutler are two peas in a pod. They are in it for themselves. You go girls.

Hats off to REAL Public Servents!

2006-08-17T20:05:00.000-05:00

The Public Safety Building Committee is far and away the best group of volunteer citizens this town has seen in many years. They have labored tirelessly and under the pall of politics and cronyism to fulfill their mandate of producing the most cost effective long-term solution to the infrastructure problems facing Mendon's public safety effort.

This week they hit "Pay Dirt" for the Mendon taxpayers and the Mendon Fire Department and EMS. They brought the selectmen (at least one of them, kicking and screaming) to the Morrison Drive Industrial Park and showed them the future.

Hats off to all the people who put this deal in motion. At the top of that list would be Joe Cronin and the entire Public Safety Building Committee and Mr. & Mrs. Gray who have agreed take the risk that the town will receive their offer favorably and act on it in a timely manner. Kudos also to Gary Smith the broker for the Gray's who understood how well this property fit the town's needs and the money it would save all of us. Gary’s insight and the savvy move of contacting the Committee directly saved the day while the BoS was floundering with the Fino property. The selectmen would have just kept trying to put lipstick on that pig.

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Ok, now that we have aroused all the nay Sayers lets do the numbers.

The cost of the Gray property is $2 million. The cost of the retrofit to make it a viable fire and EMS facility will probably come in around $500k. That is $2.5 million for a Fire and EMS facility that will serve the town for many decades. Let us add that there are unlimited expansion possibilities in the future. Including the current building there are 7.18 DRY acres on this lot.

Furthermore, the plans still exist to build a police station adequate for the towns needs for 50 years. The cost today would be about $2.5 million to build that building on the Grey property or in its original location in the town hall complex. Either way the TOTAL cost of the ultimate solution for public safety in Mendon would be $5 Million… Hmmmm. Lets be big spenders and assume that our numbers here are off by $500k. That would make the cost $5.5 million. Oh well.

The old proposal for the same thing on the Fino land was $7.5 million not counting the pesticide cleanup. That is a $250 saving for every man women and child in Mendon. You do the math.

Looks to us like the taxpayers save more than $1.5 million dollars and solve several of our town’s most pressing problems. Our numbers are preliminary but we added a million. That should cover contingencies.

Remember, your neighbors volunteering their time brought all this about. Not one of them was elected.

Our hats are off!

You Don't Count!

2006-08-08T07:20:00.000-05:00

It's been 22 days and 2 Board of Health Meetings since we requested some information from the BOH. If you read the exchange below you will see that the Administrative Assistant was very prompt with her reply to our request. That is where "User Friendly" ended. We have not heard a word since then.

Apparently the 3 members of the BOH don't think much of the people who visit this site. They don't publish their minutes or answer our questions. Another Imperial Board that thinks you are peasants who should be kept in the dark. And they wonder why we are cynical. What a farce.

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From: BOH
To: Hanging Gardens
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 7:31 AM
Subject: Re: H5N1
Dear Hanging Gardens

I will pass on your request to the Chairman of the Board and will get you the information as soon as possible. If you have any other questions please let me know.

Thank you

Missy Kakela-Bottoms, Administrative Assistant
Mendon Board of Health

----- Original Message -----
From: Hanging Gardens
To: Missy Kakela-Bottoms

Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 9:37 PM

Subject: H5N1

We are under the impression the State has mandated that all cities and towns in the State formulate a plan to deal with a possible human pandemic as a result of the H5N1 virus. There is a discussion currently on our blog with regard to this issue.

We understand that this may be a sensitive issue but the citizens have a right to know how their town government is dealing with the mandate from the State.

We would like to know if a plan has been formulated by the town and what the particulars are. Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter. We can accept any form of electronic information.

Hanging Gardens
An Eye on Mendon

huh!?

2006-08-03T20:09:00.000-05:00

THIS IS YOUR GALL BLADDER

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THIS IS YOUR GALL BLADDER IN MILFORD

ANY QUESTIONS??

Step up to the plate!

2006-08-01T19:47:00.000-05:00

It's time again for the contest to win a lighting package for the Mendon Little League Baseball Field. We need to get 1,500 online votes to be entered in the drawing. For every additional 1,500 votes we get another entry in the drawing, so the more votes we get the better our chance of winning.

Granite City Electric along with Glynn Electric and Reflex Lighting Group are bringing an exciting promotion to your local town! Granite City Electric is not only lighting up Fenway Park this season, but for the 3rd year in a row will give away a sports lighting system complete with installation to a local junior baseball or softball field.

Follow the directions and vote for Mendon. You will be sent a confirmation email after you vote which you must reply to for your vote to count. You can vote as many times as you have email addresses, but only one vote per email address. Every vote must be confirmed. The whole process should take less than two minutes.

Ask your family and friends, lean on your workplace network. Forward to as many people as you can. We can do this for Mendon's young ball players.

Voting will be from August 1, 2006 - September 15, 2006

Click here and VOTE for MENDON

Poll Results

2006-07-30T09:37:00.000-05:00

Here are the results of some of our polling. We did not include the school override polls here. We will be posting a new poll for the September school override.

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Do you Have Confidence in the Board of Selectmen?

Days the poll was active: 7

Times the poll was viewed: 97

Votes Cast: 34

YES 26 % --- NO 74 %

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Should Mendon have a by-law requiring all minutes of public meetings be posted on the town web site?
Days the poll was active: 19

Times the poll was viewed: 152
Votes cast: 47

YES 89 % --- NO 11 %

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Do you feel that illegal immigration is a serious local problem?

Days the poll was active: 21

Times the poll was viewed: 171
Votes Cast: 57

YES 68 % --- NO 26 % --- NOT SURE 5 %

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Should the Town buy the Mendon Country Gift Barn?

Days the poll was active: 32

Times the poll was viewed: 334
Votes Cast: 74

YES 22 % --- NO 65 % --- NOT SURE 14 %

Jimmy Carter???

2006-07-20T06:49:00.000-05:00

Well 20 days on the job and we see that our new Super, Antonio Fernandes has learned is lessons well. Lesson #1 in grubbing money from the taxpayers: Spin a tale.

"We have students reading history books that say Jimmy Carter is the president of the United States," Antonio Fernandes

Tony, Tony, Tony, really now! You may get away with that in Upton or Dedham but the swamp yankees in Mendon have heard that kind on spin for years. We cut our teeth on David Crisafulli. "The roof will fall in and crush students"

You can't have it both ways. A blue ribbon school that has a text book that has been in use for 30 years? What's the real story?

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Hats off to Lawney Tinio for a no vote on this absurd attempt at override number two. He just killed any chance of getting re-elected but he made a statement. Apparently Breen will have to be surgically removed from Cutler's apron strings later.

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The classic Joe Reed statement involving wolves and red meat was a hoot. Joe, you will not be invited to the school cocktail party this year. If they get in your face Joe, you know what to do.

Illegal Immigration - It's not just for people anymore!

2006-07-18T13:45:00.000-05:00

The post below was posted to another topic and we felt it warranted more exposure. The poster seems to be reasonably knowledgeable about the topic and presents a sobering scenario. Read the post and come to your own conclusions.
Many thanks the the anonymous poster. We would love to hear more.

We have another comment at the end.

Anonymous said...

For those of you who think that disease transmission is not a threat of unrestricted emigration let me offer the following... Wait till the first case of human transmittable Bird Flu hits the states.

You do understand how that will happen right? In case you don't here are the facts.

The virus is located primarily in the migratory flyways of southeast asia. Wild birds are the carriers, who intermingle with domesticated birds and pass the virus interspecies.

There are roughly 37-40 mutations of the H5N1 virus (bird flu) identified. At present none have demonstrated the ability to be transmitted from human to human, though the most recent mutations in Turkey and elsewhere are moving in that direction.

Human contraction of the virus at this time is the result of the consumption of undercooked infected fowl (there are countries that eat a sort of bird sushi) or significant absorption of infected fowl feces. Many SE asian families live with fowl in their homes and/or in their living areas outside.

At some point in time it is possible that the bird flu virus may mutate on its own to become contagious among humans, or more likely, a human will contract a form of Asian Flu (the human variety) and bird flu simultaneously. The two strains of virus will attach and mutate into a form of avian flu that has the contagiousness of Asian Flu.

With avian flu beginning to spread among bird populations across the world, this scenario is not solely limited to humans residing in SE Asia any longer. It could occur in any country where people live closely with fowl.... many South and Central American cultures fall into this category.

Unrestricted emigration in this case could prove catastrophic to the US.

As to other diseases that are coming in through our borders, I suggest you research the strains of TB that we are fighting and a brand new one that will really make your skin crawl (literally as well as figuratively), Morgellons Disease.

One other point, Milford Regional Hospital use to set aside approximately 5-10% for "free" medical assistance. It is now approaching 30% with much of it provided to illegals.

July 18, 2006 11:51 AM

The EOM (Eye on Mendon) learned several months ago that the State has requested (Ordered) every community in the Commonwealth to report in with a plan to deal with any pandemic arising from H5N1 virus. We have heard nothing from the Mendon Selectmen, Police Chief , Board of Health or the School District about the required action plan. We hope they have one and it better be a good one.

The virus will be in the western hemisphere soon and it could make landfall as a full blown human to human pandemic. Running home and hiding under the bed will not be an option.

The Commonwealth of Corruption

2006-07-13T19:23:00.000-05:00

First our hearts go out the family of Milena Del Valle. No one should die as a result of greed, graft and indifference to what will turn out to be the crime of the century.

The lesson here is: Ignore what your government is doing in your name at your own peril.

We didn’t think this was a local Mendon story until we realized that we had been thru the tunnel 4 times in the last 3 weeks. One of our children passed under the 3-ton panels less than 20 hours before the collapse and another with our grandson is due in to Boston this weekend. We are sure we are not alone. This is a very local story.

It is worth noting here that our fellow countrymen have invested $8.5 billion of the $14.6 billion cost of this project so far. They resented it when the pork flowed our way in unprecedented amounts and they will relish the opportunity to make Massachusetts pay the price. We are not well liked in most of the country due mainly to our arrogance and politics. The rest of the country can’t understand how we could allow our state government to be controlled by a crime family for decades and how some of us treated them like folk heroes rather than the murderers and thieves that they are. The Big Dig is just an extension of that perverted culture that is Massachusetts’s politics.

If you think that the tragedy in Boston is just a local story, guess again. It is a front page/lead story all over the country and some foreign countries as well.Here is a partial list. We got tired after 18 pages of Google results. A search for "Big Dig Collapse" returned 2,220,000 results. This is not a local story.

The Cincinnati Post
Houston Chronicle
CBS News
Fox News
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
Canton Ohio Repository
The Austin American-Statesman
New York Times
New Jersey.com
WRAL TV
WLBZ - Bangor
The Guardian - London
Comcast News
Yahoo News
AOL News
WTOP - Washington DC
Doe Jones News Wire
WFAA.com - Dallas Fort Worth
WPBF TV - West Palm Beach FL
The Guardian - England
San Jose Mercury News
Star-Tribune - Minnespolis, St Paul
Forbes.com
WBIR - Knoxville TN
KWTX TV - Waco TX
WXIA TV - Atlanta GA
KFAQ - Tulsa OK
KNBC TV - Los Angeles
Arizona Daily Star

"It's time to get tough -- they'll get the message"

2006-07-09T10:46:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit: Josh Reynolds - San Francisco Chronicle

Milford's own Marie Parente made Section A-15 of the San Francisco Chronicle today. Marie's strong stance against illegal immigration got her noticed on the Left Coast.

Way to go Marie.

Read the article by Anna Badkhen and tell us what you think.

Don't forget to take the poll-------------------------->

Just for Fun

2006-07-06T07:13:00.000-05:00

Blacksmith Shop Mendon Mass. c.1910

It was still active in 1910. The building is no longer standing but portions of the foundation are visible from the street today. Do you know where it was?

Happy 230th Birthday America

2006-07-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

In Congress, July 4, 1776,

THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
------------------------------------------------

Lest we forget...

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - THE SIGNERS

Have you ever wondered what happened to the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence? This is the price they paid:
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned, two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. These men signed, and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor!

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers and large plantation owners. All were men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty could be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts. Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him.

Vandals or soldiers or both, looted the properties of Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.

Perhaps one of the most inspiring examples of "undaunted resolution" was at the Battle of Yorktown. Thomas Nelson, Jr. was returning from Philadelphia to become Governor of Virginia and joined General Washington just outside of Yorktown. He then noted that British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters, but that the patriot's were directing their artillery fire all over the town except for the vicinity of his own beautiful home. Nelson asked why they were not firing in that direction, and the soldiers replied, "Out of respect to you, Sir." Nelson quietly urged General Washington to open fire, and stepping forward to the nearest cannon, aimed at his own house and fired.

Francis Lewis's Long Island home was looted and gutted, his home and properties destroyed. His wife was Captured by the British and thrown into a prison cell. The Lewis's son would later die in British captivity, also.

John Hart was driven from his home when British and Hessian troops invaded New Jersey just months after he signed the Declaration. His thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. All winter, and for more than a year, Hart lived in forests and caves, finally returning home to find his farm destroyed. Rebuilding proved too be too great a task. A few weeks later, by the spring of 1779 John Hart was dead. Morris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

New Jersey's Richard Stockton, after rescuing his wife and children from advancing British troops, was betrayed by a loyalist, imprisoned, beaten and nearly starved. He returned an invalid to find his home gutted, and his library and papers burned. He, too, never recovered, dying in 1781 a broken man.

William Ellery of Rhode Island, who marveled that he had seen only "undaunted resolution" in the faces of his co-signers, also had his home burned.

Only days after Lewis Morris of New York signed the Declaration, British troops ravaged his 2,000-acre estate, butchered his cattle and drove his family off the land. Three of Morris' sons fought the British.When the British seized the New York houses of the wealthy Philip Livingston, he sold off everything else, and gave the money to the Revolution. He died in 1778.

Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge and Thomas Heyward Jr. went home to South Carolina to fight. In the British invasion of the South, Heyward was wounded and all three were captured. As he rotted on a prison ship in St. Augustine, Heyward's plantation was raided, buildings burned, and his wife, who witnessed it all, died. Other Southern signers suffered the same general fate.

Among the first to sign had been John Hancock, who wrote in big, bold script so George III "could read my name without spectacles and could now double his reward for 500 pounds for my head." If the cause of the revolution commands it, roared Hancock, "Burn Boston and make John Hancock a beggar!"

Here were men who believed in a cause far beyond themselves.Such were the stories and sacrifices of the America revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

What should we take from all of this? The signers of the Declaration of Independence did take a huge risk in daring to put their names on a document that repudiated their government, and they had every reason to believe at the time that they might well be hanged for having done so. That was a courageous act we should indeed remember and honor on the Fourth of July amidst our picnics, and baseball games." But we should also not lose sight of the fact that many men (and women) other than the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence — some famous and most not — risked and sacrificed much (including their lives) to support the revolutionary cause. The hardships and losses endured by many Americans during the struggle for independence were not visited upon the signers alone, nor were they any less ruinous for having befallen people whose names are not immortalized on a piece of parchment.

Their all Bozos on that Bus

2006-06-29T06:47:00.000-05:00

As we predicted, it's going to be a great year for the blogs with Sharon Cutler at the helm. We didn't think that she would get so much help from Jay Byer.

--------------------------

The Queen of Condescension
Sharon Cutler was at it again, big time last night. Looking down her snout at her subjects and pontificating on the greatness of her reign. She is truly a legend in her own mind.

Referring to Mendon’s elderly as “the gray hairs” was brilliant.

Sharon we know that you despise the town employees and use every opportunity to stick it to them. Nice move with the payday change. You managed to get half of them to show up last night for your dog and pony show. Good thing for you they left the rotten fruit at home.

The Never Ending Override
When it comes to large seeds, Jay Bayer & Co has them. Undaunted by defeat the school lackeys are planning to throw another override at the voters. What part of "NO" don’t they understand?

Byer's quote" the district is only trying to maintain its current standards." Sure by lowering everyone else’s. Our guess is that poor Jay has been getting a major amount of heat from the spendthrifts in Upton. Remember where you live Jay. If we wanted to pay Upton taxes we would move there. Can a Joint Town Meeting be far behind?

Bring it on Jay but you may want to wear the floral jammies and the hard hat for this one. The natives are truly restless.

"Well We Blew It"

2006-06-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

Leave town for one weekend and all hell breaks loose! We could not have been more wrong about the Gift Barn Caper.

Our source was inside the Ober family so apparently they will say anything to get the taxpayers to bail them out.

Maybe we should just change the name of the town to Boondoggle.

If this flies with the voters of Mendon we will be very surprised. The track record of land dealings in this town speaks for itself. Elected and appointed insiders lying, spinning and covering up to get the taxpayers to bail their friends out of bad real estate. There seems to be no end to it.

The 8-acre gift barn property is an albatross. It will not perk, it has no usable frontage and on the open market it will fetch nothing near the 2 million dollar price tag. They are trying to stick to you again, don't believe a word of it!

If the property is worth that amount of money let them market it and give the town a 45 day first right of refusal. That will be plenty of time to schedule a town meeting and there will plenty of exposure and debate in the meantime. We dare them to do it.

The building will not pass code for ANY public use. No library, town hall, police station, fire station or public restroom... NOTHING!

The end result a purchase would be another $400 in taxes for the median home and the Ober's laughing all the way to the bank.

Who Do You Trust?

2006-06-26T20:18:00.000-05:00

Here are links to all the Public Safety Advisory Committee meetings since the failed first votes. Notice that the committee is grappling with questions that were posed on this blog a month prior to the vote. They got no support from the selectmen. Lawney Tinio seems particularly adept at the smoke and mirrors game.

Meeting minutes May 9, 2006

Meeting minutes May 23, 2006

Meeting minutes June 5, 2006

If it requires $24,000 to test 3 acres of the Fino property then the simple math question is: How much would it cost to test all 22 acres of the old orchard? Answer: $176,000.

What will the cleanup cost? Answer: Who knows!

Should we spend all this additional money? Answer: We have no choice.

---------------------------

If we ever intend to use this land for anything we have to do what the board of selectmen should have done before they blithely sold us down the river for $3,500,000. All of the costs incurred from here on out for testing and cleanup of that land should have been borne by the sellers not the buyers.

If you read the minutes of the Public Safety Advisory Committee meeting from June 5th you will see how pervasive the architect has been in all of this. Do not forget that Greg Carell stands to make $750,000 for the design of the building. He attempted to soft peddle the contamination problem at the town meeting that defeated the question the first time. He reminds us of the clothes salesman that pulls your suit from the back while you look in the mirror, telling you what a great fit it is. “Grain of salt” comes to mind when he says anything about the soil issues.

The lesson here is that trust is earned not elected or appointed. The BoS was aware of the problems with the Fino land before the purchase. The Finance Committee also knew about the problem according to one of our sources and recommended the town buy it anyway. Who do you trust?

The Making of a Double Chief

2006-06-25T09:31:00.000-05:00

Here are the Executive Session Minutes from the BoS meeting on Feb. 8, 2005. We want to thank one of our regular posters for these. We will not divulge the posters identity, that is up to the poster.

This appears to be the meeting where the selectmen and Chief Horn worked out the details of his assuming the duties of Fire Chief.

It is interesting to note that Sharon Cutler was in charge of this session. She was not the Chair at the time so we get a glimpse of the structure of the board 9 months after her arrival. She was calling the shots, at least as far as the chief thing went.

It's your turn. Read them and let us know what you think.

The Gift Barn Caper

2006-06-16T07:08:00.000-05:00

Just when we thought we would take a break for a while the show heats up!

The inside word on the town buying the Mendon Country Gift Barn property is that the owners do not have nor ever had any intention of selling it.

The rumor got started by Sharon Cutler nosing around with more of her grandiose ideas. Furthermore the owners of the Barn are livid that the story circulated. People began a rush to cash gift certificates and the story hurt the Barn's business.

We will be surprised if the owners of the Barn don't sue Cutler and the town for this fiasco. Keep your eye on Cutler she is a loose cannon.

Riff Raff of Mendon

2006-06-15T07:02:00.000-05:00

We have a new addition to the Mendon Blogsphere. One of our favorite long time posters has created a blog. Welcome to Riff Raff.

http://mendonriffraff.blogspot.com/

Riff has contributed much to the discussion here over the past 8 months and is quite knowledgeable about current events in our town. We are going to keep to ourselves for a week or so and let Riff have the stage. We're not leaving in fact we have some great stuff to print but right now we are lawyering up for the next expose. Good luck Riff, we will be reading.

Hanging Gardens

School Override Upton-Yes Mendon-No

2006-06-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

Mendon

Yes - 463 (44%)
NO - 591 (56%)

Mendon Vote Count 1,054

---------------------------------------------

Upton

YES - 609 (62%)
NO - 370 (38%)

Upton Vote Count 979

NOTE: We had bad numbers for Upton. The correct count is now posted. Nothing changes. There were a few more no votes that we first reported. HG

Potholes vs “Dream Scenario”

2006-06-10T20:28:00.000-05:00

Don't Forget to Vote Today

Due to the recent rains the town roads are mess. Pothole damage to cars is the order of the day. Yes the Highway Department has tried to mark the bad spots with signs and has done a good job of getting the signs up in a timely manner but that hasn’t stopped many front ends from finding their way to the mechanic over the last few days.

When you go to the polls on Monday keep that in mind. The School wants you to fund their "Dream Scenario" while there are many other immediate needs for your tax dollars. It would seem that the educational elite should understand that if you can’t get the children to school over safe roads it might be time to put down the wish list and focus on the needs of the entire town.

Yes, we are still voting no on the override.

Polling Suggestions

2006-06-03T10:54:00.000-05:00

As you can see we have added polling to the blog. The first poll has to do with the school override ballot vote.

We would like to add additional polls in the future. If you have an idea for a poll question lets hear it here.

More Land Shenagians???

2006-06-01T21:49:00.000-05:00

New Comments 6/08

As reported in the MDN 6/1/06.

"Selectmen also announced preparation to sell the 15 Millville Road lot, pending an approved septic design.
Tinio said the town needed to be sure to set a minimum price before making the property open to any bids. "I don't want to give the property away," said Tinio."

Will someone tell Tinio that the town cannot sell land without a town meeting vote. That's Government 101 Lawney.

Also while we are at it, where the hell is the money coming from for a septic design? Anyone remember voting for that?

Obviously the selectmen have learned nothing from recent history and still feel that they are the "because wesayso board". Message to the Troika: It's our land and our money and most important of all, you work for us. Get it?

Questions for the selectmen: Why the pressing need to sell a building lot? Do we need more development? Where will the money go?

Given the track record of real estate dealings by the selectmen we suspect something is going on here.

School Override - Open Forum

2006-05-31T22:50:00.000-05:00

New Comments 6/06

In a very short time we will be asked to raise our taxes by hundreds of dollars a year to support the district school budget. Is this a million dollar heist or necessary spending to maintain the education of our children?

We have our opinion . . . We are against it! . . . How do you feel?

-------------------------------

NOTE: We have dropped “Comment Moderation”. You can now post directly to the blog. This will allow more of a dialog without the delay. If it gets out of hand with libel or bad language we will put it back.

HG

Ken O'Brien

2006-05-19T07:26:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 6/10

Why did this man quit?

Rumor has it that Ken stepped down as a selectmen because he covets the Administrative Assistants job. Under Mendon town by-law an elected official cannot become an employee of the town for 1 year from the date of leaving office. The word on the street is that our current AA, Michael McCue will put in a year or two here and move on to a more lucrative and probably saner environment.

What do you think? Would Ken make a good AA? He spent 3 years as a selectman and a year on the Finance Committee.

Regionalization

2006-05-18T08:20:00.000-05:00

New comments as of 6/03

We received this email from the Deacon. He/She is a regular poster on the Millville Blog. What do you think?

The Deacon's concept of Regionalization is based on a phrase from the " Old Salesman's Handbook". "What got you by in the past will not get you by in the future".
Millville is simply too small to justify the expense of maintaining a full time dispatch function. I also believe the same is true for Blackstone, Hopedale, Mendon, Uxbridge, Douglas, and Upton. There is simply too much duplication of service in a small geographic area. There is strength in numbers and economic efficiencies. However, I realize that "startup" costs will be an issue.Regionalization is present in New England. Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid in New Hampshire dispatches from one location to 36 towns covering 1494 square miles. York County Maine Sheriff dispatches Fire, Police and EMS from one location for a minimum of 14 towns. These are not small towns. Most of the time two dispatchers are on duty. Several Worcester County Towns have a Regionalized Dispatch Center located in New Braintree. Participating towns include: The Brookfields, Brimfield and others. Anything is possible. "Home Rule" has been the biggest obstacle. Support from Dick Moore and Jennifer Callahan has been non-existent.

OK, who is next? Much more can be stated.

THE DEACON

Scam Averted

2006-05-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 6/02

This is the original Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose. If you’re over45 you probably remember the TV series that ran from 1959 to 1964. You youngsters will just have to take our word for it.

The cartoon has little to do with this post other than Mendon has a duo of it’s own who are nicknamed after the two pictured above. Mendon’s pair bears more resemblance to the villains Boris Badunov and Natasha Fatale from the same show.

Our daring duo are long-term employees at town hall. They are Jean Berthold, Assistant Assessor and Claudia Cataldo the Town Accountant. They attempted a snow job at the Annual Town Meeting that failed. This is how the story goes.

It seems that there has been a move afoot for several years to change the ratio of the town’s contribution to employee health care from the current 90% to something that more resembles the real world. Say 80% or, god forbid 75% that is what our teachers get. Soaring insurance costs coupled with additional employees and retirees (yes retirees get the 90% contribution until they die) has created a huge expense for taxpayers. Health care costs in Mendon have grown by double digits every year for the last decade and promise to go even higher. Several boards of selectmen have tried to change the split from 90/10 to something more reasonable only to be met with nasty opposition spearheaded by our very own pair of loyal employees.

A few months ago this pair hatched a plan to get an article on the annual town meeting warrant by petition that would adopt the town’s personnel policy as a by-law thus making the 90/10 split the law of the town and impossible for the selectmen to change without voter approval. An article by petition for the annual meeting only requires 10 signatures so the task was not too daunting and Article 32 was born.

The selectmen or more precisely their administrative assistant quickly countered with Article 33 which would have made the split 80/20 and nullified Article 32 if it had passed.

Jean Berthold (a/k/a Bullwinkle) and Claudia Cataldo (a/k/a Rocky) were quick to promote their cause on the town meeting floor. Their arguments were persuasive if you didn’t know what they were up to. Jean Berthold attempted to raise her voice above everyone and was quickly shut down by Moderator Holmes. He is probably the only man who has ever shut her up. Good Job Art! In the end cooler heads prevailed and the article was defeated.

The problem came with the next article. The Selectmen (Cutler) moved to pass over article 33. Why would they squander the best chance in years to change the split? Cowardice comes to mind. This “pair” intimidates this board of selectmen and many others. The Eye is hearing a lot about these two. Stay tuned for the further adventures of Mendon's Rocky & Bullwinkle.

The next episode:
Good Jobs at Good Wages

– or –

My Way or the Highway...

Special Town Meeting Tonight

2006-05-12T11:28:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/30

The town meeting tonight will have a heavy tilt toward public safety money.

We can only hope that the meeting is not stacked and the vote is decided when people walk through the door. The issue of public safety is far too important to have people grinding their personal axe.

If you can attend, do it. The more people with common sense that are there the better the outcome. The following posts from Kevin Rudden’s blog illustrate in the first case how dangerous a stacked town meeting can be to the town and in the second case that concerns and questions can be reasonable and productive.

"we just like messing with ernie. we were in the same situation last year when the money for fd wages got voted down. ernie had to lay off two full time fire fighters. it will be interesting to see what he does this year. he has no house to clean."
# posted by Anonymous : 4:57 AM

"Some of us don't just like messing with Ernie. We just want to see his spending curbed. He does it with the police department and now he's doing it with the fire department. A good manager knows how to manage his budget and I'm not seeing that with him. The town gives him everything he asks for without question and many of us out here are sick of it. He needs to be held accountable for the increase in spending at the fire department and he needs to explain why he needs to keep coming back every three or four months in Special Town Meeting for more money. When he took over he said that he would reduce the FD budget by 6%. I'm not seeing it. If you go through the Annual Town Reports for 2004 and 2005 and compare the requests for money by the FD in the warrants, you will see a huge difference in the amount of money asked for. Someone has some 'splainin to do and I hope he's ready to do it tonight."
# posted by Anonymous : 5:06 AM

It's raining there is nothing else to do. Be at Miscoe Hill School at 7:00. If not you, who? If not now, when?

Hanging Gardens

Public Safety Meeting Tonight

2006-05-09T14:12:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/10

The Public Safety Building Advisory Committee will meet tonight at 7:00 at the Senior Center.

They will address the direction the effort will go from here. There are sure to be Selectmen and Chief Horn in attendance.

If you can make time to go it may be very enlightening. At the very least if Sharon Cutler and Dennis Shaheen are there it will be entertaining.

We will be looking for your observations tomorrow.

Sharon Cutler Lies with a Straight Face

2006-05-08T11:42:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/13

Don't miss the Milford Daily News article today about Mendon's Public Safely Building. It is very clear that Cutler is doing damage control over the defeat of the proposed project. Rather than getting a plan in place to deal with issues the selectmen should have dealt with prior to the purchase of the Fino land, she claims that everything was done correctly. Oh Really Sharon.

"We did a full environmental study before we agreed to purchase the property," she said. "We spent $22,000 for it."

Apparently Sharon missed the warning in the Tighe & Bond report that appeared in two places. “ A full risk assessment … must be done.. before any development” What part of you blew it doesn’t she understand?

The, in Sharon's words, full environmental study was only preliminary and contained the above warning in the executive summary and in the body of the report. There was also a separate letter strongly recommending further testing. Hello, anybody home?

Sharon still claims there are 90 contaminated farms in Mendon. Like that is going to make her sin look any less egregious. It is not true but Sharon would throw anybody under the bus to make herself look better. Just ask the former firemen.

"They want more information on the soil and we'll be meeting with the Board of Health on that to see if they can put together an order of conditions.”

The Board of Health does not have the expertise or the resources to deal with this type of thing. There is no way they will be able to conduct a full risk assessment of the property. That has to be done by an outside firm that specializes in such things.

The sooner Cutler stops practicing damage control and playing the CYA game and gets down to the task at hand, the sooner Mendon can address the public safety issue. We have the plan and we have the site. Too bad we still don’t have the leadership.

Annual Town Meeting Tonight

2006-05-05T13:57:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/13

This is where all your money gets spent. If you can possibly be there to protect your investment in the town you live in, do it!

Your attendance tonight may save you hundreds of dollars over the coming year.

There is not much left of our Republic. Town meeting is one of the few remaining ways to have a direct affect on the system that governs you.

See you there!

The School Override

2006-05-03T07:10:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/18

Total Pupil Expenditures ( Per Mass Dept of Education)

District----------------------------Number of students (FTE)
1999 . . . . . . . . . . $10,192,294 . . . . . . . . . . .1,914
2003. . . . . . . . . . $16,028,479 . . . . . . . . . . .2,546
2007 (est) . . . . . $25,000,000. . . . . . . . . . .3,000 (est)

1999-2003 funding - 36% Increase
1999-2003 students - 25% Increase

2003-2007 funding - 36% Increase
2003-2007 students - 15% Increase

The 2007 numbers are before the override.

Question: Over the two five year periods here, why does it cost 10% more for the same increase in student population from 2003 to 2007? What percentage are teacher salaries and what percentage is administration?

Question: If these numbers hold true over the next ten years does that mean the school budget will be $34,000,000 in 2012 and $46,000,000 in 2017, nearly double what it is today?

Remember none of these numbers include the cost of building new schools. New students entering the system have been dropping for 2 years. Yes, utilities are way up, we pay them also. All the more reason to question the affordability of the extra 4% for "improvement" the District wants in an override this year.

Is the override necessary? We don't think it is.

Election Returns

2006-05-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/8

If you think it wasn't worth your effort to go vote today, you were wrong. The Public Safety Building question lost by 25 votes. Readers of this blog made the difference. Our hat is off to all 700+ of you who visited this week. Now because you have spoken the powers that used to be will have to do this project in the light of day and get it right this time.

Other Results: Your new selectman is David Breen. Art Holmes remains your moderator and Robert Gilchrist replaces Shirley Smith on the Water Board. Donald Morin will sit on the School Committee for 3 years. Congratulations to the winners. We look forward to reporting on how you handle the public trust.

THE RESULTS

Selectman
BREEN 813
Shaheen 298

School Committee
MORIN 510
Harmon 422

Moderator
HOLMES 597
Duffy 450

Water Commission
GILCHRIST 638
Smith 392

Public Safety Building Over-ride
NO 570
Yes 545

Remember YOU made the difference.

Hanging Gardens

VOTE TODAY

2006-05-01T08:16:00.000-05:00

It's your turn!

The MDN Pimps for Mendon Selectmen!

2006-04-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

New Comments as of 5/17

We predicted that the spin would continue until the election and the local print rag came in right on schedule.

If you are a regular reader of this blog don't miss the front-page puff piece written in the Milford Daily News today by one of their premier lap dog reporters, Danielle Williamson. Yes, the powers that be at the old local rag are pimping for their favorite causes again. Higher taxes and bigger government any cost.

Danielle goes on for 765 words about the dire situation with Mendon’s public safety infrastructure. She lies, twists, spins and uses all the scare words. She relies on quotes from only one side of the issue as if no other side exists.

It is not until the article is 600 words into the selectmen’s gospel that there is even a mention of the real environmental cost concerns voters had about the project at Wednesday’s town meeting. Then 96 words are devoted to a careful weaving of outright lies by the Milford Daily News and quotes from Joe Reed a Public Safety Building Committee member and close friend of Sharon Cutler. We can guess that Joe was taken out of context allowing the paper to slip in its BS.

Read the article and if you see what we see. Tell your friends. This bold attempt to snow the voters should not stand. Vote NO on Monday and tell the selectmen to do this the right way.

HG

Spin, Spin, Spin

2006-04-27T07:12:00.000-05:00

Well that didn't take long. When it doesn’t go your way... spin it!
Kenneth Michael O'Brien claims that all the yes voters were at other events last night. Hey Ken, has it occurred to you that the voting mix that wasn't there might be the same as the one that was?

In their typical style the selectmen deny that they did anything wrong. They deny that they screwed up the purchase of the land. They deny the problem of pesticide contamination is really a problem and they deny that they wasted a year of hard work by everyone involved in the project. As they say “Denial is not a river in Egypt.”

Sharon Cutler attempted to poo poo the idea that soil contamination was a problem. In another of her classic statements she claimed the whole town was contaminated. Nice work sister! Sharon said there was probably poison at her house. Yes Sharon we have known for some time that there is a poison element at your house.

The little tyrant from North Avenue claimed that the Kelly property is “loaded with pesticides”. Why then Dennis, did you approve the purchase 5 years ago? Dennis Shaheen will lie with a straight face and then scream at you if you question him. Nice guy! Hard to believe he is the lesser of two evils.

Yes the SPIN is on. It will be hot and heavy until the town votes on Monday. If they get a simple majority yes vote they will schedule another town meeting. Probably at 3:00am on a holiday and round up the usual suspects to attend.

Here is a piece of advice for the selectmen. Why don’t you find out what it will take to solve the problems and present a comprehensive plan to the voters including what will become of the existing public safety buildings? Oh and while your at it, find out why this Carrell Group building costs so much more than a much bigger building in Seekonk? .

New Information??

2006-04-26T10:49:00.000-05:00

We received this email from Dale Pleau this morning. With permission we are publishing it here. You can draw your own conclusions.

Remember, 7:00 tonight Town Meeting

From: "Dale Pleau" <d.pleau@comcast.net>
To: "Hanging Gardens" <hanginggardens@comcast.net>
Subject: New Information
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 10:44:52 -0400

HG,

I have been in contact with one of the cooler heads in town regarding the "New" information they are touting. Bottom line is they don't have any. The only thing they have is the final "Limited" report from Tighe & Bond dated November 2004. It says what you have heard in the past: Quote:

"These contaminants detected in the soil may present a risk to human health and the environment and therefore, a full risk assessment must be conducted...prior to development of these properties.."

Pretty clear to me that Tighe & Bond spelled it out for the selectmen prior to the purchase. They ignored it, tried to bury it and now are practicing damage control. Not a good start to a $7.5 million project.

I will forward a copy of the report to you via email soon (many pages to scan). That's the view from the trenches. Enjoy the blog, keep up the good work

Dale Pleau

Public Safety - Do the Math

2006-04-22T09:52:00.000-05:00

The same architectural firm (The Carrell Group of Hopkinton) that designed the proposed public safety building for Mendon also designed the same type of facility for the town of Seekonk MA. The Seekonk building was occupied in the fall of last year. We feel a comparison of these two projects poses some questions for the voters of Mendon.

The numbers are interesting:

Area Square Miles - Seekonk 18.4 - Mendon 18.3 (Virtually Identical)
2004 Population (rounded) - Seekonk 14,000 - Mendon 6,000 (Mendon 43% Smaller)
Median Family Income (2000) - Seekonk $56,364 - Mendon $71,164
Cost of construction - Seekonk $6,000,000 for 24,000 Sq Ft- Mendon $7,500,000 for 18,700 Sq Ft
Cost per square foot - Seekonk $250 - Mendon $400 (Mendon 38% More)
Square Feet per Citizen - Seekonk 1.70 - Mendon 3.10 (Mendon 55% Bigger)

Ask yourself these questions:

How do you get a nearly 40% increase in the cost of Mendon's building in 2 years? Gold Toilets? Inflation, even in the building industry hasn’t put up those numbers since 2004.

Why does Mendon require 55% more space per citizen? Crime Rate... Hardly! Go to the state crime stats on the web and compare. Mendon is Camelot compared to Seekonk. Seekonk borders on East Providence RI with a major interstate highway and 2 exits inside it's borders.

Maybe it's the fire danger that requires so much more space per citizen. Guess again, Seekonk has many older wood frame multi-family housing units and large commercial buildings. Most of Mendon's housing stock has been built within the last 25 years.

It would be helpful if someone from town government would post some answers to these and all the other questions posed by us and our visitors. But then again they ignore the blogs hoping they will go away… Not a Chance.

HG

The Fino Land Test Results - September 2004

2006-04-14T13:50:00.000-05:00

These are the test results for the Fino land. We recieved them from Dale Pleau as promised a few days ago. Rather than attempt to explain them ourselves we have posted the email they were attached to. By clicking on the image you will get a full sized image. They are somwhat difficult to read but it would seem that a few people have some "splanin" to do.

HG

My apologies for not getting these to you sooner. Frankly I don’t think very many people really care but I appreciate your effort in getting the word out.

Attached are the scans of the test results and the site map for the hazardous waste testing done on North Ave and Route 16 in September 2004. These were preliminary tests and the consultant; Tighe & Bond recommended to the Board of Selectmen that further testing be done based on these findings. The selectmen ignored their consultant and passed over an article on a Special Town Meeting Warrant to fund additional testing. Cutler and Shaheen were the loudest voices in support of killing the article.

Let me explain what you are looking at. Testing was only done in the 12 test holes indicated on the site locus map. Not all of these test holes were tested for every substance listed on in Table 2. The designation NA indicates that no testing was done in that hole for that substance. The original reason for the testing was to establish the level of arsenic in the soil. Arsenic is commonly found in apple orchards, the Taft Orchard was no exception.The ambient level of arsenic is fairly consistent and somewhat above the RCS-1 standard in a number of the test holes. The minimum work needed to correct the problem would require the covering of the contaminated soil with several feet of clean fill. Covering an area of 5 acres with 3 feet of fill would require 25,000 yards of fill and an additional 2500 yards of more expensive topsoil.This all has to be decided on the state level by the DEQE so the numbers and the cost could go much higher after they order the tests that should have been done before the purchase.

Now for the real problem. Yes, it gets worse. The real gorilla in the room is DDT. Only four of the test holes were tested for DDT and it’s by-products. Two of these holes, SB-01 and SB-05, have very high levels of DDT contamination. In SB-01 the level of 4,4-DDE was 1300, the standard is 2. Ditto for 4,4-DDD, the tested level was 420 the standard is 2. And again for 4,4-DDT and Dieldrin, levels of 670 and 360 respectively with a standard of 2 and 0.05. This begs the question of what will be found when full testing is done.

The problem of cleaning up DDT contamination is not just a matter of burying it. The soil must be cleaned, usually by a process using extreme heat. This specialty work is only done by a few companies and at a very high cost. I would hazard a guess that that portion of the Fino land will not be usable for at least a decade and the cost to Mendon taxpayers will be huge.

You can do a Google search of any of the terms used here for more information.

I obtained these documents during my run for selectman in April of last year. I provided copies to WMRC radio, The Milford Daily News and the Town Crier. Not one of these public outlets mentioned the issue or did any investigation. All any of them had to do was call the testing company, Tighe & Bond and ask questions. Apparently the fix was in, local media will not step on the toes of their advertisers and friends. Mendon is not the quaint little village it appears to be. Again, thanks for the blog.

Dale Pleau

Selectman's Race - The Devil you Know?

2006-03-31T13:55:00.000-05:00

Riff Raff makes a good point: Not every businessperson is the Boogie Man. Breen has fairly thorough credentials and if elected would be the best educated selectman in years. That doesn’t make him Warren Buffet but it would seem to be better than a bombastic punk who measures citizen value by how long you have lived in Mendon.

That said, the devil you know in this case is just that, The Devil. Shaheen is arrogant, mean spirited and has a personal agenda that has nothing to do with what is best for the community. Remember Louie DePalma, Danny DeVito’s character in Taxi? Bingo! Shaheen’s myopic selfishness has hurt the taxpayers and the pain has only just begun. Wait until they try to build a joint police/fire facility in their field of dreams.

We haven’t indorsed anyone yet but you can see the way we are leaning. Comments, amplifications or insults anyone?

He's Just One of the "BOYS"

2006-03-26T11:15:00.000-05:00

This was too important to remain buried among 33 comments over on Mendon Commentary.

”Let me be brief, how can a former selectman, Dennis, ride around town with an expired inspection sticker for months and park right at the town hall, right in front of the police station and have the police do nothing about it??? I know plenty of people whom have been stopped in Mendon and been fined for that. But I guess being a former selectman, one can get away with those things, oh did I mention that he's also on the public safety building committee. I guess that puts you above the law. Look beyond the town of Mendon and you will realize something is very wrong with this town...” Posted by Anonymous:

School Budget Open Hearing on March 13

2006-03-07T17:14:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: We will be posting additional information about the school budget but in the meantime ask your questions here. Jay Byer seems to be a regular reader here and we are sure that he will answer any questions you have.

Bottom Line: FY2007 budget $24,400,000 - $500,000 override for each town - 13 new hires.

The Mendon-Upton Regional School District’s open budget hearing is next Monday, March 13, at 7:00 PM in the auditorium at Nipmuc.

While we agonize over police and fire stations and multi-million dollar land deals we always seem to overlook the District School budget. Every other tax dollar you spend every year goes to education.

Be there on the 13th so you know what to vote for or against.

Apathy, Apathy and more Apathy

2006-03-03T09:17:00.000-05:00

NOTE: We had a problem that made it difficult to leave comments. It should be fixed now. Just click on “Comments” to post. We apologize for the inconvenience. HG

With 10 days to go before nominations close and the 2006 election is set in Mendon no one seems to care. There are only 2 races, selectman and moderator, that have a contest.

We know some people care very much. This blog has been visited 5000 times since November. There is a core group that checks in every day and leaves some very intelligent comments here. Get involved.

It’s been said that we are very hard on elected and appointed officials and people will not run as a result. That is not entirely true. There are many officials we have said nothing about because they do a good job and they are out the on the front lines. We should and will spend more time pointing them out in the future. So far we have been occupied with the glaring failures and shifty under handed dealing that goes on. That’s life in Mendon. Change it.

You can make a difference. All it takes is 20 signatures of registered voters and common sense. Time is running out.

Thimble Pleasures Quilt Guild

2006-03-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

Thimble Pleasures
Quilt Guild
presents
QUILT SHOW 2006

March 25 & 26, 2006
Saturday 10 - 4 Sunday 10 - 4

Nipmuc Regional Middle/H.S.
90 Pleasant St. (off Rte. 140)
Upton, MA

Works by Members
Raffle Quilt
Silent Auction
Vendors
Round Robin Exhibits
“Cups for a Cure” Bra Exhibit to benefit Women’s Wellness Centers

$5 Admission
Free Parking
Wheelchair Accessible

www.thimblepleasures.org

NOTE: We will post the events of local groups
that are non-profit and local to Mendon. Just drop us an email.
We reserve the right to reject any group.

No one from this organization has anything to do with this blog, they just asked for the plug. The show sounds like fun. Support the Quilters and buy a ticket to their show.

"It's déjà vu all over again" Thanks Yogi

2006-02-23T07:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, We are mostly black on white again. Everybody rest their eyes.

Well where have we seen this before? The State inspects a Mendon public safety building and finds that it is unsafe even for the rodents who live in the walls. The inspectors’ rule that unless the town does something to improve the deplorable conditions the state will fine the town (That's you and me) and close the building. Think Police Station 2000.

Now the 50+-year-old fire station is in the cross hairs of the State Division of Occupational Services. The town has 30 days to come up with a solution to the problems. Chief Horn and Deputy Chief Mark Poirier estimate this will cost $250,000 or more. That's $40 for every man women and child in Mendon. Very expensive Band-Aids and no solution to the long-term problem. Deja vu indeed!

Ken O'Brien is acting as if this is something out of the blue. Hello Ken... the public safety people have been screaming about this for nearly 10 years. It must be all those box tops and all that grandstanding in Waveland that gives you amnesia.

Does anyone have any suggestions for our Leaders on how they should approach this latest self-inflicted crisis?
-------------------------

Housekeeping Note: If you find the black on white too hard to read let us know. If you like it we want to hear that as well. Note it in your comments or email us at hanginggardens@comcast.net.

IT'S ELECTION TIME!!

2006-02-13T21:30:00.000-05:00

UPDATE:
Due to the great response (Over 300 visitors this week and counting) we will keep this thread open for a while. The main reason we created this blog was to give a voice to people who otherwise would never be heard.

Thank you all for the comments and keep them coming. This year people will be able to make an informed vote based on your opinions. That breaks new ground here in our small town. Thanks again and lets hear from some of the other 300 who have opinions or experiences to share. HG

Well it's election time again in the hamlet of Mendon. This is the time of year when traditionally anyone with an agenda takes out papers attempting to promote that agenda or pump up a massive ego....

Will this year be different? It's not starting out that way. This morning on WMRC radio during an interview with 60's burn out Ed Thompson; Ken O’Brien announced he would not run for a second term. Less than an hour later former selectman Dennis Shaheen showed up at town hall to take out papers. (Smell anything funny?) This pair has an agenda and O'Brien is the brain. We'll keep you posted.

Town Moderator Art Holmes and former selectman Dale Pleau were seen at the town hall today. Art should quit while he's behind and what is Pleau up to? A Shaheen/Pleau match up? That would be great for this blog!

Also up this year by office and incumbent:

Town Clerk - Margaret Bonderenko

Assessor - Thomas Hackenson

Board of Health - Melissa Kakela-Bottoms

School Committee - John Robertson

Water Commissioner - Shirley Smith

Planning Board – Peter Denton

ZBA – Donald Keller

We will be emailing the Town Clerk requesting updates on who takes out papers and who returns them. We will let you know if there is a problem getting the information.

That’s it for now. What do you think? We have opinions on every race but your comments are what count.

Dangerous schools? What do you think about this?

2006-02-04T16:24:00.000-05:00

We received this as a comment to an older post. We are posting it here as a stand alone. We will reserve opinion for a while. What do you think?

PARENTS TAKE NOTICE:

IF YOUR CHILDREN ARE INJURED IN SCHOOL, DURING SCHOOL HOURS YOU COULD GO BROKE!! WE LEARNED THE HARD WAY. NO LIABILTY INSURANCE FOR STUDENTS, NOT TOO HARD TO UNDERSTAND WHY ($$). DON'T YOU THINK PARENTS SHOULD KNOW THIS LITTLE DETAIL? WE WERE TOLD, ACCORDING TO OUR INCAPABLE SUPERINTENDENT. SOME SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE BROCHURE GIVEN TO A KINDERGARTEN KID WHO CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER TO BRING THIER LUNCH BOX HOME! OUR ADMINISTRATION AND SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR THAT MATTER DON'T CARE EITHER THAT THE PARENTS AREN'T INFORMED! NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN ANY OF THE SCHOOL HANDBOOKS. SO HOPE THAT YOUR LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE YOUR KID BRING ONE HOME, AND THAT THEY DIDN'T USE IT TO MAKE A PAPER AIRPLANE ON THE BUS. OH, AND SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT, 100 KIDS AT A TIME USE THE NEW CLOUGH FRONT PLAYGROUND, ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN AND WE HAVE NO SAFETY GUIDELINES, JUST ASK MR. ROZEN. NO SAFETY GUIDELINES EXIST, ASK MR. ROZEN FOR A COPY! BY THE WAY A SERIOUS ACCIDENT ALREADY HAPPENED. DO YOU SEE PLAYGROUND RULES POSTED AT CLOUGH, NOPE. HOW MUCH DID THAT SCHOOL COST AND WE CAN'T EVEN AFFORD A SIGN?? BUT GO AHEAD AND PAY AN INEXPERIENCED NEW SUPERINTENDENT $160,000.00 A YEAR. I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW HOW THE CHILD IS THAT WAS LIFEFLIGHTED FROM MISCOE A FEW WEEKS AGO. GOD WILLING, HE WILL BE OKAY. I HOPE HIS PARENTS HAVE ALOT OF MONEY BECAUSE WHEN THEY FIND OUT THAT OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM DOESN'T ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR A CHILD WHO IS INJURED AT SCHOOL, TAKES A FEW MONTHS BEFORE THE BILLS PILE IN, THEY TO WILL LOOK TO THE ADMINSTRATION AND THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR ANSWERS AND GUESS WHAT, THERE WON'T BE ANY, THEY COULD CARE LESS, NOT EVEN CONCERNED. THEY DON'T HAVE THE SAFETY OF OUR KIDS AT HEART!! PROTOCOL NOT FOLLOWED, WHAT'S THAT!. WE ARE NO WELLESLEY, IF WE WERE WE WOULD HAVE PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION AND RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE ON THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.(BY THE WAY, HAVE YOU SEEN WELLESLEY'S NEW LIBRARY, BEAUTIFUL, NICE USE OF OUR LIBRARY FUNDS!)

Any Town Officials care to comment???

2006-02-02T18:55:00.000-05:00

Anonymous said...

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but last year wasn't it announced that there was a surplus when all the trash bills were collected.....and there was an article to move that surplus to cover a shortfall elsewhere? If that is the case, why didn't my trash bill change for 2006?

Yes we remember that surplus also. If anyone from the Finance Committee, Board of Health, Board of Selectmen or the janitor would like to respond, email the numbers and we will post them.

Our guess is that a good portion of the record amount of free cash that rolled over from the FY 2005 budget was that surplus.

How about an explanation for the anonymous taxpayer?

Planning Board Fails Again

2006-01-31T22:51:00.000-05:00

Is it just us or does every proposed Zoning Bylaw change seem to require a Special Permit from the Planning Board?

No one wants to give the Planning Board sweeping powers over their business or their real estate. It’s just not going to happen. The town is too small and right or wrong people think that the Board will abuse that kind of power.

Note to Planning Board: Look into a PR consultant. Presentation is everything.

Town Meeting Tonight 1/30/06

2006-01-30T08:35:00.000-05:00

It's your money... lots of it, and your town.

Be there or stay home shut up and pay the bills.

Sheeese!

2006-01-30T08:14:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else find this pair embarrassing?

Marie Parente on DSS... 5 Years ago!

2006-01-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

Committee Chair Is Troubled By DSS

Read this interview that Marie Parente had with Massachusetts News in December of 2000. Do you think any of the hack wannabes will stick their neck out this far?... Guess Again

Please write Marie Parente. Thank her and ask her to run one more time for the children.

mailto:mRep.MarieParente@hou.state.ma.us

Another Stealth Town Meeting

2006-01-23T09:14:00.000-05:00

A snowy night in January is the perfect opportunity to screw the taxpayer.

Remember the DOR Report that the selectmen poo pooed? One of the major recommendations was fewer "Special Town Meetings". The DOR knows that the goblins come out at these sparsely attended events.

26 Articles - Do you know what is happening? They do.

95% of the people in attendance tonight will be town employees and elected officials. Katie bar the door.

No Web Site... Two years and counting

2006-01-23T08:34:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the website for the town of Mendon, Massachusetts! Our website is currently being re-developed. Please check back often for the new website!

-----------------------------------------------

One would think that with a fat no-bid contract the company responsible for this would get it together, although dealing with Sharon Cutler would delay things a bit.

Remember, we had a great web site loaded with information. You could pay bills, check by-laws etc, etc etc. That would have cost $2500 a year. Now we have nothing that will cost 4 times that amount. Great work Selectmen, you guys are really on your game!

Government is not the Solution.. They are the Problem

2006-01-22T11:52:00.000-05:00

If for no other reason this is why Marie J. Parente should stay in the House of Representatives.

If you missed her interview with Michael Graham on WTTK 96.9FM a few days ago you missed our great champion of children's rights. She has always been a thorn in the side of DSS. If we keep her there maybe she will become a stake through their heart.

MASSACHUSETTS DSS: THE "DEATH SENTENCE SOCIETY

11-year-old Haleigh Poutre’s life has been so tragic, even “Million Dollar Baby” author FX Toole would dismiss it as over the top: Abandoned by her biological father, she was repeatedly sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend before she reached the age of nine. Her mother then abandoned her to Haleigh’s aunt, who promptly began beating and abusing the little girl.for two years. So did the “uncle,” her now stepfather Jason Strickland, who is currently charged with being part of the abuse and negligence that, on September 11 of last year, sent little Haleigh to the hospital with a broken nose, multiple fractures and severe brain damage.

The aunt, Holly Strickland, faces no charges because she and her grandmother were found shot dead less than two weeks later in what authorities are investigating as a murder-suicide. It looks like child abuse was truly a family affair.

As sickening as that story is, it gets worse. The Massachusetts Department of Social Services received 17 reports of abuse or neglect regarding Haleigh while she was in the custody of the Stricklands. Believe it or not, every single time, DSS sent this girl back home for more beatings, burnings (scalded in the bathtub in one incident) and abuse. On September 13th, DSS finally took custody of poor Haleigh, but by that time—thanks to the incompetence of DSS itself—she was already on life support and in a vegetative state.

So what does DSS do? Do they order an investigation of their own incompetent case workers? Fight for the best medical care for little Haleigh? No. One week after gaining custody of Haleigh Poutre, Massachusetts DSS goes to the courts and asks for permission to kill her.
They wanted to immediately take her off the ventilator and remove her feeding tube. After one WEEK.

DSS claims they were relying on medical professionals who told them (once again, after less than 10 days!) that Haleigh’s case was hopeless. However, DSS also claims they relied on expert medical testimony when they gave Haleigh back to her abusive family members SEVENTEEN TIMES!

Memo to Massachusetts DSS: Call Dr. Gregory House now. You obviously need some new doctors.
Haleigh has proven the doctors wrong by “suddenly” responding to stimuli—something people in vegetative states don’t usually do. I put the word “suddenly” in scare quotes because the Boston Globe reports today that Haleigh’s condition began improving a week BEFORE DSS took the case to the state’s supreme court (the SJC). But, for some reason nobody has yet explained, their lawyers didn’t reveal this fact to the SJC when they requested permission to terminate Haleigh’s life support. And Haleigh’s lawyer didn’t mention it because, due to outrageous circumstances, DSS IS Haleigh’s lawyer.

The only lawyer representing Haley in any is the lawyer for her abusive uncle, James Strickland, who could face murder or manslaughter charges is she dies.

So this is the sick situation in Massachusetts today: An 11-year-old girl is repeatedly left by DSS in the hands of her torturers. They eventually abuse her so badly she ends up in the hospital on the verge of brain death. DSS, having allowed this abuse, promptly asks for permission to kill her. The only advocate the state of Massachusetts gives her? One of the two monsters who beat her nearly to death.

Haleigh Poutre, meanwhile, keeps fighting for her life. And, as has the case during her entire, sad life, she’s fighting all alone.

Michael Graham

Re-printed from WTTK Boston. http://www.969fmtalk.com/

Town Dump?ster

2006-01-21T12:09:00.000-05:00

The symbolism here is curious... Ok, we will admit it seems like a good start.

Welcome Back Kevin

2006-01-18T07:45:00.000-05:00

It's good to have you back and blogging again. We missed you. It was also good to hear that you got top-notch service from the Fire and Police Departments, you deserve nothing less. We do agree on the fact that public safety is getting the job done in Mendon these days. (That ought to bring out the rif raf)

It is a little more than perplexing that you now think Ken O'Brien is a stand up guy. You have spent the last six months bashing him. Did you and he have one of those little heart to heart talks again? Did he tell you again how important you would be to the development of the Fino land? He does need your mouth going his way on that issue because he knows we are watching his every move. Hi Ken.

That was a bit insensitive, telling Marie Parente that she is so old she should step down. She is in better shape than people half her age. Hell, She is in better shape that you are. For our money Marie can stay. There are a million hack wannabes lined up waiting for a turn at the troth, the later the better.

Daigle announces retirement… Not Quite

2006-01-10T09:06:00.000-05:00

Good jobs at good wages are nothing new for administrators in our government schools and neither is a bang up retirement. This is nothing new nor is it illegal; it is playing the system and the taxpayers for all there worth. It’s just another day in government.

By waiting until January 9th to announce his July 1st “Retirement”, Paul Daigle has left too small a window for the school committee to search, interview and appoint another superintendent. That process should take a year but now has less than 6 months. This will force the school district to hire an interim replacement until the position is filled.

Can you guess who the interim replacement will be… think hard… Yep, you guessed it. Paul Daigle. Mr. Daigle will get to cash another years worth of paychecks and his retirement checks as a “Consultant”. Way to go Paul.

Before you say “what’s wrong with that” think about a full year of a lame duck consultant putting off the big decisions and treading the academic waters until the real deal arrives. Worse yet, think about a school committee rushing to fill the position with a less qualified candidate because all the good people were all hired during the normal rotation with a years notice.

The school committee had everything to do with this. They have known for a year that Daigle was going to take the golden parachute jump. They could have held Daigle’s feet to the fire and insisted he make his intentions known in a timely manner in spite of his contract. But then that would have been out of character for them. Unfortunately they are not the watchdogs they are the lap dogs.

You heard it here first

2006-01-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

The Town has hired a new Administrative Assistant. He starts on Monday the 23rd of this month. His name is Michael W. McCue. He is a selectman for the town of Mansfield.

We hope Mr. McCue has a thick skin because he has no power. "Those Ladies" in the town hall will have him for lunch and he will get no support from the Selectmen. Our guess is that he will last a year and move on to something saner.

In any event good luck Mr. McCue... Welcome to our nightmare

Why wouldn't the Milford Daily News publish this??

2006-01-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

This letter was sent to many local and regional papers. The Milford Daily News refused to publish it. The writer is a bit right of center and that is a sin in their Editorial Department. Unless you are a "Touchy Feely Leftie" or a friend of one of their big advertisers, your letter will never see ink.

This is a bit off topic for Mendon but worth the read.

(Published December 30, 2005 in the Woonsocket Call)
(Published February 1, 2006 in the Uxbridge Times)

December 24, 2005

The Woonsocket Call
75 Main Street
Woonsocket, RI 02895

Letter to the Editor

No one, anywhere, any time, any way, should dictate that you or your children must call a CHRISTmas tree a magical tree or you must change words to a known song of “We wish you a Merry CHRISTmas”, to we wish you a swinging holiday.

All children, parents, employees, and taxpayers associated with the Medway public schools have been discriminated against, which is clearly unconstitutional,

The Supreme Court has made numerous, precedent setting decisions that ensure that no government entity can promote or make policies that endorse any religion. Laws establishing any religion are forbidding in the Bill of Rights under the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment, which the court has continually upheld.

What the Medway school administration has obviously forgotten or purposely ignored is, in the same Bill of Rights under the Free Speech and Free-Exercise Clause of the 1st Amendment, the government cannot inhibit the exercise of personal religious speech, which is protected under said clause.

The high court has also created an abundance of precedence setting decisions that forbid discrimination against religious speech in public schools. Furthermore, the court has made it clear that religious speech is to receive equal treatment, but not preferential treatment.

The Equal Access Act, which became law on August 11, 1984, and upheld as constitutional in 1990 by a vote of 8-1 by the Supreme Court, is the remedy for the children, parents, taxpayers, businesses, and employees in Medway that want CHRISTmas trees and songs like “We wish you a Merry CHRISTmas” within their public schools.

The Act asserts that no public secondary school, as determined by state law, receiving federal funds, can oppose or prevent meetings on school property by student religious or political groups. With some limitations, parents, and in many incidences, teachers, can also attend.

Therefore, all the numerous people that have expressed there condemnation of this attack on CHRISTmas, the children, parents, and employees of the Medway public schools, must take action. They must strive to educate the children, teenagers, and young adults in the Medway public schools, all schools in Massachusetts and throughout the United States, that they can have CHRISTmas trees and sing songs like “We wish you a Merry CHRISTmas” within their public schools; especially if their school administration creates policies that ask you to call something a magical tree or sing a song wishing you a swinging holiday.

Robert J. Badzmierowski
Former Selectman Town of Bellingham
Former candidate for State Representative Commonwealth of Massachusetts
79 Caroline Drive
Bellingham, MA 02019
1-508-498-3583

Here We Go Again!

2006-01-04T07:16:00.000-05:00

As reported today by the local rag in Milford:

MENDON -- A state inspection last week is expected to identify many "serious issues" with the Fire Department’s main building.

This was predicted several years ago at the time the people in the know were formulating a plan for the Police Station that was and still is a pathetic structure. Neither of these buildings that house the entire public safety infrastructure of our town would pass building codes in a third world country.

It is interesting to note that in the case of the Police Station, the renovated structure as it now stands was designed and built by a State of Massachusetts building inspector, none other than our own Tommy Hackenson, the behind the scenes puppet master who masquerades as Mendon's Building Inspector. Tommy still thinks that there are no problems with that building.
So what has happened during the 4 1/2 years that have intervened since the defeat of the proposed police station that would solve the problems?. . . . . Not Much.

Now the State watchdogs have found out the Fire Station and Mendon is on their radar screen. With nothing done to fix the problems at the PD will the State give Mendon a pass again? Will they buy the “Joint Facility” is on the way story? Time will tell.

Look for inaction by our elected leaders. Meddling by Hackenson through his shill Sharon Cutler and hundreds of thousand more wasted tax dollars as a result. Mendon taxpayers and it’s public safety employees deserve much better.

Merry Christmas to All... almost

2005-12-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas

Wishing a very happy holiday season to all of you who have visited us several thousand times. All the best to you and yours.

And now a word from the Cultural Communists...

And for the Pin Heads in the Medway School System... Your coat of arms

They are all Bozos on that Bus

2005-12-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

The Selectmen's Meeting 12/14/05

The meeting started with the usual pontification by Chairman Ken O’Brien and supporting babble from Sharon Cutler. Nothing new there.

The big news at the beginning of the meeting was that Karen O’Brien had resigned from the Parks Department. The Board quickly filled that vacancy. Bob Duplin got the nod without any discussion…do these people read minds?? We never got the reasoning. Our understanding is that public issues should be discussed publicly. Do the Selectmen deliberate in private prior to their meetings??? In violation of the “Open Meeting Law”??? You bet they do, all the time.

Not much sense to having these Bozos on cable TV if they make their decisions in private and “inform” the taxpayers after the fact.

It was a hoot to listen the questions of the Parks Department from Sharon Cutler regarding the fencing of Memorial Field. She is truly clueless and obviously not a baseball fan. Her veiled reference to the baseball league taking over Memorial Field proved her ignorance of sports programs in Mendon. Sharon, believe it or not, baseball has been around longer than you. Get over it.

Ken O’Brien’s only interest was in getting the bid process of finishing the back fields turned over to the Selectmen. Ken must have some buddies in the landscaping business. The next thing we will hear from Cutler and O’Brien is that the Park Commissioners are up to something and just like the last time the youth of Mendon will suffer from the pathetic politics that control our future. Too Bad.

Chief Horn - Two Many Hats?

2005-12-01T21:42:00.000-05:00

The following comment was left on another thread. It is worth re-posting as a stand alone thread.

Trish Rudden said...
"I am biased, for sure, working for the Chief of Police and Fire. However, I have worked with him for over 10 years, and am still impressed with his ability to manage a diverse group of people without quelling their need to be individuals and express their opinion at the same time. Just because Ernie Horn does not have Fire experience does not mean he cannot manage that Department, its budget or its members. I realize that the "title" of Fire Chief put many people in town on edge -- he hadn't been trained in it or earned it. However, he has rebuilt the Department from scratch and it functions well, and in the process he has not only learned a lot, but has also gone to bat for the Department in front of Town Meeting and the FinComm. I'm tired of listening to this group still complaining about a decision that is almost one year old now. No matter what the Chief does, it's not the way they would have done it, or not the way it should have been done, or not my way, or not your way. So what? It's the way it is: different? probably; wrong? he'd be the first to admit if it were; progressive? You bet."

Well Trish thank you for that post. The battle over the Fire Chief’s job was a huge political football for many years. It began with the resignation of Chief Deluca and continued for more than a decade. During those years the fire department suffered from neglect, waste, incompetence, theft, more waste, more incompetence and finally an outright insurrection. All of these things were the result of just one thing… LACK OF MANAGEMENT.

Whatever criticism anyone can conceive for Chief Horn no one can fault him for his management skills. To his credit he never publicly reveled how bad things were in the Fire Department nor did he ever compromise the security or public image of the Police Department before he got the Chief’s position. He just fixed the problems, and they were all people problems. (The worst kind)

All that said understand this; the man has an ego the size of Lake Superior and if he ever falters it will be as a result of hubris. He appears to control that ego very well these days. Let’s hope he continues.

In the meantime Mendon could do no better than Ernie Horn as a Public Safety Czar.

The DOR Report vs. Cronies R US

2005-11-28T17:37:00.000-05:00

The DOR Report states in no uncertain terms that Mendon requires a Professional, Trained Town Administrator. In other words: Taxpayer money is being wasted. Labor effort is being wasted and the inmates are running the asylum. A recipe for disaster.

So what is the Board of Selectmen doing about this revelation..? Not a thing. They rejected the recommendation, cocked their little dunce hats back on their heads and moved on.

The DOR requested that the report be presented to the Town of Mendon at a Televised Selectmen’s meeting. Again, no dice from the Board of Omnipotence.

Why do you think they don't want to appoint a strong town administrator or even allow the report to be presented to the voters and taxpayers? It's a no brainer. They don't want anyone watching them. Kind of makes you wonder what they are up to.

Hang on to your tax receipts, the selectmen are about to hire another glorified secretary. You can be sure it will not be someone smarter than they are. It will someone they can push around and keep in the dark. Or it will be one of the "in" crowd. Rumor has it that they had 11 applicants. You can be sure the best of those will end up on the cutting room floor.

Next Post: The Screening Committee

`

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T22:02:00.000-05:00

Best wishes on the holiday to our friends and our enemies. Enjoy this most American of holidays. We will return on Monday 11/28 with more of our perspective on our hometown.

An Answer to Jay Byer

2005-11-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

This is a response to Jay Byer, School Committee member who posted under the heading: “The Privacy Thing” Thanks for the input Jay. Remember, if you’re not part of the solution, you are most assuredly part of the problem.
----------------
Welcome Jay. We have always known you to be an up front guy with nothing to hide so it is no surprise that you would be the one to take a stand.

However you are under a few misconceptions and some of your other points are dead wrong. So here is our response to your comments.

First:
No one has to register or use his or her real name to post here or anywhere on Blogger. Simply choose the anonymous option and post your comment. The reason we know that the selectmen and other town officials read this blog is because they talk about it to people and people talk to us. No rocket science there. We use Sitemeter.com to track the number of visits we get. We have no idea who visits the site. Go to Sitemeter.com and see for yourself what information they provide.
As for your admonition to us to run for office: How do you know we don’t already hold office in Mendon?

Second:
We do screen posts before they appear on the blog. The reason for this is to avoid the smut purveyors that use robot programs to post comments to blogs pitching all sorts of perversion. All relevant posts appear here. We only censor the perverts.

The Judy Leonelli Thing:
We stand by the statements made about Judy Leonelli’s political position. Nothing written here rises to the threshold of either slander or libel. Look it up. If you feel the analogy to Jeffrey Dahmer was in bad taste that is your opinion and you are welcome to it. Those of us who met her when she arrived here knew she would be a problem if she ever got into a position of power. She did and she is. Just what Mendon needed was another rubber stamp for the 20 million dollar annual party that is the Mendon Upton Regional School District. More on that later.
The destruction of the historic home that is Leonelli’s business is another matter. If she truly wanted to make Mendon the next Sherborn she would honor the history of her adopted town. At this point it appears her only allegiance is to her personal bottom line.

The Corruption Thing:
We will restate it again in different words. There are many elected and appointed people in Mendon who understand what public service is all about and put in great effort, at least at first. There is also a core group of movers and shakers that do not have the best interest of this town, it’s history or it’s future at the forefront of their agenda. In other words it’s all about them.

Your example of Dennis Shaheen is a poor one. He’s a puppet. Then Selectman Jean Bavosi and her handler Tom Hackenson drafted him to defeat Selectman Conrad Beliveau. Seems Conrad had some issues with the ethics of building inspector Hackenson and his crowd. For Conrad that inquiry was and still is the kiss of death in Mendon politics. Shaheen was just a loyal soldier. He carried his group’s water for 6 years and was replaced by another shill, Sharon Cutler. Her first payback was to get her son appointed (by Hackenson) to the position of Assistant Plumbing Inspector. A clear conflict of interest for Hackenson the building inspector since her son is also a sub-contractor for Hackenson Corp. Shaheen’s pay back is in the bank. He will cash that check shortly.

The town is leaderless at this point. We desperately need new blood. Our goal here is to pull away the mask and shed light on what really happens and the reasons for it. Anonymity is not a bad thing unless they are controlling your government.

Editors note: For those of you thinking of attempting to shut down this blog or practice scatter shot harassment of citizens you feel are responsible, guess again. All of what is written here and much, much more has been archived in sworn affidavits. A third party holds these affidavits with instructions on when and who to release them to. Welcome to our world.

Judy Leonelli - This is how you do it!

2005-11-12T00:31:00.000-05:00

Here are photos of 2 banks in Wrentham. These photos were emailed to us. The sender said it best:

"Here are pics of Wrentham banks that converted from beautiful, historic houses/buildings. These are examples of 'cooperative' banks that truly endorse the 'good neighbor policy'. Add these to the Saver's Bank in Uxbridge as creative samples of responsible, caring banks."

Thanks for the photos John!

The Privacy Thing

2005-11-11T20:52:00.000-05:00

We have noticed that when we make a controversial statement in a post or Kevin Rudden does on his blog, people seem afraid to comment? It's like they think we can look back through their computer and see them.

Just for the record, neither Kevin over at Mendon Commentary nor us at An Eye on Mendon has any idea who is posting. Don't be afraid to leave a comment. Your opinion is valuable. Just the fact that you read these blogs is valuable.

The computer is not a seeing eye when you post through Blogger. We have no idea who made the comment. Part of the fun is speculating on the identity of the poster.

Kevin has chosen to be up front with his identity. You know who he is. Those of us at An Eye on Mendon have chosen to remain anonymous. The speculation on who we are is half the fun. Recent rumor has it that we are Kevin's wife or Dale Pleau. Keep guessing folks. We will remain anonymous.

Kevin will probably run for office in the future and will benefit from this exposure. We have no intention of putting ourselves or our families through that ordeal. It is our opinion that Mendon is a corrupt little village at it's core and as long as the voters and taxpayers remain asleep there is no good to be done by honest ethical people. We can try to wipe the sleep from your eyes but if you keep hitting the snooze button you get what you get.

In any event don’t be afraid to post a comment. There is no way we can know who you are. We do track visitors to our site. (Click on the box at the bottom of this screen). We know when you came and how many there were in a day. (That number is growing daily) But we have no idea who you are. If you agree or disagree with what we say here it is important that you comment. As we have written before, your elected and appointed officials check in every day. Lately it is the first thing on their minds. {;-) We can publish the numbers of visitors we have here (390 this week) but a few words from you are worth a million pictures. These people need to know you are watching them.

One more time… Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. Get in the game!

Da Crew @ Hanging Gardens

THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE REPORT

2005-11-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

Well the Selectmen stepped it again. The difference/similarity this time is they did it to themselves. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue was invited by the board to review financial practices in town. They spent several weeks in town hall working on this project. The Report is now published on the DOR web site:

http://www.dls.state.ma.us/mdmstuf/Technical_Assistance/finmgtrev/Mendon.pdf

The major recommendation of this report is the dire need for the selectmen to hire a strong town administrator to focus the business of town government. Sound familiar? Professionally trained state watchdogs spent a few weeks in town and were appalled at the processes that pass for local government in Mendon.

Just so you know where your selectmen stand on this report, the DOR contacted all the people they interviewed in the preparation of the report prior to publication. Of the 3 members of the board of selectmen, only Lawney Tinio returned their call to discuss the report. Sharon Cutler and Ken O’Brien ignored the request to return calls from DOR. Not surprising since the latter two are enamored with their own self-importance and agendas to be named later.

Please take the time to READ THE REPORT. The Department of Revenue has requested that the report be presented to the town at a televised selectmen’s meeting with the local press in attendance. (We dare you to make the calls Ken) The DOR wants the taxpayers to know what is happening.

We know that the local paper (Milford Daily News) is aware of this report. Lets see how they treat it. They have been known to ignore important stories if they offend their friends or advertisers, money talks. The same is true for the local radio station.
Editorial note: The press is not free in 2005. All press is bought and paid for by their advertisers. Always follow the money. Your only hope of getting the real story is the Internet. The problem there is who do you believe? It takes some work on your part.

Read the report. We will be following this story like a bloodhound after a bad pair of gym shoes. Take the time to follow this. Changes are coming to Mendon that will change the way we look and the way we govern our people.

Democracy is NOT a spectator sport.

THE DOR REPORT

Hiring Practices in Mendon?

2005-11-07T19:48:00.000-05:00

Time for a few words on hiring practices in town... wait... checking for a policy... still checking... Ok there they are. But there is a problem. The only hiring policies we can find are those for the police and fire departments. All of the hires in those departments are thoroughly vetted, professionally trained and guess what? It shows. Guess it must be that two-headed monster thing again.

The hiring practices we are referring to are for the BIG jobs in town hall. Those positions that come with 90% health care, holidays no one ever heard of and a tad of work sandwiched between 45 minute breaks, extended lunch hours, hair dresser appointments and an avalanche of gossip, back stabbing and Fridays off. Great jobs!

Mendon is about to endure another round of high level hiring. The Administrative Assistant and the Town Treasurer/Collector with be replaced in the next several months. If the past is any indication the taxpayers of Mendon will take it on the chin again.

The first change that needs to be made is a change in the job of Administrative Assistant. (AA) Mendon needs a Town Administrator, a professionally educated person with a job description that gives that person the authority to call the shots in town hall and the day-to-day operation of town government. What we have now is the inmates running the asylum.

Here is a little history lesson. About 6 years ago when the position of AA was open the last time the Finance Committee and others sponsored an article on a special town meeting warrant changing the AA position to a Town Administrator (TA) with the authority to do the job. The wailing from 2 selectmen and several of the movers and shakers in town hall was deafening. They didn't want a boss, unless it was one of them and they didn't trust each other enough to support that. They convinced the sparse group of voters that it was a bad idea, it was too expensive, and Mendon didn't need it. The voters said no.

The primary voices in opposition at the time were as follows: Selectman and Assistant Assessor Jean Bavosi, Selectman Dennis Shaheen, Town Clerk Margaret Tetreault and Town Clerk Assistant Margaret Bonderenko. Got all that? The Fix was in.

What happened next is classic Mendon. The job of AA was advertised and 6 resumes were received. Five of these were from people with relative job experience, degrees in public administration etc. The sixth resume was from none other than Margaret Tetreault the town clerk with no experience and no relevant education. Selectmen, Bavosi and Shaheen over ruled the third board member Peter Confrey and chose NOT to interview any of the applicants other than their buddy Peggy Tetreault. But they weren’t done yet. They waited until a few days before the closing date for nomination papers for town elections to appoint Tetreault allowing her clerk Margaret Bonderenko to take out papers and run unopposed for Town Clerk. Done Deal! You lose they win. Good jobs at good wages, Mendon style.

Fast forward to fall of 2005. Margaret Tetreault is about to retire taking with her 80% 0f her 50K+ salary and that plum of plums 90% paid health insurance. Will history repeat? If the taxpayers continue to do the Rip Van Winkle thing, you bet it will. The current selectmen have updated the dog and pony show but the result will be the same. One reason for this is the appointment of former selectman, insider and troglodyte Dennis Shaheen to the "Search Committee". Shaheen will shout and rant and get his way on this committee just because they want him to shut him up.

If you want to end the taxpayer funded party at the town hall and make the place a bit more user friendly, write the Selectmen or post a message here (They check in daily) and tell them to hire a TOWN ADMINSTRATOR with a pedigree. And while you’re at it, tell them to open the town hall on Friday.

The Building, Moral Obligations and a Keen eye on Mendon

2005-11-06T12:53:00.000-05:00

The following comment was posted on Mendon Commentary by Blossom. It is worth reprinting here. We've added our two cents at the end.

Blossom Said...

"(Now comes my rant....)

And quite frankly, I've never seen Judy Leonelli in school committee meetings. I would hope that she does better there than when she called Horn a "two-headed monster." Again, I defer to our past: Mantoni, Fire Chief and Police Chief; Shattuck, part time Fire Chief; DeLuca, full time Fire Chief; Tetreault, part time Fire Chief; and Johnson, full-time Fire Chief. At least now, the decision to make Horn Fire Chief seems to be working -- I see the guys on the trucks, who come out in record number for calls without the "you owe me" attitude we suffered with for so long. Just because it was all we had, doesn't mean it was all we could get.

Stop settling for the cheap when we can get quality that lasts. Let's not sit passively for the Town Fathers making up our minds for us -- isn't that how we lost the old airport? And how that lovely piece of property on Providence Street, big enough to house Fire, Police and Highway, has a single Highway Barn sitting right on the road -- poor planning on the heads of those in charge.

I wouldn't be surprised, on another note, to see Sharon Cutler backing down on the "Joint facility or no facility" stand that she took on the Police Station when she ran for Selectman. That woman just doesn't want to build anything (or is it just that she's still mourning the library?)

Selectmen -- we want you to lead. We want you to do what's best for our town, and what's best for our citizens. Start doing it. Make a stand on the Leonelli property. Make a stand on the Public Safety Building. And by God, support your stand. Before we end up another few years down the road, another hundred thousand dollars out the window and not a damn thing to show for it."

Wow Blossom, your good and you know what is going on. Great rant!

Did Leonelli really call Chief Horn a "two headed monster"? That doesn’t surprise me. She is an effete snob and has been since she got here in 1986. Worse than that she is a Secular Humanist. Having her on the school committee is akin to putting Jeffrey Dahmer in charge of the menu. But I digress. Hell, the public safety portion of Mendon's government is a professionally run unit that is getting the job done. If I were king I would give Chief Horn a few more hats to wear. (How about the AA job Chief...LOL)

Leonelli is just trying to set herself up. Throw the building in a dumpster, lease the land to the Medway Co-operative Bank for 30 years or so and sit back and collect a nice income. There is nothing wrong with that except for one thing. A signature piece of Mendon history gets trashed.

Sorry Judy, purchasing a piece of history gives you no moral right to destroy it. Legally you may be able to do that but there is a price to be paid and these blogs are just your down payment. My guess is that given your elitist attitude this doesn't bother you in the least. Too Bad.

Hanging Gardens

Selectmen's Meeting 11-02-05

2005-11-05T10:26:00.000-05:00

Well if you missed it, it was better than doing housework. Beyond that a re-run of a school committee meeting would have beaten it out in the ratings. I was folding laundry so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Other that the routine (they never say anything substantial on camera) banter it was a normal performance for our town fathers and the town mother. They can fill hours with wandering talk and mumbling from the administrative assistant. Why don't they get her a microphone?

Ken O'Brien was somewhat subdued. Maybe he is still dizzy from the rarefied air of Washington DC. Don't worry Ken; I am sure they all thought you were important. We do. In Ken's defense, he is the perfect promoter for a hurricane fundraiser or box tops for education. The problem stems from the priority thing. We elected him, unopposed, to do the town's business not Ken's business. Let's hope he doesn't get carried away.

Ken's not a bad guy, he just doesn't understand that this is Mendon Massachusetts, not Mendon New York. We are New Englanders not New Yorkers.

The Grande Dame of the board, Sharon Cutler, put in her standard performance attempting to micro-manage the air molecules within the boundaries of Mendon. She huffed and puffed and in the end nothing fell down. When her ill informed sanctimonious micro tweaking failed with her fellow board members she did her signature piece. She folded her arms, sat back in her chair and gave the other two members that look: 'Don't make me call the flying monkeys'. She’s’ a real hoot unless of course you work for the town.

The junior member of the board Lawney Tinio endured another evening of being treated like the red headed stepsister. Lawney has the Rodney Dangerfield thing going. In reality he is probably the brightest of the bunch but in the land of self-inflicted importance the town hall is a tough house. The other two should give him more face time. At least it would reduce the occurrences of them looking like fools.

It's hard to navigate any ship of state but when you crew on the good ship Mendon it seems that everyone has a steering wheel and no one has a clue. It's difficult to understand how these people make 12 million dollars worth of decisions each year. It's a wonder!

Mendon Commentary - The Century21 Building - Destruction of a Landmark

2005-10-31T22:48:00.000-05:00

11/2/05 ---- Blossom is on the case... read the comments.
11/5/05 ---- Great post from Old House Lady... read the comments.

Things are heating up over at Kevin Rudden's blog, Mendon Commentary. Check out the post on the ZBA and the Century21 building issue. It's a shame what is about to happen to that fine old structure.

We have added a link to Mendon Commentary here. We suggest you keep up with both blogs to stay informed. You will not see any of this in the local daily paper. They are in the tank.

What Happened to our Town Web Site?

2005-10-30T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well we will start here. The pile is so big it's difficult to pick a starting point but this issue will do because good people got hurt and "friends" got taken care of. Read on.

If you have been paying attention, you have noticed that the OFFICIAL web site of Mendon has been down for many months. The first web site was created by a committee and then maintained by Joyce Grant for nearly 2 years as a volunteer effort. Joyce is a web professional who makes a living designing web pages. Her work is great and the web presence she created for Mendon was impressive.

After 2 years of solo work to keep the site fresh and informative for Mendon residents, Joyce requested a meeting with the Board of Selectmen to discuss compensation for her work. The updating of meetings and notices was very time consuming and Joyce wanted to take the site to the next level by making it more interactive and timely with regard to the events calendar, meeting minutes and the ability to procure town forms and make payments on-line.

The selectmen at that time felt that she should do the job for nothing and that her request for $2500 a year to maintain the site was exorbitant. It was a hoot to watch the board swing in the wind and spin their wheels trying to end that session. Mr. Shaheen who's knowledge of technology begins with a hammer and ends with posting "No hunting" signs on his soon to be developed property,(that's the hammer thing again isn't it) was cordial but he acquiesced to his other 2 board members. Mr. O'Brien who never grows tired of the sound of his own voice went on about nothing for far too long. But, the real Bozo that evening was Ms. Cutler. She asked impossible questions about updating the site and made technical observations that were rather humorous if you know anything about web hosting at all. In the end it was all a smoke screen by the board, They didn't like Joyce Grant because she actually could sit there and tell them they didn't understand her profession. They, after all feel that an election makes them omnipotent. The game was over for Joyce Grant at that point. They would no longer allow her to host the web site even if she paid them.

That display of pin headed arrogance was bad enough but what happened next was classic Mendon politics at it's best. The board ordered their computer consultants, Data Frontiers, to strip all of Joyce's work from the URL that had been hosting the site for free and re-post it to one of their own, at a cost of course. The troika of pin headed selectmen didn't even attempt to make a show it, you know, nice letter thank you very much for all your hard work etc, etc. Nope, not from that bunch, it was, screw you sweetie, we're taking your stuff and you are out in the cold.

After a few weeks and talking to a lawyer or two, wiser heads prevailed and the site was shut down completely. The board decided to commission a "Nation Wide Search" to hire a company to design a web site. Guess who got the job? Data Frontiers... Of course.

Data Frontiers is one of the biggest "no bid" contracts in town. Don't believe it, call 473-2312 and ask for a print out of the money that has been paid to this company for FY 2004 and FY 2005. Then ask for the publication dates advertising for bids for the contract and the date of the meeting the Board of Selectmen opened those bid and awarded the contract. Other that than the invoices paid none of the rest exists. Additionally, if Data Frontiers was paid more than $10,000 in one year(and they were) the contract is illegal, a violation of Mass State Law. But then Mendon does that regularly.

The Board of Mendon selectmen is about to get a big black eye for this type of thing, but more about that later.

The bottom line here is this. Mendon still has no web site. The cost of replacing what Joyce Grant asked $2500 to do will be at least twice that amount and not as good. The Board of Selectmen in Mendon continue to play a go along to get along game with each other to achieve their own ends. This one was Sharon Cutler's baby. The other two went along to get her support for frying much bigger fish of their own down the road. Stay Tuned...

The Ground Rules

2005-10-28T11:27:00.000-05:00

All comments are welcome. Anonymous posts are fine. We live in a small community and putting your name to a less than flattering post can work against you. That said, we will not tolerate slander, libel or bad taste.

Please try to have some facts if you make a statement. Nothing is worse than a battle of wits when your unarmed. Email is available and confidentiality is promised to anyone who would like to contribute.

By all means, check in and let us know that you are reading. We thrive on encouragement, positive and negative. We will be posting our first issue about the town website on Halloween. Trick or Treat.

Keep in mind that we want to inform our readers about good stories as well as look under the rug and poke through the dirt. Enjoy!