Bellicose Bumpkin

I attended the first 30 minutes of the override meeting. IMO, the people running the override need to work on the reasons the override is needed. It is going to take a very compelling argument to get this bird to fly. Since I only attended about 1/3 of the meeting, it’s very likely I missed a lot of important stuff. The override is being headed by Paul McManus who did a decent job translating the proposed cuts with the actual effect on the classrooms.

There were about 2 dozen people including Dr. Sullivan. Selectman Al Rullo showed up as well. It’s easy to forget how much effort these people put in when you get mad about an issue – such as the dumb casino or the insane raises that have been handed out in the past that led us to needing an override.

I recorded the meeting – at least the 30 minutes I attended. Quality is poor – it was recorded with my laptop microphone and I was several rows back, and typing. On a side note, it’s cool that the library has wireless Internet – it was very convenient. Speaking of cool, I’m writing this post in the waiting area of a Rhode Island hospital. For some reason I wasn’t able to hook up to my company VPN, but I did a number on my email inbox working in offline mode. Ain’t technology grand?

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Here is the audio from the meet & greet hosted by the Middleboro BOS for the Mashpee Wampanoag tribal council. I will say that neither the tribe nor the BOS seem to understand the ramifications of the Carcieri decision. In fact, they don’t even know how to pronounce “Carcieri” – which doesn’t seem to bode well for our ability to manage a large development like the proposed casino.

Of course, at this point, we have absolutely no idea how large or small the facility will be. But we have an agreement. Which is symbolic of the bass ackward process for this ill-conceived endeavor. That ain’t gonna happen.

As with all my audio and video content, please credit my my blog if you use it.

It’s amazing how much support this project still has given it’s low chance of success and even lower payments.

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Here is my second podcast – the last one was in August. This is a discussion with Rich Young – president of CasinoFacts.org and Casino Free Mass.

In this installment we discuss the Carcier v. Salazaer/Kempthorne decision, the Mashpee Wampanoag, the prospects for casinos in Massachusetts, Middleboro, and blogs.

The accompanying photo shows Mr. Young talking with Dennis Whittlesey at the TMFH(Town Meeting From Hell). No doubt he’s giving Whittlesy some tips on comping.

The podcast can be directly downloaded or you can listen to it by clicking on the mustache. It clocks in at around 60 minutes – each minute more fascinating than the last.

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Here is the audio from my appearance on the radio yesterday. It can be downloaded here or listened to below. We discussed my new column, town meeting, voter participation and other topics.

We had a bunch of pro-casino callers making transparent attempts to make trouble. It was quite humorous. This will be an ongoing thing – there are many pro-casino people who have no interest in hearing my words. They are getting their news from pro-casino sources, and have no intention of reading the source information. On the flip side, we had some anti-casino callers who had a much more positive message(that had nothing to do with me).

Here is the audio. Click the mustache to play.

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The controversy over the CFO yard sale led to this conversation on Adam Bond’s Coffee Shop Talk radio show. It includes a surprising offer from Bill Marzelli – who’s taken a few lumps in the blogosphere and press recently. Mr. Marzelli is a prominent local casino proponent.

Here is the audio. Click the mustache to play.

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Rich Young – president of CasinoFacts.Org and Casino Free Mass – and Bumpkin discuss a variety of casino and Middleboro topics. If you make it through the entire 53 minutes, there is a surprising piece of news which will be discussed in a separate blog.

You can download the discussion here or listen below.

Here is the audio. Click the mustache to play and prepare to be wowed.

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Bill Marzelli, Middleboro local, pro-casino activist, and regular co-host/guest on Adam Bond’s Coffee Shop Talk radio show, had some comments about my blog regarding the no trespassing signs around the casino bingo property on Precinct Street. Specifically, he is commenting on it due to the Brockton Enterprise article that mentioned the post. The comments came on the August 14th installment of Coffee Shop Talk.

Mr. Marzelli went to some sarcastically exaggerated pains to explain to us simpletons that the Twin River address on the signs probably meant that the land was owned by Kerzner – as if myself and the Enterprise didn’t or couldn’t fathom it. The thing is, we both mention ownership in our individual articles, and in fact the whole point of my blog post was a call for Kerzner to turn over ownership of the land to the Mashpee Wampanoag. This tells me that he didn’t even read my post despite the fact that he spent a couple of minutes talking about it. He also explained to us slack-jaws that the quantity of signs was probably due to Massachusetts posting laws. I think most people who read my original post would understand the joke behind the mention of the sign quantities and my bike riding in the area. Given that I couldn’t find any mention of Massachusetts sign posting regulations, I’m willing to bet that it is a local ordinance. The pathetic state of the Middleboro web site would explain why it couldn’t be found.

The discussion of the signs was followed by rather snide mention of the proposed CasinoFacts.org fund raiser in Lakeville, a suggestion that someone planted endangered turtles on the casino site, Selectman Nancy Yeatts, and the Casino Task Force. As an aside, I hadn’t heard that there were red-bellied cooters on the site. Near the site – yes. On the site – no.

To be explored further in a separate blog post: Does debate in Middleboro always have to be nasty when people are on different sides of an issue? Is the toxic atmosphere in Middleboro normal for small towns, or unique to Middleboro. I don’t know the answer. If one of the local pro-casino types had made a similar call for the land to be given to the tribe would it have elicited the same rather ridiculing commentary? I think not. If Middleboro/Casino Friend(s) had a fund raiser planned, would it be ridiculed or promoted? If the editor of the local paper is on the opposite side of an issue – is she unprofessional and unethical or simply on the opposite side of an issue?

Here is the audio. Click the mustache to play and make your own judgement.

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DEP update on Striar’s Love Canal
The Enterprise reports on the Middleboro BOS meeting of 7/28/2008 where representatives of the Department of Environmental Protection reported on the status of the Rockland Industries hazardous waste site on Plymouth Street. Audio is included at the end of this article.

The meeting was well attended by local residents. The BOS led by chairman Bond did a good job questioning the DEP representatives. Rep. Tom Calter showed up as well. You have to hand it to Calter. He’s been accessible to the town whether you agree with all his positions or not.

My take
This is completely unacceptable. As I understand it, the Striar’s don’t have to do any more than maintain status quo – with the status being HAZARDOUS WASTE SITE. So long as there is no human habitation planned, the site can go on and on being a polluted health hazard that has ruined a huge section of town and possibly caused a number of deaths from ALS. The DEP is toothless and seems afraid to push the Striar’s too hard for fear that they’ll walk away. Much of the waste has been merely covered over with clean fill. How about we take all that polluted soil and put it on the property of some state official or the Striar’s? How quick would the Striar’s be to clean this up if it was on or near their homes?

No matter the cost, nothing will be acceptable except complete removal of all contaminated earth and water.

Kudos to the Citizens Environmental Health Impact Committee, the Middleboro Con Com, the Middleboro BOS, and state officials like Calter for working to get this resolved.

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At the Middleboro BOS meeting on 1/14/2008, there was (at least) one item in particular that I would like to comment on. There is audio of this item at the end of this post.

BOS chairman Adam Bond brought up a discussion about asking the Middleboro G&E to do an energy audit of all town buildings. He discussed the town of Kingston who seem to be leaders in using green technologies and sharing the information on their apparently usable web site.

This is a great initiative and one that many in town have been suggesting for quite a while now – none more than Jessie Powell. As I’ve said before, she not only jousts at windmills, she reads up on them. The real shocker here is that Adam recommended that people read Jessie’s blog for it’s wealth of information on green technologies and other environmental issues.

Gasp!

Middleboro resident Bob Dunphy reported that he had spoken to a G&E manager earlier in the day who said that energy audits were not really their forte. Not a problem since the Middleboro School Committee just signed a contract that pays about $200K to a company that guarantees equal savings within three months. I had mentioned this to Adam when I ran into him at the Rotary club craft fair and sent him an email about it. We discussed it briefly again at the Honey Dew yesterday.

I will say that if the G&E lacks the expertise to do best-of-breed energy auditing, they should acquire it and offer it as a service to residents.Update: Jane Lopes has pointed out that the G&E will do home auditing for free – they just don’t do commercial

As if Adam recommending Jessie’s blog was not enough of a shock, there was another noteworthy moment. In the past the BOS have had some less than stellar moments dealing with entities that oppose the casino(CFO, Tom Calter, SRPEDD). Adam reported that he had a great conversation with Tom Calter to get guidance on environmental issues. Mr. Bond was impressed with Calter’s knowledge in this area and seems committed to working with him on this.

Gasp!

This is the way it should be. Town leaders(and private citizens) can disagree vehemently on some issues and still cooperate productively on others.

Finally, Mr. Bond recommended that the town create a green committee similar to what Kingston has done. This isn’t horribly different from the idea of a Citizen’s Technology Committee that was discussed on my Nemasket forum not so long ago.

Interested parties should send information to BOS secretary Jacquie Shanley. This would include people who are interested in being on the committee or suggestions on the mechanics of the group’s structure. This is a very worthy effort and a great opportunity to help the town save some $$ and help the environment at the same time.

Here is the 15 minute discussion that took place at the BOS meeting of 7/14/2008.

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Here’s a short audio clip of my call today in to Coffee Shop Talk – Adam Bond’s radio show. The guest today was Mark Rodgers – spokesman for Cape Wind.

I called in to ask Rodgers his thoughts on the T. Boone Pickens plan to turn the midsection of the United States into a major producer of electricity from wind farms. Part of the plan is to cut greenhouse emissions and foreign oil imports by diverting natural gas to fuel vehicles. In other words, the wind farm would replace some of the natural gas that is currently producing electricity. This gas would be then be used as vehicular fuel to help us reduce demand on foreign oil until technologies like hydrogen were more viable.

We were all pretty much in vehement agreement.

As far as Cape Wind goes. This is a no-brainer and should be done ASAP.

Click the moustache to play

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If you recall(you do read every day don’t you??) .. I appeared on Adam Bond’s radio show on 2/28/2008.

Some good quality mp3′s of my appearance on Adam’s show have been posted on his show web site.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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Here is audio of Tom Calter’s appearance at the Middleboro BOS meeting of 2/25/2006. Tom was invited to explain his opposition to the proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino.

I’ve had reports that the audio on some computers is high-pitched. I’ll see if I can get a different copy of the audio and will update this post if I do.

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Here is a WBZ interview with Middleboro selectman Adam Bond. Mr. Bond was one of the key players in the casino agreement between the town of Middleboro and the Mashpee Wampanoag.

Topics of discussion
– Take on Patrick’s opposition
– Update on Middleboro casino
– Task force, CRAC
– Community update (Pro/Anti)

I would give Adam some credit here for having a much better tone than we’ve seen recently – specifically w/regards to Calter and the Regional Task Force.

I also find it interesting in that you don’t often see audio – which I think in some ways is superior to video for imparting information. Pure text is lacking tone and expression while video can be too brief to get the full context.

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