Some notable stuff in this week’s Middleboro Gazette. First and foremost of course is my column – an innocuous piece that sings the praises of the Middleboro Library. Basically it recounts what a jackass I was when I first started using the Internet and thought that libraries were useless and obsolete.
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Update – It’s just come to my attention that the column is online. I’ve only seen one other posted before. The Jim Thomas letter is also online.
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In the opinion section is an eye-popping letter to the editor from former Town Moderator Jim Thomas related to the IT assessment meeting where BOS chairman Marsha Brunelle failed to recuse herself from a discussion concerning her huband’s department. Marsha is married to Middleboro IT Director Roger Brunelle. The led to an ethics complaint filed by Selectman Steve McKinnon. Mr. Thomas’s letter read:
Curious that he let Steve Spataro off the hook. With the exception of his vote on the IT assessment issue, Steve has done a good job on the BOS since his re-election. There was another letter from Allin Frawley complaining more about the process and lack of public notification for the IT assessment meeting.
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There is a nice story about a community cleanup effort lead by Judy Bigelow-Costa and Middleboro on the Move. The team spruced up the future Massasoit satellite campus that is moving into the Lincoln D. Lynch school. All in all an interesting issue from cover to cover and what’s even better is that I come off like the nice guy.
This week’s Middleboro Gazette column concerns health care for town employees. The increase in costs for these plans mostly exceed our increase in revenues and are a big part of the reason for the deficits in recent and coming years.
The column draws heavily from information in the recent Sean Murhpy articles, along with some information I got from FinCom chairman Rich Pavadore and Town Manager Charlie Cristello. The column tries to give the layman an understanding of how town healthcare plans work, how they strain the budget, how they compare to the private sector, and some of the available options. It also talks about some changes currently under negotiation that would achieve significant savings in the coming fiscal year and beyond.
Not as entertaining perhaps as one of my typical “Hey, look what the BOS did” columns but valuable I think for the majority of us who don’t understand how this stuff works.
As always, you can send email to me using the address included with every column. One thing that may not be clear is that these emails are generally not shared with the editor. I love getting email from readers but you should also send email to the editor to tell her how much you love, hate, or ignore my columns. A CC or BCC will do that and save you a second email.
UPDATE
On a related topic this Globe article looks at the wide gap between public and private sector jobs. Guess which comes out on top – by a wide margin?
This week’s Gazette column is about exercising in winter – something that is tough to get motivated to do, but really helps your winter mindset. These photos are from a recent run at Pratt Farm and a bike ride in the woods at the Morgan property.
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If you don’t like the embedded slideshow below, you can see a larger version here
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Little known pond near St. Mary's Cemetery
My column in this week’s Gazette takes a break from bemoaning the woes of the world and tries to focus on the good things in Middleboro.
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I felt like taking a break from the drama with the holidays approaching. You can be sure there’ll be plenty of trials and tribulations to talk about in upcoming columns.
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To me the best things about Middleboro: The rural feel, quiet country roads and open spaces for hiking, running, and biking. In fact there’s a particularly great piece of wide open space on Precinct Street that I expect will remain that way indefinitely.
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Beyond the hinterland-like landscape, Mboro has a good downtown and mostly good people along with a pretty active bunch of charities and community groups.
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It ain’t all bad.
My column this week discusses Kenny Cieplik and Company from The Traveling Wheelchair blog. I first talked about Kenny in a post a couple of months ago and again just recently.
The column clocks in at over 900 words – and that includes really cutting it short. There was just too much information I wanted to cover but couldn’t fit in. Blog to the rescue.
I have to say that I was apprehensive about interviewing Kenny for the article. I’m afraid that I don’t have much experience and was afraid I’d act like a complete idiot. Fortunately on Kenny’s blog he had some links that had guidelines explaining how disabled people want to be treated. I was way overthinking things. It was all obvious stuff that boils down to treat everyone the same. Duh.
Something I wanted to capture in the column, but wasn’t able to was fun, joy, and love of life. Kenny faces real challenges. On the face it all looks so serious(which it is) but there is a tremendous amount or normalcy as well. As we talked, there were many humorous stories and laughter. At one point we all thought Kenny was going to reenact an accident in which he was thrown from his unrestrained wheelchair in a van. This event led to bill filed on Kenny’s behalf by Representative Steve Canness – HD 2989.
I was also shown some youtube videos that really captured the fun this group has going around and enjoying life. One very funny clip showed Kenny using the auto-ambulator – a machine that supports the user in a sling and helps them use whatever leg motion they possess. The video had a Six Million Dollar Man audio overlay that was very funny. Another showed the group at Old Silver Beach frolicking in the waves with a special beach wheelchair.
I guess the lesson I learned was to leave my expectations at the door when I’m entering an unfamiliar situation.
At the risk of creating a recursive loop that could end the universe as we know, Kenny got permission from the Gazette to post the column in it’s entirety.
A while back, I posted about an encounter with the author(s) of The Traveling Wheelchair. This most excellent blog posts reviews of public places giving them zero to five stars based solely on their wheelchair accessibility and ADA compliance.
This encounter led to some emails and link exchanges. Yesterday I met with Kenny Cieplik and Company to interview him and get background information for my next column. I haven’t fully decided on the focus of the piece but it will certainly include the interesting way that Kenny is using his blog to engage businesses, governments, and people to affect positive change w/regards to accessibility. There will be some interesting success stories, and a mention of a couple of people who must not be allowed to pollute the gene pool.
Comment away if you have any feedback or suggestions for the next literary masterpiece aka my Bumpkin’s Corner column in the Middleboro Gazette.
As a bit of background, Mr. Cieplik spent 20 years in a nursing home after a cerebral hemorrhage at age 11 left him in a coma and disabled. Thanks largely to the Rolland v. Romney case, Kenny has been able to move into his own home and gets along very well. His home is beautiful, fully accessible, and nicer than mine – CURSE YOU KENNY 
It just goes to show you that state government can do something right when you beat them about the head repeatedly with a giant lawsuit stick.
This week’s Gazette article started of being about how my musical tastes evolved over time. It ended up being an acknowledgement of how, like it or not, our parents influence us in ways both overt and subtle.
Here are some clips that tie in to the column.
Polka purgatory
I could’t have come up with anything better than this comment from the YouTube video: “Awesome. Must be the entire world’s supply of canary yellow formal wear.
Pffttt. change the channel
The obligatory “You met another and pfft you were gone” bit.
It didn’t all suck
Here’s some pretty kickin’ banjo pickin’ from Roy Clark and Bobby Thompson
The Beatles
One of my first musical loves, they led me to the great bands of the 60′s and 70′s including the Grateful Dead.
The Grateful Dead
Many Dead shows, many good times. The Dead led me to the bluegrass and old time music I listen to today.
Bluegrass
Sharon Gilchrist was mesmerizing at a Peter Rowan/Tony Rice Quartet show. She led me to Mary & Mars, Uncle Earl, Abigail Washburn, and lots of great old time music. Sharon needs to stop hanging around with old bluegrass guys and start hanging around with less-old bluegrass guys like me.
I wonder if she’d mind that I’m a hopeless amateur musician and couldn’t afford to pay anything, have no gigs, and no records.
My column in this week’s Gazette talks about recycling and the need for people and particularly businesses to do more. I would like to see the Middleboro BOS encourage more recycling – both from residences and businesses. They might even consider a committee similar to one formed in Medford that took a comprehensive look at the city’s recycling efforts:
Recycling is one of a number of things that should be re-evaluated periodically as the market and technology change.
The paper also features a typically pithy editorial from Jane Lopes about the lackluster effort the BOS typically make to encourage attendence at town meeting.
This week’s Bumpkin’s Corner column in the Gazette covers last Saturday’s Middleboro election. Specifically, it’s my take on the results and what they mean.
The Gazette doesn’t publish columns on their web site – which makes blog posts like this one a bit clumsy. For the say of discussion, the article proceeds from this assertion:
Feel free to comment .. and I’ll feel free to selectively publish only those comments that agree with my premise to present the illusion that my insights were dead on.
My column in this week’s Gazette talks about some of Middleboro’s community land such as Pratt Farm and the ways town-owned land can be used: Hiking, biking, community gardens, etc. It also discusses the MA Greenways and Trails Project – a state program that provides expertise and grants for greenways – “corridors of land and water that connect and protect natural, cultural, and recreational resources”.
Grants are for reimbursement – meaning that you have to spend the money first. This is the sort of program that would dovetail nicely with the Community Preservation Act.
The column mentions a greenways project in Bridgewater – the Canoe Launch and Pedestrian Bridge Partnership Project as an example.
UPDATE
I got this comment from a Gazette reader and am asking the group mind if this person’s questions can be answered:
My latest Gazette column is about social/professional networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo.
It also discusses managing them more effectively by plugging them into libpurple-based Instant Messaging clients such as Pidgin and Adium.
There is a good ed. from Jane Lopes(hi boss) about the sorry state of Middleboro town technology w/regards to providing videos of public meetings.
Today’s Gazette column discusses how the Narrows Center for the Arts helped me rediscover my love of seeing live music.
There is also a front page article about the CPA discussion at the last BOS meeting. I’ll be posting video and commentary on that soon.
Back to point. I’ve just gotten a response to my Gazette column telling me about some other local music options:
Today’s Gazette column is my first that deals with the casino. It discusses the many points where the Middleboro BOS and Jack Healey went astray – most recently with the Marshall indictment.
My article in this week’s Gazette is a personal story of a couple of key events that led to major changes in my life. If you have any similar stories, please share them via comment – anonymous or otherwise.
Such is the subject of my latest Middleboro Gazette column which comes out today(12/4/2008).
It was prompted by a day-long cleaning session designed to rid the house of old junk to make way for the new junk that will come with Xmas.
I’m always looking for new column topics so send them along – via email or even anonymous comment.
My latest column for the Gazette comes out today. It is a tech column that mentions my favorite free software tools. I cover office tools, image editing, audio editing, audio/video conferencing, and many common computing tasks.
I really thought the editor was going to balk at this column but she seemed to like it… or was just being polite. I hope you find it helpful. Feel free to post any comments or questions here. If you’ve ever installed Windows, it goes something like this:
- install windows (rebooting several times along the way)
- install printer drivers(reboot)
- install drivers from cameras, video devices, and other hardware(reboot)
- install office tools like Word and Excel
- install iTunes or other music player
- install this
- install that
- install the other
Many of these add-ons cost money. I hope that you can do all your computing tasks for free with the software described in my article.
I will say that so long as you have supported hardware, a Linux install will supply pretty much all these tools and drivers right out of the box. Install, one reboot, done.
My latest Gazette column is out today and discusses people who over-parent – also known as helicopter parents.
Actually it’s not about “people” it’s specifically about me. I would never criticize anyone else for anything.
From Wikipedia:
Don’t forget to write into the Gazette to tell them how much you love, hate, or ignore my column.
My latest article for the Gazette comes out today. It is the first in something I call the “Spotlight Series”. This series will look at Middleboro town government with a goal of helping the average citizen understand how it all hangs together and hopefully encourage more participation.
Today’s article is a high level overview of our form of government – Open Town Meeting. The spotlight series will appear once a month or so.
As an aside, I’ve recently been meeting informally with a group of people to talk about the town, it’s problems and possible solutions. I would have to describe this as a group of pro and anti casino people that are sick of all the animosity and divisive clubs and want to move forward on other issues – agreeing to disagree on the casino issue.
I mention this only because it is the first time in the last year and a half where I see a sign that some people will be able to move past the casino, coexist, and even (gasp!) cooperate on things of mutual concern. Now before you get all worked up and start looking for PAC or charity paperwork – don’t bother. This is an informal thing that is more like a round table discussion. I can tell you that it is a good feeling to be in a room with people from both sides without having the casino vulture perched on your shoulder.
Bumpkin’s Corner?
I’ve been asked by the Middleboro Gazette to write a column. It will appear on alternating weeks starting a week from next Thursday.
Temporarily titled “Bumpkin’s Corner”, it will be very like my blog minus the casino-centric focus and with more meat on the article bones.
This offer come to me yesterday – completely out of the blue – and I’m very excited about it. I can’t speak for the motivation of the paper though I think it has something to do with helping the print version connect with all the things happening online.
Suggestions for the name of the column are welcome.
Please join me 
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