Lazy Sunday Thoughts
February 24, 2008 on 5:25 pm | In Local, Main |
Thinking out loud on a Sunday afternoon …
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They’ve been keeping me exceptionally busy this week at the LJ. What with all those meetings on the firehouse and all those events, I’ve been running around with my camera and note pad in perpetual use.
Yesterday morning it was the firehouse informational meeting, followed that night by the Chocolate in the Village fundraiser at the D.M. Hunt Library in Falls Village (above left) and then back in Salisbury this afternoon for the Region One Open Music Recital (see below right).
I even wrote an editorial on my laptop Saturday afternoon while sitting in the lodge at Catamount and waiting for my kids and their friends to burn off some steam on the slopes. Not that I’m complaining. I love to write and keep others informed of what’s going on.
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Speaking of keeping informed, while on my elliptical this morning I put myself in the iPod cocoon and listened to the podcast of Mike Flint’s Straight Talk on AM 1020 WHDD. For the second week in a row, Mike spent his entire one-hour show on the proposed new firehouse for the Lakeville Hose Company.
Mike’s got lots of good raw data posted on his Straight Talk website. Take a look at it and also read my article on it in this week’s LJ, although be advised that, contrary to what First Selectman Curtis Rand told us, absentee ballots will be available if the issue is forced to a referendum by Mike’s petition. Mike is to be commended for contacting the Secretary of the State’s office to confirm that.
Which brings me to my next point. I like Mike and I think he is sincere in pressing this matter, but I don’t see the “lies and deceptions” that he insists are coming out of Town Hall. There has been some bad information (such as the above error and a misstatement on the assessed value of the ITW building) but I have no reason to think they were anything but honest mistakes.
Yes, the time-frame is compressed and moving at break-neck speed, but Curtis has explained it to my satisfaction. We do agree, however, that the selectmen do not appear to want to hold a referendum and one of the reasons they gave for opposing it was not accurate. But that necessarily doesn’t mean we’re being lied to.
It means, in the words of The Gipper in 1986, “Mistakes were made.” It does not, in my humble opinion, mean “Government Out of Control.”
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Terry -
You undoubtedly remember some of my off-the-record comments when I covered the firehouse saga in Kent a while back. They were hard to miss from two desks away, as I made them at top volume and maximum obscenity.
Salisbury voters might want to go back into the Journal’s archives to find out how NOT to go about building a new firehouse. The Kent story began ugly and steadily disimproved; a lot of people made a lot of unfortunate remarks and a considerable amount of ill-will was generated - for no good reason.
Whatever confusion exists in this situation is, I am quite sure, unintentional. I’ve known Jim Dresser all my life and Curtis Rand for quite a while, and the notion of them pulling off some grand deception is laughable. (They’re not that well organized, for starters.)
Salisbury voters should be grateful this thing is moving along briskly.
Comment by Patrick Sullivan — February 24, 2008 #
The only mistake I beleive the has been made, was to somehow label anattempt to petition for a referendum as somehow inferior to a town meeting vote by paper ballot. Both have their advantages, and both have some disadvantages, but BOTH represent one person, one vote, and BOTH are equally proper ways to tally votes. One is no better than the other, one is no less democratic than the other. I could agree with Curtis, in his despair of what an additional week or 10 days might mean to the project, but I will never agree that Jim Dresser, or anyone else is correct in stating that the town meeting vote is preferable to a referendum, or somehow more democratic than a referendum.
The right to petition for a referendum is just as worthy as the right to vote in a town meeting, period.
Comment by Marshall Miles — February 25, 2008 #
I’ve been wanting to use this line from “There Will Be Blood” for weeks: “I drink your milkshake!” - in this case, you drink my milkshake - you hogged up the aisle and got all the best pictures of the dancers yesterday! I was reduced to shooting over your shoulder. However you got a very nice shot (my daughter is on the left in front.)
Comment by jenny — February 25, 2008 #
Sorry about that Jenny. My editor would have killed me if I hadn’t gotten some decent shots (I was kneeling, however). Looks like you got some good shots on your Flickr page anyway. If you’d like some hi rez of what I have, I would be happy to send them your way.
Patrick,
I’m sure Curtis and Jim will appreciate your backhanded compliment. I, too, would hate to see this degenerate into a Kent-like fracas with recriminations flying up and down Main Street.
Marshall,
I agree that no one voting method is necessarily better than another, but I think a referendum is more inclusive. It will be interesting to see which voting method is proposed for the transfer station.
Comment by Terry — February 26, 2008 #
Jenny …
I suffer the same thing from him when I am taping for CATV … His head is always in the lens …
LOL
Comment by Michael J. Flint — February 26, 2008 #