You Can't Blame the New Town Manager excerpts below:
.
You can't blame the new Town Manager because the Middleboro Board of Selectmen failed to explain the surrounding issues to him.
.
During the BOS Meeting (Monday, September 8, 2008), the Town ownership and disposition of the Rock Village School on Highland St. was discussed.
.
The Rock Village School became vacant because the church group that had occupied the building was delinquent in their rent, hadn't maintained the building, as was required in their lease and Town Counsel opined that occupancy by the church was illegal.
.
In the intervening + 1 year, has anyone heard mention of RFPs (Request for Proposals)? Has there been any solicitation for ideas about using the property for community purposes?
.
...possibly selling the Rock Village School property, in a depressed real estate market, which would allow for residential construction .
.
This one clearly bears watching because mostly the same short-sighted BOS is in place.
.
In May 2008, this was posted (emphasis mine):
.
Jack Healey and the Casino Investors
.
Casino investors engineered secret deal
.
In a secret deal, casino investors for the Mashpee Wampanoag secured an option on 200 acres in Middleboro two days before they purchased 125 adjacent acres from the town.
.
The deal, and the secrecy surrounding it, may have resulted in the town garnering less money than it could have had the deal last April been more widely advertised.
.
Former Middleboro Town Manager Jack Healey, who first proposed the auction to raise money for the cash-strapped town, has since retired and could not be reached for comment. Town and tribe officials first met in March to begin talking about a proposed casino, according to Times archives.
.
Middleboro selectmen approved the auction April 9 and it was held April 27. The auction was advertised only in the local weekly newspaper, town Treasurer Judy MacDonald said.
.
But if the town wanted to get top dollar for the property, it should have done more advertising, Stevens said.
.
The Late Victor Sylvia stood at Town Meeting and protested the proposed sale of the Rock Village School because the land had been given to the Town to be used for educational purposes and has been used as such, for many years.
.
Illustrious Town Counsel, Daniel Murray ruled the sale is OK!
.
I'm not an attorney, but would remind Middleboro residents, that as unskilled and unschooled as I am in the law, I beat Mr. Murray twice in court.
.
.
All of the background brings me to rumors circulating around Town that the Town Manager, no longer so new, is moving in the direction of selling the Rock Village School.
.
The proposed sale, having been defeated once by Town Meeting because of previous failures of our Financial Geniuses guiding the Town, should alert residents about what is being done. Does any potential value, in a depressed real estate market, make sense at this time? These Financial Geniuses have allowed other properties to fall into total disrepair prior to action.
This looks like more Mushroom Farming while you're paying attention to other things.
The honeymoon with the 'new' Town Manager appears over and someone needs to 'xplain past history to him.
The Town Manager's handling of various aspects of the last Special Town Meeting were questionable and we might excuse it because of his 'newness,' but let's not allow town property to be sold without adequate discussion and consideration given to potential community use because I am aware of someone who approached the Town for just such a use. Are we returning to the Lazy BOS Sydrome in which the Town Manager runs amok?
And remember, the Gavel Queen is Chairman again. When residents attempted to discuss the poorly advertised land auction in which the Precinct Street property was practically given away, cheating taxpayers out of money, the Gavel Queen REFUSED to allow residents to comment. Keep that gavel handy, Marsha! And with Wayne Perkins as Town Moderator, you won't even be allowed to comment. He'll simply ignore you!
13 comments:
Sounds like Gestapo to me.
Do we have so few interested residents that we are again stuck with Wayne Perkins?
Come on, voters. This isn't a time consuming job.
A few times a year.
If no one steps forward, guess we know how much voters care.
This again?
I'm not sure if I know the same people you know but I know someone who approached Jack Healey about this building.
Jack stopped anything that made sense for the town like St Lukes for police station and savings the Oliver Homestead that would have cost the town nothing, but would have provided a tourist destination.
Jack stymied business development and much else.
Is Cristello listening to him? Big mistake if he is.
I heard the rumor too and wondered whose idea this was. The new town manager can't be this stupid, can he?
The luster of the Town Manager is fading having little to do with this issue in particular. I thought he was well informed and had higher expectations. It's hard to believe that Hingham's residents tolerated this kind of shoddy treatment. STM was poorly handled but it seems to be the way he handles everything. This is far worse than the lack of transparency we had before. And doesn't the secretary work for the Town Manager? Should we be asking him where the meeting minutes are?
It must hurt Bond's ego that he isn't Town Manager for $130K lifetime appointment 80% pension + bennies. The hokum about mimi doesnt make sense. He wanted her on the board.
You can't push wet noodles.
Didn't Christelo read Matt Carol about the land auctions? This isnt new. Under no circumstances will I ever vote to sell town land after what I seen.
tribe in disarray
town in disarray
What's next? A few inditments?
Maybe we should ask for Lincin Andrews opinion since he was so quick to abrogate his fiduciary responsibility to water rate payers to buy swampland for $1 million with no apraisal to prevent a 40b next to his buddies. I here he's thinking about runing for selectman. He was such a genius we need more of his ideas.
This sounds like Marsha's "idea." Since Marsha never had an original thought, did it come from Jack or Roger, the IT Genius?
In discussions with real esate agents in the area over the past month, I found the consensus of opinion to be that the real estate market continues to decline and has not yet hit bottom. Further more, most felt that even minimal recovery may take at least two years, and that was being optimistic.
In consideration of that, selling off a valuable piece of town property at what would amount to a fraction of its future value seems very ill-advised. Better to hold onto the Rock Village School until a future time when we can realize a more significant profit from the deal.
You're right, MR--The townspeople are distracted by the current upheaval in the BOS. It would be easy for the TM and SOF (Ship of Fools) to slip through an unwise land deal during this state of local political chaos. Voters need to challenge the wisdom of the deal, and more to the point, we need to generally be more vigilant of how business is conducted by those representing us. As the old adage goes: "Fool me once...shame on you. Fool me twice...shame on me." The TM and BOS don't have carte blanche unless we allow it. Please, Middleboro voters, don't allow past history to repeat itself. Insist on accountibilty.
Finally, electing Mr. Perkins as Town Mderator only guarantees that we won't move into a period of more open discussions.
Why would anyone think the town manager is STUPID? Hasn't it always been realistically that the BOS RUNS the town and the town manager? This new guy I don't think he knew what he was getting into. Then again, he probably said who cares, I now TOO can get a big fat paycheck with full bennies and sit back and enjoy the ride on the taxpayers. I don't see a full new BOS for many many years. Why? ASK YOURSELF those that CHOOSE NOT TO GO VOTE. But, constantly COMPLAIN. The horse has been out of the barn for so long now, the barn door just remains open.
Post a Comment