In March 2009, IT Director Roger Brunelle presented information about the plans to improve audio in the Selectmen's Meeting Room of the Town Hall. The IT Director, who seemed to have recently spent an inordinate amount of time researching solutions, has stymied previous attempts to improve or upgrade the PTWS (Pathetic Town Web Site).
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Brockton Enterprise reported --
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Residents who have complained for years of poor audio when attending selectmen’s meetings will find the volume turned up this summer after renovations are completed to the selectmen’s meeting room at Town Hall.
Residents who have complained for years of poor audio when attending selectmen’s meetings will find the volume turned up this summer after renovations are completed to the selectmen’s meeting room at Town Hall.
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This entire endeavor sorely misses the point!
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Millions of dollars were spent on Historical Town Hall renovations that created a too small Selectmen's Meeting Room, vast under-utilized auditorium space that is costly to heat yet rented at $50, for 12 town employees.
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Enter Mr. Brunelle with his wondrous proposal to add acoustical insulation that we would hope is not comparable to the Rhode Island Station nightclub insulation.
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Mr. Brunelle can't provide cost estimates and has missed the point. This is the same Mr. Brunelle: Middleboro's IT Department
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The Selectmen's Meeting Room is used by many other Town Departments and Committees. Should Mr. Brunelle move forward with his glorious plans, the BOS meetings might then be audible, but what of other users of that room? What of their access to equipment locked in a closet? Mr. Brunelle would have you believe that 'it won't cost the town anything because it's coming out of the cable fund,' but in fact, it's money that could be spent elsewhere.
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On Monday, April 13, 2009, the Selectmen's Meeting attracted an overflow crowd that were unable to be accommodated in the Meeting Room.
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With a vast Auditorium at its command, did the Middleboro BOS have the common decency to reconvene in the Auditorium that would have enabled the public to be seated? No!
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The overflow crowd stood in the hall, unable to hear the proceedings.
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Mrs. Duphily spoke in tribute of Victor Sylvia, raised funds for a scholarship in his name and proposed a garden in his memory.
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If Mrs. Duphily knew Victor Sylvia, she would have railed, as he would have about the failure to accommodate the overflow crowd with a vast auditorium located above the Selectmen's Meeting Room. Maybe she was too impressed with the admiration expressed by her "friends," the Town's proposed business partners, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Can't be bought with cheap gifts, huh?
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There were many Town issues upon which Vic and I disagreed, but the intent of the Open Meeting Law we shared.
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This is not the first BOS meeting to attract an overflow crowd and they are mostly predictable. Are we to expect more of the same shabby treatment of the public by a BOS that fails to utilize available space?
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Isn't it time something were done about the issue? In Victor's memory, I would hope so.
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15 comments:
Mr. Brunelle is charged with improving the audio in the selectmen's meeting room and the best he can come up with is acoustical insulation?
I swear, if I walk into that room and find a bunch of cardboard egg cartons glued to the wall, there won't be enough acoustical insulation in town to stop my voice from being heard all the way to Mashpee!
Hey, Roger how about getting a clue and try improving the sound system. Tell ya what, since you said a high school kid developed the town web site, how about you get a couple high school kids from the audio visual club to come over and make some improvements.
All I can think of is the old Saturday Night Live bit where they do the news for the hearing impaired with Garret Morris yelling the news report at the top of his lungs.
Is that what Roger has planned for us next?
The next meeting with the tribe will go like this...
Mimi : I'd like to thank you Cedric for coming here with all my friends, oops I mean all your council members.
Roger Brunelle: I'D LIKE TO THANK YOU CEDRIC FOR COMING HERE WITH ALL MY FRIENDS, OOPS I MEAN ALL YOUR COUNCIL MEMBERS.
Cedric: Nice to see you Mimi.
Roger Brunelle: NICE TO SEE YOU MIMI.
Give me a break!
Roger IT stands for INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, not Incompetent Twit!
Smoking Owl,
Quite right!
And wait until you see what those cardboard egg cartons cost!
The Board of Clowns held several meetings in the auditorium.
For under $100, the Board of Clowns could have purchased one of those amplifying systems that all the kids have. Did they?
It has also been reported that the system used for lawn concerts belongs to the town.
No attempt has been made to accomodate the public and at a certain point, complaints will be filed. When the public hearings are held for the Warrant Articles, the crowd will be out in the hall again.
And Cristello, who should know better, sits there without comment. Our expectations of Pat Rogers are so low, we wouldn't expect it of him. Mimi hasn't figured out that laws govern her conduct, so we expect nothing from her. And Marsha is just too 'sick and tired of this crap' to notice.
Nothing has been done to provide additional parking spaces for handicapped in front of the High School when meetings are held. The previous town manager indicated that additional spaces were marked off at those times. Not so!
If 3 members of this BOS didn't believe that civilization stopped at Middleboro's borders, they might know what other towns had accomplished with their cable funds.
As someone stuck out in the hallway on Monday, I would like to second that emotion!
LOL, Smoking Owl.
(Roger Brunell: L-O-L SMOKING OWL!!)
BTW, in Bridgewater, our selectmen's room is roughly twice the size of my downstairs lavatory. I think they like it that way as it actively discourages citizen participation. You literally have to sit so close to the selectmen that you can smell their cologne and view their nose hair. No need for cardboard egg crates - you can hear their stomachs growling from the hallway. I've been to a lot of towns over the last two years and not one of them has a selectman's room as petite as ours - and yet our town has double, triple or more the population of surrounding towns.
But then, as that other SNL staple, Rosanne Rosannadanna might say, "It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another. If it's not an IT director with his head up his butt, it's a selectman with hair sticking out of his nose."
hair sticking out a nose might be better than heads up there you knows get rid of the bunch fesabilty?the casino will bancrupt mboro.cedrik lived over his menes making $150k now he's on the fedaral dole.nothin new under the sun
Instead of writing my ideas hear, I decided to put it in writing.To watch our neghbors like Pat,Marcia,Mimi not speak up hug and kiss the tribe is disgusting.last straw
LOL Gladys!
I think it would be cool at the next town meeting, when Wayne Perkins takes the stage, if all those in attendance would stand up as one and start singing.....
WAYNE'S WORLD, WAYNE'S WORLD, ITS PARTY TIME, EXCELLLENT......!
On a serious note.
A competent IT director would be able to figure out how to set up a big screen in the auditorium with a sound system.(Just don't use any tape, we wouldn't want to spark another tape debate) The overflow crowd could watch and hear the selectmen's meeting from the auditorium without moving the meeting at all.
It really is a no brainer, I'm surprised Mr. Brunelle hasn't thought of it.
Or does a no brainer actually require a brain?
Smoking Owl,
Those sporting orange tshirts aren't lined up and pushing for it!
Democracy has never been the hallmark of the Brunelles.
Rest assured that when mega bucks are spent on this folly, it will not solve the problem that has gone on for years, but then that has been the trademark of a BOS that keeps heaping on problems and never resolves them. It makes them believe they have an overwhelming workload and it convinces the voting public of the vast talent in office.
So remember next time Marsha tells you the BOS has already taken care of something, it's just like her fuzzy memory.
Other than being a warehouse mgr what else did he do?wasnt he a truck driver or something?only in mboro
Was a date set for the Warrant Articles? When will they be advertised? Does anyone know?
You hurt Hal's feelings and he can't stop posting about it!
The best thing for this town would be to rid it of the Brunelles and hire a competent IT person.The world has moved on not them.
The Town Hall renovation was a big mistake. Wasted space, costs too much and the auditorium should be used constantly for meetings. Jane Lopes had a lot to do with it and should be presenting ideas to make it pay for itself.
I heard Roger explain this and was mystified.It might make sense if the room was only used by selectman but its not and your right.look out when marcia and roger say taxpayers arent paying for it.They mean its coming from the same pocket.they both say it about the enterprise acounts.
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