Rumor is ....

According to the terms of the Waste Management contract, the one not available on the PTWS (Pathetic Town Web Site) if the Middleboro BOS was ever interested in transparency, the company paid for equipment that was left at the landfill when they assumed the management operations.

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Without a Public Records Request and payment of an inflated fee intended to discourage those requests, we may never know the details of the committee or the contract, but I digress.

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Waste Management paid for equipment, the details of which are not readily publicly available, and the money was used to purchase spanking new equipment for the DPW at Town Meeting, using the argument that the trucks/equipment were ancient.

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Rumor has it that a brand new dump truck was purchased. A brand new overly large snow plow was attached to that dump truck. Because the snow plow was too large for the frame of the dump truck, the frame was bent and the truck requires replacement at taxpayers' expense.

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Although it is commonly believed among the male population that their female counterparts are mechanically inept, I can only judge by my experience -- I purchased a vehicle and took it to someone to attach the appropriate snow plow for my purposes. While my needs differ from the heavy duty requirements of the DPW, this is not uncharted territory. Had the frame bent on my vehicle, whose fault would it have been?

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This raises a host of questions about who stipulated the specifications of the plow, among other things. Where was the oversight?

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Let's not whitewash this issue and expect Middleboro taxpayers to write a check before the answers are clear.

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And let's not accept Marsha Brunelle offering scripted excuses that fail to satisfy.

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Maybe the Middleboro BOS should be available to listen to taxpayer complaints and comments, even if the means Mrs. Brunelle making her email website address available to do so. Maybe Mrs. Duphily could allow Middleboro residents to email her as well, since her friends, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is already doing so.

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