The Thuggery of the Vote

Because Republicans can't legitimately win elections, they have systematically worked to DISENFRANCHISE, discourage voters, require voter IDs, provide misinformation, move polling places, re-institute Jim Crow laws, intimidate voters and numerous other tactics.

Republicans have become little more than Third World Thugs in their efforts to destroy Democracy, the voting rights of others and determine the outcome.

Middleboro witnessed its own experience when attempts were made to institute voter ID for Town Elections and Town Meetings.

Common Cause offered a study with some constructive recommendations.

From Common Cause:

Report:
http://www.866ourvote.org/pages/body/DeceptivePracticesReportJuly2012FINALpdf.pdf


People impersonating election officials and falsely informing voters in New Bedford that they need a photo ID to vote … Latino voters in Southbridge systematically challenged at the polls for no other reason than their race … insufficient bilingual ballots and poll worker training in Springfield preventing voters from casting their ballot.

These are all real-life cases of eligible voters wrongfully denied the fundamental right to vote right here in the Commonwealth. And they're just a taste of the onslaught of bullying, misinformation, and sabotage voters may face in 2012. A recent Common Cause report on deceptive election practices exposes some of the most egregious restrictive voting initiatives across the nation.

We have a plan to fight back -- our nonpartisan election protection program is working to protect the fundamental right to cast a ballot, but your involvement is essential.

Will you volunteer at the polls in Massachusetts and help ensure that no deceitful Election Day tactics go uncaught?

You can sign up as a poll worker or a poll monitor. Once you do, we'll direct you to all the support, information, and training you will need. Then, on Election Day, we'll connect you with other passionate election protection volunteers in your community. Together, we'll work on the frontlines to head off or diffuse efforts to disenfranchise countless legitimate voters.

These aren't just "dirty tricks," they're crimes that should have severe consequences -- not just for individual voters, but for our democracy itself. And it's up to us to stop them.

Please volunteer to join our trained election protection team in Massachusetts and help protect our democracy.

Sincerely,

Pam Wilmot
and the rest of the team at Common Cause Massachusetts

Residents for Alternative Trash Solutions

Southbridge shares a dubious bond with Middleboro since retired Middleboro Town Manager Jack Healey shared his fuzzy math expertise with Southbridge as interim Town Manager.

Just as Jack decided a Tribal Casino was just the thing to resolve Middleboro's fiscal problems, he determined Southbridge needed a Mega Landfill.

Good news, Southbridge!

The DEP has NOT issued the permit to Casella! See below message & attachments.

They have required more information from Casella and proof of approval from the FAA. They responded directly to some of the thoughtful and justified concerns posed by the approximately 150 comments submitted to them.

Enjoy your weekend, knowing that you have had a part in protecting our community and working towards zero waste!

Residents for Alternative Trash Solutions
www.southbridgedump.org



Thank you for your recent comments on the Southbridge Landfill Facility permit modification.

Knowing of your interest, we wanted to advise you of the final permit, as modified and effective June 1, 2010. Attached is the permit and related documents. The permit also contains language governing appeal rights.

Sincerely,

Lynne Welsh
Acting Chief
Solid Waste Program
MassDEP-CERO
508 849-4007

For some background -- RATS:

This website is presented to share information amongst a citizens group of over 300 Southbridge, Sturbridge, and Charlton residents formed to prevent Casella Waste Systems’ proposed extension of the Southbridge Landfill to allow 400,000+ tons of municipal solid waste.



We oppose Casella's plan to make Southbridge a raw garbage dump for the state.


We call on the Southbridge Board of Health to protect the public health from the dangers of contaminated air and water, toxic gases, and overall environmental degradation by denying Casella's application.


Furthermore we call on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the town governments of Southbridge, Sturbridge, and Charlton to further safeguard our region by making Zero Waste plans for waste reduction and safe management of discards.




The Southbridge Landfill is about to become the largest raw garbage landfill in Massachusetts! Casella Waste Systems plans to increase the permitted raw garbage to over 400,000 tons of municipal solid waste - raw garbage - there each year, including Boston's and Springfield’s trash. The trash thrown in Boston's garbage cans will travel over an hour west to be piled onto an already 800-foot high mountain of trash located in the center of three western Massachusetts communities - Southbridge, Sturbridge, and Charlton.



The problem in Southbridge is evident of a more profound statewide crisis when it comes to dealing with waste. Massachusetts residents produce almost 2 tons of trash per person each year, and recycling rates have actually fallen in recent years to 33%. Right now the state Department of Environmental Protection is drafting the next Solid Waste Master Plan, its blueprint for managing the Commonwealth’s garbage from 2010-2020. They are considering lifting a 19-year moratorium on building new incinerators, and allowing new trash-burners to be built in the state.



RATS! Residents for Alternative Trash Solutions, is committed to changing the way we deal with waste - on a local and state-wide level. We have grown our organization to include over a thousand people all not only opposed to this regional landfill and the numerous health and environmental problems it brings to our community, but also committed to moving our state forward towards zero waste. RATS has been working with other major environmental groups across the state in a coalition called Don’t Waste Massachusetts to urge the state to stop going down this burn and bury path and instead reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost to get to zero waste.



Our group's volunteers have accomplished so much in the past year. Our pro bono attorney represented us valiantly in the Board of Health site assignment hearings and the appeal to the Superior court following that decision. She is a Harvard grad, now stay at home mom, who works fearlessly against the waste company's slew of highly paid attorneys. We've founded this in-depth informational website that serves as a resource for other groups fighting landfills and moving towards zero waste all over the country. We've made a short film, with the help of a Washington DC-based film maker to show how decisions like this affect small communities and the importance of adopting zero waste solutions. We also created a short professionally-narrated animated segment to explain how a modern landfill works. Our volunteers have met with numerous state officials to educate them on landfilling and zero waste. We've focused on growing our contact list and educating the community about landfills, incineration, and their alternatives - since many resources available are funded or heavily influenced by the waste industry. We've done this at numerous conferences, gave lectures at colleges, and submitted articles to publications.



Our group has grown enormously since it was formed over a year ago and new opportunities are coming before us all the time. We have the opportunity to move forward with many new projects in this coming year. We plan on approaching the target of Zero Waste in our state with expanded legal efforts. We plan on improving and publicizing our short film and on increasing our communications by implementing new methods of public relations. We'd like to improve our community outreach by implementing a new phone call system to contact those who do not have access to email. We are also working on forming a web-based system to collect complaints and observations (odor, traffic, etc.) from households surrounding the landfill. Once perfected in our community, this same system could be used by any other town looking to gather information about any kind of environmental nuisance.



RATS! is unique in that we are using a grassroots approach to addressing a widespread problem that is severely under-represented in our culture. Our group can serve as a template for many other small groups. Already, we have been contacted from other groups as far as Nevada and Florida for resources and information. When groups like ours become interconnected, share information, and resources, the power of the environmental movement can grow exponentially.

DEP: Recycling/Reuse/Compost

The folks in central MA continue their fight against massive landfills and incinerators (Middleboro's former Town Manager Jack Healey's legacy).

Anyone who considers the full scope of the energy issue and their carbon footprint, begins to understand that how we consider solid waste is a significant part of that equation.

Please sign this letter to encourage the DEP to stop burying trash and start pushing recycling/reuse/composting. Recycling and composting create jobs instead of Superfund sites we will have to pay to clean up later. The DEP claims it wants to shut down problem landfills, thus it is not time for huge regional expansions allowing waste from all over New England and NY to be brought in to contaminate our state. Please pass this along!

Click here to sign http://citizenspeak.org/node/2027

Additional information available at SouthbridgeDump.org

The Film: Now U Know

Now U Know

Southbridge: Now You Know

Southbridge Dump

RATS Not Forgotten!

Although the Southbridge Dump might seem forgotten, the RATS (Residents for Alternatives to Trashing Southbridge, that is!) are active, thriving and as opposed to being trashed as ever!

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Speak Out Southbridge is informative and worth the review.
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Massachusetts might choose to maintain its false image of pristine environmental policies, but this Administration seems hell bent on destroying the last vestiges of the myth, concealed behind green propaganda. Remember that an incinerator to your west rains down its pollution to the east or you get to inhale it. This shouldn't be an issue solely restricted to its immediate vicinity. Scientists are beginning to recognize the import of nano particles and their synergy with other environmental chemicals with which we are bombarded.

A co-mingling of interests intertwined when retired Middleboro Town Manager, Jack Healey, Crusader for the Middleboro Mega Monster Bingo Parlor became Southbridge's Interim Crusader for the Southbridge Mega Monster Casella Landfill.

Coincidentally, this same area of the state is confronting the identical threat posed by Predatory Gambling due to the Fools Gold of a proposed casino.

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Jack Healey does seem to spawn an eruption of grassroots activism and participation in his wake! Thanks, Jack, for waking up voters however unintentionally.


Southbridge: Not Forgotten

Southbridge and Mr. Healey

Mr. Healey and Those Ever Changing Laws

Talking Trash with Mr. Healey

Mr. Healey Inflicts Slap-Dash on Southbridge!

Thanks, Jack!

Middleboro's Gain is Southbridge's Loss

Healey For Hire

The Brockton Enterprise, clearly devoted fans of the former Middleboro Town Manager, Jack Healey, provided the following --

HEALEY FOR HIRE

Maybe retired Middleboro Town Manager John F. Healey should be teaching a class about job networking. Earlier this week, Healey, who still lives in Middleboro, was mentioned here after being hired in Kingston to fill in as town administrator three days a week. It’s the second temp job (the first was in Southbridge) for Healey, who stepped down from his Middleboro post in 2007 with a $104,000-a-year pension in 2007.

Now, we’ve learned that in a letter to the selectmen in Freetown, he made an offer they can’t refuse: For the low, low price of $800 per week (and no health insurance charges), he’ll work two days a week plus Monday nights. But wait, there’s more: for the entire fiscal 2010, he’d do the job for $38,400 with no benefits — a savings of nearly 50 percent from the $75,000 plus benefits that Freetown’s former manager was making.

HINT TO FREETOWN: Don't let Jack auction any land. And watch out for certain lobbyists.

Jack Healey

Retired town manager willing to help town

The Herald News reports --


Freetown —
A retired Middleboro town manager has offered to serve as Freetown’s interim part-time town administrator for a price of $800 per week after Town Administrator E. Winn Davis resigned last month.

John F. Healey, who lives in Middleboro, offered to work full days on Tuesday and Wednesday for Freetown and be available for the Monday night selectmen meetings. He also said he would help the town facilitate its next town administrator search.

Healey said although he would charge $800 per week, that cost would be free of health insurance charges, and he would make himself available by telephone for consultation. “I would not receive any benefits but would take four weeks unpaid vacation in the summer/fall of the year,” Healey wrote. “Because of my experience, and that of your long-term administrative assistant, I believe that we could continue to provide the town with the professional services that the town needs.”

He further added that if the town needed him for the entire fiscal 2010, it would cost the town $38,400 with no benefits — a big savings from the $75,000 plus benefits that Davis was making.

Consider it done --
Jack Healey

By Special Request

Technical problems resolved:


Speak Out Southbridge

Hit the Road Jack?

What could this mean?

I mean, after all Mr. Healey did for Middleboro?

Speak Out Southbridge



For some background information, check out RATS

Jack Healey and the Casino Investors

Excerpts of an article that appeared in the Cape Cod Times on December 18, 2007 (excerpts below, emphasis mine):

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.

By comparison, Sandwich officials recently hired a professional auctioneer to advertise and accept bids on property sold by the town this month. The auctioneer advertised the properties in real estate publications in Massachusetts and New York, as well as regional newspapers, attracting 60 registered bidders.

A 34-acre parcel, the Sandwich auction's premier property, fetched $900,000 — about $26,470 an acre, or $12,000 more per acre than the Middleboro land generated.

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Speeded up for budget

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The Middleboro auction was held so quickly to make the funds available for this year's town budget, MacDonald said.

As for hiring an auctioneer, MacDonald said, the town's been doing its own auctions for several years. "Why pay someone when we can do it ourselves?" she said.

Auctioneers, like the one hired in Sandwich, are paid through a premium charged to the buyer over and above the purchase price — usually 9 or 10 percent. CapeCodTimes

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Southbridge, Landfills and Mr. Healey

Jack Healey and the Casino

Southbridge and Mr. Healey

Perry Property and Jack Healey

Talking Trash with Mr. Healey #2

Mr. Healey: Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

Mr. Healey and Those Ever Changing Laws

Mr. Healey's Legacy Continues to Haunt

Talking Trash with Mr. Healey

Mr. Healey Inflicts Slap-Dash on Southbridge!

Thanks, Jack!

Middleboro's Gain is Southbridge's Loss

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Middleboro slows 'frantic' casino pace

Betting the farm

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The DOR Report and the Financial audit for Middleboro appear on the nemasket site.

Southbridge, Landfills and Mr. Healey

The following was published in response to Retired Middleboro Town Manager Jack Healey's involvement with the proposed Southbridge Mega Landfill:

To the Editor:

Our Board of Health doesn't need any more of Healy's relentless
pressure, which has been deemed inappropriate by both the landfill
Hearing Officer and by Marcia Benes, the director of the Massachusetts
Association of Health Boards. Perhaps Mr. Healy should give the MAHB
lawyer a call before continuing with his fear mongering to intimidate
these five volunteers who are doing their best to do their job: to
make their decision based on health and environmental facts—not fear.

Healey decried fear-mongering then threatened to cut every aspect of
the Southbridge budget. Sadly, Healey does have a poor reputation
financially; he left Middleboro a mess that auditors are still working
to sort out. The Middleboro Gazette coined the phrase "fuzzy math"
when talking about his tactics of trying to use short term revenue to
fund the current budget. His character was "assassinated" by his
hometown, not us, though his history is repeating itself here. Notice
he can't deny any of the facts.

As for recycling, the problem with the "single stream" recycling is
that much of it ends up in the landfill. Check out Recycle Bank
financials. Casella owns 20% of it and it's losing money. Not that
there is any evidence that Casella is interested in recycling. In New
York Casella was fined $90,000 for dumping carefully washed but
less-than-lucrative recyclables in their landfills. The fines were
used to pay back 2000 customers for recycling service they didn't get.

In the landfill hearings the words of public health research David
Carpenter were devastating, especially given that many of us who live
in a three mile radius of the dump have children. Statistics signify
regions surrounding landfills have increased hospitalizations for
asthma, infectious respiratory disease, diabetes, Cardiovascular
disease, hypothyroid syndrome and genital disease in women. Dr.
Carpenter clearly explained how the inhalation of toxins in the air
and known carcinogens leaching into the water were his primary
concerns. He was especially concerned about children because of their
sensitivity to toxins during development. He cited research results of
higher rates of birth defects and hormonal disruption of babies born
of women living in areas surrounding landfills.

None of us are going anywhere, we will continue to fight the landfill
expansion and the bigger fight for state legislation so this doesn't
happen to any community. The Massachusetts DEP needs to join the 21st
century and adopt policies that are truly protective of health and the
environment. If this modification goes through and we have 405,000
tons of unsorted raw garbage coming into Southbridge every year, it
will harm the air and water in the entire tri-community area. It's an
undeniable fact that eventually two layers of plastic and the
imperfect technology of gas collection will not contain the toxins in
that mountain of garbage and then we'll have a Superfund site
here—but
will there be a Superfund to clean it up?
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For Mr. Healey, getting a "free lunch" from Casella seems like the
easy path. However, as a pregnant woman with two small children, well
water and a home no more than a mile from the dump, I can tell you
that in this instance the easy path is not the right one.

Sincerely,

Lara DeRose

DEP asked to nullify hearings LINK

CarverChick raised the issue of the impacts of effluent on the Nemasket River, a treasured resource that Mr. Healey dismissed in his haste to cram a casino onto a Town, while the Middleboro Board of Selectmen behaved like Bobble Heads and blindly followed:

Of Special Concern
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The Middleboro Board of Selectmen authorized Mr. Healey to investigate the interest of the Mashpee Wamppanoags to locate a casino in Middleboro, but specifically instructed Mr. Healey NOT to negotiate the terms.

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Mr. Healey auctioned the proposed casino land to investors at a bargain basement price of $14,000 per acre, at a time house lot were selling for $200,000 per acre, in a poorly advertised auction as was his custom in ALL other Town auctions.

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Mr. Healey (along with Attorney Whitten, who lacked ANY experience in the area of law) instead negotiated an Agreement that set the bar at $7 MILLION AND WAS GROSSLY FLAWED.

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Twin Rivers, the Rhode Island casino, will net the host community + $20 MILLION because it provides for a percentage of slots.

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Check out the recent articles about casino profits:

Truth to Power

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Mr. Healey cheated the Town of Middleborough out of + $20 MILLION per year because he picked a number out of the ethers.

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There are other linked blogs on the right side of this screen that provide greater detail of the casino fiasco that Jack Healey created.

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Fortunately, the Commonwealth House of Representatives has defeated Class III Gaming this year and the Secretary of the Interior Kempthorne has correctly viewed this process as 'Casino Shopping,' in which the newly recognized Tribe has no historical ties to the host community. Mr. Healey's grandiose scheme has been successfully thwarted by others.

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Businesses love to see Mr. Healey coming because he fails to gather his facts or research the details.

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How is $7 MILLION close to + $20 MILLION?

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Please don't allow Mr. Healey's FUZZY MATH to prevail in Southbridge.

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Southbridge and Mr. Healey

The following are excerpts from a Worcester Telegram article:

A ‘bite the bullet’ budget emerges from session
During the session, Mr. O’Brien and Mr. Vandal strongly criticized Acting Town Manager John F. Healey for working toward a side letter to increase benefits to the town from an extension agreement with landfill operator Casella Waste Systems. It passed 7-2.

After Mr. Healey told the town it was setting itself up for annual cuts in services if a site assignment for the landfill didn’t go through, Mr. Vandal said, “I’ve never heard so much bull and scare tactics.” He said Casella was positioned to give the town anything.

Mr. O’Brien called the timing “incredibly curious.”

“It’s before the Board of Health, which is supposed to be purely concerned with the health issues; and if they approve it, guess what? They get all the money they need to build their own bureaucracy. Sure sounds like bribery to me.” WorcesterTelegram

Mr. Healey: Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

For inexplicable reasons, the Middleboro Board of Selectmen charged the Town Manager with inspection and enforcement of the Town's Earth Removal By-Laws.

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Those By-Laws allow Gravel Removal Operations on the pretext of creating cranberry bogs because after all, Middleboro is the Cranberry Capital.

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Many of those in their efforts to comply with their engineering plans complain of Mr. Healey's difficult dealings, but one of the biggest complaints seem to be from those who complied, but witnessed others being allowed to work with no permits with Mr. Healey's full knowledge.

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Ooops!

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One such project continued to excavate after hitting water. The gravel operation filled the deep holes with stumps cleared from the gravel removal and was covered with dirt to produce the weedy appearance of a bog, an adjoining subdivision created and the project abandoned.

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The stump dump will cause problems after Mr. Healey's demise, so who can blame him? What's a little methane between friends? inter alia.

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Don't you just hate those satellite photos that document these project, Jack?

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And don't you just hate those trouble makers who bothered to take photos?

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Keep in mind, Jack, that your casino sham activated folks who are participating, asking questions and wondering about what you have done to their Town.

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Democracy is NOT a Spectator Sport!

Mr. Healey and Those Ever Changing Laws

Little noticed by most is the importance of the ADA and its impact on making life accessible to ALL.

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When Middleboro's Town Hall was renovated, the parking lot was re-paved and the pavement markings were painted. The HP spaces were appropriately marked on the pavement.

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Repeated requests to re-install the vertical markers were ignored.

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Since important meetings transpire at night, sometimes in the rain or with snow-covered ground, the pavement marking was frequently obscured.

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A written request was filed with Mr. Healey, self-appointed ADA Coordinator and ignored.

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A complaint was filed with the state that prompted a resolution, a minor project.

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Mr. Healey's public explanation at a BOS Meeting was that the state keeps changing the laws.

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Huh?

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There's the oft-repeated story of Mr. Healey bursting into uproarious laughter from his office as the wheel-chair bound Commissioner tipped over because the walk was uneven.

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Maybe that's why all of the other issues regarding flawed curb cuts and building access were dismissed or ignored by Mr. Healey: they just keep changing the laws!

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Mr. Healey's Legacy Continues to Haunt
Talking Trash with Mr. Healey
Mr. Healey Inflicts Slap-Dash on Southbridge!

Anyone know?
Middleboro's Gain is Southbridge's Loss

Mr. Healey's Legacy Continues to Haunt

Retired Middleboro Town Manager, Jack Healey is credited with being the architect of a scheme to purchase Chapter 61 land to prevent a 40B subdivision from being constructed abutting the Town's Plumbing Inspector on Fuller St.

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Since the Town had no money, the land was purchased for $1 MILLION through the Water Department Enterprise Account on the pretext of a Town Well Site which, of course, failed to appear.

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Didn't they need DEP approval to do so?

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Since the Board of Selectmen is charged in the Town Charter as Water Commissioners, some might wonder about their fiduciary responsibility to water ratepayers.

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Little noticed by most was that ONLY the back land was in Chapter 61 and Town Counsel ruled that the Town could NOT purchase the street frontage or ACCESS.

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When the developer offered deeded access to the Town free of charge, it was declined.

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So, now the Town owns a landlocked parcel and is looking for a use to justify the cost and repay the Water Enterprise Account and the folly.

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Using a right of way, gravel removal is underway that Mr. Healey explained would generate $4 MILLION. Endangered turtles got in the way, but not to stop!

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This parcel was discussed at last night's BOS meeting yet again and continues to haunt: an expensive purchase in pursuit of a use.

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It's in the records: Selectmen's Meeting Minutes

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The following discussion about the gravel project pertains to the Fuller Street property:

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SELECTMEN’S MEETING
APRIL 17, 2007

TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT

Gravel Project – Black Friday News – We May Have Box Turtles!

Mr. Healey informed the Board that the site of the proposed gravel project, athletic playing fields and future school site may also be the home of the Eastern Box Turtle according to the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program People.

We must hire an expert to see if they can find a turtle. Then we have to put a transmitter/locational device on the turtle and monitor his habitat area. Then maybe the State will allow us to hire someone to protect the turtle(s) we find from the heavy equipment while we mine the site and build the fields!

Life is good! (Especially if you are a turtle) LINK

Talking Trash with Mr. Healey

Watching the goings on in Southbridge sure makes one think the Retired Middleboro Town Manager really likes trash.

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As a proponent of a TRASH FEE, Mr. Healey formulated a plan to fund a budget shortfall using the FEE, which just coincidentally would provide the exact amount needed to fund that fiscal year's deficit.

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The fee imposes a cost of ~ $216 per household. (Less for those who opt for the per bag stickers.)

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Although the issue was to be re-visited, no one can produce the itemized costs. No one can say if Middleboro actually made money, which would constitute an illegal tax. And the funds were never set up as a separate Enterprise Account.

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The costs of trash disposal at SeMass are not isolated.

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Wasn't this the issue for which FUZZY MATH was coined?

Mr. Healey Inflicts Slap-Dash on Southbridge!

Retired Middleboro Town Manager, Mr. Jack Healey is known for his Slap-Dash Management style in which he auctioned land at a poorly publicized town auction to casino investors for a pittance of its value (~ $14,000 Per Acre), leaving the town to negotiate a flawed Intergovernmental Municipal Agreement with no bargaining chip left.

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(Of course, the money earned at that auction, one-time revenue, was used at the Fall Town Meeting to fund budget shortfalls, euphemistically called the Structural Deficit, a customary Middleboro practice.)

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Mr. Healey has taken his ill-considered management style to Southbridge to inflict a Mega Landfill on the region.

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With his vast scientific comprehension, he assures the leachate involved is essentially “dirty water." Telegram

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It looks like Southbridge needs more accurate reporting.

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One must wonder if Southbridge town leaders have the sense to recognize that more time is required to consider the ramifications of the project since Middleboro's leaders were easily lead down their primrose path.

Anyone know?

When the Brockton Enterprise announced the interim appointment of Retired Middleboro Town Manager Jack Healey to the ACTING position in Southbridge, the last sentence, little noticed, contained an almost ominous comment:

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Middleboro residents haven’t seen the last of Healey. He said he’s still volunteering at the Hub, at a children’s reading program. And he’s giving selectmen a hand sorting out drainage problems on Plain Street, and will meet with the engineers on Feb. 22. Enterprise

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No one seems able to answer who charged Mr. Healey with responsibility for those drainage problems. Maybe I dozed during the Selectmen's Meeting when it was discussed. Isn't that the road, that after many years of delay, was finally paved by Saxon Partners, owners of Oak Point?

Thanks, Jack!

As a consequence of Middleboro's RETIRED Town Manager being immersed in trash in Southbridge, he has unwittingly provided some interesting contacts and information and resources.

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Thanks, Jack!

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During one of those conversations, it was revealed that Southbridge takes those CABLE FEES that are paid to the town and funds their own Local Access Programming Department as a non-profit. They actually have someone who is paid to air a wide array of local meetings for educational purposes, to Jack's dismay.

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Gee, that sounds like a prescription for transparency!

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Some say that transparency piqued Jack mightily and caused him to want to rid the town of such a dastardly varmint who aired public hearings better left private.

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Does anyone seem to know what's done with those fees in Middleboro? Wonder why Jack never thought of doing that. Ooops! I think I know.

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It seems to fulfill my MUSHROOM FARMING THEORY -- you know, raised in the dark and fed a diet of manure.

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For a town the size of Southbridge, 4,000 homes, the annual total is ~ $160,000.

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With the direction in which newspapers are headed, sounds like a win-win for local coverage.

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Middleboro's Gain is Southbridge's Loss