Archive for 2009

Police reserves (2009-11-13)

Reading the local paper is not good for your heart. Today, front page, is an article entitled,”Still no new reserve police selections in Methuen “. Quoting from the article, Bowman noted that Lavigne testified at a previous hearing that police had a “business need” to pick 12 reserves, but almost three months after Bowman’s order […]

Thank a Veteran (2009-11-11)

Today is Veterans Day. All the years that I worked, I never had this day off. It always seemed that non-vets got the time. They went to parades and relaxed. It bothered me, but I knew that veterans don’t enlist and serve for themselves. There is always on some level an unselfishness. Each Veteran served […]

Tax Rate (2009-11-9)

There was a lot of political banter during the recent election season about the fact that the  tax rate did not go up. My guess is that a lot of voters were stymied by this. They may have assumed that the tax rate WILL not go up. The truth is that we have to wait […]

School Committee (2009-11-5)

Dear Mayor Manzi, I have been following the School Committee “race” in the papers. The following two articles from the Lawrence Eagle Tribune are what I reference; Methuen school committee winner to give up seat to losing incumbent Attorney to determine whether School Committee member can give seat to ‘buddy’ **And the story continues: now […]

Cardboard (2009-11-4)

I have a neighbor that “burns” cardboard to dispose of it. Another resident around the corner was discussing trash pickup with me and stated that the city doesn’t pick up cardboard. Seems these are two persons who misunderstand the City ban on cardboard. Maybe there are others, thus this column. The City, by State mandate, […]

Charter Commission (2009-11-2)

The list is my recommendations for Charter Commission members. I generated this list by speaking to all these individuals at various times over the past few months. They appear to be 9 persons without to much political baggage and who are sincere at looking at our charter. I avoided the NAME candidates. They don’t need […]

Sometimes you do the work (2009-10-30)

Here are some articles worth reading or sites worth visiting. If you read or visit, please come back and leave a comment. Did you find them interesting or not. I’ll post all comments that are pro or con for opinions. The new issue of Business Week came out.  The GDP Mirage Here’s a riddle: If […]

Cemetery Commission (2009-10-30)

There are things that a City does not do optimally. Some of these services should be “spun-off”. That was the reason for creation of Enterprise fund legislation. Services which are supported by funding from clients are the most common enterprise fund candidates. Water and sewer funds are common. They may require large outlays to get […]

Police Chief (2009-10-28)

George Santayana (16 December 1863 in Madrid, Spain – 26 September 1952 in Rome, Italy), was a philosopher, essayist poet and novelist. Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, […]

Free petition (2009-10-27)

Browsing through the Home Rule Charter as it exists today, I noted that there are two types of free petition. They are Action Discretionary and Action Required. Methuen has had 4 charters in it’s history. I reviewed them all. The first one in 1917 didn’t have this distinction. This is the current from the City website. […]