Tuesday, June 17

WHO'S ZOOMING WHO

    Although I couldn't be at the BoS meeting last night I did hear from Mr. W. that the subject of the insurance coverage for the Bucknell case came up. I guess the BoS is in full damage control mode after the latest Berkshire Record Article. For your convenience I have attached a copy of the letter that Mr. Spaulding referred to in his article for the record. This letter is a matter of public record and is available at the town hall although I received a copy attached to an email dated today.  If you read the 5th paragraph you will see that the town will not receive one thin dime of coverage for any issues raised in the complaint. I have also attached a copy of the complaint so you can determine for yourself the issues that will not be covered. I know the BoS claimed to have a letter dated 04/04/2014 that supposedly contradicts this latest letter and I haven't seen the letter but it is pretty clear that the town is not covered. Perhaps the BoS is creating a plausible explanation as to why they misled the people at the town meeting. I would challenge the BoS to publish the April 4th letter so we all may see the truth of the claim; or lack thereof.

The letter and complaint referred to above was attached to the email sent to those on my email list.

To receive an email with copies of the letter and complaint attached send your request to KevinZurrin@aol.com . If you wish to be included in future mailings please ask to be added to the email list.


Saturday, June 14

Sarah Schneider's thoughts

     Since I changed the comment policy comments have to be filtered. Sarah asked me to post this in the comment section of the previous post. After reading her comments I asked her if I may post it as an article. Sarah's thoughts express the viewpoint of many people who for whatever reason have tuned out of town politics. In light of recent events I think many of these people are starting to wake up and get involved. These are some of Sarah's thoughts; which according to her are for the most part facts.
 
     Stanley Farnum is a well known and knowledgeable man! Everything he says in the articles he wrote were right on the money! There are too many things in this town that the voters are just throwing away their rights on and letting things pass that shouldn't even be put out there let alone passed to raise our taxes!
 
     The water department was owned for as long as I can remember and maintained as well by Robert Parrish! When his health was failing he sold it to a man I can't recall his name but he knew before he sold it to the town it was failing and needed a great deal of repair! Well who steps in the "Mighty Select People"? They twisted and turned and got the room packed with the yes of course we need to take it over, not having a clue what was about to happen to their tax dollars!
 
     Egremont's water is suppose to be the best water I guess ever on this earth! Well if that is the case then it should be as clean and pure from the beginning to the end of the line! Well it's not and so many are getting fooled by this! There is less than half of Egremont's population on town water while the rest of us have our own wells! Tell me why I should pay for my water twice when I only get it once?
 
     I know, it's our civic duty to take care of our neighbors! BULL! If something happened to my well do you think the town would vote to drill me a new one? Who are you kidding? Look where the water department is now! There are people in this town getting it free and others not even hooked to a meter! All the blame was put on one person and sorry that is not how it works! Enough on the water it got voted down and hopefully the select-board won't be stupid enough to ever try slipping it in anywhere again! Enough is enough!
 
     The same goes with the schools!! Charlie Flynn also said at our doorstep that he was going to see that the extra schools be closed! Considering if anyone has ever looked into the fact that when the NEW Mt Everett was built all outlying schools were to be closed that was part of the vote! Check it out don't just let the select-board suck you into lie after lie! The only school that did close was Alford! As I recall the North Egremont school had already been sold though South Egremont remained oh yes and Sheffield Center closed! Why would any tax payer want to put so much of their hard earned money into repairing these old decrepit buildings? Onward and upward!
 
     My husband and I were interviewed recently by a very nice young man from the record! He didn't mix any words at all! He told the story the same as if we had written it ourselves! Of course Charlie Flynn isn't going to agree and he and whom ever may think we were set up! Well they are wrong on both accounts!
 
      People may think we were wrong by opening our mouths but sorry the truth is the truth and so help me God we told the truth! We are so sick of the lies being told in this town from select board members to police officers! Yes you heard me right! I could tell you a few incidents but it doesn't matter because my saying is , it always comes back to bite you right in the a_ _!! In fact I was at a meeting awhile back to let the select board know of some lies and instead got more told to me! Again a subject for another time!
 
     Now on to this CPA! If anyone thinks this is the best thing for our town, I suggest you look into it a little closer! You may NEVER see any of your money back in this town and certainly if did it wouldn't even come close to what you will be paying in your taxes! All I can say is I hope come November that everyone who has questioned if it is right or wrong to do sway more to the wrong than the right because us as a whole Town of Egremont will once again take a screwing if you vote yes! Please consider doing research certainly there were a select few at the Town Meeting who did but of course because maybe they can afford to give money away to other towns! Well I can't and I'm not afraid to admit that every penny I have goes to better my husband and I, not to support other towns projects!
 
     After what they want for these schools with a handful of kids in them and most not even from this five town district to the water department that you may not even be on the system to now this CPA and upping our taxes to better other communities and leaving ours to deteriorate! This is only the beginning on the CPA. There will be much more out there before November vote! So research people and educate yourself! It is far from being a clean cut addition to our Town and taxes as we were really led to believe!
 
     Ok well can't end without making a comment on one very BIG lie that appeared in the record this week! We all know at least the ones in attendance, that our fine select board said they wanted to only vote the $5000 in for the Bucknell law suit because the insurance the town has already said they were covering it! Wrong again!! Can't understand why our select-board as smart as they think they are can't seem to do their homework correctly! We may as well have three 4 year olds running the town of Egremont!
 
     I am so totally disgusted with the management of this town as I said before in ALL departments! Everyone needs to suck it up and stop spending money, lying about everything and anything, doing half ass work, and making the tax payers look like the bad guys because they have the nerve to question why things are the way they are!!!!! I hope this town starts stepping up to the plate and start taking our town back!! BIG changes need to take place and I'm sorry to say that unless we get some fresh faces in control it is never going to happen!! Think people!! Do we want to take our town back or do we want to let it go to hell??
 
Sarah T. Schneider

Sunday, June 8

déjà vu all over again


    We all remember the big to do about the town spending over 2 million to put in a waste water treatment plant for the 20 properties along the river. Fortunately the people didn't fall for the pitch; they rose up and defeated it at a well attended town meeting. We also remember the the water company fiasco where we were promised it wouldn't cost the taxpayers one thin dime. Unfortunately we did fall for this pitch and we're still suffering the consequences for this choice. Well folks it looks like it's déjà vu all over again.

     This CPA tax is another one of these harebrained "progressive" schemes that needs to be defeated at the ballot box. Since this is another well intentioned but misguided attempt to tell the people the best way to spend their hard earned money, because obviously the government is the only one who knows how to spend your money, I'll use the wise words of one of the pillars of our community. A man who has been here for nearly a century. A true native who has seen many of these schemes come and go and has witnessed the cost to the town when we fell for a slick sales pitch. When I asked Stan what he thought of the CPA tax he gave me these two letters These are the sagacious words I found in his letter's to the editor from over a decade ago appropriately titled A 'Waste' of time and Egremont's Water Fiasco. These are Stan's words of wisdom, lets learn from them.