THE ONE PERSON HE DIDN’T MENTION

I got a call from a man the other day that was truly humbling. He wanted to thank me for what I was doing in creating and maintaining the EoE blog. He went on to name several others who have been instrumental in informing the town of what the BoS has been up to. He had a lot of good things to say about all, but he failed to mention one name.

The one person he didn’t mention was probably the most active over the decades in keeping the town informed. Long before computers and the internet this man was using the media of the time and any other means to get the word out. If he felt the town leaders were on the wrong track he shouted it from the rooftops in an effort to get them back on track.

The one person he didn’t mention has probably done more for the town of Egremont than any other single person. This man saved the town countless tax dollars by finding vital equipment at little to no cost. He got many of the local people to volunteer their time, energy, equipment and sometimes even money to provide essential services for the town.

The person he didn’t mention is a man I look to for strength when I feel the whole town is against me because I wrote something that no one wanted to hear. He is no stranger to the ire of the people. The truth is not always accepted with appreciation and the person delivering that truth is often met with resentment and ridicule. He encouraged me because he knew what I was feeling as he had experienced it firsthand.

The person he didn’t mention will probably never get a citizen of the year award and isn’t even bothered by that fact. This person doesn’t do what he does for approbation he does it because it’s the right thing to do. And by the way, the person he failed to mention was himself, so I'll mention him. We all know him as Bill Weigle. So next time you see Bill around town think about what Mr. Weigle has done for us and just say thanks.

KevinZurrin

EGREMONT MARSUPIAL COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF THE CHIEF

In a stunning 2/1/decision the Egremont Marsupial Court ruled in favor of Chief Bucknell. I wouldn’t say that the chief won; but Charlie did lose. As in times past Charlie rushed to motion the board to either demand the resignation of Chief Bucknell or fire her. Apparently Charlie didn’t hear the chief’s attorney discredit each and every charge that the BoS lodged against her. The other board members decided to negotiate a treaty of sorts in order to save the town from not only a lot of embarrassment but a massive lawsuit. Although I do have to say that Charlie was a man of his word and let Reena’s attorney answer each and every charge. So Charlie, when you do the right thing I don’t mind posting it.

I say that the chief didn’t win because you can’t really undo what was done to her reputation. However, Reena only asked that she be restored to her rightful place as chief and be allowed to make a gracious exit from her station. According to the agreement as I heard it the chief will come back under certain conditions which have not yet been decided. Within two weeks the BoS have to develop a course of hoops for the chief to jump through. The chief then has until October 31^st to jump through all of the hoops. If Reena can successfully maneuver through the obstacle course she will be retained and allowed to retire by December 31^st.

Reena started by making a passionate statement defending her 15 year tenure as the police chief. There can be no doubt that the chief had a great deal of love and appreciation for the people of Egremont. She voiced her dismay at being treated so horribly by the people she served so well for so long. It must have been like a bad dream that she couldn’t awake from. In her fifteen years of service she never had a poor job performance report or a letter of reprimand. She was summarily dismissed on the baseless petty accusations of seven disgruntled officers; most of whom were on the job for only a few months; and many of whom are no longer on the force.

In listening to Chief Bucknell’s statement I was reminded of what a small town police chief is supposed to be. I once said she had her finger on the pulse of the town, this statement proved it. One officer, who is no longer with us said that this Po·dunk town doesn’t want a police force, they want baby sitters for the elderly. My reply was that he finally understood; albeit too late. Reena explained that the community policing program was set up the keep an eye on all the citizens but especially the elderly residents. The so called hit list was no more than a list of people to check on to be sure they’re all right. Many of these residents appreciated the fact that someone was looking in on them.

Reena’s attorney, Michael Akerson, did an excellent job of unraveling the twisted mess created by the BoS and the police officers. He started by pointing out the obvious conflict of interest with Mary and asked her to recuse herself. In typical fashion Mary refused to recuse herself; but now it was on the record. After allowing Reena to read her statement Mr. Akerson then into full attack mode. He systematically destroyed every allegation and reduced the BoS’s case to what it was; a pack of petty lies and accusations made by petty people with ulterior motives.

Fortunately by the end of the hearing some sanity was restored. Between the two attorneys’ the majority of the BoS were convinced to do the right thing and bring the chief back. The BoS struggled with how to word a motion to suit the occasion. After a few minutes Attorney Pollard explained that the BoS didn’t have to make a motion because in fact Reena Bucknell is still the Egremont Chief of Police. This observation seemed to bring the proceedings to a proper conclusion. I must say that attorney Pollard, who said he considers Reena his friend, was instrumental in bringing the selectmen to their senses. It wasn’t the best resolution to the ordeal but under the circumstances it will have to do. As long as Reena is satisfied with the deal then who am I to disagree?
KevinZurrin

HEAR YE HEAR YE THE EGREMONT MARSUPIAL COURT IS NOW IN SESSION

PoE

          On Monday July 8^th 2013 @ 6:00pm. The Egremont Marsupial Court will again be in session. The BoS plans to hold a hearing to determine the outcome of the Egremont police chief debacle. Now there has been a lot of misinformation disseminated by the BoS and EPD at various BoS meetings, blogs and through their favorite reporter Mr. Scribbler. The fact that the BoS has made numerous inconsistent statements is well documented so I won’t waste our time discussing it.  I could write an entire book of examples but all one has to do is read the words from their own mouths contained in the transcripts posted on http://egremont.blogspot.com/2013/07/more-on-selectboards-mishandling-of.html http://egremont.blogspot.com/2013/05/transcript-of-selectboard-meeting-that.html.

          My purpose in writing this post is to encourage as many people to show up to witness the hearing and to remind people of the words that have been made public about this situation. If you have read some of the local blogs and newspapers you will find that the BoS have a problem remembering their own public statements. I guess this is why Mr. Flynn said to me at a meeting “Do you have those notes written down somewhere?” and “I mean, if you can give me the exact recording of what I said I’m happy to stand up to it.” Because the BoS have such a selective memory there are some out here who are more than happy to remind them of what was said.

          It is in this spirit that I want to remind Mr. Flynn of his own words. “I think every effort was made to give the chief an opportunity to discuss it, and we’re still willing to have a public meeting with the chief.  If the chief chooses to do that, we will be more than happy to have that public meeting so that she can address each and every one of those charges.  We want this to be, and what we have tried to do, is keep this whole process as open and honest as we possibly could.” I notice Charlie that you never mentioned the words fair and impartial. I guess you wouldn’t since the words are not in your vocabulary. In your mind you think the hearing to remove me from the finance committee as open and honest as it possibly could be. Let’s hope this is not the standard you use tonight.

So Mr. Flynn, let’s not have another hearing like my birthday party which was described by one witness as “That pathetic excuse for a purported hearing was pre ordained-It was a mockery of a hoax of a sham of a hoax cloaked in a tissue of lies-” Since your words, which are quoted above, are recorded, I only ask that you “stand up to them” and allow the chief’s counsel to address each and every one of those charges; regardless of how long it may take. We shall see if you, unlike in times past, can be a man of your word.

KevinZurrin

State of the Art Composting Facility

          Well Egremont has really gone green. We are now the proud owners of a new State of the Art composting facility. Juliette Haas, the sustainability coordinator, has outshined even herself. Not only did she get the composting facility up and running in record breaking time; but on such a reasonable budget that it should pay for itself by the weight of the trash that no longer has to be hauled off and disposed of. If this system works out the way it was designed on paper it could end up saving the town a lot of money. While the idea to install a composting facility did emerge from Juliette’s sustainability coordinator mind she had a lot of other great minds to help design and install the facility. Juliette enlisted the expertise of Nick Ball head of building maintenance, Tim Hosier highway dept and Jim Fountain recycling coordinator, to design a facility that would fit the needs and budget of Egremont.

They designed a simple to assemble kit in which the individual components were built off site. When the truck arrived with the components the crew had it assembled in just a few hours. Now Egremont has a fully operational state of the art composting facility; complete with a diesel powered hydraulic compost mixer. You would think that this facility comes at a steep cost and would take decades to realize a savings; but you would be wrong. I won’t say exactly how much the facility cost because the whole project was done without even consulting the Finance Committee. I’m only assuming that the FC was not aware of the expenditures because it has not been mentioned at any of the FC meetings. I can’t wait to see the expression on Laura’s face when she sees that the BoS and sustainability coordinator purchased and installed a complete state of the art composting facility with funds from the MRF, without saying a word to the FC.

          The system was designed to fully utilize the three phases of decomposition. In the first bin people place their compostable material and it decomposes for a certain amount of time. There is a special machine that stirs the material periodically. When the phase one material is ready it is transferred to the bin for the second phase of decomp. Again it is regularly stirred up until it is ready for the third bin. Once the composting material has reached its peak it is transferred to the third bin. When the material is put into the third bin anyone can take the compost and use it for their garden. What a stroke of brilliance, all the waste that would cost hundreds of dollars per ton to dispose of can now be used to feed the gardens of Egremont.

          The people of Egremont may have to make a few minor changes in how we sort our trash, but in the long run we and the environment will be better served. I’m sure Juliette will be sending out educational pamphlets to explain how to use this new facility so when you receive it please consider using the composting facility to its fullest potential. On the bright side we don’t have to have those big black composting bins in our back yard anymore. In fact, I have already converted my bin into a ventilated dog house; now all I need is a dog. I must say that I was a bit skeptical about this sustainability coordinator position, but this seems to be working out quite well. Juliette is doing a great job finding ways to better use the wealth of waste that is produced by Egremont. Kudos Juliette for turning our trash into treasure.

KevinZurrin

WATER COMPANY AUDIT

          There has been a bit of chatter lately about the water company audit. People seem to be wondering what’s been going on. They’re thinking Hmm, we gave the Finance Committee 25 thousand dollars and total authority to look into the financial matters of the WC; why aren't they doing anything to move forward. Well before you start gathering in front of the FC members’ houses with torches and pitchforks please know that the process has started. The newly appointed members of the FC have formed and are starting to deal with the details involved in auditing the WC practices and finances. I don’t know about you but I’ll be following close and keeping their feet to the fire. You know what I figured out? If you want to hold someone’s feet to the fire you have to be close enough to grab their feet.

          The FC as now formed is as follows; Chairman Laura Allen and Vice chair Michael Bandzierz. In a surprising turn of events Jonathan Beattie once again narrowly avoided being appointed secretary. He quickly donned his best deer in the headlights expression and the baton passed right by him and went to a newly appointed member Tom Berkel. Mr. Berkel has a wealth of experience to draw from and he can adjust his schedule to fit the FC needs. Ralph Novec and Ed (Rocky) Scarbro are working hard in the background. We’re indeed fortunate to have such a group of people to overlook the financial wellbeing of the town.

Mr. Berkel and Bandzierz were assigned to the subcommittee that will be overseeing the details of the audit and dealing directly with the auditors. This audit process will take awhile and will encompass many facets of the inner workings of the water company and the town hall as it relates to the WC. We will all have to be patient as the process goes forward. As Laura is quoted as saying, “the wheels of government grind slowly”.

          The first order of business will be to find an auditing firm to do the actual audit. Because the cost of the audit is over 5 thousand dollars the FC has to get at least three bids. This means interviewing several firms and deciding which will best suit our needs. Once the firm is chosen they can get down to business. The FC will go over the parameters of the investigation with the auditing firm and help lay out a plan. Then the subcommittee, Tom and Mike, will follow the progress at arms length. All this will presumably be done in open meetings and we’ll be kept updated on the progress. Once this task is underway the auditors will do their job and in the end we should have a good idea what caused the dysfunction in the WC and how to best run it in the future.

          Just because the WC is being dealt with doesn’t mean we should let up on any of the other issues facing the town. In addition to the WC audit we have the water commissioners balking at turning over the billing to the town hall. The water commissioners claimed that the BoS were dragging their feet. The  BoS have their hands tied because they can’t compel the elected water commissioners to turn over the billing to the town hall. Does the book Catch 22 come to mind?

I know there was going to be a special article on the town meeting warrant to direct the commissioners to transfer the billing to town hall. However, because we were duped into believing that the issue was settled, there was no need to put it on the warrant. We won’t make that mistake again. Now the water commissioners are again at odds with the BoS. There’s going to be a pissing match and we all know who is going to win.  Personally I don’t care who does the billing as long as the bills go out on time and with accurate figures. We’ll have to keep a close eye on collections.

Let’s not forget that we have the chief of police fiasco to deal with as well. This issue brings with it a ton of potential law suits which may be filed against the BoS and or the town. As a side note, I can’t understand why the BoS are trying to dismiss the Chief for such a high turnover of officers when they themselves have lost almost half of the police dept since Chief Bucknell left. While Chief Bucknell may have been averaging 4 officers per year; these people have been losing an officer about every month. Maybe I’m missing something but I just don’t get it. Who’s zooming who? I guess we’ll have to wait until the hearing on July 8^th to find out if we have Chief Bucknell back on duty or a S load of lawsuits. Tough choice, I wonder if anyone has figured out how much we’ve spent on this debacle already.

There is so much to say about the plight of Hans and Jeremy and what went down at the police dept but it will have to wait until the next post. I’ll also have to address Mr. Scribbler’s inaccuracies at some point. Well, I hope you’re enjoying your summer; it’ll soon be over. 

KevinZurrin