Around Natick

Let’s highlight and go over this topic again. Folks shouldn’t forget that one day they’ll have a choice.

I like the idea of open space through an urban area, for exercise, and just plain fun. In addition, it would look nice. The rail trail idea has it’s charm. And maybe it could serve a more important function, as a way to relieve the traffic problems on our roads. So I thought I’d do a little investigation, and think about the details of what Natick will be making a choice on in the near future. First, the climate. How does commuter bicycling work in an area with a winter? This is what I learned.

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This was one of downtown Natick’s few remaining original sights. The orange sign may have been glaring, but it never changed through the years. Until now. Goodbye, Town Paint. The new white sign and new name just doesn’t do it for me. What about you?

Last year, because of water damage over a lot of years caused large chunks of the Speen Street bridge to loosen and fall onto the train tracks below.

I would have expected that this instance would have triggered an investigation of the condition of the other bridges in town that go over the tracks. I guess not. For this is how the surface of the Boden Lane bridge looks now, and I don’t see any capital being allocated to it’s repair.

The Administration receives advice from the DPW on what the town’s most pressing needs are for Capital each year. Town Meeting votes approval for the expense.

Was it more important for town meeting to vote to spend $315,000 on a vacant lot on Mechanic St last year? Insiders with influence, like Selectman Joshua Ostroff, have ideas on this lot becoming a parking area for the rail trail someday. I guess their special interest is more important than current public safety. Meanwhile, water continues to leak between the exposed boards, weakening the bridge that gets many hundreds, if not thousands every day.

Here’s another view, up close.

The nails are starting to poke up through the boards. I bet they’re of historical interest. The Administrator may want to hire a consultant and name a committee to study the issue.  Isn’t that what they usually do when they don’t want to deal with an issue?

Well, the election is over, and things turned out about the way I wanted them to. I’m glad the vote was so overwhelming to ask the School Committee to reconsider their decision. I’m half glad the override passed. In one way we can thank the voters for allowing Patrick Reffert to hire another assistant, and the School Department will now have enough money to get the network up and running the way it’s supposed to. We now have enough to pay the unionized clerks in Town Hall a salary competitive with towns around us, and there’ll be plenty of money to pay landscaping fees at the golf course. I’m sure they were planning on trimming that budget drastically.

In the Selectman’s race, we got back John Connolly, and this time revenge was sweet because he won’t have to watch Mr Hughes give him the old “eye-roll” every week. The only one left with an attitude is Josh Ostroff, and I think next year will be his time to go too. At least he was always smart enough to hold back the public display of arrogance. Imagine the sniping he did behind the back though.

And speaking of sniping, the next School Committee race should be interesting. We know Fred Coburn’s opinion, having read his comments written to the New York Times nearly 2 years ago. Fred got a reprieve this time. I’ll be sure to remind the voters next time his slot comes up. Many didn’t pay attention before it was too late to file this time. I’ll stand corrected on how Karen Adelman Foster voted. I think the position she and Fred Coburn took, was the safe bet, pandering to voters on both sides.

Yes, we expect human decency and honesty in the behaviors of our elected officials, both as displayed on TV at meetings, as well as in person, and in writing, and when their actions becomes questionable, it’s time to make a change.

I wonder if they’ll cut some of the after school programs if the override doesn’t pass. It looks like there’s a lot of fun in these activities, so I guess we should vote Yes on 2.

To all of those new to the town, and new to this blog, thanks in part to the Boston Globe for pointing folks in the right direction, WELCOME. Thursday marked a milestone in individual hits to this site, and a remarkable number of people browsing the various articles. There’s lots of history to browse through, from photos of the past, to some not so long ago.

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…the better, some would say. I find it interesting that there are people in position who would be concerned that the public discusses and learns more facts that those which are handed out by their particular special interests. Imagine a town where the Selectmen complain about residents who have opinions contrary to theirs?  That’s what happened at the last Selectman’s meeting.

What a bunch!

Last night, I got a phone call from someone asking me if my TV Guide had been arriving on time. I said, “gee, I don’t have a subscription to TV Guide. ” They said, Oh, our records indicate that you do.  I said, no I don’t subscribe. The person on the line said their records showed me as a subscriber, but if I wasn’t getting the magazine, would I like to?

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Tony Lista wrote a letter to the Newspaper last week, which deserves some major attention. It was so honest, so telling, that it got the Selectmen into a bit of a frenzy of defensive chatter at their recent meeting. You might say he’s got the incumbents circling their wagons.

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Here’s the link to a letter, important reading for the voters.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/letters/x774061967

And for those who may not wish to click on links, here’s the text of it.

The following letter appeared in the Metrowest Daily News a few weeks ago and it may be a good time to review it:
Posted Mar 11, 2008 @ 12:09 AM

Your town officials show you a budget and cite rising costs to state a simple case: “We need more money to balance the budget.” The pro-override groups, including the “mommy activists,” want to protect programs that are important to them, so they back the town officials, using figures provided by the town. They earnestly educate the opponents: “Don’t you understand the importance of school programs, how a town has obligations, etc. Don’t you understand budgets have already been cut to the bone?”

This is nothing new. I’m old enough to remember when Prop. 2-1/2 was first put to the ballot. I heard people say how finally the towns would have to trim the bureaucracies, stop hiring relatives, and at last run your town like a business. I remember the scare tactics used by the people in power, warning how it would be the end of the world if the proposition passed.

Twenty-five years later the supporters say your town’s budget problems are a direct result of a flawed law. There’s so much more to it than that. The current mess is also a result of how the state and your town reacted to Prop. 2-1/2. Neither acted to change the system. We still have the so-called prevailing wage law, the paid-detail law, and a host of other “protect my turf” rules and laws that together make Massachusetts one of the most expensive states in which to live.

No bureaucracies were closed; no one forced the people in your quiet little town hall to run it as a business. It was so much easier for the state and towns to cut your services than to change the system.

What has been done instead of changing the system? Your income tax rate was lowered a little bit. Business taxes were lowered. Costly state initiatives, such as the mandatory health care system, were launched. Various public worker unions successfully improved benefits for their members.

All these things put more pressure on you, the taxpayer. Now, with inflation rising, a mortgage crisis, no money in your savings, maxxed-out credit cards, and a flat paycheck, they want just a couple of hundred dollars more - this year. And they’ll want more next year for something new.

I feel sort of like Ayn Rand. While l don’t simplistically believe in survival of the fittest and don’t want the system to fail (as some claimed she did), I do believe the system is broken. I refuse to believe Massachusetts is expensive because “that’s the way it’s always been.” I refuse to put a Band-aid on a dying patient and urge you to join me: Vote NO on the override and instead demand real change.

ED LAWRENCE, Natick Resident