This week's Emptyprize provided so many unintentional guffaws that I almost felt bad about only buying it to line the turtle's cage! In no particular order:
The Sandwich Cheerleaders are holding a fundraiser that involves groups of pink flamingos and signs indicating that the recipient has been "flocked" by the Sandwich Cheerleaders. I'm not going to dwell on this -- but what would happen if a Football Player wore a Tee-shirt saying I "flocked" the Sandwich Cheerleaders? A quick change of attire and sensitivity training for all no doubt! Did the Superintendent/School Committee really approve this?
Everyone's favorite "Columnist" (never, ever, to be confused with a "reporter") showed that her head is still firmly planted where the Sun don't shine by claiming the Community School made a profit and dragging up that now-famous fable about Town meeting proclaiming 40+ years ago that there would forever be subsidized swimming in Sandwich for all that chose to travel there -- regardless of how much school budget money had to be illegally diverted! (This statement is frequently accompanied by the waving of a 40 + year old program -- but there was no video available this time!) She was right to question why the Rec Dept. is being charged a higher rental rate than some outside groups -- but then even a broken clock is right twice a day. (I also suspect that there is a lot more to THAT story -- I doubt it is completely accurate.)
Our new Fire-yacht, the S.S. Overkill finally went out on its first call. As predicted earlier, this would be the annual "drifted too far from shore" call. Usually its a kid on a boogie board -- this year it's a guy on a kayak. Unlike most rescue calls, this one was very publicly documented with photos, response times, and extensive quotes from all involved. Has the boat been staffed with a full-time publicist?
(Please don't get me wrong -- I have always been well-served by the SFD and have always praised their work -- I just would like to see money put into things with a more realistic wide-spread benefit to both taxpayers and firefighters -- more staff, better equipment, and better (BUT realistic!!) facilities -- not just flashy limited-use assets that come with substantial unfunded operating costs.)
The article on the $900,000 needed to repair the pool & windows was amusing. The suggestion that the High School's accreditation is at risk brings to mind the story of Peter and The Wolf -- every year we hear "the Big Bad Wolf" and every year somebody pulls a rabbit out of their hat (or some other orifice!), and there is suddenly 'extra" money! The window issue was caused by poor construction/design that should have been included in the original construction costs. The pool issues were caused by poor maintenance and a failure to honestly assess the actual cost of operating the facility. How long have we talked about the need for re-grouting and replacement of the mechanical systems? Realistically, we're talking about an Override (without using THAT word!). But, I think the Teachers Union leadership killed off any chance of that in the near future. And -- Guess What? Their latest contract expires tonight! There's little chance of an Override passing while SEA negotiations are ongoing.
The proposal to bring foreign students to Sandwich High is interesting. This program could be a good alternative to the current School Choice program -- the incoming revenue could certainly be much higher. This discussion will probably also cause a rush to dictionaries as people check for the correct spelling of, and synonyms for, "Xenophobia".
The annual School Bus Schedules were listed. These schedules should confirm what everybody who drives through Sandwich already knew -- it appears that damn near every kid has their own bus stop. A quick look down the list shows that there have to be numerous bus stops within site of each other! I don't have a problem with providing transportation -- but could we at least consolidate some stops, and save some time, and fuel? Given the fact that many of these buses also look damn near empty. maybe we could even eliminate some buses and save some money. Maybe somebody on the School Committee could ask those questions?
Speaking of the School Committee ... Are they still out there? We never seem to hear from them anymore. Even that loud-mouthed self-proclaimed "budget watchdog" seems to have turned into a leg-humping mutt! Maybe legal counsel has finally explained that quote "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." ?
5 comments:
It says something that the Enterprise will allow (and encourage) a staffer to knowingly publish a falsehood – a provable, purposeful misstatement of a fact.
Who shows less shame the author or the Editor/Publisher?
Is a lie not a lie if it appears on the editorial and opinion pages?
1) Actually, there are three fewer buses running this year than last. Not enough, but it's a start.
2) John Paradise (managing editor of the Enterprise) should be professionally ashamed of himself. Judy Koenig's "column" has no business in any publication that calls itself a newspaper.
Koenig and the enterprise are partially responsible for the death of the community school. They helped to perpetuate the myth that the community school was self-supporting -- so nobody supported making the necessary changes until it was too late to save the program. I wish i could say i was shocked to read they are still pushing that nonsense ..... But nothing surprises me anymore!
Brother Bob me thinks you are being to critical [now smile] of the recent complete inaccurate words allowed to be passed as truthful statments, in regards to the community school. I also was agast at the wording on why the community school , that never really made a profit on its own, was presented to the readers of the Sandwich, that purchase this paper.
You missed the SEIC comments on how they spent the $50, 000 and how they need another $165,000 to do another study on developing the Marina. One question that should have been asked is what happened to the study performed a few years back with dollars from the taxpayers of Sandwich. Is this a joke? Where now we need to have this group that has not accomplished zero in the past four years now has the big ones to ask that we the taxpayers give them another bank of money that gets lost in space somewhere to do another work shop to help WHO in economic development.
By the way this is the same group that when asked if they would use tax payers money and the answer was NO on more then severel occassions when I asked this question. It was not a truthful answer then and it is still not a truthful statement today.
So it is advised that when this comes before town meeting for a vote, every one needs to vote NO, any other answer will only lead to further discourse for our town, with no forfillement of economic development as is being spinned.
The Town really doesn’t have a fire department. If you look at the emergency calls closely what we actually have is a medical transport service. This part of our fire department could be privatized easily and then “magically” the so-called need for added staff and added buildings would pretty much disappear. Of course, nobody is going to point out that 900 pound elephant in the room.
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