Summary of local politics:
Oct. 9th, 2003 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasIn Melrose, where I live, there are two big issues facing the town.
First: We've got this old, dilapitated middle school that is falling down; it's basically to the point of being dangerous to the kids who go to school there. There are basically four options:
1: Spend $20 million to build a brand new middle school. It will actually cost more like $40 million, but the State has a program, expiring this year, to help towns pay to replace old, dangerous school buildings with new ones. And the NEW school could be rebuild ABOVE the flood plain so it wouldn't flood all the time.
2.: Spend $40 million to pretty much gut and rebuild the old middle school. You'd get a building that wasn't quite as nice as in Option 1, and, of course, you'd have to completely abandon the basement, because it floods. And, of course, the ongoing water damage from the flooding would mean that in ten years or so, you'd probably need to spend another $40 million or so.
3. Spend $20 or $25 million to get the middle school kind of sort of vaguely usable, even though it will still be deteriorating.
4. Spend $15 million to do the absolute minimum to get the school building out of the "imminent danger of collapse" state, and get it up to the bare minimum where the building inspector will let people into it next year.
Hmm. Difficult choice, eh?
The other choice is a mayoral election. We've got two candidates.
1. Rob Dolan is the guy who's the mayor now. He filled in after Pat Guerriero left in the middle of his term to work with the governor. Mayor Dolan dealt with a number of crises (including some that Guerriero left behind) with some skill and dedication, and has generally been a competent, decent guy. He's got a good working relationship with, basically, everybody. He hasn't yet decided whether he's going to re-sign the chief of police to another long term contract, because there's a mayoral election coming up in a couple months, and he thinks that, if he doesn't get elected, then THAT mayor should have the right to make decisions about long-term contracts, and it would be wrong to sign people this close to the end of his term.
2. David Balfour is a career hack politician who lost his cushy patronage job at the MDC when Mitt Romney noted that most of the MDC doesn't actually DO anything, and is really just a place for bunches of folks to have cushy patronage jobs, and gutted it. He has no actual ideas about how he wants to deal with any of the problems Melrose is facing. As far as I can tell, he wants to be mayor of Melrose because he kind of needs a job. He hasn't yet decided which of the four options to deal with the middle school he favors.
Boy, that one's a tough choice, too, isn't it?
First: We've got this old, dilapitated middle school that is falling down; it's basically to the point of being dangerous to the kids who go to school there. There are basically four options:
1: Spend $20 million to build a brand new middle school. It will actually cost more like $40 million, but the State has a program, expiring this year, to help towns pay to replace old, dangerous school buildings with new ones. And the NEW school could be rebuild ABOVE the flood plain so it wouldn't flood all the time.
2.: Spend $40 million to pretty much gut and rebuild the old middle school. You'd get a building that wasn't quite as nice as in Option 1, and, of course, you'd have to completely abandon the basement, because it floods. And, of course, the ongoing water damage from the flooding would mean that in ten years or so, you'd probably need to spend another $40 million or so.
3. Spend $20 or $25 million to get the middle school kind of sort of vaguely usable, even though it will still be deteriorating.
4. Spend $15 million to do the absolute minimum to get the school building out of the "imminent danger of collapse" state, and get it up to the bare minimum where the building inspector will let people into it next year.
Hmm. Difficult choice, eh?
The other choice is a mayoral election. We've got two candidates.
1. Rob Dolan is the guy who's the mayor now. He filled in after Pat Guerriero left in the middle of his term to work with the governor. Mayor Dolan dealt with a number of crises (including some that Guerriero left behind) with some skill and dedication, and has generally been a competent, decent guy. He's got a good working relationship with, basically, everybody. He hasn't yet decided whether he's going to re-sign the chief of police to another long term contract, because there's a mayoral election coming up in a couple months, and he thinks that, if he doesn't get elected, then THAT mayor should have the right to make decisions about long-term contracts, and it would be wrong to sign people this close to the end of his term.
2. David Balfour is a career hack politician who lost his cushy patronage job at the MDC when Mitt Romney noted that most of the MDC doesn't actually DO anything, and is really just a place for bunches of folks to have cushy patronage jobs, and gutted it. He has no actual ideas about how he wants to deal with any of the problems Melrose is facing. As far as I can tell, he wants to be mayor of Melrose because he kind of needs a job. He hasn't yet decided which of the four options to deal with the middle school he favors.
Boy, that one's a tough choice, too, isn't it?
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-09 08:54 pm (UTC)Did you know he is a huge fan of The Stone Roses, The Pogues, and he was reccomending an REM CD to me? Hehe, he graduated high school just about fourteen years ago too.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 04:25 am (UTC)(Option 5: give contract for $15 million to a company with connections, which ends up dissapearing after collecting $5 million over 6 months with little to no visible signs of progress, forcing the town to finally terminate their contract and hire another company for $20 million to do a rush job to get the bare minimum done. Net result: $25 million spent, bare minimum done.)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 06:03 am (UTC)I have a sneaking suspicion that, if we do go for option 2 on question 2, option 5 on question 1 is a strong possiblity.
However, on the plus side, of all the candidates running for Alderman this year, only ONE is undecided about going with Option 1. All the other ones appear to be able to make no-brainer decisions. That's one CANDIDATE who wants to do more studies before deciding to build a school (of course, in order to get the money, we have to decide in the next couple months, which kind of rules out more studies. . . ) So, it's impossible to put together a Board of Aldermen that's against Option 1.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 06:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 08:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 10:01 am (UTC)Mom's a little bitter after 40 years teaching high school.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 10:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-10 11:08 am (UTC)LOL, I feel for you man
I figure I'll vote for the criminal that HAS been caught, as he's less likely to be a repeat offender, unlike the cocky mayor, who is getting away with murder, and killing our town in the process.