Millville Town Meeting Recap

Well I'm not sure exactly how many people attended...I think it was close to 70...

It was pretty uneventful until the article about the new (used) fire truck came up...apparently there has been much debate over the past few months, and it was decided 265K would be allocated to buy the fire truck, transport it back to Millville from Indiana, perform some necessary repairs and give it a paint job...

I thought Chief Mullaly did a real good job explaining what the thought process was for picking this fire truck and explained what we are getting for our money...

Then the Deacon got up and asked to amend the article to add 25K just in case we needed it for some unforeseen need...which I think everyone understood his point...but the problem was it had already been debated publicly and it was understood 265K was the number per the FINCOM and Capital folks...so his amendment was not allowed after the moderator talked with the town counsel...and then the flood gates opened and we went round and round to the point where the Deacon wanted to debate what the ambulatory fund could be used for...he just couldn't let it go...finally somebody made some motion to cease the debate and thankfully it ended...the firetruck vote was unanimous...and nobody stuck needles in their eye waiting for the debate to be over I'm happy to report...it was close though :-)

And then we got to the Board of Assesors article.... which proposed to change the position from an appointed position to an elected position...come to find out it used to be an elected position but was put on the town ballot in 1986 to make it an appointed position... and the towns citizens voted to change it...of course nobody knew any of the history of why that was put on the ballot back in 1986 (maybe MJB can weigh in here)...must have been a good reason and I'm thinking they needed the Selectmen to keep an eye on them...it was debated..the selectmen weighed in...some tried to make the case that it should be the towns citizens who should be the ones keeping an eye on the Board of Assessors...not exactly sure how that would work and I think everybody figured out it was a real bad idea...and how do you campaign for something like this ? "Heh vote for me and I'll take care of ya on assessment day"...good news is it was shot down via a secret ballot 38 to 29 I believe...I think they tried to stack the meeting but my guess is some of the people they thought were in their corner voted the other way...the whole thing seemed "fishy"...and thank God the Moderator stepped in to help count the votes with the town clerk...many eyes were watching that exercise I'll tell ya...

Our Moderator announced he is not running for re-election...I thought he did a great job and he will be missed...thanks for everything Joe.

One last thing....the over/under on how many times John Dean would get up and speak was 7...if you bet the under, you lost :-)...but it wouldn't be a town meeting if he didn't speak !!

A safe, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone...
The Management

Why Newsweek will go the way of the dinosaur

I will admit I am a Newsweek subscriber..until this cover. For a magazine to publish this picture, which is clearly a shot at Sarah Palin, while the magazine is on life support is just unbelievable. You either have to be the dumbest bastard on the planet...or, you think Barrack's honeymoon is not over...

Statistics show the American people have figured out they need to pay down their debts and are doing it...the new administration thinks we need to spend more money to get out of this...that's what people with a gambling addiction think...

Think about it...

Look out Annapolis..The Chargers are coming to town

Your New England Champion BMR Chargers are off to the Naval Academy in Annapolis tomorrow for the USSBA National Marching Band Finals. The last time we won this event was 2001.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that drought is over...these kids are talented and fired up.

They have packed a can of whoop ass and intend on opening it.

Go Chargers !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Millville Board of Assessors Nightmare

Alrighty then...

So our Board of Assessors quit recently...the buzz from the bee's is it was before the Mass Department of Assessors began their ethics investigation...it appears the former members scheme now is to push and make the Assessors positions, elected positions so they can get around this somehow...to basically run amok again like they have for who knows how many years...don't get caught in that web

Here is what I've heard...

• Apparently we had an Assessor who was calculating comp time...unfortunately she calculated the comp time that included past comp time...a double dip if you will...you can't make that up...this was discovered after she was required to produce time cards...no more summers off !
• Apparently this same Assessor was convicted of an ethics violation and was fined 2K...
• This same person was apparently reviewing properties that owed back taxes (instead of assessing properties)...in some cases the owners names were changed to "Unknown", this same assessor paid the backed taxes, took ownership of the properites and sold at a nice profit...or she would approach the owners, offer them $50 to make the back taxes go away by signing the property over to her...rumor has it the elderly were typically the target...nice
• The Board of Assessors allowed this same assessor to assess her property and properties within 300ft of hers...this is an ethics violation unless the Board of Assessors OK's it...guess what they did...birds of a feather...
• It appears while accumulating comp time, 147 properties have not been assessed since 2007...while this assessor is collecting 44K a year !! nice gig...
• Board of Assessors apparently didn't find it necessary to show up to FINCOM or BOS meetings when requested...had made 1 meeting in the past 10 months (generous) before resigning...
• It was brought to the Board of Assessors attention that a 3rd party company out of Bellingham could do what the assessor hadn't for 13K a year...that is a 30K savings a year plus the cost of benefits...with no conflict of interest...they voted against that...shocked
• Obviously the town has no idea what the tax base is at this point since not much has been done...
• This same assessor sued the employee's of the town a few years back...the Uxbridge Court dismissed with prejudice...she sued the town maliciously, it got thrown out and it cost the town 10K...because unfortunately the towns lawyers didn't throw their bill out...
• When the Board of Assessors did resign, the town did go ahead and hire the 3rd party outfit and saved the town 30K...so some good did come out of it...

So the question becomes how long has this been going on and how much money did the town lose out on...things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Don't let it happen again...get educated

Please ask questions at town hall...your BOS is...demand answers...it's your right...and money

BMR Chargers Marching Band - 2009 NESBA Champions

Your BMR Chargers won the Division 5 Championship at the NESBA (New England Scholastic Band Association) Finals last night. They scored a 98 out of a possible 100 and beat arch rival Dartmouth.

The Chargers travel to Annapolis this coming weekend for the USSBA National Championship firing on all cylinders.

Hard work pays off...and these kids work hard !!