Turkey time is here again; and now’s the time to begin;
that fateful journey up and down; of those of us who’ll gain those pounds.
Fear not though as those pounds will surely fade; as the turkey did on his fateful day; with all the specials going on that night; the consumers are so sure to bite.
So sure to bite; so sure to run; oh joy, all that fun! You’ll be your slimmest once again when all of this is said and done!
Yes your slimmest is what is said to be; with all that running you will do, to buy that perfect gift for you know who!
The only problem now I see; is that you may no longer be debt free. But fear not my friend; as the story goes, you’ll look your best in those slimmer clothes!
Welcome home my son, these words I longed to say; for all those days you’ve been gone, were empty in many way.
Please remember this my son as you are home to stay; not a day went by that someone did not pray.
We prayed for your safe return; and of your buddies too; we prayed for those who sacrificed everything to ensure our freedoms too.
My son, please listen well; what you’ve done was not in vain; the actions of the job well done will cause less people pain.
The Town of Southbridge is implementing a new Chloramines disinfection system for their public drinking water supply. Do you have concerns? Questions? Join us Tuesday October 18, 6:30pm for an informational forum, Conference Rooms 1 & 2 Harrington Hospital, 100 South St, Southbridge.
Speakers include: Marielle Stone; Section Chief of the Drinking Water Program of Mass DEP Central Regional Office. Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths MD, MPH & TM; Director of Global Health, Public Health, and Professional Degree Programs, Tufts University School of Medicine. Member of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council, US EPA Member, Drinking Water Panel, Science Advisory Board. William Nunnery; Project Mgr. for Westin & Sampson Water Treatment and Water Quality, Designer of new water treatment system for Southbridge plant.
These professionals will provide insight into why we are changing our system along with the potential impact to our community and other users of our water supply.
For more information contact Monique Manna: 774-230-0156 or Denise Clemence: 508-277-4494.
When reasonable doubt exists then the evidence presented must be reconsidered. Here we have several people recanting their stories...I wish I knew all sides to this story, however, from what was reported, there appears to be doubt. I do hope the Supreme Court intervenes. I will add this too, will the death of another man, no matter what, bring back the victim? No, this death will do the same it has to the victims family, bring sorrow. If he is guilty, then he should be punished, but not by death. If he is innocent, then there is a killer out in our midst, and if this execution goes through as planned, then more than one person will have gotten away with murder.
Please read this story and consider my above statement.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/21/lawyers-file-appeal-to-stay-troy-davis-execution/comment-page-2/#comments
If you would like to contact the Georgia Attorney Generals Office regarding this:
Office of the Attorney General
40 Capitol Square, SW
Atlanta, Ga 30334
Phone: (404) 656-3300
Fax: (404) 657-8733
Please feel free to share this.
I was unsure if I really wanted to do a post such as this, but with all the facts NOT being out there by other groups, I decided to go forth and spout out my opinion. You do not have to like it, but it is mine, and mine alone, and I like you, have the right to free speech as well.
I will express my opinions regarding the landfill and the BOH. I am only going write about what I have observed and know as facts. Also, to make it clear, the opinions I express here are mine, and mine alone and should not reflect on anyone else's opinions, they especially do not reflect nor do they represent the opinions of any PROFESSIONAL(s) (i.e. EPA, Town Manager, Attorney's, Doctors, DPW, Health Director, etc.)
In MY OWN opinion are the professionals, and although we the people have a right to speak our minds, and ask questions, which I think is great and we always should do this, doesn't mean that we are ALWAYS right. And in turn, sometimes, the professionals get it wrong too.
From what I understand the previous contract the town had with for the landfill before Casella took over was a mess. Our town was at a greater risk than ever financially.
Now the Town has a contract with Casella Waste Systems, that I am not familar with, (but do have a copy of and so can you by requesting one) so I will not make any comments on that except for what I heard, and that is from one side, it is better than the last one we had and from the other side, it is not a good contract and only benefits Casella Waste Systems.
One of the big issues with the Landfill is the expansion, there is a group of people who are suing the Town of Southbridge over this. (Wow, I never thought a landfill could be such a huge issue!)
I am not going get into the logistics of this because I am not familiar with this either, and I do not like to comment on things I am not familiar with, just makes you look bad if you don't have ALL THE FACTS! I do however know that a local attorney (from Sturbridge) is representing a group of people, pro-bono, in a law suit against Southbridge due to the landfill and I know a few of the names on the law suit, but that is it.
I also know that a current member of our Board of Health was on the law suit against our town. One of the requirements to be appointd to the Board of Health was to take her name off the law suit, which eventually ended up happening.
Here is some of what I know from my observations over the last couple of years, and it is quite interesting indeed! I will not elaborate on any rumors, I will just present the facts as I know them, some that tend to be left out when this comes up.
Okay, so now we have some facts, so let's continue on this "journey" I guess one might say.
Now, it is 2010, and we are at a Town Council meeting, a fairly new and re-organized Town Council Meeting as the date is July 19, 2010. Councilor Steve Lazo is voted on as Chair and Councilor Laurent McDonald Sr. is voted on as Vice Chair. During this meeting, Councilor Richard Logan calls a Point of Order:
"Councilor Logan called for a point of order in reference to a breach and cited a couple of
Charter sections and asked Chairman Lazo to rule the 2004 by-law creating a five
member Board of Health null and void. Chairman Lazo stated that the Board of Health
goes back to 3. Councilor Logan passed out documents that are attached to the file."
Chairman (Councilor) Steve Lazo voted back in 2004, to reorganize to a Five Member Board of Health. That vote passed unanimously at the town council meeting. What made him change his mind? If he thought this was wrong when he voted to pass this, then he should have stated so then, or if he thought he needed more information on this he should have done his homework and asked the Agenda Item be postponed until he had more information. Councilor Lazo went 6 years with this being a NON-ISSUE.
As for the "Point of Order" gig...well, in my opinion, it should have been "rehearsed" a little better, like this actually came on a whim. (Watch the tape, there are records of this. July 19, 2010 Town Council Meeting)
Whenever I heard that a "google" search was done and then later found out that Councilor Logan received his information from a "blog" forum, well, I was never more disappointed. One may think a man of such education would seek legal advise on this.
Oh but wait...from what I understand there was legal advice!
Three legal opinions on the BOH issue, however, it was not the advice that some were expecting to hear, so if you were to ask me, and this is just my opinion, Councilor Logan and Councilor Lazo took it upon themselves to fix what they, in their minds, thought was broken.
We even had the advice from Attorney Caprera, the new town attorney that was approved Unanimously through Town Council because it was pushed to get a new town attorney. (From what I understand Kopelman and Paige did not sit well with some.) Yes, the advice our now new current town attorney gave was not good advice either. (I wonder how many attorney's one would have to go through to get the right answer?)
So, time marches on. And now it is June 2011 and the re-appointment of Dr. Thomas O'Leary comes up. Dr. O'Leary is a Pediatrician who practices Medicine through Harrington Hospital in Southbridge. He has been on the Board of Health for 10 years, the last year though seems to be somewhat if a struggle as I see it.
There are now only three members vs. five members and everything is being stalled (if you will) to prevent anything going through with the landfill. There are also rumors going around that people do not want Dr. O'Leary on the Board of Health, and there even is a 'campaign" to "oust" him through this new group (as they would let you think) known as "United Southbridge".
Now, I will not speculate on the rumors I heard, but I will point you to the post where it is so written as an "Action Item" for this group to see that Dr. O'Leary does not get re-appointed to the Board of Health. Just click here.
If you want to see a comment post that was put out by a "Founder" of this group I have copied and pasted it below, you can also follow the link to the comment, that too is pasted below.
Raciel Fernandez said...
Well thank you for asking, Anonymous. The meeting went GREAT! Surprisingly, we had a good turn-out with such short notice. In attendance were people from all areas of our community -- republicans, liberals, democrats, moms, dads, environmentalists, gay, straight, young, old, and officials from the board of health and town council. Despite the diverse crowd -- which I think is more indicative of the town than what we see on the Council -- we all agreed on some basic issues.
The meeting was only to see if a group like this could organize and our answer was a unanimous, "YES"! We even have our first action item which is to rally at the Town Council meeting tonight to oppose Dr. O'Leary's inevitable reappointment. Yes, this diverse crowd was all completely opposed to him having any influence on our health and our children's education.
I'm sorry if that disappoints our anonymous readers, but I'd say we had a fruitful and encouraging meeting. Minutes and date for next meeting to follow shortly!
http://ozonesouthbridge.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-activist-group-starting-up-in.html
Or you can click below and scroll to the comments on Page 6 to see the comment there.
Comment regarding Action Item Against Dr. OLeary from United Southbridge
Dr. O'Leary did give a parting speech at the Town Council meeting when he announced he would not seek his re-appointment. If you read this and truly understand what he is saying, I believe there is so much truth to what was said. Please, read the story I have retrieved from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. I have also scanned it below if you have trouble retrieving it from the website.
I am a little disappointed in this group that calls themselves "United Southbridge" as the title itself is misleading if the only thing (in my opinion only) is that these people unite in is using scare tactics and controversy to promote their agenda, and in my opinion, and from what I have seen over the last few weeks (and read) is to oust the Town Manager from his current role, and to have the Town Chair and Vice Chair removed from their current positions, and to have who they would like to see on the Board of Health. These people have cried foul due to the fact a Doctor was not the last appointment and they feel a Doctor should be on the Board of Health. But yet there was a Doctor on the Board of Health and they sought to have him removed, and in the end, he was by his own accord though, not theirs.
Just another fact to put out there before I end very long post. *Southrbidge is a City, however through special legislation was granted the right to keep the "Town" status, however it is run as a City form of Government. This was done through special legislation you can view this by clicking here. Therefore, by the Town of Southbridge being as it is (able to keep the town status), we are not rquired to have a Doctor as a member of our Board of Health. If we remained a City, then it would be required. You can read those details by clicking here.
To sum things up, it is a mess. Too bad, because there are so many other issues in this town that need to be addressed. Sometimes, when we only focus on one thing, it tends to cloud the other issues, that could be very obvious if the attention wasn't just focused on one thing.
We as residents of Southbridge should keep an eye on our government, but we also need to let them do their job, the job that they were voted in to do, for all the people of this town.
We the people should look out for our future, our children, they are our future. It is too bad that more attention wasn't focused on this, that our school didn't get as much attention as our Board of Health or Landfill. Our children deserve to get the best education that is out there.
Our Board of Health needs to remember all what they are supposed to be doing, not just being focused on that DAMN landfill! Take a look, here is a guide to the duties of the Board of Health:
Board of Health Duties
My opinion, different from most I am sure.
*(Thank you to a commenter regarding the City vs Town. I had it mixed up and they pointed out my mistake which I have corrected)
Yes...it is a law in Southbridge to recycle, and although it is not a law statewide as of yet, there are recycling laws and legislation in Massachusetts. Let me give you the Town By-Law, that appears to me, is not being enforced or even considered by our Board of Health. If you read at the very end of this you will see that out of 351 Communities in Massachusetts only 168 have adopted a Mandatory Recycling Program, I am proud to say we are amongst the 168 Communities to do this.
It appears to me all our Board of Health is stuck on is "Sticking It" to Casella Waste Systems. Time for a review of what is going on with the Board of Health.
I will say this, the SMART Cart Program, which I was a supporter of from the beginning, would have worked with our By-Laws. I will put out there too, one of the members of our Board of Health didn't even know it was in our Town By-Laws that Land Lords are REQUIRED to provide their tenants with containers that are covered for garbage, and that the tenants are also responsible for their garbage being in such containers.
How can our Board of Health even work if they don't know the By-Laws of the very town they are protecting? It is NOT all about that DAMN Landfill and Casella people! The Board of Health are supposed to be working for the betterment of our town and the people who live here, well they need to KNOW the By-Laws too and work for ALL the people, not just those who don't want the Landfill or Casella around.
SECTION 10-200 MANDATORY RECYCLING
Section 10-201 Recyclable Materials
10-201.1 Declaration of Intent- There is hereby established a program for the mandatory separation of certain recyclable material from garbage or rubbish by the residents of the Town of Southbridge and the collection of these recyclables at the residents' curbside. The collection of separated recyclables shall be made periodically under the supervision of the Town Manager or the Town Manager’s designee.
10-201.2 Rules and Regulations – The collection of recyclable materials shall be made in conformity with standards and procedures established by the Board of Health to protect the public health, and in consultation with the Town Manager.
The Board of Health in consultation with the Town Manager shall prepare, and may, from time to time, amend or revise reasonable rules and regulations relative to the collection of recyclable materials to protect the public health. Recycling rules and regulations may prescribe the size, form, style and number of containers and the type of material to be collected, what types of materials may be mixed and what types of materials must be kept separated. A true copy of the rules and regulations, with their most recent amendments, shall be kept on file available for inspection in the office of the board of health, in the office of the director of public works and in the office of the town clerk.
Prior to promulgating such rules or regulations or any amendments or revisions thereto, the Board of Health shall first publish in a newspaper of general circulation in the town once in each of two successive weeks notice that a public hearing will be held concerning adopting, amending or revising such rules and regulations with information concerning
the scope of the proposed action to be taken sufficient for public understanding; the first publication of such notice to be not less than 14 days before the day of the hearing. The Board of Health shall provide the Town Manager and Director of Public Works with copies of such proposed amendments or revisions at least 14 days before the day of the hearing. CODE OF BY-LAWS TOWN OF SOUTHBRIDGE Effective: March 13, 2007 Page 103
Following the promulgation of such rules and regulations or amendments or revisions thereto, they shall forthwith be filed with the office of the director of public works, the office of the board of health and the office of the town clerk. The Town Clerk shall have a copy of the same posted in each of the precincts of the Town.
Transitional Provision
The provisions of any By-law applicable to recycling existing on the date this By-law is adopted shall remain applicable to recycling in the Town until regulations regarding recycling are adopted in accordance with this section.
Here is a link you can follow to see Frequently Asked Questions on "Recycling in Massachusetts" - here is an excerpt of what I found recycling:
Is it the law in Massachusetts to recycle?7
There is no statewide mandatory recycling law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; however there are many other types of recycling laws and legislation in Massachusetts:
Waste Bans prohibit the disposal of certain recyclable items at solid waste landfills and incinerators in Massachusetts. Banned items include: lead acid batteries, leaves, yard waste, whole tires (landfill only), white goods (large appliances), metal and glass containers, single resin narrow-necked plastics, recyclable paper, cathode ray tubes (monitors and televisions), asphalt pavement, bricks, concrete, metal and wood.
The Bottle Bill requires glass, plastic, metal, aluminum and bi-metal containers holding beer and other malt beverages, carbonated soft drinks and mineral waters to carry a deposit label before they are sold. Consumers can return the bottles to receive their deposit. The bottle bill has been an excellent tool in reducing litter and increasing the recycling rate of bottle bill containers.
In addition to the laws, there are many statewide goals and policies related to recycling and source reduction. The Beyond 2000 Solid Waste Master Plan establishes the Commonwealth's long-term goals for solid waste management and basic policies for waste reduction, recycling, and disposal for the next decade.
Although there is not a statewide recycling law, many communities have passed their own recycling laws. Of the 351 Massachusetts communities, 168 of them have voluntarily adopted mandatory recycling ordinances, bylaws, or regulations. Most of these local requirements regulate single-family residences or those served by the municipal collection programs. A growing number of municipalities are also regulating multi-family properties and businesses.
Ninety-two municipalities have elected to regulate solid waste haulers. Massachusetts General Law c.111 sections 31A and 31B authorize local boards of health to issue permits to solid waste haulers that transport trash through the municipality. Through this authority, boards of health can promulgate rules and regulations regarding the removal and transportation of solid waste. Many that permit or license haulers add a recycling requirement to the permit conditions.
http://www.massrecycle.org/faqs.html
Have any questions, you should call the Health Director, Recycling Coordinator or the Town Manager at the Town Hall and speak to them about recycling in Southbridge...