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Selectmen play ping pong with
chairmanship
DID YOU
KNOW…
In the past,
it was customary for the Canton Board of Selectmen to rotate the
chairmanship of the board, and it was a fair system that worked
well. However, in the past five years since the board was
increased from three to five members, three of the present five
members have gained numerical control of the board and have been
swapping the chairmanship back and forth between themselves like
a “ping pong ball,” and it appears they are purposely freezing
out the other two selectmen.
This
year, John Connolly will once again be the chairman for the
fifth time in the past 15 years. Five of those years were with
the five-member board, and the other ten years were with the
three-member board.
 During
the same 15-year period, Bob Burr has been chairman two times
and Victor DelVecchio two times. Avril Elkort was chairman
three times back in the three-member board days when the
chairmanship was rotated each year, and former Selectman
George Jenkins was chairman three times. That leaves
hard-working Selectman Sal Salvatori as the one selectman
who has never been chairman at all, despite competently and
articulately serving the citizens of Canton on the board since
April 2004, the same amount of time as Bob Burr. Many,
including MAC, believe the constituency that elected Salvatori
to the board in two elections is being cheated by the other
board members who are keeping the chairmanship among themselves
only.
The
controlling interests on the Board of Selectmen subtly let MAC
know they prefer that MAC not write anything about the
chairmanship ping-pong game being played; but MAC feels the
story must be told so our readers will know what is going on.
Who knows, maybe the selectmen will wake up and do the right
thing the next time around.
The
Council on Aging will hold its annual volunteer appreciation
breakfast at the Senior Center on Monday, June 23, at 9 a.m.
Franklin
Pierce University of Rindge, New Hampshire is currently
competing in the NCAA Division 3 Northeast Regional Baseball
Championships. The team has an outstanding record of more than
40 victories this season and is coached by Jayson King,
who is the son of Anne King, owner of Savoy Salon on Washington
Street in the downtown business district. MAC wishes his team
the best.
The Bank
of Canton has joined Boston’s Mortgage Relief Fund program,
which makes money available to assist qualified homeowners
refinance their homes.
The
Westgate Mall in Brockton is offering $20 mall gift cards to
shoppers who present receipts for mall purchases that total $200
or more. The receipts should be brought to the mall’s customer
service center and will run as long as the gift cards last.
It appears
that the “red tide” will soon contaminate the South Shore
clam beds from Hull to Cape Cod, requiring them to be shut down.
The toxic algae has already contaminated and shut down the North
Shore’s clam beds, and experts estimate it will be the second
worst red tide outbreak in decades.
In a recent
2-1 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia in Washington D.C., it was decided that paper money is
discriminatory for blind people who can’t distinguish the value
of the bills. The decision could force the Treasury Department
to make bills of different sizes or paint them with raised
markings or other distinguishing features. The court found that
the Treasury Department “identified no reason that requires
paper currency to be uniform to the touch.” The six-year
lawsuit was brought by the American Council for the Blind.
The
Canton Planning Board is advertising that it will hold a
public hearing on June 11 at 7:30 a.m. on the petition of the
owners of the former Plymouth Rubber property on Revere Street
for an industrial subdivision containing 39 acres. All persons
interested in the site petition are invited to attend. In the
meantime, work has already begun on tearing down the old
buildings.
The
Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing on
Thursday, June 12 at 1:45 p.m. on the petition of the owners of
the new Korean Restaurant at 100 Washington Street at Cobb’s
Corner to modify their site plan to increase seating from 140 to
160.
Finally,
whether you are happy or unhappy with the passing of the $4.5
million Proposition 2 1/2 override, which will permanently
increase your property taxes, keep in mind that you also have
to pay a 2.5 percent tax increase on top of last year’s tax
bill. The preliminary property tax bills containing the
first installment of both of these tax increases will go out at
the end of June and are due August 1.
Decision
makers are those who have the greatest vested interest in the
decision.
That this is all for now folks;
see you next week.
Joe DeFelice can be reached at
manaboutcanton@aol.com
June 5, 2008
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