MORANDI GETS OFF TO FAST START … PEDA WANTS TO SHUT YOU OUT … MR. MITT HAS HEALTH CARE RX … DO YOU KNOW A HERO? … plus … PEDA, BB HOOPLA ODD CONSIDERING NO PLANS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED (ACCORDING TO CORYDON)
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, MONDAY, JAN. 9, 2012) — THE PLANET had a lovely out-of-state weekend, being an idiot savant when it comes to football picks (as my friend John Foster would say to the Swami about my football expertise along the lines of idiot savant, “You got that half right”). Incidentally, the Swami says “Hey” t0 Mailman to the Stars, Billy Turner. We called wins by the Texans and Saints on Saturday, the GIants and Tebows on Sunday. In Tebow’s case, we even had him winning in OT. Smoking hot, baby.
MORANDI GETS OFF TO FAST START — Bravo to my Right Honorable Good Friend, Kevin Morandi, Peter White‘s successor as the Ward 2 representative. Morandi got himself up at an ungodly hour and made time from a busy morning to attend the 8 a.m. PEDA meeting on Friday, Jan. 6. THE PLANET applauds this interest and this activism. What we see here, friends, is a councilor educating himself on one of the key issues, and maybe the most important issue, that will come up in the next two years. His Ward 2 constituents and people the city over should be grateful for that level of concern so early on the job. Kudos to every citizen who made that meeting, which was the most at a PEDA meeting since Peter Arlos was knee-high to Zeus. Praise also (and again) to former Ward 4 councilor Mike Ward, who led a petition drive against the proposal to put B-level Big Box retail shopping in 1`6 acres of the PEDA land. Ward’s continued involvement in the affairs of the city can only harbor good. NEXT PEDA MEETING OF FEB. 8.
THEY WANT TO SHUT ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ OUT — If you went online to the William Stanley Business Park or PEDA websites expecting to find an announcement of the Jan. 6 board meeting or the agenda, you likely went away empty handed. People: They don’t want you butting into your business. They see PEDA as their business, a private fiefdom fit only for the robber barons. You are nothing. You are less than nothing in their eyes. THE PLANET has privately taken guff for putting the spotlight on PEDA, and let us share something: We will keep doing it. We don’t rattle. We will not be intimidated. We will not be filed, stamped, briefed, or debriefed (nod to Patrick McGoohan). THE PLANET shall be highlighting the developments of PEDALS and every PEDA board meeting.
PEDA AGENDA REVEALS THE PROBLEM — If you did manage to find the agenda, you will find five major sections: Administration, Executive Director’s Report, Meeting Calendar (next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 8, 2012; circle that date), Executive Session, and Adjournment. What’s missing here? PEDA doesn’t think anything is missing. We The People know better. We The People know that a public input session is missing. THE PLANET calls upon Mayor Dan Bianchi, the city council, and the PEDA Board to change the rules of order to allow a public input session somewhere on the agenda. Between today and Feb. 8 allows plenty of time to get this done. The People must be heard! We The People will not take no for an answer.
HEALTH INSURANCE SCANDAL, AND MR. MITT’S SOLUTION — The United States health care system is a legal crime in the making. The notion that an employer should be responsible for a worker’s health insurance was one of the craziest ideas introduced. A much better solution would have been, and will still be, what is called “the individual mandate,” a requirement that every American buy (or be given as part of National Health) health insurance. If a purchase, health insurance would be handled no different than home insurance or car insurance. When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he introduced a version of the individual mandate. It wasn’t perfect, but the Commonwealth is better off for it. Romney’s idea works, because, as he explains, “To have people show up at a hospital when they get sick and expect someone else to pay” is wrong. The individual mandate approach gets rid of the free loaders, who use up inordinate amounts of health care (going to the emergency room for a hangnail) and stick the hospital (whichsticks the taxpayers) with the bill.
DO YOU KNOW OF A HERO? — THE PLANET gets bombarded with press releases of all sorts. The vast majority head to the circular file. However, we want to pass this one along. It’s about heroes. We think heroes are important. Last week, we received a missive from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation in Washington.
Here’s part of the announcement:
WASHINGTON, January 5, 2012 – The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation today announced it is now accepting nominations for the Citizen Service Before Self Honors, which recognizes and honors those ordinary Americans who become extraordinary through their indomitable courage and selflessness.
Citizen Service Before Self Honors are unique, because they are presented to unsung heroes by our nation’s most honored heroes—the fewer than 90 living recipients of our nation’s highest award for valor—the Medal of Honor. The recipients comprise the Congressionally chartered Medal of Honor Society, which is one of the most exclusive societies.
Citizen Service Before Self Honors recipients represent the values of courage, sacrifice and selfless service. Medal of Honor recipients encourage individuals to nominate any United States civilian who has clearly demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice for others whether through a single act of extraordinary heroism at risk to one’s life or through a prolonged series of selfless acts. The nominee’s actions must epitomize the concept of “service before self” and must be performed “above and beyond” one’s professional area of responsibility or conduct.
Citizens may submit an eligible nominee by completing the nomination form online via the Citizen Service Before Self Honors website,www.CitizenServiceBeforeSelfHonors.org. The nomination period runs from Monday, November 14, 2011, through Friday, February 10, 2012.
THE PLANET hopes that Berkshire County can produce many nominees.
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GETTING BACK TO PEDA — In the Boring Broadsheet‘s coverage of Tony Dobrowolski of the Jan. 6 PEDA meeting, he had these three paragraphs as his lead:
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Good coverage by Tony, first off, who’s a pro. Second, the logic of Corydon Thurston is revealing. Responding to Mayor Bianchi’s well-aimed stun gun, Thurston says public input will happen but hasn’t thus far because the developer has not submitted plans to the city. Amazing, folks! Waterstone has yet to submit any plans, yet the deal has been in the works for a year. It also raises the questions of why the BB gave it the huge “Second Coming 1,000 Jobs EV Treatment.” The plans haven’t even materialized, and the BB trumpets the latest, greatest economic engine that’s going to save Pittsfield … and eviscerate downtown merchants.
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WHAT ELSE YOU GOT? LOTS? WE, TOO, BUT IT SHALL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW, WHEN THE PLANET RETURNS TO ORBIT NEAR YOU. UNTIL THEN …
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
For more extensive blow-by-blow coverage of Friday’s PEDA meeting, see: http://bit.ly/zBDxgK and even further supplement on my blog: http://ipittsfield.wordpress.com/
PS- Dan, what is your email for press releases, btw?
(you can email it to me at ipittsfield@gmail.com if you like)
Thank you for your ongoing coverage of PETA,like they say sunshine is the best disinfectant. How about shining some light on the hit and run incident. It seems the censors are hard at work on the eagle site and topix. I am sick and tired of seeing people with connections get away with stuff while the book is thrown at others.
If he’s the mitten i remember his solution for health care would be for you to die. Mitt loves the little guy.
GRUNIN: That’s not what these meetings are for.He is referring to having the public speak at there meetings. I be live that PEDA board members don’t want to hearer what the public has to say they want to waite until everything is almost done and then let the city council have the public speak and that is too late. They should heir from the public as thing go along. I would like to know what they are being paid and how many hours they put in. I don’t think that there is sufficient over site on that board.
DV, you write, “A much better solution would have been, and will still be, what is called “the individual mandate,” a requirement that every American buy (or be given as part of National Health) health insurance. If a purchase, health insurance would be handled no different than home insurance or car insurance.” Better yet, send the hospital bill for illegal aliens who otherwise get free treatment at US hospitals to their respective home governments and pass a federal law holding foreign governments totally responsible for their nationals who obtain hospital treatment in the US and do not have the resources to pay for it. That would take a huge financial burden off US hospitals which under current federal laws have to treat illegals even when those patients have no means by which to pay for this treatment.
Why not deport the ILLEGALS since they are no in this country LEGALLY.
Love Ray’s suggestion to send the bill for illegals to their governments. The wealthy get the best plans money can buy. The indigents and freeloaders get totally free health care. Who gets screwed: the middle class. At least Gov. Romney passed a plan, tried to deal with this monster. Same thing for Obama. The health care industry in America is a crime
Comparing car and home insurance to health insurance is like comparing apples to chainsaws, as you once said to me, Dan. You can choose to drive a car or not. You can choose to buy a home or not. You can’t choose to be sick or not sick in many cases (yes, you can practice good prevention, but you can still get sick, even if you eat all of your fruits and veggies).
The other difference is cost. A car insurance policy might cost you $500 if you’re a good driver. A healthcare insurance policy can run into the several thousands of dollars per year, unless you’re fortunate enough to work for a company that provides a good plan. In these circumstances, unless the cost of coverage was extremely reasonable, the individual mandate just doesn’t fly.
Our state run system, which your pal Mitt helped to create, has consistently run in the red, and when that happens, the state merely cuts what it pays to doctors to make up for the shortfall in the budget, or cuts parts of the program, like dental. That’s why a lot of doctors won’t accept Commonwealth Care and MassHealth. It’s an unworkable system that still makes you and me pay for many others to get their care for free.
I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s not an individual mandate. If it’s unfair to a business owner to have to foot the bill for coverage for his or her employees, why is it any more fair that people who can’t afford to pay their mortgage have to buy health coverage?
And the system just doesn’t work. A friend of mine was on MassHealth, he sent in all of his pay stubs from his part-time jobs, did his best to make ends meet. He was approved for free coverage. Six months later they sent him a notice saying they had not received his pay stubs proving he didn’t earn enough to qualify, and he would be dropped from the program. He sent them in again, called the toll free number, was told, “We have your records on file, you’re fine, you’re covered and you qualify.” Three weeks later, same threatening letter. He sent the stubs in for a third time. Made the same call, was told the same thing, you’re fine. A month later they dropped him. Fortunately he got a full time gig with benefits a month later. But this red-tape filled system we have left a sour taste in his mouth, and it should have. It’s a joke.
So then why do some people think that government run healthcare is better?
Because it’s the people who get the healthcare insurance for free that think that!
If you think Mitt is good for America, look what he did to ( not for) Massachusetts.
If we have a choice of Mitt (very bad ) or Obama (much worse), I’m voting 3rd party just like 2008
Which will elect Obama. Don’t like our choices, either…
why throw away your vote,the third party has no chance of winning.
Why vote for a piece of TURD? If it comes from a RINO or a JACKASS it still STINKS!
Remember all you Demos, when Mitt was Governor he had what, 95% Demos to deal with. So if you blame him blame your party also
Concerned that has to be one of the dumbest statement I’ve read! Mitt didnt raise our taxes he just raised every license or permit fee 2 or 3 times more than we were paying. Ask a plumber or carpenter how much their license cost to renew and see what they have to say!
This is true… He did raise every license, permit, auto registration – everything! Except taxes, so that he can be on the stump now and say that he never raised taxes. But ANYONE is better than Obama…
And also, Concerned is also right — no Governor, or US President, can do these things on their own. They need both houses of Congress to pass a bill, raise taxes/fees, etc.
Take Wal-Mart for example they are a multi billion dollar corporation their employees should have health care and should be paid enough so that they don’t need to collect food stamps or welfare. Employers should be working with insurance companies and employees to make affordable health care. You’re always gonna have “freeloaders” as you put it because the very system creates class levels so there will always be the poor I guess we could just shoot the poor, the elderly and the thermally ill, but with tight Mass guns laws (too many to count on the books and more being written every year.) that’s just not gonna happen.
Scott — it appears that you own your own business – true? Don’t you want the ability to be able to bid on whatever contracts that you want to bid on, to hire the amount of employees that you want to/need to hire? Do you want to be told by our government, in addition to the thousands of rules and regulations that they already put on you, that you now also HAVE to provide Health Insurance to each and every employee? This in addition to requiring a zillion different insurances. How will you make any profit? So are you “for” this for WalMart, but against it for your business? Yet the people who work for you still need to have health insurance, too! Just because someone started a very small store, called it WalMart, and then worked very hard to build that store into the corporation it is today, doesn’t mean that “all the problems” of every person in the United States should be paid for by this company! And if we do that, then they are going to raise their prices sufficiently to cover those costs, so then it is US who pays. ORRRR, WalMart can no longer afford to do business in The USA — which is why a lot of big businesses have moved to other countries that don’t have all the regulations and all the expenses of doing business that we do.
Believe me – I’m not a big fan of big businesses. But I AM a fan of Capitalism and every person’s equal opportunity to start a small business and to grow it into a very large business. That’s where most of the nation’s jobs are at — big businesses. And if we continue to block those dreams, then who’s going to start a small business? No one. Then let’s see where we are… (well, we’re getting there very fast!)
Molly if you are in business and not profiting then you should go work for someone else. You can’t compare my small business that nets under a hundred k (no employees I’m not in the business of paying drug soaked losers to milk me for three days a week and cry for their $125 even though they bagged me and now I have to pay them out of pocket, finish the job myself and wait to get paid.) However, a huge corporation like wal-mart who is clearly banking profits SHOULD be providing affordable health care for their employees. (that doesn’t mean they’re picking up the entire tab.) The greatest trick in capitalism is to take big business scenarios and apply them to small business I mean how do you think it’s so easy for them to shut down small local farmers then cry for deregulation? So YES I absolutely DO think that there should be differences in regulations based on the size of companies and their profits. Everyone has to pay their fare share and think about it these dead beats DV scoff at free loaders whatever you want to call them most of them work low paying jobs for big companies like Wal Mart, Target, CVS and so on. So tell me how are they going to pay for health care when they can barely afford food? Is it a possibility then to pay them better? We include health benefits when talking about compensation to teachers so why is it a non issue for the working poor?
Terminally*
While health insurance payer models are part of the issue, the primary driver of healthcare cost, and thus cost of health insurance, is the fee for service paradigm and tort reform. Physicians are incented by two primary means to perform as many services as possible, which is the engine behind the escalation of healthcare costs.
First, doctors are again, paid for each service that they provide, regardless of efficacy, outcome or patient health. Second, they are also incentive to provide as many services as possible to perform defensive medicine, thereby, demonstrating that they prescribed a full regimen of treatment and explored every avenue of possibility for the purpose of mitigating liability should they get sued. No healthcare reform will ultimately succeed, including Obamacare or Mitt’s Massachusetts masterpiece, unless these two issues are addressed. Neither of the aforementioned “fixes” adequately address these issues, thus, both are doomed to failure. Changes in the payment side of the equation, such as moving to a single payer paradigm or forcing people to buy insurance, will not adequately affect the expense side of the equation. While the government is beginning to introduce forms of evidence based outcomes or pegging reimbursement to outcomes, these measures also fall short of producing the radical change in healthcare cost drivers. Our current healthcare system is unsustainable, and will be a persistent issue, a drag on the economy and on the average American’s wallet for the foreseeable future.
Shooting the thermally ill (menopausal women), will not solve this problem. Sorry, Scott…I had to.
Question for anyone who might know:
Who owns “Pittsfield Stanley Works” – the company acting as the Developer in the PEDA construction for Mountain One? I can’t find a single thing about it! Of course, just the name itself makes it difficult to find — between “William Stanley – Pittsfield” coming up and “Stanley Works in Pittsfield, Vermont” – but I haven’t been able to find a thing. Their address is 151 South Street, but that’s just an apartment building…
@ molly,
great question. Ever notice how everything associated with peda has that shadowy, untraceable quality? 151 South St an apt. building? Mr. Thurson and Mr. Grunin: Please answer molly’s questions, for all of us.
Amanda, I think I can speak for Gary Grunin when I answer your question by saying “we ain’t here for that”
Another question — why do we have two people on the PEDA board who “own and operate towers”:
From the BB: positions are held by downtown developer George Whaling, Berkshire Community College communications director Christina Barrett, General Dynamics senior program manager Beth Mitchell, community advocate Peter Fruet, and Michael Matthews, the CEO of Lee-based Tower Acquisitions, which owns communications towers nationwide.
And from iBerkshires.com:
Thurston was president of Berkshire Broadcasting, which his father, the late Donald Thurston established in 1963. He will continue as president of North Adams Tower Co., which owns and manages communications towers, and is an acquisition specialist and special projects consultant for Redstone Properties Inc. of Williamstown.
And just one more… (sorry!) Has anyone heard anything on what kind of deal we are offering to Waterstone Development? Who pays for the infrastructure and for the building to be built? If Pittsfield, does this come out of the GE Economic Development Fund or will our taxes be raised yet again? I believe that Pittsfield will still own the land, so will Pittsfield charge them rent that will, at the very, very minimum, cover what the property taxes would have been? Who pays to build a building on property that they don’t own, anyway? I wouldn’t! If the ‘big box store’ is the one paying for the construction of the building and will own the building (on PEDA’s property), then will we collect property taxes on the building? We never have from the Legacy Bank Building at 99 North! So we likely own the building, too (at least until we sell it land and building for $1!!!!). From iBerkshires.com excellent article today: “Thurston said the new development could mean up to another half-million dollars in tax revenue for the city, based on “existing examples of BJs and others.” Really? There’s TAX REVENUE here?? As in a net profit for Pittsfield (as in we’re not giving them $15 million dollars to do this but are charging them a $500,000 in taxes”?
And also from iBerkshires.com today: “The board further discussed the cost of readying that parcel for construction, which was suggested could be from $1 million to several million, including connection of utility lines”. PAID FOR BY WHOM? And if they tell us Waterstone, then WHY, exactly, would they do that vs. building somewhere else where they don’t have to worry about PCBs, utility lines, etc.? And what about the Ambulance business and MountainOne – where has it been made public what the deals are with those two?
And still my question of “Why would GE agree to allow Retail on this property?” It does not benefit them in the LEAST, but puts them at much greater risk for even more lawsuits down the road. So why would they do that? There is “something” going on…
MY take of PEDA board:
Mr. Thurston = Son of GOB
Mr. Whaling = Effective board member
Ms. Barrett = An empty suit, eye candy, and total light weight.
Ms. Mitchell = Solid.
Mr. Fruet = Good guy but temporary so doesn’t factor in.
Mr. Mathews = Another son of GOB
Mr. Grunin = Longtime GOB but now on outs
Two stay, the rest go!
Molly. I believe Eric Taylor’s company is the builder. Unknown if that’s helps.
Steve Wade. You are one to talk about dumbest statements, read some of yours!!!!!
I don’t think so, Concern. From Eric Taylor’s LinkedIn page:
“Pittsfield, Massachusetts Area – Graphic design, advertising, web development and marketing. Musician, outdoor enthusiast and Berkshires resident.” And this: “Mr Eric Taylor is a Design And Advertising Manager with The Colonial Theater, … Theatrical Services business in Pittsfield, MA”.
Molly: Found an article by Andy McKeever (Berkshire Staff) August 8, 2011 Says in the article ” For Eric Taylor, a managing partner of the development company Pittsfield Stanley Works, Monday was a chance to do something his ancestors did more than 100 years ago” I believe his company was call Restorations (or something like that) I also believe his company had something to do with construction of the Juvenile Court on North St.
But why everything that PEDA does, why does it have to be fishy. Interesting that the BB, and the other media electronic and print totally ignore this story until The Planet does it justice, now every body takes credit for it, like they’ve just invented sliced bread, the BB coverage has been much better and IBerkshire johnny come lately but at least they followed Valenti’s lead.
Restoration Inc. is the General Contractor located in Hinsdale.Eric Taylor is president.They set up Pittsfield Stanley Works as the developer,again Eric Taylor is the manager of this company.Who is the owner of the new building Pittsfield Stanley Works or Mountain One.
Molly: re, cost of development at the William Stanley site, PEDA’s case since the initial announcement is that one of the reasons they find the Waterstone deal attractive is that that developer has already committed to assuming all of the cost of redeveloping that land, reconnecting to the utilities etc, whereas the belief seems to be that other (i.e. manufacturing and other commercial) companies might (/have) shunned it, in industries where location is less of a factor. If you watch the press conference online, you can hear the discussion of this when it was first announced.
The biggest obvious exception to that that I can think of offhand is a company that can profit from the unique rail access configuration there, and I’m glad the mayor raised this point in the post-meeting.
How much is Waterstone going to pay for the property.Wal-mart paid 7.3 million for there property up in North Adams.I believe it is 23 acres and they will be hooking up all utilities etc.
The amount Waterstone will spend on any aspect of the development is not yet known, because the company is still developing their presentation pitch. When there’s actually a proposal from this developer, that’s when the city will have a chance to evaluate it.
In my opinion, Pittsfield should take some pride in the fact that we have had such a vigorous dialogue already based on just a letter of intent from this company. Imagine how much there will be when there’s actually a proposal being made to the city.
Agree,But they did release some facts.They are going to use the largest lot on the entire Stanley site,taken 1/3 of entire park.They going to have a retail building of approx. 170,000 sq. ft.The fact that the site has not even been turned over to PEDA, says to me lets wait for a better option.I dont care if Bloomingdales was coming,lets not sell are selfs short.If they must put retail on the site use one of the smaller lots.
Kudos to Mayor Bianchi for pressing the PEDA board for answers. It’s about time we had a Mayor who is interested in representing THE PEOPLE. The whole thing about retail on the PEDA site is it’s a bad idea.27 acres for retail ?
Just a question ..Why is Bill Sturgeon putting the new Mayor under the microscope ? He never questioned Ruberto.Also, Sturgeon’s advice to Bianchi with regard to brevity, is a bit over the top. Sturgeon can’ t put two words together, His diction is terrible, and hasn’t improved, only gotten worse. And he lectures the new Mayor ? The name Napoleon comes to mind.
@nls..The name buffoon, comes to mind!