PITTSFIELD VAPORIZED!!! IT SNOWED AGAIN IN FEBRUARY … SIX of 11 COUNCILORS HAVE NOW WEIGHED IN ON THS REFERENDUM … plus … MAYOR DUMBDUM CONS CONCOM
By DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, FEB. 10, 2015) — Good gosh! It snowed yesterday.
In February.
In Pittsfield.
Predictably, Mayor Dumbvil Bebumchi went into full panic mode. He ordered the city vaporized, ending All Life As We Know It. This, alas, included another snow day for The Children. Part of Dumvil’s orders were for the plow jockeys to cut corners, ignore the side streets, do private jobs while on the city’s dime, abscond city materials for their own use, and plug homeowners just-shoveled-out driveways.
Mayor Dumbdum then reiterated his royal edict, ordering all Pittsfield homeowners to have sidewalks shoveled in under two minutes or else face burning at the stake. The city, meanwhile can take days and days to do what all its fancy equipment should be able to do in hours.
Welcome to Pittsfield.
In February.
When it snows.
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Quorum: Six of 11 Councilors Weigh in On THS Referendum; Five Still to be Counted
Citizens and taxpayers, THE PLANET has now received responses from six of the 11 city councilors on our yes-no (and why) question. Folks, we asked the 11 members if you as the ones who provide the money should be able to vote directly, up or down, on this project officially tagged at $115 million but more like to come in much higher than that. Six of 11 gives us a quorum. Today we add our Right Honorable Good Friends Kevin Morandi (Ward 2) and Chris Connell (4) to the list of respondents.
We shall present the full comments of councilors on THE PLANET‘s The Weekend Edition. For now, we shall provide the line score — the running list of councilors who have answered this request and if they support a people’s referendum (yes) or not (no). They are presented in order of being received:
Kathy Amuso — No.
Barry Clairmont — Yes.
John Krol — No.
Tony Simonelli — Yes.
Kevin Morandi — Yes.
Chris Connell — Yes.
TOTALS: Four in favor, Two against.
THE PLANET has yet to hear from Lisa Tully, Nick Caccamo, Jonathan Lothrop, Church Cotton, and Melissa Mazzeo. These five have until Thursday high noon to respond. We shall keep a close watch on the mailbox. THE PLANET can’t imagine in this election year a councilor ignoring this request. We can promise a good roasting for non-compliance.
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Virtual Stupidity: Mayor Wants to Borrow $110K for Permitting Software — Well After Stupid Move to 100 North St.
Item 9 in the City Council agenda for tonight requests $110,000 in borrowing to purchase online permitting software from Full Circle Technologies.
Say what?
As one city official told THE PLANET, “Welcome to the 20th Century. Good thing all those offices moved closer together.” That’s a sly reference to Mayor Dumbvil’s spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to move permitting offices to 100 North Street. That move will cost up to $500,000. Now, Mayor Dumdum proposes add another hundred grand-plus to buy software whose acquisition eliminates the need for physical proximity.
Conservation Feels Brunt of Corner Office Arrogance
Speaking of 100 North Street, the Conservation Agent now has an office there in addition to one at 70 Allen St. — a completely unneeded, unasked for, and non-required redundancy. To add insult, the mayor has required Conservation to pay for the new phone at the 100 North St. office. Sources tell THE PLANET that “no one” on the Conservation Commission, Conservation agent Rob Van Der Kar, nor OCD director Doug Clark wanted the redundant office. As one source told us, “It makes life [for Conservation] MORE difficult” [source’s emphasis].
Speaking of Conservation, what is Mayor Dumbdum’s problem? Take the case of vice chair Tom Sakshaug. His term has expired, but the mayor refuses to re-appoint him, letting petty politics poison his even pettier character. The mayor must realize the obvious, that Sakshaug does a great job on the commission. But the mayor doesn’t have the balls or the smarts to reappoint him in what should be a no-brainer. Sakshaug is exactly the kind of private citizen you want involved in government — even-minded, intelligent, dedicated, and a hard worker.
Sakshaug is ConCom vice chair, serves on the animal control commission, helps at the Wild Acres fishing derby, plants trees (for example, chestnut trees at Springside Park as part of the American Chestnut Restoration Project), and has traveled the state to represent the city at conservation conferences.
During Commission meetings, Sakshaug is an active member. He asks hard questions, listens to the answers, and comes to meetings having done his homework.
So why wouldn’t the mayor re-appoint TS? Jeepers, could it be that Sakshaug and Barry Clairmont are good friends? Hmmmm …. hmmmm? Bog forbid.
THE PLANET shall ask the mayor about this.
When the phone doesn’t ring, we will know it’s Dumbdum not getting back to us.
One thing is clear in this election year: Mayor Whatsisface has to go. Voters need to send him off into the sunset with his phat city pension before he literally destroys what once was a fine city.
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“He, bastioned in his citadel, looks forth / Joyless upon the sapphire lake that mirrors / The ruins of the city where he reigned …” —Percy Shelley, Hellas, lines 571-573.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
His name is Sakshaug.
Thanks, other Tom, he fixed it.
I appreciate the support, Dan. I love my Con Com job.
What does it say about the councilors that could not take two minutes to answer your question? It says they are not in favor of letting the citizens vote and do not have the intestinal fortitude to man up to it. Noticeably, they are the mayors closest assistants. Lothrup probably has his own agenda but has never felt that citizen types have the grey matter to decide things of such intellectual magnitude. You are not going to move up the political ladder by irritating the special interests.
Foreclosure petition activity in Berkshire County increased 57 percent in December….incredible bad news. Berkshire Eagle today.
It was the Worst snow plowing by state and local this year by far, the area around City Hall was atrocious last week for driving and that is only one area. The State plowing is abismal also. The city plows the roads uneven leaving more snow on one side, they don do the full road width, then the state plow comes after and plows big chunks into walks and driveways, my grandmother’s house was three feet deep this morning.
Just another feather in Tes’sCap, the roads plowing is bad this year!
To hear atrocious Mayor talk, his boy Collingwood is the nuts. The consensus is spot on and point blank. None of them are worth a paycheck. Bring Mr. Barrett back and get rid of them.
Mr Valenti. I believe all schools in Berkshire County were closed yesterday including BCC and Stockbridge school system. Am I correct ?
When push comes to shove the road plowing falls on Tes and no one else. The snow plowing has been an abismal failure and Barrett might have done a better job.
Part of the problem is Barrett made the Public Works Department stop pretreating the roads before a storm . He said it was a waste of money. Almost every City and Town in the Commonwealth does it for a reason, IT WORKS. It keeps the snow from sticking to the blacktop so after the storm cleanup actually gets down to the road. Also take a look at how much over budget we were when he was running the snow removal. Its easy when you throw money at it, but he didn’t have to pay the bill . Remember he lived in North adams.Take back the crown he wasn’t that good. Take it from somebody that drove a plow for the city when he was here.
Olga. How dare you speak the truth!
Fred, Barrett did a great job. You are uninformed
Don’t you just love the global warming?
Pay, global warming isn’t measured by how much snow western mass gets. It’s measures by the co2 to oxygen ratio in the atmosphere and the melting polar icecaps.
But the ultimate result will be that the climate begins to get warmer, but we have had 3 really cold winters in a row. Record setting low temperatures doesn’t say global warming to me. The whole point of climate change/Global warming nonsense is to make some people really wealthy.
That may be true and whether or not it’s a natural occurring phenomenon or a result of man made emissions is yet to be discovered. We have had much milder weather over te past few years. So one could say it has effected us already. We barly had snow the last two years. I remember opening day of shotgun season being 60 two years ago.
Pat, there is actually data on average global temperature going back over a century. You don’t have to rely on how the last three winters felt to you.
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/indicators/weather-climate/temperature.html
Not to mention, many climate chnge models call for the northeast US (us) to have wetter weather.
The main thing to keep in mind is that it takes many years of weather to be considered climate. Three feet of snow in my backyard doesn’t negate the science.
Consider the difference in storms we see here now. We see huge amounts of rain in short periods of time. We have “100 year storms”, storms that historically have a 1% chance of occurring in a given year, every year or two. The climate is changing, for sure.
I cited two sources, Joe. I’m open to reading whatever sources you’re using.
There are many scientists that don’t buy into the whole global warming, global freezing religion.
Earth has warmed and cooled since the moment it came into being Its surface has been covered by glaciers which pushed up mountains and dug out canyons which then melted away all without the assistance of the capitalism, SUV’s and people.
I checked out of the global warming group when the last blizzard that wasn’t convinced me that they can’t get a 36 hour forecast right with all the different computer models, so how can I trust they would be accurate about 75 or 100 years from now.
Sorry, but there’s a pretty solid consensus on this among scientists. I do realize that popular opinion is another thing. People will choose to believe any number of things.
http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
Mike, there are many people who do not believe your religion. I was always taught never to ridicule another’s beliefs.
I cited two sources, Joe. I’m open to reading whatever sources you’re using.
Thanks, Chris, but Mr. Booker’s article has been discredited.
http://www.factcheck.org/2015/02/nothing-false-about-temperature-data/
One must realize that NASA is much less about science and more about politics.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/10916086/The-scandal-of-fiddled-global-warming-data.html
Sorry, replied above this post. ^
The weather doesn’t change in the winter here?The plows and road crews suck,, that it’
Mike not a cut and paste guy. If you search the subject on the web there will be many difference of opinion on the subject. Guess we don’t see that one eye to eye. I do agree with you that we must no pollute our air and water. I wish the state would reimburse Pittsfield at a higher level for renovating Taconic. That would save the taxpayers some money and keep the carbon footprint down.
Good point – building re-use should be encouraged by the State, not subsidized at a lower rate
Wow, another $110,000.00. $100,000.00 here $100,000.00 there, $200 million over there, pretty soon your talking about real money.
What the hell, its not their money, its yours.
Notice he did this after the move to 100 North St. and not before. Doing it before the move and the move would have been irrelevant. Going to the city council asking for the funds. They said no and did the move anyway, probably using the snow removal money to pay for it. What if the council says no again? Where will the Fuhrer then take the money from?
So now the inpectors are out of the moldy dungeon and sitting in their cushy new comfy offices – a permit request comes in online – no hurry – they get to it whenever they damn well please. Maybe the city can hire assistants for all the inspectors and put them in the moldy dungeon to handle the flood of online requests for permits?
At some point, the taxpayers need to rise up and say no.
Perhaps we should have a referendum on Pittsfield’s most dangerous street. Melville St, hands down. Wake up Morandi.
Not allowing Citizens the right to a vote, when clearly it has been made known that this is an ascending demand, is a cowardly stance, and will result in more than roasting……for these councilors…
Went to pay taxes last storm and Barry was standing outside City Hall, he had to see the lousy job of Plowning around Fenn St. To City Hall, Barry? Lo? What is this water bill from the City coming a month early,Tes looking to collect interest on it?
Dan,
The National Guard has been called in in Boston. Snow in the middle of February in Massachusetts is unheard of and could not be foreseen or prepared for.
Perhaps they can also assist in distibuting mandatory measles vaccines.
Snow in the middle of winter, measles, deflated footballs… what is this world coming to?
The sky is falling
The sky is falling
It isn’t an aberration it’s snowing in the Berkshires, it’s the bad plowing and lack of leadership.
In my opinion,this is the least productive City Council and School Committee ever!
I believe everyone would agree
Not sure you can catagorize it as non-productive or a do-nothing council and administration. They’ve actually done plenty and you get to pay for it all.
I wish they were non productive and do nothing because we would have spent tons of money in needless spending on so many things we don’t need and cannot afford.
I guess it all depends on how you define “productive”.
If Pittsfield ever did get a mayor and city council that was for the people and a fine steward of their money, I don’t think the people would realize it. The people are so beat down they’ve given up.
A reminder: you have 24 hours to clear your walk or pay a fine.
The city needs this fine money because city government is so expensive to run. Being elderly or physically unable is no excuse.
More snow is on the way Thurs/Fri
The phone announcement stated you have 24 hrs to clear sidewalks.
For those of you interested, the administration wants to give away more of your hard earned tax dollars tonight by committing the city to future expenses on a building we won’t be using. Watch item #10 on the agenda.
I will not be supporting giving your (future) tax dollars away.
Barry
Barry,
You are a bit of an anomoly.
If Dan Valenti were elected mayor, I’d like to see you stay on as councilor. I believe you would do the right thing in his administration.
If Dan Bianchi gets reelected I would not like to see you serving because I believe tax payer would get much of the same.
Its a tough call with you at this point.
I don’t understand this…Barry’s good or he isn’t! If Bianchi is reelected we need Barry to help protect us!
Thanks Councilor Clairmont. Apprecite your fighting for us. Given em hell
Why don’t we just tear that building down and build a new one in its place?
It could be done for under $100 Million USDollars.
It would provide jobs. We can get a bond approved without a vote from taxpayers. The only problem I see is flat roof or sloped?
Then after 30 or 40 years of neglect, we can tear it down and build a new one. Who cares if we need it or not. Its not our money. It can be a cash cow.
What building is that, Spice? Just saw a city plow pushing the snow into First street, smack dab in the middle of the street??? Section of the City are terrible, check Maplewood by North…Why is parking allowed on Columbus in front of the elderly housing, you can’t get two cars through by those parked cars, accident waiting to happen.
Do the flat roofs need to be shoveled?
It doesn’t surprise me AmusedSo doesn’t want a vote. And where are Lothrop and. the rest on this. What a drag.
With all of the hoopla concerning the snow, has anyone seen the potholes popping up also.
the folks who do front end alignments are drooling with anticipation.
What does this Doug guy do for the City, is he necessary, andmwhat and who the hell cares about Barry’s problem with BIC and the roof, who the hell cares, 20 years from now I won’t even be alive.
@B…He could be a double for Lee Marvin?
CAt BAllou
One of two of Nuciforo’s Law Offices is on the fourth floor at 100 North Street in Pittsfield, which is the same building Mayor Dan Bianchi moved Pittsfield’s permitting process. Nuciforo’s other law office is in Boston. Nuciforo wants a permit to sell medical marijuana in Massachusetts, but he was denied. Nuciforo is suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to get a pot permit. Nuciforo wants to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
What a dope.
Funny thing is before the move, on this blog, on the Eagle and directly via email I mentioned the success that has been PermitEyes for six towns locally. Remember Matt Kerwood, he asked Pittsfield to be part of the FREE GRANT FUNDED version of permit eyes, your city ignored it. Guess what, we have it, it works very well, you could have had it basically for free via grant funding, but now you’ve got a $500k white elephant at 100 North and you are paying for your own software.
Clairmont has a clue, he knows the deal, he was interested in the software you guys should elect him mayor.