By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

BREAKING NEWS! — THE PLANET received word shortly after 4 p.m. Friday, the end of the city’s work day, that city accountant Ben Wax resigned. We don’t know if this was unexpected or benign, forced or  of choice. Resignations occur, of course, but there’s heightened interest when it involves someone connected with money and finance. Our source is a good one. THE PLANET has contacted city hall for an official confirmation.

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(PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary, Weekend Edition, March 6-8, 2015) — Don’t expect to hear about this from or in any other of the local media, especially from The so-out-of-touch Boring Broadsheet, and you must give us “Scout’s Honor” (remember that?) that you didn’t get it from us because NOISTKAI — No One Is Supposed To Know About It!!

On Wednesday, the city hired two sheriff’s deputies at $30 and hour to supervise five inmates from the Tommy Bowler Holiday Ranch out in Lanesboro, a.k.a. The Berkshire County House of Correction near the decaying Berkshire Mall, to clean snow off the roof from the flat Taconic High School.

The cons used snowblowers, shovels, ice picks, bear traps, pick axes, zip guns, reds, and sleds, moving the snow from the roof onto the inner courtyard. Remember, these are untrained workers. THE PLANET does not exactly how the inmates are selected from among the hundreds of upstanding fellows who are getting free room and board courtesy of Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, but we sure know one thing: they are amateurs in snow removal, putting them right up there with Mayor Daniel Bumstead, Public Services director Bruce Colonwood, and Highway direction Kevin Fail (rhymes with Swail and also with Flail).

‘Extensive Damage’ to THS Roof

THE PLANET has it from reliable source that during the course of the work, the cons inflicted “extensive damage” to the Taconic roof. We do not know the full extent of the damage nor specifically what kind, though we can report we did hear from knowledgeable sources that the damage involves “thousands” and “possibly tens of thousands” in damage. Now a cynical person, which in Pittsfield means someone who can handle the truth, might connect this damage with the pedal-to-metal push to get a $150 million “new” THS built on the spot. You know, now it has a bad roof and all.

THE PLANET will not go there at this time, being content to let the implications of this incident sink in the hearts and heads of every Pittsfield voter in this Election Year.

Here’s another key point to consider: After the incident, no one, according to informed sources, reported the damage to school or city officials. They tried to cover it up. One source said that after the incident, the actions were in the direction of a cover-up so that the public would never hear about it. What then? Would the bad roof later be cited, long after the snow had melted, as the reason to build the new school? The obfuscation, too, tells you all you need to know about the state of Pittsfield politics during the Seige of Bumstead (SOB, also called the Reign of Bumstead (ROB). SOB and ROB are against transparency. Keep The People dumb, barefoot, and pregnant.

Since You The People were never supposed to know about this, naturally, you are not to know about who pays for the damage. The city? The sheriff? The inmates? Our guess is: “Gotta Mirror,” which means you, the bedraggled taxpayer. Also keep in mind that the use of Sheriff’s Deputies to supervise inmates comes at a cost. It’s not free work. So, for $30 an hour times two times “x” number of hours, taxpayers get an “extensively damaged” roof.

Such a deal!

Allendale School: What Didn’t Add Up on the Roof

Meanwhile, last week, the city hired the sheriff’s department to employ cons to shovel and snow-blow the roof at Allendale School. That’s the grammar school located a chip and a putt away from the notorious Hill 78, a five-story mountain of code-red industrial toxins (another “Way to go, Pittsfield”).

Our Right Honorable Good Friend and former Ward 4 councilor Mike Ward posted on Facebook that he agreed with the use of prison labor. THE PLANET agreed with him. Ward shared one “however,” and that was the scant warning given to parents. Seems the School Department notified them on the previous day, certainly not enough time for parents to offer feedback, particularly for the moms and dads that might have had a problem with the deal. Again, we agree. If you’re going to employ prison labor at a grammar or high school, there needs to be more notice than one day.

THE PLANET‘s snooping around also turned up another concern. We heard from sources yesterday that during the robo-call notifying citizens that this would be happening, the city said it needed to clear the Allendale roof since it was “in imminent danger” of collapsing.

Stop and think about that for a moment.

OK, see the problem. If the city was telling the truth, by no means a safe assumption under the current Administration, then why in Tarnation and Carnation were the kids in school that day!!!!???? Yes, that is the rare sentence that deserves the extra seasoning of exclamation points and question marks. If the city’s statement is true, it means that Mayor Bumstead and School Supt. Jake “JIV” McCandless put the health and even the lives of the children at risk. Again, way to go, Pittsfield.

Now, what if the city was exaggerating. What if it wasn’t telling the truth (we know what a shock that would be)? What if there was no “imminent danger?” Then it poses the question of why the work couldn’t wait until the weekend, when there would be no kids in school. Could it be to save on overtime? Not good enough, for two reasons:

1. It’s preferable to eat the time-and-a-half for two sheriff’s deputies ($45 an hour) than to have convicts working while school is in session (again, assuming no imminent danger).

2. Why is the city even paying extra for deputies in the first place. Deputies are needed to supervise the prisoners. THE PLANET gets that, but they are already getting paid by the sheriff. Why the double dipping? While this doesn’t provide an answer, it may provide a clue. When the mayor ran for office in 2011 following his defeat in 2009, Sheriff Tom Bowler served as his campaign manager, along with Bowler’s sister, Donna Matoon, who then went on to be the mayor’s director of administrative services. There’s a good word for that: “Cozy.”

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Bustling? Yeah, But with What?

FInally, THE PLANET provides this example of wildly creative fiction courtesy of Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development. The office sent out a flyer publicizing a number of events, first on the list being Friday’s First Fridays Artswalk (March 6).

The release begins with this sentence: “The March 6th First Fridays Artswalk will encompass a dozen different art shows featuring work by over 20 accomplished artists in Pittsfield’s bustling Upstreet Cultural District, with venues as far south as the Berkshire Museum and as far North[sic] as Berkshire Medical Center” (our emphasis added).

” … bustling Upstreet Cultural District …”

“Bustle: to hurry busily, fussily, and noisily as in ‘a bustling commotion.'” (Webster’s New World Dictionary). The word can alternately mean “action, liveliness, excitement, and tumult.”

When the term “bustling” is applied to Pittsfield’s downtown, it can only refer to “commotion,” such as the fights which break out at the end of Third Thursday. Or the reference is “hurry busily,” the way decent people who have to venture downtown move about so as to finish their finish as rapidly as possible to avoid the dreariness and danger of North Street.

“Excitement?” “Tumult?”

We won’t even go there.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

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“It won’t be long ’til I belong to you.” — The Beatles, “It Won’t Be Long,” (1964).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.
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