By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015) — Driving to campus yesterday afternoon, The Old Professor reached a stop at Merriam and West streets. Looking across the street as we often do at the beautiful edifice of St. Mark’s Church, we noticed two things: (1) There was a funeral in progress, and (2) West Street in front of the Church and the immediate side streets had been swept bone clean. The St. Mark’s parking lot bulged to capacity, a uniformed police officer stood in the road, and it had the markings of a dignitary’s send-off.

It stood out because both before and after that short stretch of West Street, the streets still resembled the avenues of a war zone, littered with potholes and dotted with trash, sand, and all manner of ugliness. The area around city hall and North Street looked particularly bad.

Death and Favoritism?

Later that night, we learned that the funeral was for the mayor’s mother-in-law. Before all else, THE PLANET extends our sympathies to his wife and the family, with heartfelt sincerity. We emphasize that point so that it does not get overshadowed by an equally competing source of commentary.

We call to mind the following:

* The numerous, cavernous, and unattended potholes continue to do untold damage to vehicles (we all have our favorite moonscapes; ours is the stretch of Elizabeth Street that runs parallel to South Street between Buel and Reed streets). They need immediate attention immediately, but there they sit, yawning chasms symbolizing the Administration’s failure to provide even the most basic services to citizens.

* Not one city street has been swept, as far as we know. Members of The Secret Squadron, who live in and patrol every quadrant of the city, confirm as much. Typically by this time, sweeping would have been well under way. The neglect continues the failing pattern of the mayor and his director of public services.

* The mayor said potholes would be filled prior to street sweeping.

Our point is to question the priorities on display here. It appears that the mayor ordered work on potholes stopped and for DPW crews to drop everything to make the funeral street sections immaculate. Is that what happened? THE PLANET received what overwhelmingly looks like confirmation from “an informed city source,” close to the action, who asked for anonymity.

Death, as sad as it is, does not qualify as a mitigating factor, if the information is accurate. In our judgment, the mayor’s action represents an abuse of city resources, given the desperate need for roadways to be patched, repaired, and swept. The action also bears the disconcerting touch of favoritism and pulling rank, of an elite few being more equal than the masses’ “unwashed others.” THE PLANET, as usual, was unable to get the mayor’s comments on this, because he has cut off all communication with us.

THE PLANET reminds the mayor that the United States got rid of the monarchy on July 4, 1776. The city has no use for an “Us vs. them” and a “let them eat cake” mentality. We do not have rulers. We have employees, representatives we elect to do our bidding, which does not include granting special privileges to those clsoe to them.

While we repeat our sorrow at the death, we also must keep steadfast in favor of ordinary citizens, who would never receive such treatment. The mayor’s family is no better and no worse than anyone else, but that’s not the statement the mayor seems to have made in this case.

It reveals much. Much.

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Bonding Blues … and PCBs

Last night, the company that will handle the bonding for borrowing at least $120.8 million for building a new Taconic High School spoke before Our Right Honorable Good Friends on the Pittsfield City Council. Keep in mind that she has a vested interest in selling the city to give the construction project the green light, just one of a group of Special Interests that stand to make small fortunes off a project the city doesn’t need and doesn’t want — and that may end up bankrupting the municipality.

If you want the truth about the bonding options, go back and (re)read THE PLANET‘s first-in coverage (see our column from The Weekend Edition, April 3-5). Bottom line is that simply to service the bonds, taxpayers will be on the hook for up to $3 million a year for as long as 28 years.

Our favorite quote from last night comes from Ward 6 councilor John Krol, who repeated his mantra when it comes to this project:  “The choice to do nothing is absolutely not a choice.” As if anyone has proposed that as a choice!

The better alternative is a renovation of the existing THS that would cost taxpayers about $100 million less. THE PLANET realizes to tax-and-spenders like Krol, Kathy Amuso, Melissa Mazzeo and the others, a hundred million on taxpayers’ shoulders is chicken feed. To Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski, however, one-tenth of a billion dollars saved is a lot.

The supreme irony is that if Krol, Amuso, and Mazzeo vote for the project on April 14, they will likely precipitate a legal action and throw the project into, first, an indefinite delay and, second, into a likely rejection. That’s because, as THE PLANET has previously noted, those three have a severe conflict of interest by virtue of their joint service on the council (the appropriating authority) and the School Building Needs Commission (the agency requesting the money).

Can’t say we didn’t warn them!

A PCB Warning That’s Being Buried

Finally, tucked into the final page of the bonding documents is a list of 21 items that state reimbursement will not cover (also first published by THE PLANET in the last Weekend Edition). It is both amazing and shocking that no one in authority has addressed item 8 on that list of 21. It reads:

“8. Hazardous Waste Containment & Disposal (i.e. Polychlorinated Biphenyl [PCBs] and contaminated soils).” [ED NOTE: THE PLANET had edited this line to correct no fewer than six grammatical and stylistic errors, to save the city from further embarrassment].

Yes, the site will need PCB mitigation.