THE PASSING OF CHARLIE SMITH, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, plus THE COMMENT LINE IS OPEN!
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION, FEB. 12-14, 2016) — This is St. Valentine’s Day weekend. THE PLANET reminds you of two things: (1) You can’t spell “Valentine” without “Valenti,” and (2) be sure to be extra nice to your sweetie!
Now then, let us switch emotional gears and acknowledge the sad news of Charlie Smith‘s passing. THE PLANET didn’t know Charlie intimately but at a “close distance.” We started commenting on the local scene in 1992 (in print and radio), and Charlie was out of office by then. THE PLANET did have his son in one of our comp classes, and we remember Charlie Jr. resembling his dad almost eerily. We found son Chas to be solid, conscientious, and a hard worker. We have talked to numerous folks since Mayor Smith’s passing, and we found no lack of similarly complimentary plaudits.
Here is a Letter to the Editor from a man who knew him much better than we did:
TO THE PLANET
My dear friend former Mayor Charles L Smith has passed. He helped me to bring the Krofta Technology to the City of Pittsfield. He had the courage to try something different and his bravery saved you the city Taxpayer’s over 150 million dollars. I will never forget him. I talked to him 1 day before his death. The city has lost a good friend. In his name, let me address two councilors.
Dear Mr. Marchetti and Ms. Rivers, the tax payers of this city look to you to try to right the many wrongs the rest of this council has foisted on the overburdened tax payers. The first thing you should do is find a mechanism to give the taxpayer the right to weigh in whether they want to build a new THS or not. When you look at the projections for a declining student population, in all of Berkshire County- it should become very clear to you, that we do not need a New THS.
THS is not in the state of disrepair that the 9 other councilors and the School Committee says it is. If the city utilized the positions it pays a fortune for, such as the city engineering and departments of public works, it could propose cost effective measures at THS to bring it up to par. Collingwood is a PE-professional engineer and should be able to handle any technological problems facing the city — except that he cant do this without having to get permission from Metcalf and Eddy Engineers.
Also, I would be pleased to give you Mr. Marchetti and Ms Rivers a thorough tour of the facilities we as Krofta Engineering built for the city in the mid 1980s at a great savings to the city. I can conclusively demonstrate how, if given the chance, I can save the city millions once more. I do this in the spirit of my late, great friend, Charlie Smith. I do not have any faith in the other 9 members of the council. The city is depending on you Mr. Marchetti and Ms. Rivers. Please do not disappoint us Thank you and good luck. The taxpayers are counting on you. — CRAIG GAETANI
THE PLANET Responds: — We thank our good friend for his letter and urge Marchetti and Rivers to take him up on his offer. There would be nothing to lose but possibly much to gain. THE PLANET doesn’t know for sure, and neither do the councilors. Isn’t it time to find out?
——– 000 ——–
Since we are in the Letters to the Editor Department, we share this one from Thursday:
TO THE PLANET
I just found your blog and find it both interesting and informative. You must be a well-rounded writer. I’m a boring engineer, which will explain my comments below.
What drives me off the trail is your continuous word game you seem to use for the subject titles. Could you please stick more to the point and use less wording gymnastics? I’m sure you get a good chuckle out of the wing-ding titles and your word games but it gets old if one is just looking to see if the article is worth reading.
You have probably been doing it for so long you feel compelled to out do yourself on each new article and perhaps see it as your literary signature but from the outside looking in …. it’s frustrating.
Perhaps when you get a real grand slam, you can do it, otherwise can you stick to a clearer script?
Just saying my friendly friend. — JACK
THE PLANET Responds: Thanks. We appreciate the criticism. You have a good point. We do try to outdo myself, and that’s part of the fun. If we were charging for the blog or taking ads, we would play the headlines straighter, as you suggest. I’ll keep your points in mind, and, hey, you’re NOT a boring engineer.
——– 000 ——–
That’s it for now. We’re outta here, perhaps to South Carolina then Nevada whistlestops. Sightseeing. The Comment Line is open. Have a great weekend everybody.
———————————————————————————————-
“She takes another puff and says it’s a crazy scene, that red is green, and she’s a tangerine.” — Stevie Wonder, “Too High,” from the Innervisions album, (1974).
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
The views expressed in the comment section or opinions published within the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not those of PLANET VALENTI or endorsed in any way by PLANET VALENTI; this website reserves the right to remove any comment which violates its Rules of Conduct, and it is not liable for the consequences of any posted comment as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and PLANET VALENTI’s terms of service.
What a kind person he was, remember his blue and white signs “I’m for Charlie “, old school guy that always had the best interest in the city. God Speed Charlie and thank you.
Mr. G’s letter was a big disappointment. I expected a heartfelt tribute to Charlie Smith. But even when his friend passes he has to turn it into an opportunity for a sales pitch. Let’s say the two councilors took him up on the tour offer. What could they possibly see in the tangle of pipes that would verify Mr G’s claims?
I agree. I am disappointed Dan would post garbage like that. This blog used to be so good. Now it’s filled mostly with uneducated, idiotic postings from people who can’t spell or use proper grammar, and are too mentally lazy to do any proper research so post a bunch of misinformation or even outright lies.
Planet Valenti – where 4 out of 5 posters partake in the dumbing down of America.
Ah grasshopper, it is time for me to leave.
SOL,not everyone can be a intellectual genius like you. Must be tough going through life so smart. Common sense would say, stop reading the blog.
Yes, Yes, and Yes Joetaxpayer.
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out SOL.
I do agree. Posters like “Shakes His Head” “Paul” “MrG1188” “Thomas Moore” and others have ruined this site. They demonstrate the dumbing down of America and illustrate the mental illness that is the progress liberal mindset.
First, thank you for thinking of me. It’s nice to see that just a few thoughtful, well-written, grammatically coherent and mostly politically neutral comments can incite fear and anger in people. Second, I like the idea of living rent free in the heads of people who call themselves Conservatives who are actually more just brainwashed to believe what they are told by a particular segment of the universe. Hint: neither side is right, neither side is honest. They are ALL lying to you to. Vote in your own interest, follow your own conscience…and allow me to do likewise.
It is OK, it is even healthy that we disagree. The fact that we discuss those disagreements and share our thoughts on issues here makes this an excellent forum. This is not a conservative echo chamber. I don’t believe it is intended to be. I do not think you are a dick for believing as you do. I welcome the ongoing discussion. It is when cogent, informed discussion ends and name calling starts that we take another step closer to the end of what makes this a great nation.
Yeah, geez, I guess I’m dumbing the site down by expecting people to discuss logic and facts rather than conjecture and debasing insults.
AWESOME! I feel humbled to be even mentioned in the same sentence with three of the giants of this blog. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (I’ll help you with the spelling of your name) you old mongoose, I thank you. I hope you haven’t offended Shakes, Paul and MrG by tossing me in there with them.
LOL…naaahh Thomas, we cool.
Don’t let the door hit you in the a$$
You failed to honor my request for information yesterday. Before you fade off into the sunset perhaps you might demonstrate your superior intellect and research skills and answer my questions.
SOL February 11, 2016 at 12:04 pm #
I may very well end up voting for Trump, but your statement about the Dems taking away 2nd amendment rights is completely untrue. Only a complete idiot believes anything the NRA says.
Reply
Benigno Fiasconi February 11, 2016 at 3:42 pm #
As an expert on the NRA please tell us what they say SOL.I have been following left wing democrats since the 1960′s and indeed they do want to ed private ownership of firearms in ths country. You can find them saying this on youtube and countless quotes,
Reply
bbb February 11, 2016 at 4:37 pm #
SOL have you been hiding under a rock? The democrat liberal agenda can easily be proven. Wow.
Reply
SOL February 12, 2016 at 6:59 am #
BBB and BF – 2 prime examples of the dumbing down of America.
Heartfelt condolences to Charlie Smith’s family.
Mr. G. must be predisposed as word on the street is that he is amidst a romantic partnership with a former turnpike toll taker.
I am glad if he has a nice person in his life. But, none of my business either way is it?
Dowgerhat–What’s her name? so he can call her or have her call him and he might meet and have a coffee with her.
Perhaps he can get her to join his Citizens 4 sanity group that he is
building.
It looks like the truth about Charlie has been buried and forgotten.
Mr. Geez personal relationships is none of anyone’s business. Do you really want to go there? Relationships?
I would be terrified to learn that Mr. G had any access to the City’s water plants. They are run under guidelines established by the DEP and EPA and require operators to have various licensure and certification. Absent Mr G’s proof of current licensures, despite his claims – he is not qualified to touch those plants.
Contrary to his constant assertion, those plants are not “his” – they belong to the City of Pittsfield as a corporate entity, NOT the individual taxpayers or water users.
There may be tweaks one could make, but we have been operating those facilities for about 30 years and I trust that the folks running them have a good understanding of them. I don’t believe that the folks on the ground, running the water plants are incompetent and in fact I am certain they are quite talented and I trust them over Mr G any day all day.
I agree Southeast. Gaetani is far from being an engineer; Krofta and Wang did the research and engineered those systems. The so-called wizard was a marketer for the system. Interestingly, the city says tours of the wastewater treatment plant are available to the public. To all of the public except one of its creators?
As for his personal life, no more interested in that than anything else he does BUT, as it seems Planet readers are to be perpetually doomed to read of him, at least he’s got a new and legible ghostwriter!
and how would you know this?
tours are where the folks responsible for the plants show you around. they don’t let you take the controls and drive. word has it that the wizard tried these shenanigans in Lenox and they had to have him removed from that plant as well a couple of years back.
Yes, he tried to get into the Lenox plant with a photographer just before the primaries this past fall and was turned away.
Where did you get that from? Call him and he’ll get you into the Lenox plant and show you around. His number is in the book.
Spreading rumors again JP? Not very nice.
Do you refer to me as JP? Sorry. I rarely post and know very few commenters here. I only speak what I know but I can’t say how I know it anymore than you can say your real name. The man was trying to capitalize on a job he performed two decades ago to get elected. Ya’all ostracised Ms. Walto for doing the same thing. He was a marketer for Krofta…he tried to sue the company for getting hurt climbing a ladder or some such thing! How do I know? I did my research. It’s all on the internet…took me about an hour over the summer to discover that he appears in exactly one footnote in *one* of Krofta’s published works on the sandfloat system. He helped with a water sample. Look it up yourself!
Not referring to you chief
Southeast, what qualifies you to make those judgements?
Well, these are not judgements – but facts.
1.
The operation of treatment plants require li9censure and the operators are City employees. Mr. G may have ideas, but the plants are run under someone else’s responsibility and over the past 30+ years of getting water bills – I have never received a notice that the water from these plants is not in conformity with DEP’s standards.
No, just your judgements
Southeast, who are the stockholders in the corporation? The taxpayers maybe?
I own share of GE too, but that doesn’t give me the right to go to a GE facility and wander around at will, fiddle with the controls or play with the equipment.
And who has asked to fiddle with controls or play with equipment? Where can I find the quotes where they did make such requests?
During the campaign, he kept telling us how he was not granted an audience with Collingwood or others and how he could save the City further monies if he would be allowed to tweak the plant’s operations to save on utilities.
He said it many times in his comments to the CC and a few times on this blog.
If you aren’t saying I shouldn’t take him at his word – then I guess I made the right choice in not voting for him.
Why would the designer of a water treatment system, a savior of millions of dollars, not be granted access to plants in *two* of the towns where the system was installed??!? Because he was NOT responsible for that creation! Those who were are dead and/or too classy to involve themselves in the discussion. He was a laborer, a marketer, that is all.
Better yet, why does he need to show them, can he not just explain?
Geez news hour at 10.
Charlie did his best for the city, for himself, for his family. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone did the same? Thanks for posting, DV.
How do you know it’s Pittsfield Snow? When the Planet puts it in a Glass, brings it in the studio, and doesn’t melt!
I think it was asbestos flakes
What happened to Pittsfield over the past 4 decades? There was once a thriving blue collar community who invested in its local people instead of the vested interests. It seemed like Mayor Charlie Smith represented the old school Pittsfield where people were proud of their community.
Pittsfield politics is currently ran by the Good Old Boys’ club who only serves the vested interests. Pittsfield politics has very high costs due to the big 3 labor unions: Police, Fire, Schools. Instead of Pittsfield investing in the local people, the opposite is happening! The local people are investing in the corrupt vested interests and the Good Old Boys’ iron grip on Pittsfield politics.
Citizen participation in Pittsfield politics is disparaged on this very blog by various commentators. I get picked on daily on topix. They say when I was a student at Pittsfield High School in the early 1990’s, I got a basketball coach fired; that my dad had a courthouse job due to nepotism; that I have big buck teeth; that I never worked, and that I have no problem eating my free lunch, etc. My point is that if you participate in Pittsfield politics, you are retaliated against.
Pittsfield politics is a China-like de facto one political party system that suppresses and intimidates citizen participation in state and local government. If you are not with the in crowd, you are an outsider. That is NOT how democratic government is supposed to be. Instead, We the People all should have a voice in OUR government!
– Jonathan Melle
g e left crime moved in.
I don’t know much about the water plants but let’s compare them to a car. A designer designs the car and has to design it in such a way as to conform to many government standards as did Gaetani with the water plants. Then the car or the water plant gets built and the water plant gets a licensed operator and the limousine gets a licensed chauffeur but the person who built and designed the car or the water plant knows a hell of a lot more about the limo or the water plant than the chauffer/operator even though the designer does not hold a license.
Polar plunge Tommorow at 11 a. m. Onota Lake…..
PV TV last night was great, one of your best ever DV. The info on the school contract was incredible. How do we allow this to happen?
February 12, 2016
Re: Alan Chartock hits the nail on its head about Smitty Pignatelli getting passed over
In his latest Berkshire Eagle column, Alan Chartock hits the nail on its head about Smitty Pignatelli getting passed over for Berkshire State Senator! The Good Old Boys power-brokers in Pittsfield politics did not want him to run because he doesn’t follow all of their orders. Smitty Pignatelli follows his own conscience and has an independent streak in state and local politics. The G.O.B.’s want someone else who they can control. It will probably be someone younger than Smitty Pignatelli, and who can ham it up with the best of the Massachusetts Democratic Party political hacks. It is amazing how much political power the G.O.B. has over state and local Pittsfield politics!
– Jonathan Melle
G says taxes will go through the roof. grandma and grandson will be leaving also. Where is fiscal responsibilty?
Shenanigans at the airport? Oh my! Lothrup looking into it? Who had over sight before? Why did these concerns not surface earlier? Uh oh.
did we have more of our foxes watching our hen houses? Like The school committee?
Can you turn over a rock anywhere in Pittsfield without finding a pile of dung?
I am an unemployed dental hygienist who has been black balled from every dental office in Berkshire County. Don’t worry about any shenanigans at the airport; I will be leading the charge; I have long and vast knowledge about the operations of an airport; after all I have driven by it several times.
At the risk of violating the other golden rule of not speaking ill of the dead, let me say I was not a Charlie Smith fan. He killed the downtown by undermining the North Street mall. A mall somewhere was going to be built but the North Street merchants, especially England Brothers, opposed the plans for a down town mall. The funding and permissions were in place, the plans had been approved but Smith killed it. The result was the ghost town we see now which emerged shortly after the Lanesboro mall was built. I have often cited Smith’s short-sighted decision when people question how much government matters. It matter for Pittsfield which continues to be hurt by this mayor. He may have been a nice guy but he did not deserve to be mayor.
The defeat of a downtown mall may be part of what tanked Pittsfield’s local economy, but it is not the only reason why Pittsfield’s population, jobs, incomes, crime, Good Old Boys corruption, vested interests, and the like, are all big problems.
The biggest problem with Pittsfield politics is its unsustainable municipal finances. When one looks at Pittsfield’s finances today, it is similar to many other working poor communities in Massachusetts, such as North Adams, Springfield, etc. Pittsfield is on the path of financial insolvency within the next 5 to 10 years! Pittsfield is at risk of declaring bankruptcy within the next 25 years!
The lovely Linda Tyer is focused on Pittsfield’s “creative economy”, but we all know it is a “welfare economy”! There are no full time, living wage jobs in Pittsfield anymore. Sabic Plastics is moving to Houston, Texas, later this year. About 500 jobs will be lost. What is Mayor Linda Tyer’s plan to address Pittsfield’s shrinking tax base? I haven’t heard anything yet!
Dan Valenti addresses Pittsfield’s financial and economic issues on his blog, but the rest of the political establishment touts theaters, cinemas, bars and restaurants, and tourist seasonal jobs for teenagers.
– Jonathan Melle
Well said except I doubt it’ll take twenty five years to go belly up
Amen
C. Trzcinka
And the Berkshire Mall is doing SOOOO well
Without a doubt, as another post was stated, the lost of G E certainly is the number one factor in Piitsfields economic decline.How many times have we heard from media types,g e ain’t coming back? The ripple effect with housing, dicretionery inc -ome, employement, medical insurance, farmed out work for other businesses, just the overall positive quality of living with a good paying job in the Berkshires and not worrying about a four year education to work, was relief to a student who could,work at the plant after graduation,without worrying about leaving the area to raise a family.
The school committee and the city council need to realize GE isn’t coming back and stop spending money as if we had a booming GE economy.
Don’t worry Lisa Tully is for manufactureing and she is working hard to bring back a really big fish back to the Pitt.
onto another topic totally: I see that Justice Scalia died unexpectedly in Texas at age 79. This make the Presidential campaign interesting.
nn
b
GE transformed itself from a blue collar manufacturing company to a white collar financial company during the 1980s – 1990s. In short, GE left Pittsfield for Wall Street. After the 2 big recessions of the 2000s, GE almost went bankrupt, and then GE sold off most of its financial businesses to other companies. GE has moved a lot of its business overseas to nations such as China.
GE left Pittsfield with cancer causing chemicals called PCBs. The Consent Decree that was signed by Jack Welch and Gerry Doyle did not clean up a majority of the toxic waste in Pittsfield. The caps on the PCBs are finite in their use. The caps need daily monitoring. Within 20 to 30 years, the caps become useless. Currently, GE is fighting the cleanup of the Housatonic River that runs from Pittsfield through Connecticut to the Long Island Sound. This is all unconscionable because thousands of local people have suffered from and died of cancer in Pittsfield.
During the tenure of Mayor Jimmy Ruberto, Pittsfield politics spent a couple million dollars of GE’s economic development funds on downtown revitalization, such as the renovated Colonial Theater. No full time, living wage jobs were created by Jimmy Ruberto’s investments in downtown Pittsfield’s culture and arts. In fact, thousands of jobs were lost during the 8 years Jimmy Ruberto was the Mayor of Pittsfield from 2004 – 2011.
The lovely Linda Tyer touts Pittsfield’s creative economy, while about 70% of local residents live in poverty and rely on welfare assistance and social services programs. Mayor Linda Tyer will have to deal with the closing of Sabic Plastics in Pittsfield this year of 2016 with about 500 jobs lost. She will have to present her FY2017 municipal budget soon, which usually means about a 5% annual budget increase.
In short, Pittsfield got screwed over by GE, and Pittsfield politics has made things even worse than ever!
– Jonathan Melle
Think rolodex.
Think Jimmy Ruberto moving from Texas to Pittsfield, moving into his mother Edith’s Pittsfield home, placing his mother Edith into a nursing home, thereby usurping his mother Edith’s home, running for Mayor of Pittsfield selling his rolodex of business contacts, being Mayor of Pittsfield for 8 years during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, spending tens of millions of dollars on downtown Pittsfield instead of investing in job growth, seeing thousands of jobs lost in Pittsfield, being the King of the Good Old Boys club that thrives off of political corruption and insider politics, spending several months out of the year at his Florida condo, and then setting up the lovely Linda Tyer to be the first 4 year Mayor of Pittsfield.
That’s a very long sentence.
Jim Beam decided our fate at the Consent Decree
Jim Beam also sent the city government into state government receivership after Pittsfield went financially insolvent about 15 years ago.
Are you sure it wasn’t Johnny Walker?
I had a dream. It was late March on a Tuesday night and the mayor of Pittsfield was at the city council meeting. She requested that she may use the open mike to address the public. Her request was granted. She then stated that she was grateful to the citizen taxpayers, the backbone of the city. And she had good news for them. The good news was that due to the unusually warm winter with very little snow the city had saved a bundle of money sanding, salting and plowing the roads. And in addition, due to the incredibly low prices of gasoline and heating oil she wanted the people of her city to know that there was also huge savings in those line items as well. She wanted to share this great news because she knew that the city taxpayers would be happy to know someone was looking out for them. She stated that these savings would be returned to the general fund and reflected in the next tax bill.
And the peoples hearts were warmed to know that these huge savings were not going to be funneled into some dark hole and dispersed to special interest pockets. Finally, an honest mayor.
That would be so wonderful. A mayor who thought about a downtrodden group of people besides the greedy school department. Many in the greedy school department have left the Berkshires for warmer climates during this school vacation. They have the money to do so courtesy of all of those high raises they have been receiving. We should think about that as we taxpayers struggle to survive here in the Berkshires.
Greed is one of the seven cardinal sins as is wrath. Charity is one of the virtues.
and as I mused my dream I thought that yes, even for my small house I was probably going to save about $1000 off my heating bill this winter. And surely I had saved a few hundred dollars over the last few months on gasoline. So for a city with dozens of buildings to heat, very large ones like schools and office buildings, the savings would be enormous. And a city with over a hundred vehicles on the road each day, police and fire trucks and maintenance vehicles, the gasoline savings would be significant.
Finally, a well deserved break for the downtrodden taxpayer. I can’t wait to see the numbers and I hope that the councilors will thank the mayor when she makes this presentation.
I was looking at the Pittsfield school calendar for 2016. The shaded blue areas are the days they have off. There was so much blue on this yearly schedule it was unbelievable. It’s like that every year. It’s no wonder kids are not learning in the schools when there are this many days off. The teachers and administrators have high salaries thanks to the large increase they recently received, their work schedule is extremely easy, and they keep needing to hire paraprofessionals to help make their work load even easier. As I said the other day, if they had fewer days off they wouldn’t need to keep hiring so many paraprofessionals to help with the work load. They would have time to do it themselves. This would save taxpayers and the city a lot of money. This city needs to stop giving in to the demands of this greedy school system.
Ah yes…teachers lives matter.. it seem they matter very much
not so much the students or taxpayers
Blue is America’s favorite color. Who doesn’t love blue?
The people who love red.
Hellor.
Dally gets the cookie!
Yes the city had to save on snow removal and road prep, plus lots on energy costs. Mayor Tyer had better show something for taxpayers this year and I want it to come at the expense of the fat cats in PSD administration and the over-staffed there.
Mayor Tyer we are watching
It ( any savings ) will go to free cash!