Sam Obar 180

180 is presently on vacation at our bureau office overlooking Cape Cod Bay in North Truro, Massachusetts.

I just have a few notes, however:

1. Having left for vacation before being able to read this week’s edition of The Walpole Times, I can not directly comment on any of the articles. However, I did read Mr. Mariani’s letter online, and, once again, I will continue to stand by Moderator Jon Rockwood and his decision. My opinion has not changed. Please stop trying to accuse Mr. Rockwood of partisan politics.

2. I am very pleased that the South Street Superfund site will apparently be cleaned up, thanks to a settlement between four different companies. This is a step in the right direction for Walpole and our economic development goals. I was disappointed at the same time to learn that at yesterday’s constitutional convention, legislators reportedly discussed the idea of limiting eminent domain from being used for economic development purposes. I don’t know whether this was approved.

3. This week’s Selectmen’s meeting, regarding Longview Farm and the deputy chief hiring process was a fun-filled evening of entertainment. I highly recommend every Walpole resident watch it once it is available online. Selectmen were at each other’s necks throughout the discussion about the deputy police chief, a Lincoln Road resident asked why neighbors of Longview weren’t invited to a meeting about Longview, and the discussion about the deputy chief was generally fascinating. I haven’t read the Times‘ coverage of the meeting yet, but I hope Keith Ferguson did it justice.

New lights were being constructed at Turco Field today. Take a look:

Picture by Samuel Obar

Today, the Boston Globe published an article about the controversial decision by Jon Rockwood not to re-appoint five members of the Finance Committee this year. I encourage Mr. Rockwood to respond publicly to the charges made in this article by writing a letter to the editor of The Walpole Times this week and hitting back.

Let me remind my blog’s readers that I do favor and respect every member of the Finance Committee, who was not re-appointed by Jon Rockwood. I respect their work for the town of Walpole, and as I wrote before, probably would have re-appointed them this year if I was in Mr. Rockwood’s position.

Here is my response:

From the article:

Several ousted members and residents say they believe moderator Jon Rockwood is changing the face of the committee for his own political gain, handpicking a team that will push for zoning changes to lure in businesses such as biotechnology to help fund the strapped school budget. A number of remaining committee members have close associations with the public schools, where Rockwood’s wife is a teacher, and some also contributed to his political campaigns.

On the charge that he wants the Finance Committee to be pro-biotech:

Five members of the Finance Committee voted against favorable action on Town Meeting Article 25, which would have asked RTMs for the creation of a biotech overlay district. The five members who voted against it were: Mr. Jalkut, Mr. Bowen, Mrs. Muti, Mrs. Burke, and Mr. Stasiukevicius. Mr. Jalkut, Mr. Bowen, and Mrs. Muti, indeed, were not re-appointed this year, but two of the five who were not re-appointed voted in favor of Article 25. In fact, Mrs. Boragine, was very vocally in favor of Article 25 during the Finance Committee meeting on the article.

Every member of the Finance Committee voted favorable action on Article 24, which would have paved the way for biotech in our town’s zoning bylaws.

On the charge that he wants the Finance Committee to be pro-school:

I can’t find any evidence that any of the remaining members of the Finance Committee are necessarily more pro-school than the members that were not re-appointed. However, on Town Meeting Article 37, which would have raised the local meals tax to benefit the schools, Mrs. Boragine voted in favor. Of the five members who were not re-appointed, only three voted against, Mrs. Muti, Mr. Bowen, and Mrs. Hickey. I can’t find the Finance Committee vote on Article 36, that would have asked Town Meeting to raise the hotels tax as well, but I know Mrs. Boragine voted in favor of it.

On the charge that he punished people on the Committee who didn’t contribute to his political campaign:

Only two members of the Finance Committee donated to Mr. Rockwood’s 2008 state senate campaign: Mr. Connell and Mr. Gallivan. Neither were up for re-appointment this year.

One of the members not re-appointed, Thomas J. Bowen, has donated extensively over the years to Republicans and the Republican State Committee. Yet Mr. Rockwood is also a Republican, so it would not make sense for him to get rid of Mr. Bowen if his decision was politically-motivated.

Another one of the members not re-appointed, Thomas Jalkut, with his wife, has donated extensively over the years to mostly Democrats. However, most recently, he contributed $250 to Republican Richard Tisei.

One of the members not re-appointed, Joanne Muti, has a husband who donated to Republican Richard Ross’ campaign for State Senate in 2010.

One of the members still on the Committee who was not up for re-appointment this year, Carol Lane, has a son (corrected) who donated to the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shannon E. O’Brien in 2002.

Mr. Bowen, one of the members not re-appointed, is a registered Republican, just like Mr. Rockwood. Three of the remaining Finance Committee members are Republicans, while two are Democrats. The remainder are un-enrolled. Of the five not re-appointed, two are not affiliated with any party, two are Democrats, and one is a Republican.

From the article:

Selectman Cliff Snuffer said Rockwood’s move was “Draconian” and “as unfair to the five exiting as to the five entering.”

The latter group will be cast into what is expected to be one of the most turbulent budget years yet, with no institutional knowledge of town finances, he said.

I would respectfully remind Mr. Snuffer that it certainly wouldn’t hurt for us to have a new perspective on the town budget this year from some new faces, rather than giving the same old people the power to control the budget. A lot of experience isn’t always best. Sometimes it takes some fresh outside-the-box thinking to tackle the budget.

From the article:

Other critics said some remaining committee members deserved a second look — like one who donated $350 to Rockwood’s unsuccessful state Senate campaign in 2008 — and missed eight of 12 posted meetings during the most recent budget season, according to meeting minutes and campaign filings.

Another has lived in an assisted living facility in Norwood for more than 12 months, said Muti and Bowen, yet still votes on the committee. Committee members should be expected to live in the town they serve, they said.

As far as I can tell from the state’s political contribution database, not one of the remaining Committee members donated $350 to Rockwood’s 2008 campaign. I could be wrong, but I’m not sure who the article is referring to.

It also seems concerning that just now both Mrs. Muti and Mr. Bowen are now calling out one of their colleagues on the Committee for supposedly not residing in Walpole. If indeed this person doesn’t live in Walpole, Mrs. Muti and Mr. Bowen should have been more vocal about this a long time ago. The fact that they bring it up now for political purposes is concerning.

From the article:

Snuffer said he wants the rules changed so that one Finance Committee member is elected from each of the town’s eight precincts, along with an at-large member. All 15 members now are appointed by the town moderator and serve three-year staggered terms. Five are up for reappointment every year.

Mr. Snuffer, you are more than welcome to go ahead and call for changes in the way the Finance Committee is appointed. But if you are calling for those changes only because you disagree with Mr. Rockwood’s decision, wouldn’t you agree that your decision to change the rules is politically-motivated, then?

From the article:

He defended the committee member living in Norwood, saying he is housed there temporarily caring for a sick spouse. As for the member often missing from posted meetings, Rockwood said, “I value him as a member of the committee and look forward to his continued service.’’

Mr. Rockwood, don’t defend either of these members, if indeed they don’t live in Walpole or are not voting on all issues. Both of these members deserve an investigation, but it is beyond the scope of this article. You shouldn’t have commented on this - it was wrong for Mrs. Muti and Mr. Bowen to bring this up in this article having never brought it up before.

Your comment defending the member who supposedly doesn’t attend many meetings makes you look stupid and incompetent, and puts you right where Mrs. Muti and Mr. Bowen want you.

It’s never too early to endorse a candidate for Congress. In the November election, and the September Democratic primary, I am supporting Stephen Lynch, Democrat, for the 9th Congressional District. More details, as well as other endorsements, as the election gets closer.

I would like to welcome Sal Genovese as the new director of the Walpole Public Library. He started this week, and is taking on some huge responsibilities. Here are the 10 questions someone should ask him:

1. Are you aware that the Walpole Town Administrator has a proven record of slashing the library budget unfairly, and bringing the library to the brink of losing accreditation, or worse? Are you aware that he has even proposed regionalizing the library? What strategies do you plan to employ to combat the Town Administrator’s ignorant attitude towards the library? Will you invite him in for a guided tour at any point to show him firsthand how many people actually do visit the library on a daily basis?

2. What was the number one reason you decided to come to Walpole?

3. Do you plan to move your home to Walpole or a neighboring town?

4. How long do you plan to remain in this position? How long did you remain as director in Marlborough, and what is your ultimate career goal? Do you plan to work in Walpole for the long-term?

5. You seem excited about the plans for a new Walpole Library. What sort of changes, if any, would you like to see in the designs for the new building? Do you support proposals for the new library to more fully utilize the rooftop, rent out café space, and put in a proper archival vault for local historical resources? Would you support self-checkout machines in the new library?

6. What is your favorite book, and what is the most recent book you have read? How many library cards do you own, and to which libraries? How long have you held a library card?

7. What do you believe the future holds for libraries? Do eBooks represent the future of books and reading? Will you be working to expand the library’s use of technology and the internet?

8. What do you plan to do to increase community participation in library programs and in general bring more people in to use the library and its services?

9. What changes would you like to see implemented in library policies, namely in your specialty of customer service, if any?

10. What type of cost savings ideas, if any, do you have for saving money at the library?

Sam Obar 180 sources have confirmed that town officials are working behind the scenes on a new town website that will finally bring Town Hall into the 21st Century, albeit a little late.

The new website is apparently being made by town employees in-house, to keep costs low. Reportedly, the website will be based off of the websites of towns like Needham, Worcester, and Foxborough. These towns don’t exactly have the best-looking websites around, but they are certainly better than the current Walpole site. I hope, however, that the town will bring in some outside web design consultants, perhaps as volunteers, to help and act as advisors in the process, as a true town website requires a lot of moving parts that I don’t think can be done entirely by a small team of people at Town Hall. The website should be a true team effort - and I would like to see the town put out an ad, or even a press release, in The Walpole Times asking for local web designers to volunteer their expertise to assist town employees for however much time they can provide to assist in the creation of this new website. I could probably bet a lot of money that the town won’t do this, and, as a result, the website won’t look as good as it could. Oh, well.

I encourage Town Hall to take a look at some of my own suggestions for features that the Walpole town website should have, including contact information for all town employees, perhaps even a directory with every employee and their salary. The Economic Development page also needs major updating, as I wrote here.

It is great that Town Hall is taking the lead, under a new Board of Selectmen that promised to improve communication with residents, to finally upgrade the town website. But I won’t call it a success until I see the final product - the new town website could very easily be not much of an improvement on the old site if it’s not done well, especially by in-house employees on a tight schedule. Regardless, I can’t wait to see it when it’s done.

Patch.com, owned and operated by AOL, and made up of a collection of local news websites for individual towns throughout the country, is rapidly expanding into Massachusetts, and may come to Walpole soon. Patch has already set up a Westwood local news website, featuring news on a variety of local events, sports, and more, that appear to come from professional journalists and freelance contributors and photographers throughout Westwood. They have police logs and lists of events, and even obituaries.

Patch.com is actively hiring editors throughout the country to help it expand its local news lineup, and with Patch moving swiftly through Massachusetts communities, including most recently in Jamaica Plain and the South End, it is very possible that it will hit Walpole soon. If so, it will be interesting to see how much of a threat it will present to WalpoleNews.com and The Walpole Times‘ so-called “hyper-local website”, and also even to this blog. It looks like Patch, like most news websites, will be making most of their money off of advertising.

To be honest, if I had a degree in journalism, I myself might have applied to become a local editor for Patch and bring it to Walpole. But I would probably prefer to stay at Sam Obar 180 anyway. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity for any Walpole resident out there who has an interest in journalism but has never been given the opportunity to work in the industry. Patch is seeking you! Check it out at patch.com!

Town Moderator Jon Rockwood’s decision not to re-appoint five members of the Finance Committee was no doubt a difficult one, and very unexpected. The Town Moderator will likely suffer politically as a result, and I anticipate there will be some in town who will try to run against him as moderator next year using this incident as a part of his or her platform against Mr. Rockwood. Perhaps we will even see a recall effort in the coming months.

It is always sad when the town loses dedicated individuals who were willing to serve their town selflessly by contributing their knowledge and expertise. Our community now must fill a tremendous void in the absence of these five members.

Mr. Rockwood is an honest and fair individual, and I don’t believe that his decision was in any way intended to eliminate people he didn’t agree with. Rather than continuing to give the same old people a pass to continue their work at Town Hall, it is sometimes necessary to instead find new voices for a new perspective on the issues.

There are a lot of rumors flying around as to whether Mr. Rockwood had ulterior motives in making the decision he made. Many of these rumors seem untrue based on the facts, as all five of the members not re-appointed actually did not have all that much in common in terms of views on the issues and votes on major controversies. None of the five were singled out and re-appointed, rather, as a group, they were all eliminated, which would indicate that Mr. Rockwood didn’t actually even glance at their votes or positions on the issues when deciding whether to re-appoint them. Furthermore, as Mr. Rockwood has pointed out, his decision was not unprecedented.

Some of the best ideas for our community don’t always come from the same old people who have been working at Town Hall for years. I hope that whoever Mr. Rockwood chooses to replace these five departing members will truly bring a fresh perspective on our town finances, as they have big shoes to fill.

The five people who will be leaving will be sorely missed, and I wish them the best of luck in the future. But all good things must eventually come to an end, and, in this case, hopefully in favor of newer and better things. We will never have known what we are missing if we kept re-appointing the same old people to the same old committees. Change is sometimes hard, but needed.

In this town, the Town Moderator is given supreme authority to appoint members of the Finance Committee, and there’s nothing we can change about that. Sometimes leaders make decisions that are not popular. Those who disagree with Mr. Rockwood’s decision are welcome to run against or vote against him next year.

I, for one, fully respect and support his decision, even though I, like most residents, am disappointed about the loss of five great people who contributed tremendously to our community. If I was in his position, I probably would not have done what he did. But I fully intend to vote for him for Town Moderator in next year’s election, which will be the first town election I will be eligible to vote in.

I am also very sorry that Mr. Rockwood’s family, which is made up of very nice people, has to go through this. Both Mr. Rockwood and his wife, a local school teacher, were blasted in a letter to the editor written by former Selectwoman Catherine Winston in this week’s Times. I can’t imagine what it would be like if my dad was the moderator and my mother was a local school teacher, and they were being publicly blasted in a similar fashion by someone as highly regarded in town politics as Catherine Winston. I feel sorry for Mr. Rockwood’s kids, but I hope that they understand that this is small-town politics at its best, whether we like it or not - neighbors turning on neighbors when controversial decisions occur.

With groundbreaking of the new Walpole Public Library coming later this year, here are some features I’d like to see in the new building, if they could be fit into the designs this late in the process:

A Café

The idea of putting a café in a library has proved very successful at other libraries across the country. Just a few of the local libraries that have cafés are Watertown, MA, Boston, and Warwick, RI.

Having a café inside the Walpole Public Library makes a lot of sense. A lot of Walpole residents desire a downtown coffee shop. The new library will be conveniently located near downtown, and the café would likely be a major draw to the area. The café would bring Walpole citizens who normally wouldn’t use the library into the confines of the building. In addition, by leasing space in the library to a café, the town would have the potential to generate a tremendous amount of revenue, thus enabling the library to actually develop a very profitable revenue stream. The ideal library café would have operating hours that are independent of the main library, meaning it would have its own entrance and exit and would be open earlier than the library.

William Pierce of the Salina Public Library in Salina, Kansas wrote in a 1997 article that “library cafés may have a role in making public libraries more inviting and user friendly to visitors.” Pierce calls on librarians to let go of their fear of letting food into the library, and suggests that allowing food and drink would actually have little impact on the cleanliness or condition of the materials.

Robin Henderson writes in this 1998 article that “those libraries that have already implemented this type of food service in their library have had positive feed back and feel that there is a slight increase in the traffic at the library.” Henderson writes further, “we want to lure in patrons and hope once they have discovered the library they will come back.”

Having a café in the Walpole library would benefit the library tremendously, but unfortunately it is probably too late in the design process to plan for a café. It’s unfortunate we didn’t think of this sooner. I see no downside to allowing a café into the building.

Rooftop space

The new library will really hurt the downtown area around July 3, when thousands of people flock to the municipal buildings complex for the Night Before the Fourth Celebration. Hundreds of people usually sit and watch the fireworks on the site of the new library, and the building will block the view of hundreds of others who usually watch from nearby. Event organizers will undoubtedly have to figure out other logistics for the fireworks in the future, including perhaps shutting down East Street so that people can watch from that street. Town officials should be very worried about the impact that the new library will have on the July 3 festivities.

Rather than having the library as an obnoxious obstacle, it might be reasonable to consider instead allowing the mobs of people that will be displaced from their usual fireworks-watching locations to sit on the library roof to watch – yes I’m serious about that. The library should develop the roof with space for people to watch the fireworks. The roof would be a prime location to watch, and the Friends of the Library could even generate revenue by selling tickets at a nominal fee for this prime rooftop seating (seriously.) There is likely quite a market for this, given that hundreds of people will have no place to watch the fireworks anymore and the view would be incredible.

It’s not clear how this would impact the new library’s intent to have a “green roof.”

Archival vault

The town currently does not have a secure location to store its valuable historical documents that date back to the town’s founding. Many of these documents are held by the Town Clerk’s office in a vault that is not temperature-controlled and is not, by any archivist’s standards, an adequate space for historical documents to be stored. Other very rare and important files are stored at the Deacon Willard Lewis House under the care of the Historical Society. However, that house, too, is not temperature-controlled, nor is it immune to fire.

The town needs a central location to keep documents that relate to the town’s rich history. The new library should include a temperature-controlled vault so that the town can feel good about the safety of its archives. The town has no funding to build a vault at Town Hall, so the opportunity to get a new vault is with the new library.

Supposedly, the town is already working on arranging the placement of a vault in the new library, and I urge planners to continue this initiative.

Programming Note: Newly-elected Walpole Selectman Mike Berry, one of the most fiscally-conservative members of the Board, goes live on the record on The Sam Obar Show this Saturday, July 17 at 4:00 PM on WDIS AM 1170 (Discussion Radio) in Norfolk. With the often-poor quality of AM radio, I recommend to those who would like to listen to the interview that they listen live online right here rather than trying to tune into the often-spotty AM band. I have learned that AM radio is often very difficult to listen to, regrettably.

1. Eliminate the Kahana eyesore

The town should launch a nationwide/worldwide manhunt to pursue the owner of the Kahana and make them come back to Walpole and do something about the property. The Economic Development Officer, if the position is not eliminated, should provide regular updates to the Walpole Board of Selectmen as to the progress of the manhunt. The Kahana owner’s name and last known contact information should be widely publicized. There has to be someone who knows how to hunt the owner down.

It might also be reasonable to consider seizing the property via eminent domain, using a tax override to fund the purchase and then reselling it at a profit to someone who can revitalize or, preferably, raze the structure. Eminent domain seizures like this, in which a property is taken and then resold to developers for aesthetic purposes or for the purpose of economic development, have already been affirmed as constitutional by the Supreme Court, as in the cases of Berman v. Parker (1954) and in the controversial case Kelo v. City of New London (2005). In Kelo v. City of New London, the Court decided that the overall benefit that a community enjoys from economic growth enables plans to take land and redevelop it to be considered an allowable “public use.” I think the town of Walpole, like New London, Connecticut, should consider taking over the property and using it as part of a greater focus on economic development.

2. Do something about the Foundry

The town should open discussions with the owner of the Foundry to develop a plan for renovating that building to be more appealing and less of an eyesore. Like the Kahana, taking the property over by eminent domain should not be ruled out. That building, when it was first built, was intended to be a “Fanueil Hall-like” shopping complex. That goal has failed miserably, and if the owners really intend to make it like Fanueil Hall, they should do more to beautify the building. One way to force this to happen might be to outright threaten that the town will use eminent domain if the owners don’t revitalize the building on their own.

3. Perhaps some hope for the South Street superfund

According to the EPA webpage about the South Street superfund site, the “EPA is currently in negotiations with the potentially responsible parties for the performance of the cleanup work. The estimated cost for this cleanup is $13 million. EPA will continue to work closely with the Town, interested citizens, and state officials as the project progresses.” No company is willing to accept responsibility for the cleanup of the property, and thus it is likely that the process will continue to be prolonged.

In June, President Barack Obama proposed reinstating the so-called “superfund tax” on the oil and chemical industries to help speed up the EPA’s work to cleanup superfund sites across the country. Roadblock Republicans in Congress, who have decided that it is in their best interest to simply say no to everything the President proposes no matter what the issue, call the tax an “unfair penalty” on oil and chemical companies. President Obama is right on this one. The Superfund program has been short of cash since the 1990s, and needs this new tax to start cleaning up these properties. I urge Congress to approve it.

Asking the taxpayers for an override to have the town purchase the property and clean it up also apparently has not been considered seriously. The cost would be quite large, but if the town came up with a long-term plan for the site and lined up a few potential buyers who wanted to develop the land, it could allow the town to collect a profit in the end. A few years ago, a Walpole Superfund committee came out with a lengthy report about the South Street superfund and suggested a few possible uses for the site, that included the town taking over part of it through foreclosure and then moving forward to come up with a cleanup plan for the site. I think it’s time our town officials crack that report open again, and take a look through some of the possible uses for the site and choose one of them.

As an interesting twist, newly-elected Selectman Eric Kraus is an executive within Covidien, the company that now owns Kendall. Kendall was the company that owned the land for several decades between the 1930s and the 1980s. Although Kendall can’t exactly be blamed for fully contaminating the site, they certainly owned it for a number of years and did nothing to clean it up. Now that the original contaminators of the site are long gone, it might be reasonable for Mr. Kraus to be the middleman in going to Covidien and asking them to pay for the site’s cleanup, at least to some level. Covidien and Kendall certainly should not get all the blame for the site’s contamination, but Kendall seem like the most appropriate company to pay at least part of the ultimate cleanup cost. Furthermore, there is no better time than now to ask them to pay up since one of their executives is now on the Board of Selectmen.