Sam Obar 180

Please note that I have been having a LOT of trouble with my blog lately. I am unable to post any new posts or edit any, and in fact this post itself has been manually created and is not technically a part of the blog itself (it's hard to explain).
This weekend I will be moving my blog to a new platform so as to end these problems for good. It is very frustrating. This is the second time it has happened, and it is delaying me from being able to post anything about Town Meeting and biotech. I can get those posted after I have moved to the new blog platform.

In the meantime, please check out Walpole2020.org, run by a group of Robbins Road residents looking for real vision for the Town of Walpole. I will be writing about that initiative a little more later, again, once the new blog platform is up.

I will be broadcasting my radio show live from Walpole Day on May 15 at 4 PM at Stone Field. Please come and see me if you'd like to be on the air. I will be walking around the booths and plan to interview some of the candidates for town offices. Listen live here. (My radio show has been extended into another year. More info on that later).

Editor's Note: In this post about the Rebel mascot, the word "annals" was used incorrectly.  Like most humans, I make mistakes, and I had this word mixed up with another word.  I know what "annals" are and that is not the word I intended to use.  Thank you to those who pointed it out!

This week, in an unusual decision, the Walpole Board of Selectmen decided to rescind a previous vote to forbid Walpole homeowners from throwing away more than two 30-gallon trash bags per week.  The limit was intended to save the town between $41,000 and $137,000 per year, money that could be theoretically used to reduce the school budget gap or reduce gaps in other areas of the budget.  It furthermore would have helped save the environment by reducing the amount of unnecessary trash that should instead be recycled by residents.  Selectmen took back the limit one month after voting it into place because they got heavy criticism and heard complaints from angry residents who were upset about the new cap.  A number of residents presented genuine reasons why they need to use more than two trash bags.  Selectmen bowed to the intense public pressure, and, in effect, undermined their positions by not voting in the best interest of the town and not standing by courageous decisions that may be unpopular.  By taking back the limit, selectmen also have hurt efforts to expand recycling initiatives in this town.

In reversing the trash limit, selectmen stated that they did not want to create what some termed as a "trash police."  In reality, citizens should be enforcing the trash limits themselves, and do it in the name of supporting their school system through the budget savings.  Walpole residents already have the advantage of not having to pay flat trash fees for all of their bags - having just two bags for free is not only reasonable, but also generous given the difficult economic trouble the town is having and the constant calls from concerned parents to impose trash fees.  Citizens who are upset about the limit should instead look for ways to cut down their trash rather than complain about a system that still gives them what is essentially free curbside trash service.

The decision of selectmen to reverse the initial vote also sets a dangerous precedent for future selectmen and other municipal leaders.  By taking a truly courageous vote and limiting trash output, selectmen showed that they had the courage to take a stand for what is appropriate and necessary.  They did not take a reactionary step to impose trash fees - rather they took the more moderate approach to save the town money by respectfully asking some families - definitely not a majority of Walpole - to cut down on their trash.  Most Walpole families remain unaffected.  With the vote reversed, selectmen have shown that they will bow to public pressure when a small group of local residents are upset about an issue.  The selectmen make a lot of decisions, many of which will inevitably be unpopular.  But true elected officials need to be able to take votes and stand by those votes.  Elected officials who can not support their own vote are letting the residents down.  Selectmen make mistakes and sometimes take votes without much time to consider the consequences - but they were all willingly elected to the Board of Selectmen with the express knowledge that they would be asked to make such quick-thinking votes under pressure.  It is disappointing, therefore, that our selectmen can not seem to firmly stand behind their votes in this situation.  There will always be public outcry over decisions made by the selectmen - but real leaders are the ones who can take brave votes on issues that a few may find difficult to support.

One only needs to walk through the halls of Walpole High School on a school day to see why more recycling is needed town-wide.  At the same time that class sizes rise because of low funding, students throw away bottles and other products that could and should be recycled.  The school "Green Team" has been unsuccessful in their efforts to expand recycling.  The school throws away more trash than they need to.  It is not much different at many homes throughout Walpole.  Many families, simply because of their size, do have to use more than two trash bags.  But perhaps the town can consider imposing a reasonable additional fee to those families every time they go over the limit.  Doing so would still allow the town to save costs while encouraging everyone to do more to recycle and save money.

Ultimately, the town will need to at some point face the complex issue of how to deal with the bloated and ever-increasing trash-related line item in the municipal budget.  Trash removal is a $1.5 million per year operation, coming out of the wallets of Walpole taxpayers and not out of trash fees.  Trash fees have already been rejected multiple times - a trash limit is not only reasonable but a perfect compromise to cut costs.  Selectmen need to be courageous enough to take a vote in favor of the initiative and should be proud of where they stand.  Anything less is disappointing.  Citizens will learn how to cope, and should understand that they are lucky to live in a town without trash fees at all.

I have A LOT of things to get off my chest.

First of all, I welcome all WalpoleWords users to start their own blogs, put their names on them, and challenge anything I write rather than slamming me anonymously.  That would be much appreciated, and be assured that I, and many other town residents and officials will read your blog regularly.  Until you start your own blog and put your name on it, though, I have a hard time responding to your comments on WalpoleWords that are largely baseless observations and not facts and basically misrepresent what I write.

Town Meeting, after getting off to a slow start on both Monday and Wednesday evening, will continue into a third night next Monday after a highly contentious vote on appropriating the funding for a Proposition 2.5 override for a new police station and a controversial decision to raise the local meals tax.  Ultimately, the vote for a new police station went down in defeat, but the new meals tax was approved.

This week's Town Meeting was a perfect example of why the town charter should be modified to allow Town Meetings to be held on a Saturday.  Holding a Town Meeting so late at night that only some can attend and many have to leave before it is over is not the correct way of having a town meeting form of government.  Holding a session well into the evening when the taxpayers have gone to sleep and many of their own RTMs have too is irresponsible.  Furthermore, because the meeting was so late into the evening, the microphone runners from the National Honor Society actually had to leave because it was beyond a reasonable time for those students to be up.  As a result, their absence inconvenienced everybody else who had to find out where the nearest microphone was and have a fellow RTM hand it to them.  Holding Town Meeting on a Saturday would make a significant amount of sense in that all RTMs would undoubtedly be able to attend along with a number of concerned citizens.  It would allow the meeting to start and end all in one day - rather than start one day, continue another, and end a few days later.  It would allow the NHS runners to be available for the entire meeting.  It is the responsibility of our RTMs to attend Town Meeting - that is what they are elected expressly to do.  If they can not attend Town Meeting, they should be voted out of office.  But to expect all of them to be able to show up late on a school/work night is irresponsible of our town charter.  Citizens want to be able to see decisions being made live and in the open - not via videotape from their VCR a few days after the fact.  Citizens can not be expected to stay up until 11:30 in the evening to watch the vote for a police station or a meals tax increase.

A number of RTMs drifted out of the meeting immediately before and during the roll call vote on the police station, and many left before the vote was even taken.  Frankly, I don't blame them.  True town decision-making simply can not occur at 11:30 at night when most of Walpole isn't paying attention anymore.

Siemens/Biotech
Not surprisingly, the biotech articles fell apart just before Town Meeting.  The articles were sent back for review in a move that was widely rumored about well before Town Meeting even began.  A lot of people at Town Hall were whispering about the articles being pulled, but even many RTMs were surprised about the sudden occurrence when Town Meeting actually began.

The biotech articles were destined for failure from the beginning.  For a long time, our town officials thought they could conduct secretive meetings and deliberately withhold information from the public.  From the start, it was all about the money.  Instead of asking the question, "How will this impact our community?," town officials tried for quite a while to ignore the residents who had legitimate existing concerns about Siemens and instead decided to make this all about the economic development opportunities that would be presented.

Alas, the revenue potential DID NOT trump all other issues, and as a result, the biotech articles ultimately went up in flames a few minutes before Town Meeting even began.  Let this be a lesson to our town officials: this town is fed up with the back-door meetings that brought us to the brink of having a power plant a few years ago; please start conducting all of your work in the open, and bring the residents into the mix from the very beginning.  This is precisely the reason why people like Patrick Shield and Mike Berry, who have promised openness if elected to the Board of Selectmen this year, have such a good shot of winning.  I was told unequivocally by a number of residents that they just learned about the Siemens issue a few weeks ago, even though the issue has apparently been boiling down at Town Hall for many months.  Where is the openness?  Shield and Berry are on target to give a good wake up call to our existing town officials when they get elected in June.  Good luck to them.

I am in favor of allowing Siemens to upgrade to Level 3, but I feel the process was arrogant, disrespectful to residents, poorly-managed, discombobulated, and above all destined to fail from the outset.  Citizens were NOT EDUCATED about biotech, rather they were LECTURED about how they were apparently misunderstanding the issue and therefore needed to shut up.  Our town officials can not shove and ram a proposal of this magnitude through while stepping on the concerns of residents and even other town committees.  Throughout the whole process, transparency was not maintained.  I challenge any town official who says it was and would welcome any attempt by town officials to set the record straight by publicly releasing all emails and other communications between Town Hall and Siemens representatives dating back to 2009.  Some have urged me to file a public records request to obtain this information - this costs money and I have done this with other public records in the past.  I maintain that these communications should be provided to the citizens by government for free as a service to the people of Walpole - not begrudgingly wrenched out of their hands by a concerned citizen at a cost.

I understand that the biotech articles were sent back to committee because of aquifer issues.  This is the result of these articles not being properly reviewed from the outset, with all town committees NOT having a say in the process.  Details are still hazy as to exactly what went wrong, but in any case it's embarrassing to Selectmen that the aquifer issue was the issue that derailed the whole thing - and at the last minute.

Police Station
Once again, a plan destined to fail from the outset did indeed fail.  Selectman Cliff Snuffer has put in a tremendous amount of volunteer time examining the idea of building a new police station on Robbins Road.  He put together an admirable initiative - one that included a video and a thorough and detailed presentation to Town Meeting on Wednesday night.  But many in town still believe that a combined police and fire facility IS the way to go - not standalone stations.  Mr. Snuffer deserves a lot of credit and should now get behind the idea of putting a combined facility downtown.  While the Town Meeting vote has no impact on whether or not the police station override will appear on the ballot in June (as of right now, it will still be on the ballot), it means that the money can still not be appropriated for the new station unless the voters approve it and then Town Meeting approves it in the fall.  Like the 2006 proposal, it is likely to die anyhow at the ballot box.

It's too bad months of hard work and selflessness on the part of the real "people's selectman", Cliff Snuffer, and so many other town officials, was all in vain.  The town needs new public safety facilities - but they need one combined facility downtown that will go along with what hundreds of residents have asked for in the past on multiple occasions. 

Meals Tax
Unfortunately, rather than cutting costs throughout the school system and doing what needs to be done in terms of actually reeling in the out-of-control teachers union, Town Meeting decided to take the advice of the well-meaning School Committee and raise the local meals tax.  Meanwhile, our teachers continue to pocket extravagant raises each year, teachers will be eliminated based on seniority and not on quality, and at the same time class sizes continue to soar, and have been for years.

I predict that, like its advocates have said, the decision to raise the meals tax will have little to no impact on the business situation in Walpole.  But it will send a strong message to our school system that costs can continue to spiral out of control and our union can continue to dictate which way the town should go.  Education is intended as an investment in our children, not a bonanza for our teachers.  Teachers are not working in a sweatshop in the Northern Mariana Islands or on the floor of a factory - they are earning decent wages with reasonable hours, break times during the day, and very long vacations throughout the year.  I am not saying our teachers are paid too much - but perhaps we can pay them more if we start analyzing the real need for a teachers union in the first place.  Please take a look at an excellently written article by a fellow Walpole High School student of mine about the way in which the union has implemented a layoff policy based on seniority and not on quality.

The union commanded us to raise taxes because they made concessions on tuition reimbursement and healthcare, so we did.  I hope they're happy.  The School Committee deserves credit for having a real interest in preserving our school system at heart, but they needed to be firmer with the teachers in demanding we start reeling in the yearly raises that total to $6,000 and higher.

Selectmen/Trash Limit
Meanwhile, in unrelated but similar news, our Board of Selectmen appears to be backing out of what was initially a courageous decision to limit household trash output.  In the wake of extensive criticism for their vote, two selectmen voted to undo the limit.  Luckily, Christopher Timson, who I personally am not a huge fan of, had the courage to stand by his vote while David Sullivan and Nancy Mackenzie apparently didn't have the spine to stand by what was actually a smart well-thought-out vote.

The long story begins a few weeks ago, when selectmen voted to limit the amount of trash households could put out throughout town to save costs.  Then on Tuesday, Ms. Mackenzie and Mr. Sullivan voted to rescind their votes, while Mr. Timson opposed the reversal.  Selectman Cliff Snuffer abstained because he hadn't voted the first time.  Albert Denapoli, for some reason, was absent for both votes.  The explanation given for the stunning about-face was that Mackenzie and Sullivan felt, in the words of Ms. Mackenzie, they "jumped to the decision too quick", and according to The Walpole Times, "Mackenzie and Sullivan both admitted they didn't give the limitation enough consideration and research prior to their vote in favor of the cap."  As one can probably see, this explanation is little more than a poor excuse for not being able to take the heat from concerned citizens.

Mackenzie said she got calls from people who made legitimate arguments about why there should be no trash limit.  I would remind Ms. Mackenzie, who I gladly endorsed last year in her race for this board and would gladly endorse again, that the nature of her job is to get those types of calls.  OF COURSE a lot of people would be upset about the trash limit, as I personally am upset about nearly every other decision made by the Board of Selectmen this year.  I am absolutely enraged by the vote to allow Allied Recycling to have its license renewed, and so are many other residents.  Yet, selectmen won't be rescinding that vote anytime soon.  Ms. Mackenzie and Mr. Sullivan need to be a bit more courageous and learn how to be real public officials.  Mr. Sullivan does not deserve re-election if he can't take a few voicemail messages from people upset about the decision.  The town NEEDS a trash limitation, and one can just drive down my street on trash day to find out why.  People throw away things that should not be thrown away.  The limit is more than acceptable and was a smart move.  Our citizens should be happy they don't have to pay trash fees for every trash bag and that their ability to put out all of their trash curbside is a privilege in this town - not a right.  Citizens who have a problem with a new trash limitation should suck it up and be happy they're not paying flat trash fees.  I would urge our selectmen to once again reconsider their vote, this time in favor of keeping the limit.  Thank you to Mr. Timson for having the nerve to maintain his vote in light of this ridiculous situation with his two fellow turncoats on the Board.  

Town Meeting last night, as usual, started more than 20 minutes late and will continue into a second night on Wednesday this week.  Last night's meeting was by far the most dragged-out, controversial, and contentious town meeting in recent memory.

Here are some pictures from the Meeting.

Photos taken and generously provided by Mike Demarais.

The pictures and/or the page might be slow to load.


Town Moderator Jon Rockwood addresses the body.




Local State Representative John Rogers holds up the pen that was used by the governor to sign the recent landmark anti-bullying legislation into law.  Rep. Rogers presented the pen to School Committee Chairman John Desmond for the students in the Walpole Public Schools.
 



The stage at Town Meeting.
 



Members of the Finance Committee review their notes in the midst of controversial floor discussions.

A standard of this blog is the issuing of OBAR™ awards to those in this town who do a remarkable job at something.  For example, the Recreation Department got OBAR™ awards for their incredible work on BlackburnHall.com and WalpoleRec.com several few months ago.  The Recreation Department has done a phenomenal job at starting and maintaining two quality websites.  In fact, the awards even got a mention in the 2009 Town Annual Report.

It is an honor, then, to bestow two more OBAR™ awards to two local journalists, Tom Glynn and Keith Ferguson who have mentored and supported me during the past few years.  Keith works for The Walpole Times as a reporter, and Tom is a former editor of the Times who now runs the popular local website WalpoleNews.com and its companion forum WalpoleWords.

Keith recently helped me through the painful process of shutting down my blog and then restarting it with a tremendous amount of compassion, concern, and care.  He has offered advice about the blog throughout the past several months by offering suggestions about where I might want to tone down my comments, or where I might be wrong.  But he has also written more than one long email to me in which he describes where I might want to go to college for journalism or why I should restart my blog, as was the case recently.

Tom, also, has been incredibly supportive of my journalistic endeavors dating back to the time when I published a small community newspaper and WalpoleNews.com was fairly new at the time.  Tom worked with me then to try to set up an outlet for me to get more exposure for my articles, offered suggestions along the way, and even today occasionally will publish some of my articles on his website.  He and I remain in contact and every now and then I will offer to cover a local issue or event for WalpoleNews.com.

While these OBAR™ awards are not tangible, and can not be touched or felt, they are awards that I hope Keith and Tom will appreciate for their support and friendship.

Thanks to both of them.

More OBAR™ Awards will be added during the coming months, and more local citizens, organizations, businesses, and municipal departments/employees will receive them as 2010 goes on.

Here is the running list of recipients of the OBAR™ Award since its creation in 2009:

2009 Award Recipients:
OBAR™ Award for Best Effort on a Municipal Department Website: Walpole Recreation Department
OBAR™ Award for Most Interesting Municipal Department Website: Walpole Recreation Department

2010 Award Recipients:
OBAR™ Award for Being a Mentor, Supporter, and Advisor: Tom Glynn and Keith Ferguson

This past week we learned that Genzyme Corp., a biotechnology company based in biotech-rich Cambridge, with a plant in Allston, will be fined by the FDA for problems at its Allston facility.

This accident at Genzyme is a reminder that anything can happen at Siemens should they be allowed to upgrade to Level 3 biohazards.

There are striking similarities between Genzyme and Siemens.  Here are some of the quotes from the Boston Globe article:

"It marks the first time Genzyme has faced an FDA fine in its 29-year history."
Sounds a lot like Siemens - a stellar track record

"Last June, Genzyme temporarily suspended much of its Allston operations after it detected a virus in the plant and was forced to launch a massive decontamination effort. Genzyme still has not definitively traced the source of the infection, which crippled production for months and caused shortages of some key products."
Still has not traced the source of the infection?  That sounds rather disturbing.  Especially given that Genzyme is such a well-known company with a supposedly stellar record.

"The Allston plant manufactures or packages drugs designed to treat rare genetic disorders..."
Once again, sounds just like what Siemens wants to do: manufacturing.

A lot of you knew this was coming.  This is a very proud occasion.

Sam Obar 180 is endorsing Patrick Shield for Selectman for the second year in a row.  Since there are two seats open on the Board, an additional endorsement for another candidate will be coming in the next few weeks as we move closer to the election.  Also, opinions on the ballot questions will be published soon.  Because the field for School Committee candidates is light, no endorsements will be made in that area.

Whomever is elected to the Board of Selectmen on June 5 will have a lot of work to do.  Building a new senior center and public safety facilities, deciding what to do with the old Walpole Public Library, increasing funding to our public safety and school departments, and promoting economic development are just a few of the major issues our Selectmen will be focusing on during the next few years.  Luckily, we have at least one very competent and qualified candidate running in this year's election who will focus on all of these issues and more.  This candidate is Patrick Shield.  Sam Obar 180 is honored to be able to endorse Mr. Shield for a seat on the Board of Selectmen.

Patrick Shield is a breath of fresh air and new energy that is sorely needed on a Board where the average age of membership is 55.  He is the only candidate thus far this year who set up his own campaign website, which provides a substantial amount of information about his priorities and his campaign's activities.  He has a Twitter feed.  He has announced he wants to revamp the town website and enhance the level of accountability and transparency from our elected and appointed officials.  He has proposed summits to discuss the pressing need for new town buildings and he has made public safety - namely increasing the number of Walpole cops - a cornerstone of his list of priorities.  Additionally, unlike some of our current Selectmen, he has no family ties to the Walpole Police Department, and in fact, none whatsoever with the town payroll.  He is willing to make the tough decisions about cuts, when necessary, without having to abstain on an important vote because of a conflict of interest.  He has a job just like the rest of us - working at Stop & Shop, where, according to his website, "he has been working to develop a more efficient and friendly customer service department."

Shield has been attending Selectmen's meetings as often as possible for some time now, making it clear that he is prepared to put in the time to attend every meeting and deliberate on Walpole issues.  Last year, he was out on Walpole center every Saturday, waving to vehicles and showing he has the desire and persistence to serve Walpole.  His presence on the common also illustrated his belief in being visible and not hiding behind the doors of Town Hall.  He was one of the few candidates who did so.  We fully expect him to be out on the Common again this year.

Shield opposes renewing the license of Allied Recycling, which is one of the worst businesses in Walpole.  He has pushed for an expanded focus on economic development especially in downtown.  Furthermore, his experience and work in State Senator Jim Timilty's office will mean we will have a legislative partner on the Board of Selectmen who knows the ins and outs of the State Senate and who is known and trusted by the legislature.  His understanding of the legislature will help in securing much-needed funding from the state, including our badly-needed and well-deserved prison mitigation money.  On the biotech issue, which is proving to be fairly controversial this year, Shield has already consulted a biotech expert on his own.  Even though his position on the issue still isn't clear, it will obviously be one that is well-researched and educated.  He has toured the DPW facilities to understand their operations.  He has visited the senior center to speak to seniors.  He has met with the police chief to discuss their needs.  He has been appointed by Selectmen to the Master Plan Implementation Committee.  All this without even being elected yet.  He is getting a full grasp of the issues well before any of the other candidates.

If elected, Shield has promised to do his best to not only increase the size of the Walpole police force, but also put more teachers in the Walpole school system.  These are clearly both great ideas that we all can support, with available funding.  He graduated from Walpole public schools, and has friends and family attending the Walpole school system.  He has stated on record that he wants to be accessible to the people of Walpole and even gave out his cell phone number to the public for people to contact him directly at any time.  It is our hope that by doing so he will set an example that other town officials will follow.

He has said he will not vote to implement trash fees, and in fact has proposed being more cost-efficient in our trash pickup and promoting recycling more.  He was the first candidate for Selectman this year to directly take on the trash fee issue with a firm "No".  He supports having a fully-funded town library.  He supports keeping Veterans Services local, but regionalizing certain departments, as proposed by the Town Administrator.  He supports keeping the town pools open, even while many call for their closure (including myself, on occasion.)

Shield has the right ideas for Walpole.  He came close to winning last year's election, and now wants to give it another shot.  You have to admire him for his persistence and determination.  He deserves your vote.  A vote for Patrick Shield on June 5 is a vote for a better Walpole.

To listen to my interview with Patrick Shield from February, download it here (courtesy of Archive.org.)  His cellphone number, by the way, is 508-369-8326.

Last year, in the midst of what has been called the largest economic depression this country has experienced since the Great Depression, state legislators were given customary pay raises as required by the Massachusetts Constitution.  But our local state senator, Jim Timilty, who has kids in the Walpole Public Schools and understands the value of keeping teachers employed even in hard economic times, declined the raise.  "It was very important for him to express to all of his constituents that he would choose to go without this increase for the good of the taxpayers," his office wrote in the recently-released 2009 Annual Town Report.  It was "one of the first acts that Senator Timilty took" when "expected revenues for the year [were] projecting well below benchmarks," his office wrote further.  Timilty has come through for Walpole time and time again, standing up for Walpole when its prison mitigation money is cut and standing up for Walpole taxpayers when the governor increases the sales tax.

Yet Senator Timilty's fiscally conservative and very responsible decision to reject a pay raise was apparently not reproduced at Walpole Town Hall.  Even while municipal officials whined last year that the state has not come through with enough local aid figures and that health care costs are skyrocketing, a closer look at the 2009 payroll reveals that town employees, including administrators and teachers are receiving lavish pay raises year after year.  Even during last year's economic recession when the town lost prison mitigation money, no pay freeze was implemented at any level of municipal government.  Mr. Boynton's budget this year, too, calls for wage increases for both non-union and union town employees even when teachers are on the verge of being laid off.

The Town Administrator, Assistant Town Administrator, and School Superintendent saw their salaries go up about $6000 each between 2008 and 2009.  The head of the Walpole Teachers Association also pocketed a $6000 increase.  A salary lookup of random teachers at Walpole High School shows that they, too, received pay raises upwards of $2000 to $6000 last year.  Some of these teachers got their raises presumably because they got their Master's Degree between 2008 and 2009, but not all of them.  Both high school assistant principals walked away with $6000 each in raises last year (one has since been promoted.)

Municipal department heads saw raises as well, along with assistant department heads townwide.

Here is a radical suggestion for our town officials who oversaw these vast raises being awarded to our town employees.  Do not lecture me on how hard our town employees work.  I know they deserve every penny of their salary.  But so do the employees at FedEx, who last year didn't get any raises.  I know we need to remain competitive in salaries, namely in our school department.  But when your local state senator, a Democrat, takes a ceremonial pay freeze, when Tropicana Casino and Resort, Avis, Yahoo! and hundreds of other companies all take pay freezes during an economic recession, take a hint.  FedEx and Caterpillar actually went so far as to cut executive salaries last year (we don't need to go that far.)  Scott Brown, before his election to the US Senate in January, called for a wage freeze for all federal employees, an initiative President Obama implemented for some White House employees upon his inauguration.  Stop the raises in Walpole.

Above all, stop using the term "Cost of Living Adjustment."  This excuse for raising salaries has been discredited by economists because the cost of living is constantly going up anyway, and often goes up less than salaries go up.  Salary raises should not be automatic.  They should be implemented when an employee deserves it and when the budget allows for it.  The budget this year and last year most certainly does not allow for raises for any town employee, when we are laying off multiple teachers in our school system.

The following pdf document has all the information you need to know, as provided by the Board of Selectmen, about the proposed police station on Robbins Road.  It includes floor plans and information about potential other sites that were considered.

Download here

Here is a video recently produced by the staff of the Walpole Rebellion, the Walpole High School student newspaper.  It tackles the Rebel mascot head-on.  Do you think the resident next to Turco Field should display a Confederate Flag?  Vote here.

Furthermore, for those who check Sam Obar 180 daily in the hopes of seeing something new, I know I have not been posting anything lately.  That is a result of a lot of major town issues being discussed over the past several weeks and just not enough time to write about it all.  Next week I anticipate publishing my thoughts and commentary on at least a few of these issues:

Biotech in Walpole
Walpole Police Station Proposal
Stone Field - Pop Warner
Why the Town Administrator Should Live in Walpole
A Closer Look at the Posh Benefits of Walpole Town Employees
Meals Tax, Hotels Tax, Trash Fees
Town Meeting Preview; My Commentary on Issues to be Deliberated on

Again, this is just a sampling of some of the things that I have been following and have been formulating opinions on.  I look forward to posting my opinions in the near future.

Also, some words of encouragement and good luck to some local residents who are running in the Boston Marathon next week.  To our friend Tim Bailey, Walpole Fire Chief, who waves to me every time he drives by, good luck.  To my English and Journalism teacher, Conor Cashman, who is now on his third Boston Marathon and is raising money for charity, why not come out and win it this year?  To the Egans, who are well-known local runners, have fun.  And to everyone else who is running who I am not necessarily familiar with, best of luck.

For the record, I am not on Student Council at Walpole High School.

This is a public service announcement from Sam Obar 180, reminding all Walpole residents to fill out and return their 2010 census forms as soon as possible.  If 100% of households across the country mailed back their forms promptly, taxpayers would save $1.5 billion dollars.  Furthermore, the Brookings Institution estimates that Massachusetts is likely to receive more than $2000 in federal aid for every person who fills out the census.

In Walpole, as of April 7, 2010, 71% of Walpole residents have participated in the census.  That is comparable to an 83% participation rate in the 2000 census.  This year, we are already ahead of neighboring towns, like Norwood, at 65%, but we are behind towns like Norfolk, Foxborough, Dover, and Westwood.  We can do better.  This state is at risk of losing congressional seats and much-needed federal funding.  We are laying off teachers in the Walpole Public School system - is this really the time to be lazy and give up nearly $2000 in federal funding per person?  The answer is no.  Take 10 minutes and fill out your census form and mail it back.  Think of this as a competition between our neighboring towns, and let's see who can get close to 100% first.  I think Walpole can and will.