Bellicose Bumpkin

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Nice post from SSCR – acknowledging my column and “paying it forward” by listing/linking to many of the businesses in town.

Class act

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My column in this week’s Gazette discusses a very positive experience I had recently buying a custom built computer from South Shore Computer Repair in downtown Middleboro. That dove tails into a case for shopping locally particularly at fine vendors like Mary Barry Massage Therapy who offers gift certificates that make a thoughtful and unique holiday gift.

I’ve been very busy lately with my recent appointment to the Middleboro Community Preservation Committee. Last night we had a 2 1/2 hour training/Q&A session with Stuart Saginor from the Community Preservation Coalition – a statewide CPA advocacy group.

Our local CPC has had a bit of a controversy already with a former town moderator challenging the legality of the statutory member(Jo) representing the Housing Authority. The CPC statue calls for “a member” of the Housing Authority. Jo is an ex-officio member – she is appointed to the HA not elected. According to Wikipedia, “ex-officio” only describes how a person becomes a member – it does NOT limit their status as a member. This seems to have mostly been resolved with the DOR ruling that the her participation in the committee is proper. We are also awaiting advice from town counsel.

Bottom line to me:

1. Jo is a MEMBER of the HA – ex-officio or not.
2. Roberts rules states that ex-officio is a designation about how somebody gets onto a board and is NOT a limit of their participatory rights.
3. CPC calls for a member of the HA on the CPC
4. Go to 1

CPA is controversial – I was expecting the controversy to be of a less hair-splitting nature.

I’ve been working on the web site for the Middleboro Community Preservation Committee. We are charged with recommending projects to town meeting for CPA funds. The site was approved by the committee as the official CPC site. Check it out, share, like, follow, and so on.

I’m looking to put together a list of great places in Middleboro for the CPA web site. I’ve always thought the Middleboro town web site should have such a list, but they don’t. The town CPA web site seems like a reasonable place for it.

Specifically I’m looking for public parks, public open space areas. public recreational facilities, museums, etc. If you know of one that I missed, please post as a comment with the

name

location

short description of the site and what it offers.

So far I have

Pratt Farm

Taunton River Wildlife Management Area

Rocky Gutter Wildlife Management Area (could use location/description info)

Weston Woods(could use location/description info)

Oliver Mills

Peirce Playground/Battis Field

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Reminder – I’m playing Friday Oct 21 at the Flat Iron Cafe

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Steve Jobs had great vision and a knack for taking existing technology and re-imagining it in a way that appealed to the masses. His products had an undeniable panache and quality. He was the face of Apple and known the world over – he was a rock star.

Lesser known was Dennis Ritchie who died about a week after Jobs. I would argue that Ritchie’s impact on computing was far greater than Jobs and deserves recognition. Ritchie created the C programming language which is still widely used and heavily influenced all modern languages – C++, Java, C# – you name it. He was co-inventor of Unix the most influential operating system of our time. Yes Windows is way more common, but the concepts underlying Unix are ubiquitous in the computing world.

Greats like Ritchie should get the same credit given to the rock stars. And more.

I’ll be playing with Sixteen Shillings at the Flat Iron Cafe this Friday Oct 21 starting at 8:00 PM.
444 Center Street
Middleboro, MA 02346
(508) 947-3358

The facebook event page is here.

Sixteen Shillings is a two piece with Rob Dragunas on mandolin/vocals and me on guitar/vocals. We’re having a lot of fun – and I’m enjoying the change from the solo gigs I’ve been doing for thelast couple of years.

Here’s a fun one – Long Black Veil. Rob and I are very free-form with the breaks, dynamics, and who is playing what lick at what time – which makes for unpredictable results but lots of fun.

Hello everyone. This Saturday, Oct 15th is the last trash pick up for the Middleborough Mess Movers. We will meet in the Town Hall Parking lot at 9:00 as usual and drive over to the VFW on Station ST. to pick up trash. After we pick up trash, we will have a small celebration with cake and awards. Hope to see you there.

Thanks,

Melissa Guimont,
mbmessmovers@gmail.com.

I’ve recently been appointed to Middleboro’s Community Preservation Committee(CPC) – the group responsible for recommending projects to town meeting that will receive CPA funds.

I am putting together a web site for the CPC. It will have meeting minutes, agendas, related docs, information about the projects that are being dicussed – and generally serve as an information portal so that Middleboro knows what is being discussed.

I am looking for nice photos for use on the CPC web site – photos that highlight Middleboro’s natural beauty, historic character, parks, housing, town buildings, or just about anything that says “Middleboro”. If you have pictures I can use – please send them to me. I only want pictures that you took yourself. I will try to credit the owner of the picture via captions but can’t promise that every use of the photo will include a credit.

The CPA has the potential to preserve open space, historic assets, create housing and parks – things that will benefit Middleboro and improve our quality of life for generations to come. It is (in my mind) the single most important and positive thing the town has done in decades. Your pictures will contribute to that.

A couple of years ago I was asked by Ed Beaulieu to serve on the board of trustees for the Future Of Middleboro Trust. This is Ed’s baby and he and his wife Sue do all the heavy lifting. We’ve raised money to replace the handicap swing at the Pierce Playground but the big project is Project Lifesaver – a system for locating people who are prone to wandering such as Alzheimer’s patients.

The system was used Friday to locate a missing woman.

Kudos to the Beaulieu’s for spearheading this initiative.

The E-Cat was tested in Bologna and attended by a number of physicists and scientists.

It appears to me that the device produced power way in excess of the energy it consumed and operated as expected. It reportedly ran in self-sustain mode(no external energy) for three hours before it was shut off to proceed to the “look inside the box” portion of the demonstration.

Here are some links discussing the test.

NyTekNik article
NytekNik 8 page report

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At a new test in Bologna on Thursday, the ‘E-cat’ invented by Andrea Rossi ran in a completely stable self sustained mode for over three hours. Ny Teknik attended the test.
The test on Thursday was performed before a number of invited physicists and engineers from various countries – Italy, Sweden, USA and China – as well as journalists from a couple of Italian media outlets and Ny Teknik.

One of the invited researchers was chemist Roland Pettersson, retired Associate Professor from the University of Uppsala and a colleague of Professor Sven Kullander’s. Kullander issued a report on the E-cat earlier this year; Pettersson has conducted research on LENR together with Professor Hidetsugu Ikegami from Osaka University in Japan.

“I’m convinced that this works, but there is still room for more measurements”, Pettersson told Ny Teknik after the test.

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Marese aka Mary Barry has been home since Saturday. She is in much pain and moving slowly but progressing. Pelvis fractures are stable and improving – meaning that no surgery will by necessary. Her shoulder and collar bone needs further investigation. She sends this message:

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Huge “thank you” for the well wishes. My rehab/recovery is tough going.

I need advice. My broken clavicle/shoulder soft tissue damage needs the expertise of an orthopedist who specializes in sports injuries or shoulder injuries or both. Has anyone had similar injury successfully treated by an orthopedist whom you would recommend? I need immediate referral.

Thanks for your help!

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Pretty decent (I think) version of Shady Grove. It’s not without warts … I don’t think I’ve ever played anything that was wart free … but still pretty decent for our second gig.

I went to Spaulding Rehab today to meet up with Marese and some of her PT staff. They took me through the mechanics of moving her from point A to point B – walking, stairs, chairs, beds, etc. She is basically able to do everything herself and just needs some supervision on stairs and things like that. The PT staff is very confident that she’s ready – Marese is a little doubtful. Either way we’ll be picking her up tomorrow and bringing her home.

The pain is still intense and hasn’t improved much in the last week or so. She moves in slow motion with grimaces, gasps, and outcries that accompany every step and movement. But …. she IS moving under her own steam and it’s just a matter of time until she’s fully recovered. Easy for me to say.

Marese
So I was asked for an update on Marese today.

She’s still in Spaulding Rehab in Sandwich – Room 211. She’s making good progress but that progress comes with a high price in pain. She can walk short distances – which as I mentioned is agonizing and tricky because her right arm is immobilized in a sling due to the broken collar bone. I have no clue if she’ll be there for a week, two weeks, or more.

Crazy busy
Meanwhile me and the boys just hit the one week anniversary of Marese’s accident. I’m working from home but it’s hard to keep up. Getting ready for school runs until 8:15 AM and I they’re home by 3:30. After that there is homework, dinner, activities like karate and so on. On top of that, I have to do all the laundry, shopping, cleaning … and everything else. And on top of all that, we are trying to get to visit Marese at least every other day. This is absolutely crucial for all of us – but is still a 3-4 hour commitment every couple of days. So I’m feeling the schedule burn but it’s all good. It’s just a bunch of stuff that has to get done and that’s that. We’re good.

Rebooting my kitchen
So since I have so much free time, I decided to reboot my kitchen. We suffer from clutter-itus at my house. Every surface is covered with stuff that mostly shouldn’t be there. I cleared off every surface of everything – whether it belonged there or not – and piled it up on the kitchen table. We going through each of the probably hundreds of items one by one and putting them where they belong with “where they belong” defined as “not on a counter or table”. This is requiring that the cabinets and drawers be rebooted as well. At the moment, the house looks like a bomb went off but I think the end result will be worth it.

… deep breath ……. whew!

Yesterday I was sworn in as an at-large member of the Middleboro CPC – Community Preservation Committee. There were nine candidates for the four at-large positions which were chosen by a combined vote of the statutory CPC members and the Board of Selectmen. The CPC will consist of:

Member	Type – Represents	Misc
Jane Lopes	Statutory – Historic Commission	Jane is the editor of the Middleboro Gazette and involved in many, many local groups
Jo Ruthwicz	Statutory – Housing Authority	Jo was involved in the first CPA effort back in 2001/2
Dave Maddigan	Statutory – Planning Board	I don’t know a thing about Mr. Maddigan
Dave Thomas	Statutory – Parks Commissioner	I don’t know a thing about Mr. Thomas
Lauren Bell	Statutory – Conservation Commission	I don’t know a thing about Ms. Bell
Mike Maddigan	At large	Mike is also on the Historic Commission and is involved with the Historical Association. He writes a history-themed blog and a history themed column in the Gazette
Ted Eayres	At large	Ted is a former selectman and is involved with The Blackburn Building Conservation LLC a “three generation family firm dedicated to the preservation and conservation of historic buildings”
Mo Franco	At large	Ms. Franco is new to town politics and we could use another 1000 citizens just like her. Smart, independent, and purely motivated to make positive change for the town.
Mark Belanger	At large	Blogger, Gazette columnnist, professional contrarian

Our first meeting will be Tues, Oct 4 6:00 PM in the BOS meeting room. Being a brand new committee I don’t expect that much of interest will happen until we figure out how it all works.

This will probably the last of the daily updates. Past updates are here and here.

Marese was moved by ambulance to Spaulding Rehab in Sandwich today (Rm. 211). She is very happy to be out of Tufts. She is looking great and we expect a full recovery. Mentally she seems absolutely fine. The fractured pelvis is the big problem as far as pain and mobility goes. She is able to stand only with help – the difficulty is largely due to pain.

There will be some very painful days ahead in rehab but she’s eager to get started and get back to normal. We don’t have any estimate for how long her stay will be. I would hope not more than a week but just don’t know.

Tufts – whatever it’s strengths may be – sucks. There is no personal interaction and they are terrible with letting you know what is going on. You’re left to stand like a beggar – hat in hand – waiting for whatever scraps of data are thrown to you by whoever passes by. The doctors seem annoyed when they are asked questions. I will say the nursing staff was excellent and had a tough job answering questions that were thrown at them by default because there wasn’t anyone else around. Things improved somewhat when a hospital coordinator got involved though I think her main purpose was overseeing the transition to the next facility.

Spaulding seems excellent so far, and Jordan was very good in that regard.

My running partner Rick and I were talking about the Orrall/Brunelle election and the surprising(at least to me) outcome when he coined the term “Pacheco Effect” which totally cracked me up.

My recent difficulties with Senator Marc Pacheco are documented in a blog post. Short version: Pacheco told rep. candidate Allin Frawley that he wouldn’t support him because he asked tough questions in public. We’re all still waiting for Pacheco to man up and either admit that or deny it. Instead Pacheco endorsed Roger Brunelle Jr. – a union guy who was immediately endorsed by many unions.

Apparently Pacheco’s star power doesn’t shine as brightly as it once did because democrat Brunelle lost the seat to Republican Orralle in a heavily democratic district.

So here you have it – The Pacheco Effect

Marese continues to improve and was supposed to be moved to Spaulding Rehab in Sandwich today. There was some screwup by the insurance company that prevented that from happening. Rest assured that Cigna will be getting a liberal dose of my special brand of attention tomorrow. Today I was comparatively gentle when I told them that “I want to state in the most emphatic possible terms that I want this roadblock to be removed … NOW”.

Apparently everything is resolved for a move tomorrow(9/22).

I didn’t get into Tufts today but spoke to Marese several times by phone with the kids. My friend Dr. Dave, Sharon, Naz, and Moira(sp?) did visit. Dave thinks that she is doing great – particularly the mental acuity. That is to me – the most important thing by far. She sounded kind of down today – I think the delayed move to rehab, the pain, and the time away from home are starting to take their toll. She’s been told that rehab could run a week but that varies depending on who you talk to.

The kids are holding up well. I think they are happy with the obvious improvement and the pending move to rehab.

Keiko Orrall won the 12th Bristol District seat in a stunning victory over Roger Brunelle Jr. Clearly my blog post and insightful questions pushed her over the top. I have to admit to being completely surprised by this result. Brunelle was the darling of the unions and status quo. He was heavily financed with union money that paid for mailings, phone-banking and supplied boots for the campaign.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that this was a vote against the status quo, unions, and Democrats. Keiko is viewed as the outsider who can bring change and is not beholden to any special interests.

Leading up to the election, I saw this article in the ST that included this quote:

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Brunelle, a union painter for 19 years and financial secretary of Painters & Allied Trades Local 691, has emphasized job creation and the economy. He has championed the legalization of casinos and a commuter rail extension for New Bedford and Fall River.

Orrall, a secretary and former teacher who currently home-schools her children, has argued that cutting taxes and regulations will help spur the economy. She has spoken in favor of limited government and improved efficiency in state programs.

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I thought those descriptions of the candidates were colored in a way that favored Brunelle. Today was this TG article about the victory:

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Orrall, 44, of Lakeville, is a former member of her town’s Finance Committee and a former educator.

Brunelle, 43, a Middleboro resident and industrial painter, could not be reached for comment by press time Tuesday.

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Keiko has gone from a “former secretary” and “teacher” to a former member of the “Finance Committee” and “educator” – which sounds somehow better than teacher and we’ve suddenly forgotten about her being a former secretary.

Maybe I’m imagining things but I thought pre-election news coverage was giving very subtle short shrift to Orrall and very slight advantage to Brunelle.

This was a tough election for me even though I’m not in the district. Orrall socially conservative views are a complete anathema to mine but I really liked her fiscal positions. I never had any idea what Brunelle’s positions were because he never got back to me with my issue questionnaire and always spoke in useless broad generalities like “we need jobs” and so on. That put me in Orrall’s camp.

The people have spoken.

This is a bit of a cut and paste job so I can keep everyone informed without writing the same information multiple times.

Marese was riding with her friend Sharon on Monday. She can’t remember the accident but Sharon and I both came up with the same scenario that fits all the facts. They were traveling at about 20 MPH coming on to Wall St. from Plymouth with Sharon in the lead. At 20 MPH, you are traveling at 30 feet per second. Sharon slowed down to avoid a hedgehog that came into the road and the next thing she knew Marese went down just behind and to her left. Most likely Marese looked away for a moment just as Sharon was slowing down, saw her at the last moment, and hit the breaks hard while turning to the left a bit to avoid colliding into her. That combination just made her tip over hard onto her side. Judging by the injuries, she went down on her right side with the hip, shoulder, and head taking roughly equal force.

On Monday she was very scrambled and confused. She asked us about every minute if her shoulder was broken. Later in the day, they found the fractured pelvis in addition to the broken collar bone and concussion they already knew about. That prompted a move from Jordan to Tufts Medical Center late on Monday night

Injury 1 – Concussion
I went to see Marese in Tufts Medical today(Tues). She is very much improved. I think that her mental discombobulation had as much to do with the pain meds as the concussion – Barry women are notorious for going loopy under the influence of strong pain meds. If there were any memory issues today they weren’t apparent to me. She still can’t remember the accident but that is quite normal. She had CT’s and a neurological consult and everything looks consistent with a concussion.

Injury 2 – Fractured pelvis:
The fractured pelvis also looks good. There are cracks that extend into the hip socket. Ortho is sure that there is no misalignment of the bones – and so no surgery is needed. She’ll be getting around with a cane as soon as she is able to endure the pain. That’s right – she’ll use a Cane when she’s Able ….

Injury 3 – broken collarbone :
Who cares? This is a minor issue that I was never particularly worried about. She has a sling and will have to keep it immobile for I don’t know how long. It will be monitored and addressed if it doesn’t heal properly. Apparently they normally just spring back into the proper position and knit themselves back together.

Most likely she will move to a rehab in a day or two and home shortly after that – that’s all still up in the air.

Everything at this time is pointing to a full recovery.

I’ve been letting my asshole flag fly high – pushing the docs on the treatment, advocating for more scans, making sure they know that today’s event-B was similar to yesterday’s event-A. I’m pushing the fact that Marese is an athlete and we need to worry about how she’ll be in 5 years – not five weeks, not five months. Yesterday I asked the hospital coordinator handling her case if we needed more advanced scans on her various injuries. He said – “I can call and ask but I’m sure the ?WHOEVER? will say that they are not needed.”. I replied “Great. Then you can hand the phone to me and I’ll tell him to get his ass in here and do the scans.”.

We got the scans. Probably more because her condition indicated it rather than my triage room histrionics. There were similar things in Tufts today. I’m there to advocate for the best possible treatment for my wife and am not in the least bit concerned with annoying medical staff, offending the people charged with her care, or saving some insurance company the cost of a $1000 dollar test. I feel that I’m reasonable when the care is good – and that I’m a real nightmare if I have any doubts about the care my wife is getting.

I want to thank everyone for the tremendous outpouring of support. Amazing.

Don’t forget to check out the fun and worthy things to do this weekend.

Just because – here’s a couple of videos from the second Sixteen Shillings gig (me and Rob):

Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You

Old Home Place

For the weekend of Saturday 9/17/2011

Saturday 9AM – Middleboro Mess Movers – Meet at town hall to pick up roadside litter. Pitch in. Please go to their FaceBook page and “like” them. Give apathy a kick in the can.

Saturday and Sunday – The Soule Homestead Harvest Fair and Folk Festival. I’ll probably be playing out front off and on.

Saturday 7:30PM – Free concert at the Middleboro Library – 7:30 PM with Erik Lindgren and the Goli Consort. Led by professional musician, composer, and Middleboro local – Lindgren is one of the few people in Middleboro with his own Wikipedia page.

As Sherri pointed out in comments – you should “like” the Soule Homestead as well. And while you’re at it, you could Like Mary Barry Massage Therapy – a business I’m not personally involved with ….. although my wife is the owner …

I sent out a questionnaire to the candidates in the 12th Bristol District race for the seat opened up by Canessa’s recent resignation. Keiko Orrall got back to me pretty quickly and answered all the questions in a very forthcoming way via a phone interview last Friday. Roger Brunelle Jr. did not respond despite two emails. I found that to be a bit crappy. Even a reply of “I’m too busy” is better than failure to respond at all.

I had clearance from Middleboro Gazette editor Jane Lopes to do an extra column about the questionnaire – providing both candidates were represented. Since Roger Brunelle Jr. did not respond, the best I can do is this blog post discussing Ms. Orrall’s responses based on the interview I did last week.

Generally Keiko is very conservative both fiscally and socially. Some of the answers are direct quotes – noted with “quotes”. Non-quoted text is my own recollection of her answers based on my notes and memory of the conversation.

Keep in mind that these are pretty tough and controversial questions. Keiko answered them honestly knowing that I wouldn’t like some of her answers – particularly the ones on social issues. Her opponent didn’t bother to answer at all.

Would you rate yourself liberal, moderate, or conservative in general?

“I am conservative fiscally, socially, I oppose tax increases. We have to work within our budgets.”

Would you rate yourself liberal, moderate, or conservative on social issues? Please provide a position that demonstrates your answer.

“Conservative – I support traditional family values.”

Can you offer any specific ways to control spending in state government?

Ms. Orrall thinks “We can save money by cutting fraud within the welfare system to make sure we’re giving the funds to people who need them”. Recently the rules were tightened so that EBT cards (the electronic equivalent of food stamps) can’t be used for alcohol and tobacco. Keiko would like to see that used as a springboard to more reform.

Can you offer any specific ways that municipal governments can control spending?

Orrall observed that “We consistently have trouble keeping up with health insurance costs for state employees. We have to work on trying to bring those costs down”. She would like to give cities and towns more control over costs of municipal employees.

What is your position on global warming, green energy and/or the green economy?

“The earth and it’s climate are complex. It’s not clear to me that the reported increase in temperature is due solely to man when there are many other factors that are potentially contributing. As far as green energy – when it saves money we should pursue it and the jobs and industry it will provide. I think it should be done as an individual choice and not as a government mandate.”. Keiko and her family has been active in the Lakeville Litter Lifters for years.

Do you have any specific recommendations on improving the public school system?

Orrall wants to increase local aid and would like to “make sure that money goes into the classroom and not into administration”. She noted that as a member of the local Finance Committee it was “very difficult to get straight numbers from the school committee”. She would like to see local officials get detailed spending numbers so they can achieve more efficiency from their local education dollars.

She also thinks that local governments could benefit from increased volunteerism – particularly by retirees..

Do you support “No Child Left Behind”?

Keiko does not support “No Child Left Behind”. She considers it to be an unfunded mandate.

What are your thoughts on Charter schools?

She does not support charter schools – she thinks it takes Chapter 70 money away from public schools.

Do you support same-sex marriage?

“No.”

Do you support a woman’s right to legal abortion?

Keiko is firmly anti-abortion and doesn’t want to see any public money spent to provide it.

How do you feel about privatization of government functions?

Would like to see more privatization. She feels that competition brings better response, quality, and price.

Do you have any opinion on the Pacheco law?

Would like to see a repeal of the Pacheco Law.

Do you think any changes are needed in state government employee compensation packages? If so, what?

Ms. Orrall thinks that federal, state, and local finances are in a “precarious state” and that we “cannot continue on this path”. She would consider any changes required to solve problems though she would like to see current retirees grandfathered to protect their current benefits.

What is your position on collective bargaining of state employee unions?

Keiko would be in favor of limiting collective bargaining where required by fiscal reality. It is already the case that the state can make changes to health care without negotiating with public unions.

Do you think cities and town are legally obligated to fund the state portion of the Quinn bill if that portion is not funded by the state?

Keiko believes that the law as written makes towns liable for the state’s unfunded portion of the Quinn Bill and that a change to the law is in order.

Do you have any plan for addressing OPEB liability?

Ms. Orrall would like to see local governments given more control over plan design and would support “tough changes”.

Do you agree with Governor Patrick’s stance on the “Secure Communities” program?

“No and I don’t understand why we’re still discussing it. It seems like a no-brainer.”

What persons or organizations comprise the top five contributions to your campaign?

Ms. Orrall has received donations from town Republican committees, personal friends, and “no unions”.

What issue(s) are most important to you and what specific solutions would you propose to address them?

She wants to “create a climate for job growth – reduce government regulation and allow for the private sector to expand and grow”. She wants to improve education by “bringing more local aid back to the cities and towns along with more transparency and community involvement”. She wants to cut government spending, cut spending on illegal immigration, and see more pension reform.

Open question: Why should someone vote for you?

Keiko believes that she is the most qualified candidate and that she has a track record of advocacy of others. She believe she can fairly represent all the communities in her district and notes that “I’m not beholden to anyone”.

I wrote a column about a month ago explaining my dissatisfaction with Senator Marc Pacheco. He responded to my criticism and explained clearly why I was wrong. Obviously no constituent should ever be dissatisfied with Senator Pacheco and if they are – well then they are certainly wrong. I wrote another column to respond and that was the last word on the subject.

Until today.

The Edgeway Homeowners Association weighed in on Pacheco. Apparently the Edgeway folks also felt that Pacheco was a no show when they contacted him – like I did:

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We are writing in reference to columns written by Mark Belanger and response from Senator Pacheco. We feel Mark hit the nail on the head when he stated, “Senator Pacheco seems to be more concerned with public unions than the public.” Many of us belonged to unions during our working careers and realize there is a place for unions in the work place. But they are not always right. We get the impression that we should vote for the person who belongs to a union, who is supported by the senator and who will in turn benefit from all the union members’ votes

Hello! Remember us, the older crowd who no longer are union people? We, the residents of Edgeway, reached out to Senator Pacheco on several occasion for help. His staff was kind and courteous, but no real help. The senator said he didn’t get involved in small town politics. No help, even though in 1993 the Legislature, under Senator Pacheco, amended the Manufactured Housing law to authorize the Attorney General’s Office to issue regulations and strengthen resident’s legal protection. We were told to complain to the attorney general’s office. We did, numerous times, to no avail.

We then reached out to Representative Steve Canessa who put us in touch with the right person in the attorney general’s office, we started to receive help.

Along came Allin Frawley and Ben Quelle, two caring individuals running for the Board of Selectmen. They listened and told us we would always be given the right to speak at Board of Selectmen’s meetings. They started working on our problems along with the rest of the board. What a difference decent, caring people make. And guess what? We didn’t belong to a union. They helped us and asked for nothing in return. So when the senator chose not to support Allin Frawley, because he was not union, we were upset. Allin had proven himself through hard work and commitment. We want our next state representative to help all of us! Therefore, after so many years of supporting Senator Pacheco, we withdraw our support and will no longer be voting for him or his choice for state representative, Roger Brunelle, Jr.

We have chosen to support Keiko Orrall, a candidate with some of the same views Allin Frawley possesses.

Edgeway Homeowner’s Association

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Great song from Garcia/Grisman

I sent this questionnaire to Keiko Orrall and Roger Brunelle Jr. – candidates for 12th Bristol district representative seat. The questionnaire was sent out Friday and contains questions on issues that are important to me and probably of interest to a lot of voters. So far I haven’t heard back from either candidate whether they would or would not respond – but keep in mind I only sent it out two days ago:

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Would you rate yourself liberal, moderate, or conservative in general?

Would you rate yourself liberal, moderate, or conservative on fiscal issues? Please provide a position that demonstrates your answer.

Would you rate yourself liberal, moderate, or conservative on social issues? Please provide a position that demonstrates your answer.

Can you offer any specific ways to control spending in state government?

Can you offer any specific ways that municipal governments can control spending?

What is your position on global warming, green energy and/or the green economy?

Do you have any specific recommendations on improving the public school system?

Do you support “No Child Left Behind”?

What are your thoughts on Charter schools?

Do you support same-sex marriage?

Do you support a woman’s right to legal abortion?

How do you feel about privatization of government functions?

Do you have any opinion on the Pacheco law?

Do you think any changes are needed in state government employee compensation packages? If so, what?

What is your position on collective bargaining of state employee unions?

Do you think cities and town are legally obligated to fund the state portion of the Quinn bill if that portion is not funded by the state?

Do you have any plan for addressing OPEB liability?

Do you agree with Governor Patrick’s stance on the “Secure Communities” program?

What persons or organizations comprise the top five contributions to your campaign?

What issue(s) are most important to you and what specific solutions would you propose to address them?

Open question: Why should someone vote for you?