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Tom
Duggan's Notebook
Tom Duggan
(08/03/07)
Another
Hack Returns
Heres a stunner! One of the most dishonest
political hacks in Lawrences recent history, former
city councilor Pam Neilon, was selected to fill a vacancy
on the Greater Lawrence
Vocational School Board. A joint session of the Lawrence
School Committee and Lawrence City Council met last month
to choose between Neilon and a much more qualified but
much less political Ellen Gilbert. Guess who got the nod
from our local politicians? Thats right, Pam
Neilon. The same Pam Neilon who has immediate family
members working at the Tech School. So much for stamping
out nepotism at the vocational school, huh? Of course,
Neilon has to win the seat outright this coming November
but, thanks to the insider mentality of the city council
and school committee, she will now be running as an
incumbent and is automatically considered the front
runner. Rest assured that the Valley Patriot will be very
vigilant in reporting on this race. Pam Neilon is a
disgrace to female candidates and elected officials
everywhere and her dirty politics and political
manipulations will be highlighted in upcoming editions.
Shame on the councilors and committee members who
disregarded the best interest of the children at the
vocational school to pad the resume of a political hack.
Rahme Loans Herself
$100,000
Dont look now,
but Methuen city councilor and candidate for mayor,
Kathleen Corey Rahme, just leveled the playing field with
her announcement that shes going to personally lend
$100,000 to her campaign finance account. Mayor
Billy Manzis supporters may not think that Rahme
has a chance to unseat the current mayor, but $100,000
goes a long way.
With the Eagle~Tribune obsessed with taking down Methuen
Police Chief Joe Solomon and willing to go after anyone
who defends him, Manzi may be in for a real fight.
Conventional wisdom still has Manzi winning (60/40), but
remember, this is politics and anything can happen.
Lets Keep it Clean
I thought I had made it clear three and a half years ago
when we started the Valley Patriot that the Eagle
Tribunes practice of exploiting the personal lives
of candidates and public
officials would not be tolerated. But now Mark Vogler has
(again) crossed the line by writing about an elected
official and his personal (prior) relationship with a
candidate for office. Apparently, the Trib is starting to
revert back to old form so, let me remind my colleagues
at the Tribune (especially Mark Vogler) that, your
private lives are no more off limits than the people you
cover. As such, if you cross the line again by writing
about peoples personal lives when it has nothing to
do with their abilities to do the job they are running
for (or doing), I will unleash a series of stories about
the backgrounds and personal lives of certain people at
the Eagle Tribune, including arrest records, divorce
records and a very unpleasant story about Canada. You are
no longer the only game in town, guys. If you are going
to exploit the personal details of candidates
private lives then it is only right that you be held to
the same standard. I say, its election time again
so lets keep it clean and focus on the issues at
hand ... otherwise the issue at hand may be you.
Lawrence Cops Bike from NY
to Boston
On September 11, 2007 members of the Lawrence Police
Department will be embarking on a 300 mile bicycle ride
from Yankee Stadium to Fenway Park to raise money for the
Massachusetts Law Enforcement Memorial Fund and the New
York Police Department Widows and Orphans Fund.
Lieutenants James Raso and Dan Flemming will join
Sergeants Jay Cerillo, Michael Simard and Mark Ciccarelli
on the 300 mile journey which is expected to end on
September 14th. A donation of $100 or more will place
your name on the back of a special edition 9/11
ride long sleeve T-Shirt. All sponsors will receive
a t-shirt before they are available to the public. The
t-shirts will be available at the Lawrence police station
for $20 with proceeds going to both funds. If you would
like to be a sponsor or donate any amount please send all
donations to Lawrence Police Department, 90 Lowell St.
Lawrence, MA 01841 (attention Lt. James Raso).
Congratulations Marcos
Governor
Deval Patrick has appointed former Lawrence mayor Marcos
Devers as the new Regional Director of The Massachusetts
Department of Industrial Accidents in Lawrence. Devers
won the Lawrence primary election for mayor in 2005 and
was the city council president for two years prior.
Its great to see someone finally stepping up to the
plate and showing a little appreciation to Devers for all
the hard work he has done here in the community. As
someone who is intimately familiar with the inner
workings of the Industrial Accidents Board I know that
Devers will do a exceptional job and help them increase
the efficiency of that office. Now just think, if he had
won the mayors job two years ago it would be Devers
putting up with the shenanigans of the Lawrence city
council and walking around with a huge target on his back
instead of working in a professional environment and
being appreciated for his work. He will still get to
witness the incompetence of the city of Lawrence in his
new job, however, with Andrea Traficantes appeal
and city of Lawrence workers comp cases coming
through his office. Way to go Marcos!
Tsongas Little
Slip
Fifth District Congressional candidate Niki Tsongas was
recently caught on the campaign trail telling voters that
she represented the district for
15 years. Of course, Tsongas is the widow of former
congressman Paul Tsongas and one could argue that they
worked together both on the campaign trail and in
Washington. But in politics, the details of your rhetoric
really do matter, especially when you have opponents with
friends in the media. This begs the question; when you
are voting for someone to represent you in elected
office, are you also electing their spouse as well? After
all, Hillary Clinton thinks she was actually the
president for eight years and there are plenty of people
who think her influence on the presidents policies
were overwhelming. Nevertheless, Tsongas is a pro and a
slip up like this is not typical of her campaign style.
It makes you wonder if it was part of the strategy and,
knowing how other politicians steal campaign catch
phrases if Hillary will be on the stump next year
claiming she was once the president.
The war between Warren Shaw
and DJ Deeb in Dracut
You might be
surprised to see Dracut School Committeeman D.J.
Deebs column in this edition of The Valley Patriot
after I stated on the radio that his columns would no
longer be welcome. It seems the war between he and my
good friend Warren Shaw from WCAP has gotten hot and
heavy as of late and it was my original intent to just
stay as far away from it as possible. But when Deeb
called to remind me that banning him from participating
in The Valley Patriot because he poached the website name
www.warrenshaw.com
(to further his feud with Mr. Shaw), would be a violation
of our Our Voice is Your Voice policy I had
to concede his point. While we are certainly not taking
sides in the Shaw v. Deeb political war in Dracut, it is
our mission to give a voice to all those in the community
who want to be heard. If Mr. Shaw would like to submit
his thoughts and opinions on Deebs opinions in The
Valley Patriot he is more than welcome to do so, in fact,
we would be happy to do a regular Point-Counter
Point in every edition until the feud is over. One
thing for sure, had I not been called on the carpet by
Mr. Deeb we would be headed down the same path as the
Eagle~Tribune and we would never want to follow in their
footsteps.
I Dont do
Endorsements
. But Omaira Mejia is a pretty good
candidate
As a rule I do not endorse political candidate in the
pages of the Valley Patriot. But I will say this,
Lawrence School Committeeman Omaira Mejia is the mother
of two children attending the Lawrence schools. She has
lived in Lawrence for 23 years, went to college and
earned two degrees in criminal justice, law enforcement
and probation, and parole officer. She currently works
for the United States Postal Service as a mail carrier
and Mayor Michael Sullivan says she is the most
professional and clearly the most qualified member of the
Lawrence School Committee he has ever worked with.
Given that she is facing the brother of Israel Reyes in
this upcoming election I just thought I would pass that
along.
ORorke Is in to Win
it!
Rumors
have been swirling around the city of Haverhill that
mayoral candidate Sally Cerasuolo-ORorke is
dropping out of the mayors race after her blunder of
wanting to rename a bridge that honors a World War II
veteran. ORorke, however, says that is
categorically untrue and says she is moving full steam
ahead on her campaign to unseat Haverhill Mayor Jim
Fiorentini in the fall. So, since she says she is
in it to win it The Valley Patriot will be
interviewing ORorke in the next few weeks and
publishing that interview in the September edition.
Shoddy Police Work
When I read in the Tribune that Ines Faucher was arrested
for allegedly stealing money from the Pop Warner football
league in Lawrence, I was surprised that a member of the
Lawrence police force would take a statement by Mr.
Elwell (head of the Pop Warner league) but do no
investigation whatsoever (I always thought investigators
were supposed to
uh
investigate?) He
didnt research the case or the allegations, he
didnt talk to former board members, (as I did) he
did not even talk to Mrs. Faucher to get her side of the
story. In fact, Mrs. Faucher called this police officer
several times after the complaint was filed against her
but the investigating officer was never available. What
happened next was just outrageous. The investigating
officer had at least four police cruisers race to the
home of Ines Faucher to handcuff and arrest her in front
of her children and neighbors. But, heres the
kicker, (pun intended) in his own police report Mr.
Elwell states that it wasnt even Ines Faucher who
took the $600 of Pop Warner money that was missing.
Thats right, in his own words to police he admits
that it was Fauchers son who took the money and
that Ines came forward willingly to take full
responsibility for paying the money back to the league
(because it was her job to safeguard the money when it
was taken). So, why wasnt the son arrested instead
of Ines Faucher? I dont know, but I do know that Mr.
Elwell has a personal vendetta and is launching an all
out war against the new Junior Maulers Football league
and using this issue to try and destroy the credibility
of the new league, headed in part by
Ines Faucher.
Of course, had the investigating officer done
his job, he would have known all this before moving
forward and filing charges against Mrs. Faucher. But he
didnt. This was shoddy police work at its
worst and I dont mind saying that the Lawrence
police owe Ines Faucher a public apology. More to
come
.
Thank You Mr. MacLean
The Valley Patriot wishes to thank Ray MacLean for
donating a sign for the Valley Patriot office. Please see
story to the right.
Gonzalez v. Gonzalez Round
II
Lawrece District C City Councilor Jorge
Gonzalez is being challenged by for-mer city councilor
Barbara Gonzalez again this year. The last time these two
faced off Jorge Gonzalez was concerned when sever-al
people told him that they voted for his wife
on election day. The city councilors wife also
happens to be named Barbara Gonzalez. But this year he
wants everyone to know in advance, the Barbara Gonzalez
running against him is not his wife.
Help Emergency Officials Find YOUR Home
When an emergency happens at
your home, how confident are you that fire, police or
ambulance drivers will be able to find your house?
Retired North Andover Firefighter Ray MacLean wants to
make sure they can.
MacLean makes address signs for local residents in
Methuen, Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover for a small
donation, but says that he will do free work for families
who need a sign but cannot afford to make a donation.
Emergency officials like Interim Fire Chief Bill
Martineau say that too often emergency response time to
fires or medical emergencies are hampered by residents
not posting their address numbers on their home.
We encourage people to put large address numbers on
the outside of their homes. If we cant determine
where an address is, it takes too much time to find the
house, especially at night. That puts peoples lives
at risk. We encourage them to use large numbers on the
house itself.
Some people have a large driveway and in those cases we
strongly encourage people to have their house number
somewhere at the end of their driveway.
Martineau says that the donations taken in from MacLean
address signs go towards a public education fund.
With that donated money, we put on fire safety
demonstrations for children. Its really a win-win
situation for everyone.
Martineau said that the Fire Department has purchased a
fire safety trailer for public education for younger
children in the schools. They bring the trailer to
schools, inject artificial smoke into the trailer so that
they can see how smoke travels. We teach kids how to get
low in a fire so they can breathe and crawl
themselves to safety.
To order an address sign for your home or to make a
donation to the Fire Prevention Safety Trailer, you can
send a check to the attention of Interim Fire Chief Bill
Martineau, 124 Main St., North Andover MA 01845
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The August 2007 Edition
of the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2007, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 15,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover,
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Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
Hampton & Salisbury Beach, (summers
only)
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