>>Valley Patriot>>


Tom Duggan's Notebook
Tom Duggan
(08/03/07)


Another Hack Returns

Here’s a stunner! One of the most dishonest political hacks in Lawrence’s 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? That’s 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

Don’t look now, but Methuen city councilor and candidate for mayor, Kathleen Corey Rahme, just leveled the playing field with her announcement that she’s going to personally lend $100,000 to her campaign finance account.  Mayor Billy Manzi’s 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.

Let’s 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 Tribune’s 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 people’s 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 candidate’s private lives then it is only right that you be held to the same standard. I say, it’s election time again so let’s 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. It’s 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 mayor’s 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 Traficante’s 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 president’s 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. Deeb’s 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 Deeb’s 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 Don’t 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.

O’Rorke Is in to Win it!

Rumors have been swirling around the city of Haverhill that mayoral candidate Sally Cerasuolo-O’Rorke is dropping out of the mayors race after her blunder of wanting to rename a bridge that honors a World War II veteran. O’Rorke, 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 O’Rorke 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 didn’t research the case or the allegations, he didn’t 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, here’s the kicker, (pun intended) in his own police report Mr. Elwell states that it wasn’t even Ines Faucher who took the $600 of Pop Warner money that was missing. That’s right, in his own words to police he admits that it was Faucher’s 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 wasn’t 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 didn’t. This was shoddy police work at its’ worst and I don’t 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 councilor’s 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 can’t determine where an address is, it takes too much time to find the house, especially at night. That puts people’s 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. It’s 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,
Methuen, Haverhill, Chelmsford, Georgetown, Groveland, Boxford, Amesbury, Newburyport
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury, Merrimack, Newburyport, Westford, Acton, and Lowell.
Hampton & Salisbury Beach,
(summers only)

Valley Patriot Archive

Valley Patriot Story
ARCHIVES

Prior Lead Stories

Prior Valley Patriot Editorials

Prior Columns by ...

Tom Duggan
Dr. Chuck Ormsby
Paula Porten
Ralph Wilbur
Hanna
Ted Tripp

Valley Patriot of the Month

Griselsilva.com

Patrick Blanchette
D.J. Beauregard
Jim Cassidy
D.J. Deeb
Marcos Devers
Bob Desmarais
Regina Faticanti
Jim Fiorentini
Bill Kelly
Wilfredo Laboy
Peter Larocque
Vilma Lora
Ed Maguire
Billy Manzi
Paul Murano
Mark Palermo
Hartley Pleshaw
Debbie Quinn
Raise Em Right
Dr. Peary
Kathleen Corey Rahme
Barney Reilly
Angel Rivera
Jim Rurak
Grisel Silva
Mike Sullivan
Sandra Stotsky
Mike Sweeney
Ken Willette
Scott Wood
Jim Xenakis