We are a cash strapped town with plenty of pork in our budget that needs to be cut, however those in charge are making sure that the dept heads are getting their fair share. They do not want to save the tax payers any money, they just want to protect their bottom line and keep their bonuses, raises and special perks. Take the Highway Dept., under Dale Gray's leadership for example. This dept is costing us thousands in perks that no other town government, would ever conceive of allowing such give aways.
The town Highway Dept has satellite TV, ( the excuse was they need to WATCH the weather to be fully prepared ) they get Green Mt. coffee delivered for $93.00/mo at our expense, they wear comfort fit jeans, jackets, and shirts at a cost to us of as much as $290.00 a month for cleaning, they get 10 sick days, paid vacations, cost of living raises each year and get to drive their own personal piece of town equipment back and forth to lunch on us. In next year's budget, Dale Gray, wants an increase in diesel fuel for the equipment, from $28,000.00 to $50,000.00 with no over sight or control of the usage. No selectmen can tell us, where this amount of fuel goes. To be fair it is hard to anticipate the cost of fuel for next year; but with no checks and balances, with no control, no paperwork, nothing to check the actual factual usage for town vehicles, you have to wonder. Could they be heating the town garage with it? It burns in a heating system just as well as it does in a town grader. It would burn cleaner in anyone's furnace then the grader. Could it be used in town employees personal diesel trucks? It does make you wonder, why no accurate records are kept, doesn't it? No one is being accused of any wrong doing and even if they were, most of the selectmen would protect them just like they protected John Stetser. We know Ken Bethiaume and Roberta Fraser wouldn't tolerate it, but that is just two who we feel actually concern themselves with how things are being done. This is why this year, we must elect people that will work in the best interest of the town and not their allegiance to their buddies. We must demand our officials keep accurate, honest records of all expenditures and make them available for viewing at any time, by both the town's Budget Committee and the public themselves. There must be accountability at Town Hall.
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And Dale makes a good little part time summer job for the son of a townhall employee. No other town does this, hell we didnt have money to fix potholes on old westport road, maybe town hall employee doesnt live out that way. Its a sad state of affairs, i think we can change things, get the word out folks.
Oh how nice that we not only pay for cable TV for our town employees to watch while at work, we also pay for their coffee and their laundry service too. Exactly when do they do the work that they get these performance raises and bonuses for? It's high time we put a stop to all this foolishness and wasteful spending and clean house. They have all had it too good for too long at our expense. I wonder can we sue these people for misappropriation of funds or some other legal term?
We believe that the townspeople of Winchester could file suit against our electected officials for "reckless behavior", however
getting an attorney to file and a judge to rule against them would take absolute proof of wrong doing and damages. But, just because of the probability that the effort may fail it should not deter you from trying if you feel your cause to be just, you never know just how a judge and/or jury is going to rule. It is quite evident that decisions being made regarding how this town is run are, to say the least, really bad in some instances; however, to be able to prove malfeasence ( the performance by a public official of an act that is legally unjustified, harmful, or contrary to law; wrongdoing; of an act in violation of a public trust ) ... just may not be that hard to prove afterall.
I'm game, how many of you would be willing to to stand up and turn this town around and show these folks the door? I have given my name and email address to the site administrator, if you're interested in joining me, drop the site an email and they'll notify me. It is time we put a stop to this before we all go broke.
In the sunday sentinel there is a notice on the bridge closure on old westport road,i dont know the reason,all i can say is if i lived up that way i would be livid.It may be from the flood or old age,no idea. What it may show is Dales messed up priorites, and some of out leaders who put bonuses over bridges and potholes. Good luck people in that area, with the lack of money,the time of the year,and questionable priorites, it may be a while.
Last week there were 3 Winchester police cruisers on detail in Keene, even the 4 wheel drive that the chief said only would be used in bad weather or emergencies. Its funny it always Winchester, were being had folks, vote no on the request for a new cruiser. Let another town have a crack at this big money.
Thank you South End for your comment. Kind of ironic we spend thousands and thousands of dollars to paved the "Gus Ruth Highway" I mean Old Westport Road to a dead end, a state condemned bridge. The selectmen knew the bridge was not safe for years, yet they spend the money on resurfacing the road first, instead of the bridge. Kind of like the opposite of the bridge to no where in Alaska. The road to no where. It's OK though Gus can get home, he turns off just before the bridge.
Not to sound like a sour apple or anything but I herd that it was the state that closed the bridge. They say it is not safe for travel nut have no expected date to re-open it.
I don't think the NHDOT has any jurisdiction regarding this bridge as it is not a state bridge ( someone correct me if I'm wrong, please ) They can suggest to the town to close it for safety reasons; but can't force them to do it; however there is another agency involving risk management that I think has the power to force them to close it; but don't quote me on this.
From what I understood once the state advised we close it, it made the town responsible for any accident that happened after the fact. So If our selectmen did not close it when the state advised it we could of been sued if anything happened to someone using the bridge.
State or no state, this bridge problem should have diagnosed so it could shut down for repair not indefinitely. Got to wonder what the plan is with this road agent.
Kind of funny, bridge was open for the harvest season, corn and hay, now a car may have a problem? I bet there are a few people up that way a little upset, i wonder if any of them vote.
I wonder if a culvert would work, instead of a new bridge. Its looks like a cheap way out and it would get the road open for the winter.
Do we really want Dale Gray and John Gomarlo replacing the bridge with a culvert like they did on Ferry Brook Road where we wasted about $70,000.00 plus for patch work repairs. We received heavy rain and washed out $70,000.00 worth of gravel and labor into Kelly's field. The same Dale Gray and John Gomarlo who drive around pot holes instead of fixing them. You decide. can we afford these two?
Do our elected officials have the ability to read a newspaper or for that matter have any damn common sense at all? It sure doesn't look like it one bit. My wife and I have been reading over the minutes of their meetings and especially how they determine budgets for each department and we are sitting here shaking our heads in disbelief at the amounts of money these department heads are requesting to run this little town. You have got to be kidding, this is totally unacceptable, especially in today's economy, my god don't they get it, everyone is going broke and they keep on like it's no big deal and keep adding more and more money to our tax burden. Do you really think we voters are going to approve a new ambulance and police cruiser, when most of us can't afford to even maintain the vehicles we have. maybe if the town didn't cater to the racetracks or take our firetrucks for joy rides out of state and keep sending our cruisers to Keene on details that the town is still waiting to get paid for, we wouldn't need new equipment.And what about that firetruck we just bought for, $326,000.00 that could have been better spent fixing roads and bridges, it's outrageous! Another thing that galls me is allowing employees to take town vehicles home; just who the hell is paying for the fuel and who carries the freight when there's a problem that needs to be fixed? This just reeks of a few who think they can do what they want at the town's expense all while saying these are needed expenses, bull crap, it's waste and unacceptable and we won't tolerate this kind of conduct any longer. It's time we hold these officials to the oaths they took, or send them all packing.
Thank you south end. You seemed to say alot that I have been trying to decide on saying or not.
Take a look at the budget comm. minutes, dept. heads do not like to be challenged. And almost no one dares to ask the tough questions, i guess they dont want to offend these people that have had it there way for a long time. What do you think is going to happen if we come out top 4 for taxes in the stste again? Keep an eye on the paper no one that has posted there tax rate is even close to what we were last year. The governor gets it, why cant we?
Hell i would be offended too if my gravy train was about to jump the tracks. To the web site people, thanks.
I have said this many times.......people need to go to BOS and BC meetings. The few I have made it to never have any one attending, We should bring back town meetings, we should actually get out there and vote. The voting turn out is so small it is pathetic. If a hunred or more people started showing up at wed. night meetings with the select board maybe they would start listening, But at this time it is the same very very small amount of people like "johnp".Agree with him or not, and I usually dont, he at least goes before the board (almost weekly) with his questions and concerns. The selectmen are elected by us to carry out the best interest of the town, so go to the meetings in large numbers and help them go in the direction we need to go in.The citizens of this town are just as much to blame as the boards we put in place. it will take all of us to make it a better place.
At 2:15 today 2 hwy guys riding around the dirt roads in Ashuelot, looking for what? I guess it takes 2 people to check for what ever,4 eyes are better then 2. If you wan't to eat up the time just stay in hwy garage, its better than wasting fuel. I dont think saving money is Dales top priorty.
If dale gray ends up having to run for hwy super. in another year, his failure to run a [ tight ship ] will come back to haunt him in a big way. Talk around town today was, salt and sand, where was the ice? Its called overtime, or look at me saved a ton of money by taking truck home,BS.
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