Plowed Streets a luxury?

Posted on June 15, 2008 by billmanzi

Todays Tribune has a story on the expense of snow plowing in Methuen titled “plowed streets a luxury”. The gist of the story is that Council Chairman Phil Lahey, a retired DPW worker who plowed streets for many years, maintains that:

I don’t think we can afford to do the super duper job that we’ve been doing

Chairman Lahey’s viewpoint is that we are using to much hired equipment (contractors for actual plowing and rented sanders) With the increased expense of salt Chairman Lahey also points out that we sand and salt areas that were not done when he was plowing.

The city, for the most part, sanded only the main streets, hills and intersections about ten or twelve years ago, Lahey said. But now they sand and salt streets “that could be so levelthat you could put a golf ball on them and it wouldn’t roll,” he said.

His essential point comes right at the end if the Tribune story.

I’m just saying,”Guys…We’re just not going to be able to sand and salt every single street in Methuen.”

As far as my response goes I said in the story that we will listen to any proposal that will save us money, and we have agreed to review snow removal. We have pointed out the tremendous increase in commodity prices, with salt going from $42 per ton to $58.50 per ton along with the tremendous spike in gasoline costs. We have also pointed out the increase in road miles that we are responsible for because of residential growth in Methuen. And additionally we must factor in our ability to get our public safety vehicles in and out of any spot in Methuen. As we look at this proposal judging which roads ought not to be salted and sanded becomes a real problem, with the attendant political questions that will center around such decision making. Finally we have issued a five year study that compares our costs to those in surrounding communities, and have found that we were at the low end of that scale. So as we evaluate costs in this area I will not utilize outright service cutbacks in this area as a method of cost reduction. What do you think?

Posted in Methuen | 4 Comments

Tim Russert Passes Away

Posted on June 13, 2008 by billmanzi

Tim Russert, the NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and the host of Meet the Press, has died suddenly, apparently of a heart attack. Russert, who was 58, was recording for the Sunday Meet the Press program when he was stricken. Russert was a giant in journalism, and he will be missed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/22887506#22887506

Posted in National News | 3 Comments

Readiness Schools

Posted on June 13, 2008 by billmanzi

Matt Viser of the Boston Globe reported yesterday that Governor Deval Patrick will unveil a proposal for a new type of public school that will resemble in some fashion charter or pilot schools. From the Globe:

Governor Deval Patrick, in a potential break with the teachers unions that helped elect him, is set to propose a new form of public school that would assume unprecedented control over matters ranging from curriculum and hiring decisions to policies on school uniforms and the length of the school year.
The governor’s proposal for “readiness schools,” a key element of his sweeping 10-year education plan to be unveiled later this month, aims to combine features of the state’s charter schools and Boston’s experimental pilot schools. Governed by local boards and freed from many constraints imposed by unions, school districts, and the state, the readiness schools would adapt to community needs and offer new alternatives in school systems across the state, administration officials said yesterday.

These new readiness schools would be governed locally, rather than by the state.

Like charter schools, which have been operating in Massachusetts since 1993, readiness schools would be allowed to deviate from state curriculum guidelines and experiment with teaching practices. Unlike most charter schools, which are governed by the state, they would report to local school committees. Also unlike charter schools, readiness schools could be created from existing public schools, according to the plan.

The formal proposal will not come until January,and the Globe story speculates that there may be teacher union opposition to this proposal. But will there be? The Governor has not shown a great appetite for union conflict up to this point. Will there be a deal made on capping charter schools that will induce some union support? The devil is in the details. Read the Globe story here.

Posted in Methuen, State News | 3 Comments

The Phoenix eats humble pie

Posted on June 12, 2008 by billmanzi

As a final note on the weight loss competition with Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan I must happily accept the congratulations offered by David Bernstein of the Phoenix Talking Politics blog. . As many remember Mr. Bernstein predicted a big win for Michael Sullivan in this competition. He has now acknowledged the error of supporting the expansive Republican mayor of Lawrence. From the Phoenix:

–This is what I get for siding with a Republican: Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan was trounced by Methuen Mayor Bill Manzi in their weight-loss competition. This blog publicly supported Sullivan (a Republican), and insinuated that Manzi (a Democrat) would resemble some of the more rotund species of farm animal by contests’ end. Well, Manzi showed more discipline than I anticipated, and came away an easy winner. I humbly congratulate the much-deserving winner, and turn my back on the disgraced loser forever.

Thank you David! Check out the Bernstein piece called “Things not overheard at the Mass Dems Convention”. It is hilarious.

Posted in Methuen | Leave a comment

The stress on mass transit

Posted on June 11, 2008 by billmanzi

With gas prices soaring the country is experiencing serious hikes in the utilization of mass transit. While that correlation is not exactly rocket science our traditional underfunding of mass transit as a country will have consequences as ridership goes up. From MSNBC:

The story is the same everywhere: In Seattle, commuter rail ridership recorded the biggest jump in the nation during the first quarter, with 28 percent more riders than during the same time last year. Ridership in Harrisburg, Pa., rose 17 percent. In Oakland, Calif., it rose 15.8 percent.

Nationwide, Americans took 2.6 billion bus, subway, commuter rail and light rail trips in the first three months of the year, 85 million more than in the same period last year, the American Public Transportation Association said. But it’s not clear that the nation’s transit systems are able to handle the load.

While many communities have made investments there are so many that chose not to.

“We’re seeing it in a lot of other metropolitan areas where there just [aren’t] viable transit options — places like Indianapolis, Orlando or Raleigh,” said Robert Puentes, a transportation and urban planning scholar with the Brookings Institution, a public policy association in Washington. “They haven’t put the money into it. They haven’t put the resources into it.”

Even those big cities with robust systems are struggling, Puentes said.

“There are major challenges in most of the older, established transit systems, places like New York or Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston — places that are really starting to show their age,” he said.

With ridership going up dramatically the usage of automobiles has lessened for the first time in decades.

Mass transit is supposed to get cars off the road, and it’s working: For the first time since 1980, the number of miles driven last year fell, from 3.014 trillion to 3.003 trillion, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The drop continued by another 2.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, the FHA said.

A desirable effect, but this country needs to evaluate some of the crazy policies that have put us into this oil dependent mode that is so difficult to break. Mass transit has been neglected over the years by our federal government, and that needs to change. There are so many financial challenges out there at this point that adding another may seem to be undoable, but we ignore transit options at our own peril.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24938497#24938497

Posted in National News | 11 Comments

The Tax Story

Posted on June 10, 2008 by billmanzi

The Tribune is running a story today that essentially says that I am “blaming” the City Council for “raising taxes”. The story comes out of last nights budget workshop where I agreed to restore $400,000 to the Fire Department budget. In my post meeting interview with reporter JJ Huggins I engaged in some banter over the tax issue which related to individual requests by City Council to raise other areas of spending. I explained to him carefully that it was my belief that the additional funding for the Fire Department would likely come from “new growth” in the levy and hence still allow Methuen to produce a “no new taxes” budget. The slant of the story was other than that, and I regret the headline and tenor of the story. I assume responsibility for my comments, but they were in no way designed to create the type of story that was produced here. On the issue of taxes and spending I recognize that there are differing priorities depending on whom you speak with, but I have worked in collaboration with the Council to produce a budget that meets our basic needs without additional burden on our taxpayers. I still believe that our budget does that. To the extent that my comments created this story I apologize to the City Council.

Posted in Methuen, Methuen City Council | 3 Comments

The Al Franken Decade

Posted on June 9, 2008 by billmanzi

Writer/comedian Al Franken won a resounding victory in Minnesota at the Democratic convention, earning the right to face Republican Norm Coleman in November for the U.S. Senate seat. Franken had been dogged by criticism of some of his writing as a comedian, and the controversial nature of some of those writings had some believing his candidacy would collapse. From the New York Times:

Mr. Franken’s show of strength came as something of a surprise after a rocky few weeks in which some Democrats, led by Representative Betty McCollum, criticized a column he wrote for Playboy magazine in 2000 and, earlier in the week, joking comments he was reported to have made about rape that were included in a 1995 New York magazine article about “Saturday Night Live.”

Franken addressed some of those concerns in his victory speech.

Mr. Franken addressed the controversy in his nomination speech to delegates, where he said some of the things he had done over 35 years as a writer were “downright offensive.”

“I understand that,” Mr. Franken said. “And I understand that the people of Minnesota deserve a senator who won’t say things that make them feel uncomfortable.”

Franken has been a polemecist with a sharp edge, writing best selling books that have lampooned Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. He will be a big target for the right, having left a wide trail of written material that Coleman will use to attack him. Should be an interesting fight, with a little humor thrown in for good measure.

Posted in National News | 8 Comments

O’Reilly makes the ballot

Posted on June 7, 2008 by billmanzi

Attorney Ed O’Reilly crossed the fifteen percent threshold at today’s Democratic convention, ensuring a September primary with John Kerry. (I have endorsed John Kerry in this race). The delegate count was 1994 to 580, giving O’Reilly about 23 percent. The Kerry campaign invested time and money here, and came away with a strong showing, but not strong enough to keep O’Reilly off of the ballot. Both campaigns will claim victory, with O’Reilly living to fight another day. Congratulations to both campaigns, and its on to September.

Posted in National News, State News | 6 Comments

Hillary Calls for Democratic Unity

Posted on June 7, 2008 by billmanzi

Hillary Clinton, in an eloquent speech, called for Democratic unity and endorsed Barack Obama today. Senator Clinton’s speech, while expected, was a fine talk that put to rest any talk of her not being totally supportive of the party nominee. As a delegate to today’s convention it is clear to me that she maintains wide support within the Democratic Party. Kudos for a fine speech. On to November.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/25021292#25021292

Posted in National News | 4 Comments

Methuen’s Budget

Posted on June 6, 2008 by billmanzi

I have submitted to the City Council the FY 2009 budget. This budget, attached in pdf form, is an austerity budget that deals with the city’s fiscal crisis head on, imposing some pain that will allow us to get through the year without imposing any additional burden on Methuen’s taxpayers. My budget works within the overall tax levy that we had last year, which means that there is no tax increase for Methuen property tax payers if this budget is adopted. In order to achieve that goal we were forced to make some very difficult decisions, including layoffs and the non-filling of vacant positions. We have held each city side department to last years budget number, which would force them to fund the collective bargaining increases out of their existing budget number. We have been forced to shrink the city side of municipal government, and quite frankly some services will suffer. But under the current scenario of municipal funding there was no alternative. I have left 2.5 million dollars in unused property tax levy, but I do believe that such a course is necessary to cure the structural imbalance that has existed in our budget. I also feel that in these difficult economic times it must be made clear that property tax increases are no longer to be considered automatic. There must be found a way to shift some of the burden off of the property tax, and that requires a true collaboration with the State to re-visit how we tax in Massachusetts.
FY 2009 Budget

Posted in Methuen, Methuen City Council | 4 Comments