The Sox have just taken two out of three from the Yankees in New York making it 5 out of six so far this year and they are in sole possession of first place in the American League East. At 16 wins and 8 losses they also possess the best record in the major leagues. Normally this would be enough to have the region in a complete state of euphoria.
The Patriots have managed to bump the Sox to the back pages for the moment. After blowing a big lead to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game and losing a chance at another super bowl, apparently Kraft/Belechik and company decided to go on a mission.
It started with revamping the receiving core. Despite the fact that it was the weakest part of the team this year the team would have won it all were it not for a couple of dropped passes. Reche Cauldwell twice was uncovered and twice he managed to let the ball go through his hands. With those two plays Cauldwell's excellent year will go unnoticed and subsequently has resulted in him dropping significantly down on the depth chart.
To be fair to Cauldwell those two balls would have been less significant if the defense could muster just one stop but they couldn't so the receivers position became the focus of the off season restocking. The position became a strength instead of a weakness when the team added a tough little nut named Wes Welker to play the slot and Donte Stallworth as a deep threat. For more depth at the position Kelley Washington also signed on.
With incumbents Cauldwell, Jabbar Gaffney (who performed quite nicely as a mid season addition) and Chad Jackson it appeared as though training camp was going to feature some very spirited competition.
The highlight to this point of the off season was the addition of Adalius Thomas to the linebacking core. With Sammy Morris added as insurance in the backfield it looked like the team could focus on adding some young guns for the defensive backfield and the special teams units during this NFL draft this weekend.
As draft day came around it seemed that anything the team added would simply be frosting on a cake that had a good chance of being served at the super bowl party next January. With two picks in the first round it seemed as though everything was going according to plan when the team selected Brandon Merriweather of Miami to back up aging veteran Rodney Harrison at safety.
The second first round pick was traded off to San Francisco when in typical Belechikian and Pioli style, they found greater value in taking a potentially better first rounder in next year's draft. If San Francisco falters again next year it could potentially be a top ten pick.
So we all sat back content to wait for all the new comers to get here in August and begin what would be a certain charge for another super bowl. Little did we know that the team brain trust was not through. There had been some whispers that the team was looking at Raiders mal content wide out Randy Moss. Nobody really took it seriously since Moss is due big money and had not been very productive the last two years and hardly seemed a character fit for this club.
Out of the blue this afternoon it has been announced that Moss is indeed headed for New England. The fact that he is coming here in exchange for a fourth round pick was surpassed only by the news that he is also re-structuring his contract to the tune of about 6 million dollars.
If Moss returns to anything near his prior performance we are talking about a huge impact player for the teams passing game. In 7 of 9 NFL seasons Moss has accumulated more than a 1000 yards and during a three year period was arguably the best wide out in the league.
There are of course some question marks beginning with his attitude as well as his health. Attitude is a simple problem to solve since the Patriots have not a lot invested in the situation and it will be made crystal clear to Moss from day one that he won't be a problem. If he is an on or off field distraction this club management is disciplined enough to simply send him packing.
There won't be any second chances for Moss here. If he wants to resurrect his career and place himself where he rightly belongs in the ranks of elite NFL receivers then this is his chance. Expectations for him will not be such that any extraordinary demands will be made. He need simply show up on time and fill his role on the club. He will be surrounded by impact players in every position and he will be getting throws from a certain hall of fame quarterback.
This is a golden opportunity for Randy Moss and for the Patriot fan base. This is a system set up to allow him to be just another face in the locker room along with other faces whose only goal is to win. He will be given the chance to showcase his enormous talents in the biggest of games. It will be interesting to see how he responds. Is he another Terrell Owens or is he serious about being a guy who has grown and understands that for him to reach his highest potential it has to be about the team?
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Engage the shooter
In the latter stages of the Columbine massacre, Klebold and Harris are seen on film just before they kill themselves. At that moment in time they both peer out the window and can be heard commenting to one another "look at all the cops outside". The operative word here is outside. It took hours for those cops to reach the scene of the crime inside the building well after the bastards had done their miserable deed.
The lessons learned from Columbine have not yet been determined to have been of any help to the cops who responded to the Virginia Tech incident. Certainly as time goes by more and more analysis and criticism will unfold and the results will spread through out law enforcement across the nation.
I have no background in law enforcement or any special training in anything other than a common persons opinion about how I would want things done if I were at risk in the situation that those poor children found themselves on the campus.
The simple conclusion I arrive at is this. When first responders arrive on the scene I want them to call for back up and then I want them to immediately find and engage the shooter. I don't want armed men draped in bullet proof vests standing outside behind trees waiting for command posts to be set up and negotiators and command personnel to arrive on the scene.
In the only video available so far at VT that included the sound of gun shots, officers can be seen with automatic weapons standing behind trees. While this was happening, the maniac Cho was continuing to fire on unarmed children. What if one officer got into the building as quickly as possible and engaged Cho? How many lives might have been saved had this been done as quickly as humanly possible. What if the first man on the scene listened to the gunshots and immediately went to the scene of the continuing assault?
Yes, this brave person might have been killed in the line of duty but quite frankly that would have been his duty. It was not the duty of 70 year old professors. In these types of situations seconds can make a difference. One brave soul doing his duty might have been the difference between 33 dead and perhaps 10 dead or 20 dead. When one maniac acts in this way all the SWAT teams in the country cannot make a difference if precious time is wasted while they are called on the phone.
When we have a fire we expect that the first firemen on the scene will risk their lives to enter a burning building to rescue anyone they can. It is time that law enforcement adopt the same type of mentality. The new rules of engagement should be stated clearly and unequivocally nationwide. If you hear the sound of gunshots you are to find and engage the shooter immediately. No other course of action should be acceptable.
The lessons learned from Columbine have not yet been determined to have been of any help to the cops who responded to the Virginia Tech incident. Certainly as time goes by more and more analysis and criticism will unfold and the results will spread through out law enforcement across the nation.
I have no background in law enforcement or any special training in anything other than a common persons opinion about how I would want things done if I were at risk in the situation that those poor children found themselves on the campus.
The simple conclusion I arrive at is this. When first responders arrive on the scene I want them to call for back up and then I want them to immediately find and engage the shooter. I don't want armed men draped in bullet proof vests standing outside behind trees waiting for command posts to be set up and negotiators and command personnel to arrive on the scene.
In the only video available so far at VT that included the sound of gun shots, officers can be seen with automatic weapons standing behind trees. While this was happening, the maniac Cho was continuing to fire on unarmed children. What if one officer got into the building as quickly as possible and engaged Cho? How many lives might have been saved had this been done as quickly as humanly possible. What if the first man on the scene listened to the gunshots and immediately went to the scene of the continuing assault?
Yes, this brave person might have been killed in the line of duty but quite frankly that would have been his duty. It was not the duty of 70 year old professors. In these types of situations seconds can make a difference. One brave soul doing his duty might have been the difference between 33 dead and perhaps 10 dead or 20 dead. When one maniac acts in this way all the SWAT teams in the country cannot make a difference if precious time is wasted while they are called on the phone.
When we have a fire we expect that the first firemen on the scene will risk their lives to enter a burning building to rescue anyone they can. It is time that law enforcement adopt the same type of mentality. The new rules of engagement should be stated clearly and unequivocally nationwide. If you hear the sound of gunshots you are to find and engage the shooter immediately. No other course of action should be acceptable.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Flushing the toilet into the drinking water
For many years it has been thought that the construction of the Cumminsville connector in Winchester would solve the town's sewer surcharging problem. Surcharging if you have forgotten is when the main sewer lines going down to the Deer and Nut Island treatment plants in Boston become completely filled and pressurized and the raw sewerage starts to flow up out of the man holes and into the streets. When this happens it firsts manifests itself down in Woburn near Horn Pond. Since this is part of Woburn's main water supply you can understand why they get anxious when the first raw sewerage starts coming up out of their man holes.
They immediately get on the phone and what Burlington does to try and alleviate the flow coming out of our town into the system is to pump our raw sewerage directly into the Vine Brook from the Terrace Hall Avenue pumping station. Since we are the last town on the main trunk down to Boston this is our only alternative.
This problem has been going on for about 25 years. The town has been vexed over how to solve the problem. We instituted a very aggressive I&I program which means inflow and infiltration removal. Inflow is the illegal connecting of storm drains that allows sump pumps or roof drains to flow directly into sanitary sewer and infiltration is when ground water seeps into the system either by leaky manholes or separations in the sewer lines themselves.
This program took out large amounts of water and helped the alleviate the problem for a number of years. When the MWRA completed the new Deer Island Plant once again the town thought the problem might be cured. No, that didn't solve the problem and now after yesterday's storm we find out that Cumminsville has not done the trick either.
Watching the rains yesterday I was eager to get down to the pumping station today to see the results. Sure enough, parked right in the drive way were the big pumps with the huge flexible pipes coming out of them directly into the Vine Brook.
There will be a brief report about this in the newspaper and the town officials will say something about it being an aberration because this was a fifty or hundred year storm. Unfortunately over the past 7 or 8 years we have had 9 of those storms. Seems to me we should call them some like an every couple of year storm.
No big deal if we have to do it once in a while, what can it hurt? The answer to that is who really knows other than this, the stream that we pump this raw sewerage into goes directly into the Shawsheen River which is where we get our water to fill the reservoir. In addition the town will tell you they treat the sewerage before they dump it in the brook. That treatment consists of spray a little bit of chlorine into thousands and thousands of gallons of sewerage.
What they don't tell anyone and what I can show you in pictures is that the toilet paper and condoms and tampax that comes out of the pumps is left lying in and along the banks of the stream. They don't even bother to rake it up or clean the stream. It just lies there all year adorning the vegetation.
So the bottom line is that Cumminsville has not solved the problem and in fact it is likely to get worse for the following reasons. The largest producer of sewerage in town is the hospital and the town has allowed them to grow by 60%. On top of that, the Commons was allowed to be built with a number of new large restaurants approved. In addition the Northwest Park will now grow from 1.4 million square feet up to roughly three million square feet. In that new development is likely to be a hotel and 12 liquor licences. Hotels and restaurants are second only to hospitals in the amount of sewerage they create.
In addition to this we have similar development going on downstream which will only add to the amount of sewerage over capacity. In the old days the state solved the problem by just opening the flood gates and allowing all the sewerage at Deer Island to simply flow into Boston Harbor. This practice ended by court order when Quincy got sick of all of the stuff ending up on their beach. Perhaps a court order is what will be necessary to end the practice in Burlington.
What does it say about the people of a community who allow the practice of flushing their toilets in their drinking water source?
They immediately get on the phone and what Burlington does to try and alleviate the flow coming out of our town into the system is to pump our raw sewerage directly into the Vine Brook from the Terrace Hall Avenue pumping station. Since we are the last town on the main trunk down to Boston this is our only alternative.
This problem has been going on for about 25 years. The town has been vexed over how to solve the problem. We instituted a very aggressive I&I program which means inflow and infiltration removal. Inflow is the illegal connecting of storm drains that allows sump pumps or roof drains to flow directly into sanitary sewer and infiltration is when ground water seeps into the system either by leaky manholes or separations in the sewer lines themselves.
This program took out large amounts of water and helped the alleviate the problem for a number of years. When the MWRA completed the new Deer Island Plant once again the town thought the problem might be cured. No, that didn't solve the problem and now after yesterday's storm we find out that Cumminsville has not done the trick either.
Watching the rains yesterday I was eager to get down to the pumping station today to see the results. Sure enough, parked right in the drive way were the big pumps with the huge flexible pipes coming out of them directly into the Vine Brook.
There will be a brief report about this in the newspaper and the town officials will say something about it being an aberration because this was a fifty or hundred year storm. Unfortunately over the past 7 or 8 years we have had 9 of those storms. Seems to me we should call them some like an every couple of year storm.
No big deal if we have to do it once in a while, what can it hurt? The answer to that is who really knows other than this, the stream that we pump this raw sewerage into goes directly into the Shawsheen River which is where we get our water to fill the reservoir. In addition the town will tell you they treat the sewerage before they dump it in the brook. That treatment consists of spray a little bit of chlorine into thousands and thousands of gallons of sewerage.
What they don't tell anyone and what I can show you in pictures is that the toilet paper and condoms and tampax that comes out of the pumps is left lying in and along the banks of the stream. They don't even bother to rake it up or clean the stream. It just lies there all year adorning the vegetation.
So the bottom line is that Cumminsville has not solved the problem and in fact it is likely to get worse for the following reasons. The largest producer of sewerage in town is the hospital and the town has allowed them to grow by 60%. On top of that, the Commons was allowed to be built with a number of new large restaurants approved. In addition the Northwest Park will now grow from 1.4 million square feet up to roughly three million square feet. In that new development is likely to be a hotel and 12 liquor licences. Hotels and restaurants are second only to hospitals in the amount of sewerage they create.
In addition to this we have similar development going on downstream which will only add to the amount of sewerage over capacity. In the old days the state solved the problem by just opening the flood gates and allowing all the sewerage at Deer Island to simply flow into Boston Harbor. This practice ended by court order when Quincy got sick of all of the stuff ending up on their beach. Perhaps a court order is what will be necessary to end the practice in Burlington.
What does it say about the people of a community who allow the practice of flushing their toilets in their drinking water source?
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The Herd
The recent Don Imus dust up has proven conclusively that given a choice between coverage of major issues facing the American people or trendy little celebrity dust ups or embarrassments, the herd will always choose the least relevant and unimportant item.
We are at war, oil is again over $60 a barrel, Social Security still isn't fixed, immigration reform still not addressed, North Korea and Iran are still building bombs, Osama Bin Laden is still free, so on and so on and so on and what was the American media focused on? Don Imus.
His reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "a bunch of nappy headed ho's" was offensive and racially insensitive but was mostly those things because it was uttered by a nasty unfunny old white guy. Go back more than a decade ago and you can find perhaps the first reference to the term "ho" on national TV when Eddie Murphy appeared on Saturday Night Live as a hustler named Velvet Jones. In a sketch, Velvet appeared promoting his book "You to can be a Ho". In the piece Murphy describes how to make a comfortable living without leaving the comfort of your bed. Can there be no doubt that as funny as this piece was it was as denigrating a piece to black women as was ever was done on television?
Since that time and with the help of rap and hip hop music we have heard this reference coupled with "bitches" and the N word so consistently that it is now common to hear it amongst suburban white kids calling one another bitches and ho's and nigga's and wigga's.
I don't really care that Imus has been fired and publicly humiliated over this event. When you run the type of entertainment he has been involved with over the years it has been a miracle that he has not touched some cultural third rail along the way. Jimmy the Greek, Al Campanis and even Howard Cosell made remarks that they came to rue and suffered the consequences, Imus was simply due.
What is disturbing about the whole thing is the complete and utter hypocrisy on display. The media conducted a public spectacle of cannibalizing one of their own in the public square. The people they rolled out to do it was even more despicable. Since when are Les Moonves, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson beacons of morality?
It would be nice to think that this is an isolated incident and with time it will be considered some sort of odd occurrence. However, it would be naive to think so. Going forward every word that is uttered will be scrutinized by some would be special interest group that has hurt feelings. The targets will be ones that when brought down will be guaranteed to give ample media face time to the allegedly aggrieved. PC thought has reached a new level and the arbiters of the process seem to be amongst the most despicable.
We are at war, oil is again over $60 a barrel, Social Security still isn't fixed, immigration reform still not addressed, North Korea and Iran are still building bombs, Osama Bin Laden is still free, so on and so on and so on and what was the American media focused on? Don Imus.
His reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "a bunch of nappy headed ho's" was offensive and racially insensitive but was mostly those things because it was uttered by a nasty unfunny old white guy. Go back more than a decade ago and you can find perhaps the first reference to the term "ho" on national TV when Eddie Murphy appeared on Saturday Night Live as a hustler named Velvet Jones. In a sketch, Velvet appeared promoting his book "You to can be a Ho". In the piece Murphy describes how to make a comfortable living without leaving the comfort of your bed. Can there be no doubt that as funny as this piece was it was as denigrating a piece to black women as was ever was done on television?
Since that time and with the help of rap and hip hop music we have heard this reference coupled with "bitches" and the N word so consistently that it is now common to hear it amongst suburban white kids calling one another bitches and ho's and nigga's and wigga's.
I don't really care that Imus has been fired and publicly humiliated over this event. When you run the type of entertainment he has been involved with over the years it has been a miracle that he has not touched some cultural third rail along the way. Jimmy the Greek, Al Campanis and even Howard Cosell made remarks that they came to rue and suffered the consequences, Imus was simply due.
What is disturbing about the whole thing is the complete and utter hypocrisy on display. The media conducted a public spectacle of cannibalizing one of their own in the public square. The people they rolled out to do it was even more despicable. Since when are Les Moonves, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson beacons of morality?
It would be nice to think that this is an isolated incident and with time it will be considered some sort of odd occurrence. However, it would be naive to think so. Going forward every word that is uttered will be scrutinized by some would be special interest group that has hurt feelings. The targets will be ones that when brought down will be guaranteed to give ample media face time to the allegedly aggrieved. PC thought has reached a new level and the arbiters of the process seem to be amongst the most despicable.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Boring election
Over the last several years election day turnouts have been heavier as a result of a number of contested seats as well as a ballot question regarding the town center over lay district. Contested races creates town wide enthusiasm for politics and places issues of importance at center stage prior to the annual town meeting.
Hopefully, we will look back over time and consider this election season to be an aberration more so than a harbinger of things to come. Putting it in the simplest terms, this year has been a complete disaster. With a total of 17 seats in a wide variety of boards up for election we find that this year we have only three contested races. Three people are running for two seats on the Planning Board, three for two seats on the Board of Selectmen and there is a two person race for the First Constable position.
It appears as though there are three races but for the most part there is really only one major campaigning race and that is for Planning Board. Incumbent Jane Hyde is running hard as is challenger Jack Kelly however, long time incumbent John DeFrancesco has followed his previous strategy by not running any kind of a campaign. He has managed to get re-elected five times but how many times can you tempt fate before you suffer the consequences?
The race for Selectmen is quite predictable. Perennial candidate Virginia Mooney is in the race along with incumbent Sonia Rollins and last years runner up, Walter Zenkin. After the announcement by Kelvin McKelvey of his intentions not to seek re-election it appeared as though we might have a spirited race for an empty seat but after much bandying about of interested names, Zenkin turned out to be the only serious candidate along with Mooney.
Mrs. Mooney has not changed her strategy over the years and relies strictly on a few signs around town and a couple of ads. This has been successful only once in her 30 plus years of running so I am not going out on much of a limb when I say it will not be successful this year.
The last race is for First Constable with incumbent Sheila Howard being challenged by newcomer Patricia Martorano. This race is unusual because in an impromptu poll I conducted no could remember a constable's race being contested for quite a while. The race has turned out to be one of ballot entries only since there has been no visibility what so ever by the candidates.
What is the reason for such a dismal display of interest in town government? Is it a general apathetic malaise or are people that satisfied with town management? It would seem on the surface to be the former rather than the latter. There is no lack of issues and there is certainly no lack of reasons to be critical of management's over all performance.
Taxes have been raised well over 40% over the past four years, we have continued unresolved issues in town buildings, the water situation may grow critical as the treatment plant refurbishment is way behind schedule. The Board of Selectmen has promised strategies on the Boston Property, Landlocked Land, main sewer line, Wildwood School, cemetery space etc. with no results. The banner issues continues to be a thorn in their side with a half hearted effort to remove some of the signs while leaving up others which is a indecisive action pleasing no one.
The Grandview Farm is now a certified white elephant. It sits there everyday growing more decrepit without a fall back strategy yet to emerge. It is apparent that a town sponsored refurbishment that would result in this becoming an everyday useful piece of building inventory was way to optimistic. Spending three million dollars to upgrade a building of this age to support functions is simply not feasible.
On the school side there has been no progress with the Memorial School and the budget deliberations have resulted in a proposal at 6% that exceeds the recommended 5% guidelines established by the Ways and Means Committee and the Board of Selectmen. The actual number is even higher when you consider that the town took the special education side of the budget and put it into fixed costs, relieving the School Committee of that run away budget busting item.
Both school and town elements of the budget are now suffering the effects of a couple of other items. The school department is now paying the price for a teachers contract it negotiated last year which was more lucrative that other town unions got. The town side will suffer because the other unions now know that it is better to wait and see if the School Committee caves so that those numbers can be used in negotiations with the Selectmen.
The early retirement plan a few years ago touted the idea of savings by retiring long time employees and replacing them with lower paid younger replacements. That strategy has back fired since it resulted in both a loss of expertise as well as huge impacts on the retirement expense and health insurance line items. How could this strategy have saved money if it resulted in no loss of positions and two families instead of one being provided for with insurance and retirement benefits?
Is the patient critical or are we facing any more serious issues than we have in the past? Of course not, but the danger here is that continued lack of interest will lead to the inevitable calls for "cost containment or streamlining of government" that often results in more concentration of power in fewer hands. We don't need a strong town manager or consolidation of boards or elimination of town meeting in favor of a counsel form of government. What we need is more people taking an active and productive interest in town affairs.
Hopefully, we will look back over time and consider this election season to be an aberration more so than a harbinger of things to come. Putting it in the simplest terms, this year has been a complete disaster. With a total of 17 seats in a wide variety of boards up for election we find that this year we have only three contested races. Three people are running for two seats on the Planning Board, three for two seats on the Board of Selectmen and there is a two person race for the First Constable position.
It appears as though there are three races but for the most part there is really only one major campaigning race and that is for Planning Board. Incumbent Jane Hyde is running hard as is challenger Jack Kelly however, long time incumbent John DeFrancesco has followed his previous strategy by not running any kind of a campaign. He has managed to get re-elected five times but how many times can you tempt fate before you suffer the consequences?
The race for Selectmen is quite predictable. Perennial candidate Virginia Mooney is in the race along with incumbent Sonia Rollins and last years runner up, Walter Zenkin. After the announcement by Kelvin McKelvey of his intentions not to seek re-election it appeared as though we might have a spirited race for an empty seat but after much bandying about of interested names, Zenkin turned out to be the only serious candidate along with Mooney.
Mrs. Mooney has not changed her strategy over the years and relies strictly on a few signs around town and a couple of ads. This has been successful only once in her 30 plus years of running so I am not going out on much of a limb when I say it will not be successful this year.
The last race is for First Constable with incumbent Sheila Howard being challenged by newcomer Patricia Martorano. This race is unusual because in an impromptu poll I conducted no could remember a constable's race being contested for quite a while. The race has turned out to be one of ballot entries only since there has been no visibility what so ever by the candidates.
What is the reason for such a dismal display of interest in town government? Is it a general apathetic malaise or are people that satisfied with town management? It would seem on the surface to be the former rather than the latter. There is no lack of issues and there is certainly no lack of reasons to be critical of management's over all performance.
Taxes have been raised well over 40% over the past four years, we have continued unresolved issues in town buildings, the water situation may grow critical as the treatment plant refurbishment is way behind schedule. The Board of Selectmen has promised strategies on the Boston Property, Landlocked Land, main sewer line, Wildwood School, cemetery space etc. with no results. The banner issues continues to be a thorn in their side with a half hearted effort to remove some of the signs while leaving up others which is a indecisive action pleasing no one.
The Grandview Farm is now a certified white elephant. It sits there everyday growing more decrepit without a fall back strategy yet to emerge. It is apparent that a town sponsored refurbishment that would result in this becoming an everyday useful piece of building inventory was way to optimistic. Spending three million dollars to upgrade a building of this age to support functions is simply not feasible.
On the school side there has been no progress with the Memorial School and the budget deliberations have resulted in a proposal at 6% that exceeds the recommended 5% guidelines established by the Ways and Means Committee and the Board of Selectmen. The actual number is even higher when you consider that the town took the special education side of the budget and put it into fixed costs, relieving the School Committee of that run away budget busting item.
Both school and town elements of the budget are now suffering the effects of a couple of other items. The school department is now paying the price for a teachers contract it negotiated last year which was more lucrative that other town unions got. The town side will suffer because the other unions now know that it is better to wait and see if the School Committee caves so that those numbers can be used in negotiations with the Selectmen.
The early retirement plan a few years ago touted the idea of savings by retiring long time employees and replacing them with lower paid younger replacements. That strategy has back fired since it resulted in both a loss of expertise as well as huge impacts on the retirement expense and health insurance line items. How could this strategy have saved money if it resulted in no loss of positions and two families instead of one being provided for with insurance and retirement benefits?
Is the patient critical or are we facing any more serious issues than we have in the past? Of course not, but the danger here is that continued lack of interest will lead to the inevitable calls for "cost containment or streamlining of government" that often results in more concentration of power in fewer hands. We don't need a strong town manager or consolidation of boards or elimination of town meeting in favor of a counsel form of government. What we need is more people taking an active and productive interest in town affairs.
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