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I just wanted to clarify in one blow the reason I opted out of running for the School Committee.
Some of you are aware that I have been unemployed since June of 2009. I have had no luck finding employment in my field, so I am in training for a new job that is more than likely going to have me traveling Monday through Friday. Unfortunately it all comes down to timing, and I will not have final details on my schedule until June. If my schedule does involve extensive travel I would not have been able to serve on the SC in any kind of meaningful capacity. Also I had no desire to get elected,... |
WANTED: One rational, thoughtful, caring adult with common sense, for a position with the School Committee.
This is a part time position that is challenging yet filled with fun moments. If you are looking for something to do on a Monday night (fine print: and a few other occasions) that involves charts, accolades, and creative thinking when it comes to budgeting, then this might be just what you are looking for!
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about this position.
Now that I have that out there I feel a need to get... |
Today's Sun Chronicle features an article about the innovative steps to co-ordinate the efforts of the YMCA and Foxboro High School.
When the issue of the possible misuse of the high school pool first came up several years ago, I suggested on the old chat group that perhaps we should let the Y run the pool in exchange for swim and fitness classes and/or cash.
I believe the cost of a student membership to the Y is about 22.00 per month.
If their are 3000 students enrolled in Seekonk Public Schools, that is about 66k per year. What does it cost the town to retain the... |
Hi Dave,
It is my understanding there is school budget meeting tomorrow evening (2/22) open to the public. I searched the School Comm. website and could not find any dates of meetings listed under the "calendar" option. (tad frustrating)
Wondering time and location?
Thanks! |
With this lovely weather, I have been hit with a modest case of spring fever. Have there been any updates regarding the library park project? I believe Sharon St Hillaire is a member of this on-line community. I think this would be a great time and place for an update.  |
Email from the Seekonk Police Dept about the CodeRED Notification System:
2/12/2010 - This is the Seekonk Police Department with an important
message for all residents and businesses located in the Town of Seekonk .
We have licensed the CodeRED Community Notification System to help disseminate
important or critical information.
We encourage all residents and businesses to go to the Seekonk Police Dept
website, SeekonkPD.com, click on the CodeRED logo located on the left rail of
our homepage and enter their contact information, including... |
I am starting this thread as a go to place for information and comments on school stuff;Just wanted to drop a note on a few School things…
Hats off to... Lucas Thompson
The Middle School held a Career day. I was very impressed at the setup and speakers. Featured were a Toymaker (Hasbro), an Attorney General Prosecutor, Police, Fire, DEA, and at least 15 other occupations.
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New system going online in Seekonk for emergency services, info below; http://newsblog.projo.com/2010/02/seekonk-asks-residents-busines.html |
There is turmoil going on at the station I hear that the manager was forced out, and it is too bad He did alot for that station and television throughout the town. What I would like to know is who does that board answer too. |
The Seekonk Public Library supports the article to fund a fiber network for both institutions. I did say that we should postpone the article only because I was told the article would not accomplish what needed to be done. I am for moving ahead tonight.
Both the schools and the library have had a fiber network in their technology plans for years. I do believe that the town should have a Technology Advisory Bd as it had in the past. We need people with expertise to help develop future plans as we had with our current technology plans.We have time to study the use of fiber in other town... |
Here is the link to the Warrant articles for the special meeting at SHS, Monday night. Meeting WarrantsJust had a very busy week at work so no article breakdowns this time but feel free to post comments on articles of interest. d |
I was asked advice whether I thought my grandkids should be vaccinated. From what I have read and heard, the area schools are trying to get a head count. Any thoughts, since I did not feel secure in going this one alone  |
Maybe I am early regarding this subject. But does anyone have any information regarding the spring election? I think Francis Cavaco's term is up. Maybe Bob Mclintock? Jan Parker?
I have heard/read nothing. It seems to me the topic was always brought up before Christmas.
Admittedly, I have not been paying much attention. |
I just read the Sun Chronicle online and am really confused about the tax rate. The article states that the rate will go from $9.64 to $10.52 per $1,000 of valuation - that is $.88 per $1000. Later the article claims that "The median price is $50 higher in taxes for the residential homeowner". But still later it says "The median home value is $289,000". The math does not work. If the rate is going up $.88 then the increase for an owner of the median home ($289,000) would be $254.32.
Did anyone watch the show? ANyone know what gives? |
How is everyone making out? I'm waiting to see if a plow will show up on my street before my son has to leave for school in the morning.
Other than that we are holed up inside plowing through the Godfather Trilogy.
I also do not expect to see my inflatable lawn Santa until sometime in April or May. |
I couldn't stick around for the Fire Chief portion of the BOS meeting last week, so i got the details in the Seekonk Star Article today. I am a little perplexed at the Chiefs statement that he will need an additional 8 Fire Fighters to staff that station.
I didn't think the issue with fire coverage was that we did not have enough fire fighters. I thought the issue was where they started from. Can't they just be spread out among the two stations? |
From the Sun Chronicle | Quote: | Town meeting voters reject green initiative
SEEKONK - Voters approved a meals tax and a hotel room tax this week at town meeting, but rejected a proposal that would have allowed the town to qualify as a "green community."
The taxes could bring in as much as $400,000 in extra revenue to the town.
The green community initiative would have asked town boards to... |
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ARTICLE 9 To see If the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $234,569 from Free Cash to the FY 2010 budget to offset the debt service expenses for the Town, as required by the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Revenue, or to take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen
ARTICLE 10 To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $19,180 from Free Cash for the Durchase of eighteen TASER electronic control devices and necessary accessories/warranty, to be expended under the direction of the Chief of Police, or take... |
To see if the Town wiil vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire on behalf of the Town by purchase, gift, or otherwise the necessary land parcels or portions otherof or any interest therein and/or rights in such land parcels as identified on plans titled
PRELIMINARY RIGHT-OF-WAY CENTRAL AVENUE (ROUTE 152) AND DATED 5/14/2008, said plans on file with the Town Clerk, for the purpose of obtaining a secure and public right of way, allowing the construction and roadway safety improvements for the
CENTRAL AVENUE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen |
ARTICLE ~8
To see if the Town will vote to appropriate or reserve from the Community Preservation annual revenues in the amounts recommended by the Community Preservation Committee for administrative expenses, community preservation projects and other expenses In fiscal year 2010. with dach item to be considered a separate appropilation
Appropriations:
From FY10 2010 estimated revenues for Committee Administrative Expense for the fiscal
year ending June 30, 2010 $12,500
Reserves:
From Fl 2010 estimated revenues for Historic Resources Reserve $25,000 |
To see If the Town will vote to accept the provisions of MGL. c. 71, s 37M, consolidation of Aministrative Functions with City or Town, or take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen
ARTICLE 17 To see if the Town will vote to transfer a sum to the Stabilization Fund.
Submitted by: Board of Seledmen |
ARTICLE 18 To see if the Town wilt vote to accept the provisions of MGL Chapter 64L, Section 2(a) authorizing the imposition of a local excise in the statutorY amount of .75% on the sale of restaurant meals originating within the Town, or take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen
ARTICLE 19 To see if the Town will vote to accept the provisions of MGL. Chapter 64(3, Section 3A authorizing the imposition of a local room occupancy excise on the rental of rooms in hotels, motels, lodging houses and bed arid breakfast establishments within the Town... |
To see if the Town will vote to request that the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee, other Town Boards, CommissionS, and Committees, and Town ern~pIOYe~5 pursue the goal of meeting the five (5) criteria for qualifying as a Green Community to make the T~wn eligible for grants and loans, as provided for in the Green Communities Act of 2008. We further request that the Board of Selectmen and School Committee report on progress toward this goal at the next two Annual Town Meetings.
The five criteria are as follows:
1. Provide for the as~of-right siting of renewable or alternative... |
ARTICLE 6
To see if the Town will vote to grant the Board of Selectmen permission to sell or trade surplus property or materials of the Town, exclusive of buildings and land, no longer needed by the Town; or take arty other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen
ARTICLE 7
To see if the Town will vote to amend the votes taken under ARTICLE 13 of the Town Meeting of November 2006 and ARTICLE 16 of the Town Meeting of November 2007 to include use of said appropriation for repairs to town hail and for purchase of architectural, engineering, design... |
To see if the Town will vote to approve the funding of collective bargaining agreements between the Town and collective bargaining units that represent general government employees, pursuant to MGL C 150E, and appropriate sums of money to defray costs provided for under the agreements for fiscal year 2009, or take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen |
To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to obtain authority from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, through legislative or administrative action, to convert existing seasonal alcoholic beverage- licenses to annual alcoholic beverage licenses, or take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Board of Selectmen |
To see if the Town will vote to transfer from the Municipal Capital Stabilization Fund a sum of money to fund the following described capital projects at the following estimated costs and to authorize the sale or trade-in of the currently owned vehicles referred to in items 1 and 3 where the Board of Selectmen find that they cannot be utilized elsewhere In Town:
(a) To be expended under the direction of the Board of Selectmen.
(b) To be expended under the direction of the School Committee.
1. $146,000 DPW utility truck and components (a)
2. $49,000 Preventive... |
ARTICLE 13 To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $6,000 from Free Cash to fund the creation of a town-wide digital GiS zoning map based on the official town zoning map that was adopted by Town Meeting üfl ]une 25, 1979, such appropriation to be expended under the direction of the Bothd of Selectmen, or take any other action relative thereto.
Submitted by: Planning Board
ARTICLE 14 To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $25,000 from Sanitation Enterprise Fund for the purpose of submitting a Post Closure Use application to the Masachusetts... |
To see if the Town wifl vote to accept as public ways the iayouts i~.entified ond derr~he’~ as tollows and to aui.hotizc the Board of SelectTfl~fl to acluire by grif, purchase1 or embect don?!n any necessary easements or other interests therein in connection therewith, or take any other action thereto:
HOWIAND STREET
Beginning at a point on the southerly layout line of County Street; thence In a ~..rthwester1y direction along sa’d southerly layout line of County Street about 42.2 ± feet to a point on the proposed westerly layout line of riowlatid street; thtnce southeasterly... |
WARRANT
TOWN OF SEEKONK
TOWN MEETING
NOVEMBER 30, 2009
BRISTOL, 55.
Greetings
In the name of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, we are hereby requested to notify the inhabitants of the Town who are qualified to vote In Town affairs, to meet at Seekonk High School, Arcade Avenue, Seekonk, MA on:
MONDAY, November 30, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
10 vote on the following articles. The Meeting will be called to order by the Town Clerk who will turn the rneeting over to the Town Moderator, who shall preside at said Meeting.
ARTICLE 1 To... |
When I left the house this morning at 6:45 am, there was a beautiful hot air balloon right over the Martin School! Anyone know where it came from? When I saw it, it was heading north, so I must have caught it just as it was passing over Martin School. It was low, so it must have taken off from some place nearby.
I'll post a pic later, if you're interested. (I was late for work--stopped to take a pic, but not to upload it.) |
I thought Mr. Carroll's review was lukewarm at best and unfairly so.
'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone'
Also, there's an opening on the Planning Board thru April, according to the Seekonk Star. Dave Viera resigned at the end of October. Any takers? |
The Stop&Shop on Newport Ave. Pawtucket is closing permanently tomorrow Thursday Oct. 22 at 6 pm.  Rumor has it that there may be markdowns/bargains starting tonight on the perishable goods so they don't have to move them. Sorry to see it close - always liked that store.... Update: Nothing great found tonight....maybe Thursday. |
From Sunday's Sun Chronicle | Quote: | SEEKONK - Evaluation forms are now available for taxpayers who want to weigh in on the job performance of Town Administrator Michael Carroll.
Residents and town employees are being asked to fill out the questionnaire so selectmen can get a better idea of how Carroll is doing in his job, board Chairman Francis Cavaco said.
"We're paying him $106,000 and change. We... |
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Dave too....lol.
Just wondering if the School Department intends to show Obama's speech to the students on September 8? If they are will the parents be notified in advance for something like this? |
I'm glad we have a contract to take some of these dead trees down. However, we still have all of these stumps from over a year ago when the electric company paid to remove dead trees. I watched that meeting and the BOS was promised that the stumps would be removed and that new trees would be planted. What happened? I've passed the group of stumps in front of Martin, there is one large one with a hole in the center of it. The town is lucky no one has fallen and broken an ankle or leg and sued us. Anyone know if this contract includes removing the stumps? |
Will the BOS admit to making a mistake and go back to the original 4 polling places? How much more will this consolidation have to cost the taxpayers? Between the CPA and the Banna renovations, we're startin' to talk real money.
Here's another question. Will the School Committee agree to shut down the high school on January 19 for the special election to fill Kennedy's seat? There is a good possibility that the turnout will match the 2008 presidential election. It will be a shame if people stay away and a nightmare if 8000 people show up. |
Ballot includes positions on Board of Selectmen, Board of Assessors, Library Board of Trustees, Planning Board, School Committee and Water Commissioner. |
We have certainly come a long way since the very first Seekonk community web group was founded in 2005. One of the hottest topics for the years that followed was alledged backroom deals and the underuse of technology that had the potential to connect all citizens with government and the community.
In Friday's editorial, "Progress slow on Open Meeting Law", the Sun Chronicle commended Seekonk's BOS for taking a hard line approach by insisting the Board of Health permit open meetings to be televised. To quote "They recognize that the presumption should be that the public's... |
This mornings Sun Chronicle published a letter from a N Attleboro woman who has witnessed inequities between the elementary schools that service their children. In a town as large as NA, obtaining a level of equity would be far more difficult than it would be in Seekonk.
If inequities still exist in Seekonk between Aitken and Martin, they are likely not as obvious as NA's. These inequities may burn just below the surface. In fact, it would probably take a bit of effort and investigation to discover if our children and the system could benefit from a restructuring.
This... |
| Quote: | By George Morse- Seekonk Star
SEEKONK - It could bring in more than $400,000 a year but a few town officials aren’t quite sure a local option meals tax is right for Seekonk and its many restaurants.
At a Seekonk Board of Selectmen meeting in July, Town Administrator Michael Carroll provided estimates from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) on how much the town could gain by implementing a meals... |
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The bos is trying to urge all boards and committees to televise their open meetings. The Board of Heath refuses. Vicki Kinniburgh says it would be inappropriate and irresponsible because discussions can be sensitive. Brady says too bad. People have every right to know what's going on. Kinnigburgh insisted that if us plebeians really knew what was happening that directly affects us, we would be sent into a panic. Gee, Vicki. You sure have a way to calm frayed nerves.
I agree with Brady. If a meeting is open to the public, it should be made available by every means possible. It's... |
Sun ChronicleThis article talks about the Selectman looking at either new trash bags or some other alternative. Apprently they are recieving compliants about bags breaking. While I have never had that issue, I have had problems where I go out in the morning and the garbage bag I palced out the night before (after 9:00 pm like the bi-laws state) have been chewed open by either a local dog, or some wild rodent. While the trash company has never given be any grief... |
For those of you who missed it Dave Parker was discussing the issues and costs related to the mandatory census we have to do every year for the state. I guess he is talking to state officials to find out why we have to incur that cost when we are the only state in the Union that requires it. In short he got a very beurocratic answer.
Mike B. then raised the question of what would happen if we just didn't do it? Then proceeded to go on a very nice rant about how we need to start drawing our lines in the sand when it comes to the state government bending us over.
I almost... |
Nobody wants their taxes to be raised including myself. But for many years we have enjoyed our low tax rate and execellent services that I feel the town provides on their limited budget. I find it to be very rigid thinking and a lack of common sense when some of our elected officials will not consider an override for specific departments. Their argument is if we do an override it has to be for all departments. Cannot pick & choose. Sounds good but lacks thinking out of the box. Public safety is something that we cannot over look. When our chiefs are stating that we need more man power, its... |
Does anyone know when the annual town report will be published? I think, thanks to Francis Cavaco, this report will include all salaries. |
I had the privilege of giving two of them a tour of my home yesterday.  |
Has the Seekonk Real Estate Market hit bottom? |
As of now there are six people who have put their names in to by appointed to the CPC. The selectman opted against picking names out of hats to instead interview the candidates. They will be interviewed July 8 at 6:00 at Town Hall.
If you are one of the six you should receive a letter in the mail telling you to show up. So if you do not get one by monday or Tuesday I would recommend contacting Michael Carol the Town Administrator. |
Today's Sun had an article about the 'great' results from the survey available at the town meeting (see below). I am suprised that the BOS was so thrilled with the results. Buried in the article is the fact that there were only 21 turned in. Sure hope the BOS, FinComm, department heads, and SC did not turn any in - that would have pretty much been all of them.
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Town meeting responses favorable to town
BY JOSEPH S. SIEGEL FOR THE SUN CHRONICLEThursday, June... |
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