This is different than what was listed on the schedule that was sent out over the summer. It showed no delay this week, since the holiday was listed as Sunday, not Monday. I thought that was rather odd.
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As far as I can find, the only reasons to turn off wind turbines at night are that they can kill bats due to local changes in air pressure, they raise the local temperature a couple degrees C due to mixing cold and warm air, and they can be noisy.
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It's not, the elimination of the unfilled positions isn't part of the 12 layoffs.
"The two reduction phases cut an additional $722,978 from the budget. In total, 17 positions - five new and 12 existing - will be eliminated from the originally proposed $25,921,870 budget." View Comment
Let's try this a different way. Stop and Shop is offering a $5 coupon off the larger of two bags of food. You need to buy the bag of food anyway, so you have a decision to make. You can either buy the $7 bag and pay full price, or you can use the $5 coupon to buy the $12 larger bag for $7. You're paying the same amount of money, but the larger bag is going to last you longer. Not buying anything at all is not an option. View Comment
Okay, so instead of a "grandiose" $11.7 million library, we build an "undersized" $6.7 million library. Guess what, Grafton will pay $6.7 million for that "undersized" library. View Comment
"A minority of Grafton citizens “steamrolled” this library expansion proposal through the town."
Please don't misrepresent facts here. There was no steamrolling. There was plenty of opportunity for people to learn about the project, and plenty of notice was given of the meeting. Everyone had the opportunity to show up and vote on it. The fact that a majority of Grafton citizens chose not to participate, for whatever reason, does not constitute a steamrolling by any measure. If *anyone* got steamrolled (and I don't think anyone did), it was the people who still wanted to speak out *in favor of the measure* when the question was called by one of the opponents of the proposal. View Comment
"I don't think less than 600 citizens can overturn a presidential veto."
They can if only 800 citizens show up for the overturn vote. The only percentage that matters is the percentage of people that vote. It doesn't matter in the slightest how many people "would have" voted no had they bothered to show up.
The only thing we can do for now is to assume that the remaining 92% of the registered voters would have voted in the same ratio as the portion that did vote. View Comment
I do think it's very strange that 4 of the town schools will have the name of the town in them, while the other two won't, and one of two that won't will have the name of the town from right down the street.
Does it really make sense for a Grafton resident to say that they go to the "Millbury Street Elementary School"? I think the "Street" part of that is just going to vanish too easily, and people will hear "Millbury Elementary School".
""I think these names are better than what we came up with the first time," said School Committee member Teri Turgeon. "
Given these names, that seems unlikely. I'd like to hear those other names.
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Yes, it is very sad that it comes to having a child tell us that she can't remember the last time she went to the library BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING THERE FOR HER.
"With the money they're talking about spending for this library, we could buy every man, woman, and child in town an iPad (Nook, Kindle, etc.)."
Yes, because eReaders are the answer for everything, and they last for 50 years, and all books are free.
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"Their tactics were cleverly designed to downplay the tax consequences and play upon the perception that Grafton could not do with anything less than this state mandated $11,700,000 expenditure."
On the contrary, they presented three or four different possibilities for dealing with the legally-mandated ADA compliance, and what additional benefit we could receive at the same time. If people didn't want this solution, they could have voted no, and then we would have moved on to one of the other solutions without any state support.
"At no time, as I recall, did the Board of Selectmen voice concern for the cost of the project, its size, and the additional tax burden. In fact they collectively and individually supported the project. They accepted the expansion proposal on blind faith."
What evidence do you have for this statement? The finance committee (which is made up of taxpayers) reviewed the proposal and determined that it was the best use of town money. The Board of Selectmen (which is made up of taxpayers) examined the proposal and accepted the finance committee's recommendation.
"even the most casual observer would agree the expansion project was far beyond reason."
That statement is so patently false that it's laughable. More than 2/3 of the people that attended town meeting did not agree that the expansion project was far beyond reason.
"With the discussion being cut off abruptly after only 45 minutes with many hands still raised, the fate of the taxpayer and those in opposition generally was sealed. There was no question the conduct of the meeting was biased in favor of the Library Trustees and their agenda."
While there were a couple hands raised in the auditorium, the motion to end the discussion was called by a taxpayer and passed almost unanimously by the taxpayers. During the voting, I heard that same taxpayer comment that further discussion was going nowhere, and that we all knew before we got here which way we were going to vote. His other comments led me to believe that he was opposed to the motion.
It is completely within the right of the town meeting for the town meeting as a whole to decide that further discussion is pointless, and to move to a vote. There is nothing biased about it, unless you consider that the town itself is biased for the proposal, in which case the proposal deserved to pass, as that is the will of the town.
To imply that the more than 2/3 of the town taxpayers that took time out of their busy schedules and made arrangements for childcare in order to attended the meeting and voice their opinion through their yes vote were somehow "hoodwinked" or were somehow less knowledgeable than the people that took time out of their busy schedules and made arrangements for childcare in order to voice their opinion through their no vote is insulting.
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"Also is there going to be a separation for the smaller grades from the 6th graders. 2nd graders are quite small and 6th graders are practically teenagers."
My wife and I both went to multiple schools that were either K-6 or K-8 in the same building. It's really not a big deal.
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"how is that school going to handle picking up and dropping off kids for 5 grades which is an additional 2 grades for that school."
Exactly the same way that it handles the picking up and dropping off of 3 larger grades now. This isn't increasing the enrollment in the school, it's splitting the classes, so each grade will be smaller.
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