Because he was last, I now make him first..

In this series of candidate interviews, I asked the candidates to speak to “the Lawrence issue..” and let them take it as they liked.

Here we have Patrick Rahilly’s response..

 

 Patrick Rahilly on Lawrence: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Gary will join us on 980 WCAP’s Saturday Morning live this Saturday Morning to discuss his history with the district, and perhaps his future in the moderator’s position.

We’ll probably also be discussing all the different elections as the primaries are coming up in about three weeks.

980 AM, WCAP 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

John Belskis from Repeal40b.com tells us today that his question is now officially been accepted for the fall ballot:

I just wanted to let you know that we have completed processing your petition (Petition B).  As you are aware, 11,099 certified signatures are required to qualify an initiative petition for a law to be printed on the ballot. I am pleased to inform you that 11,664 certified signatures of the 11,876 received by this Office on or before July 7, 2010, have been allowed. Accordingly, the question will appear on the ballot.

This is good news for all of the state, now the issue will be to educate people on just what is being voted on.

The initiative question is not a repeal of the entire affordable housing law, but parts of it that have become a problem over time.

John did not get a chance last Saturday Morning to actually list out the 4 items that they are targeting, but we do plan to have him on regularly to help explain the issue and promote this cause.

I have not yet heard from the committee trying to reduce the income tax to 3%.. I’ll let you know when we know someithing official there.

This Saturday Morning, starting at 8:00 A.M. is the 2nd annual Antique Car show to support Veteran’s Park.

Veteran's Park Auto Show

Held at the park on Broadway (behind the Post Office, for you out of towners), the show goes until 3:00 p.m., with food, cars, and fun .. at no cost to you to visit.

The 980 WCAP team will be there from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. broadcasting live. Feel free to stop by and say “Hi”

A few other items from the meeting of the School Committee on Monday, the 24th of May:

• Pete Wilde, former candidate for Selectman, has been selected by the School Committee as their representative to the Dracut Access Television Board of Directors. Kevin Willet and Rebecca Duda were also candidates, but Rebecca was eliminated because of a lack of residency.
• The Massachusetts School Building Authority is once again evaluating every school in the state. They will be here to assess the condition of ours in the first week of June.
• The School Committee accepted the new food services recommendation (which I believe included a 25 cent meal increase, the first in over four years).
• Chairman Matt Sheehan asked the Superintendent to start discussions with the teachers and nurses unions with regard to furlough days for next fiscal year.
• He and member Bonnie Elie also asked the board to consider discussing keeping Elaine Espindle on (at least on an ad-hoc basis) to help with the transition to a new administration.
• The trip to Spain is back on, and most of the students are still participating (its been rescheduled for June).

Tonite on DATV will be the first presentation by the Lakeview Junior High School’s History Club on thier continuing study of Dracut.

These video shows are done by the students themselves, with little teacher involvement.

Considerable support was provided by the staff at Dracut Access Television, and now the school also has on permanent loan the equipment to allow the students to continue this effort.

I’ve included a short clip from tonite’s show, and we can see the entire episode tonite on Local Channel 8 at 7:30 p.m.

 

 Discovering Dracut, Shaw Farm: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This Sunday, starting at 3:00 p.m., the Dracut Historical Society will once again be hosting a presentation by Dracut Junior High School Teacher Rebecca Duda.

This month’s topic will be on the Federal Census, with a special emphasis on Dracut’s historical census information.

Held at the Dracut Historical Society, at 1600 Lakeview Ave, this should be another great discussion on the history of Dracut.

Assistant Town Manager Glen Edwards informed the Board of Selectmen during Tuesday night’s meeting that the town had been awarded an “e-Government” award from Common Cause of Massachusetts.

This award is presented to cities and towns that meet the criteria of having a significant amount of town information available via the internet. A list of criteria is found on their website here. The list includes such things as a meeting calendar, meeting agendas and minutes, bylaws and town meeting warrant.
The awards ceremony will be held on March 16th at thes State House in Boston.

During the Board of Selectmen’s meeting this evening, Selectman John Zimini made two proposals. One was to eliminate the annual gasoline reimbursement, and a second was to eliminate all pay to elected officials.

Although there was discussion on the first article, each article died for lack of a “second” to the motion.

Zimini’s reasoning was that because the town had asked all the unions to pass up their annual pay raises last year, it would be appropriate for the town leaders to do something similar. “We should take leadership on this,” he said.

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