Precinct 3 Town Councilor James Munafo Jr. says he still has a lot of work to do for the Town of Barnstable, and will not be running against State Representative Demetrius Atsalis.
We respect his decision and look forward to his continued service to the people of Barnstable.
Since the Squab seems to think he knows so much more than both of those guys put together, we think he ought to throw his hat into the ring and put some action behind all those words on his blabber blog!
Posted in Uncategorized
In 2007, Brighton resident Eric Schwaab attempted to gain the council seat for Precinct 3 in Hyannis, where he owns a small cottage.
Inexperienced in local politics, Schwaab started campaigning far too early in the small precinct with slick advertising materials and promises that were not within the pervue of the council, such as “free bus rides” for public school students.
Local Attorney Michael Hersey lost his bid in the primary election, and threw his support to Munafo. Shortly after that, the local “sister” paper of the Cape Cod Times endorsed incumbent Munafo for re-election, reasoning that:
“Above all, Munafo is reliable in how he acts, thinks and considers the decisions to be made. We don’t always agree with those decisions, but we’ve never questioned the integrity with which they were made.
In our experience, the same cannot be said of candidate Eric Schwaab, whose dedication to accuracy and fairness we seriously question…..Munafo has done the work and deserves the trust of voters.”
Sewers are an important issue for Barnstable and even Cape-wide, but as a State Rep, Munafo will need to address a host of other relevant issues such as the economic and environmental well being of the Cape and Islands, the Cape Wind project, keeping Massachusetts affordable
for working-class families, ensuring our local towns and schools receive fair funding, etc…
Schwaab feels that we have no right to weigh in on his wild mood swings and opinions that change with the slightest breeze. Perhaps he should post his blog by invitation only. Nobody is forcing Eric Schwaab to read this blog. He is not on our mailing list, and frankly we are concerned about the emotional stability of a guy who freaks out over criticism of his style over any real substance.
For example, today our editor received the following cc e-mail from Schwaab sent to Councilor Munafo:
Clearly, Mr. Schwaab needs a reality check, a review of the criminal harassment statute, and maybe a long vacation.
Posted in Uncategorized
According to an article in today’s Barnstable Patriot, Precinct 3 Town Councilor Jim Munafo intends to run against Incumbent State Representative Demetrius Atsalis this year. Atsalis has held Barnstable’s Second District seat since 1999.
Atsalis, a Democrat, beat 2008 challenger Carl Yingling by a landslide victory with 12,359 votes to Yingling’s 5224 votes in the general election.
Largely self-financed, Independent Candidate Yingling reported raising $1,595 in campaign contributions, while Atsalis reported a war chest of $50,508.
In 2007 Incumbent Town Councilor Munafo ran against blogger Eric “Bugsy” Schwaab for his seat in Precinct 3. Atsalis inserted himself into this election by attacking and responding to attacks by Schwaab, and by leaving an anonymous threat on the answering machine of Precinct Three’s Calvary Baptist Church, for hosting several candidates signs, including Schwaab’s, on their lawn. Atsalis admitted to making the call after church leaders found his number on their caller ID. He claimed he was trying to do them a “favor” by threatening their non-profit status:
Reports of tax problems, incidents involving his apparent sense of entitlement resulting in complaints to police and security departments on a local beach and golf course, as well as scrapes at local polling locations on election day were always followed by a huffy denial and\or counter accusations. Obviously this five term candidate, like an old diaper, needs to be changed.
Keep in mind that Atsalis represents Barnstable’s Precinct 13, which includes the area known as Stewart’s Creek. Councilor Munafo was only one of two councilors to vote against the forced sewering/100% betterments for “Creekers”.
Munafo has repeatedly demonstrated by word and deed that he is a man with a strong moral center who understands the difference between right and wrong. While this might seem like a general requirement for holding public office, it has proven to be the exception rather than the rule in Barnstatble.
Contact Jim Munafo, Jr., and lend him your support: councilor@integrity.com,
or at 508-862-4901
Posted in Uncategorized
The next meeting of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee has been rescheduled to March 8, 2010, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm in the town hall hearing room. One reason for skipping a February meeting may have to do with two possible resignations of appointed committee members.
The results of our poll indicate that the predatory statements by CAC member Rob Anderson in e-mails recently pasted on capecog.com convinced 77 out of 87 voters that he should resign from the committee. We’ve certainly seen better appointments than Anderson in Barnstable, but we’ve also seen a whole lot worse. While his moral credibility has been damaged, is he really any more repulsive than the likes of Milton Berglund in this wastewater war of wills over reason?
Frankly, we’re not convinced that the findings of this new CAC will amount to anything meaningful regarding future sewer projects. Keep in mind that Barnstable had a CAC from 1993-2007 comprised of 14 members of the community who met regularly to plan for big sewer expansion projects. Of course in 1993 some of us had car phones as big as toasters, and the cost of big sewer was bread crumbs compared to the billions of dollars it will cost to approach Cape sewering the old fashioned way today.
According to DPW Director Mark Ells, there are only two reasons the town has for going forward with the 17 year old plan for big sewer in Stewart’s Creek:
Homeowners from Stewart’s Creek and Lake Wequaquet rejected these ”only reasons” from the DPW, and every other reason given by the town council for going forward with the old CAC recommendations, and both projects were voted down by the council that night.
A sleazy scheme was designed and promoted by Precinct 13 councilor J. Gregory Milne to drag stinky old mothball Milton Berglund, an abutter of the Stewart’s Creek Project, to ask for a “do-over” on the June 25th measure. Geezer Berglund submitted a flimsy petition (which has disappeared from town files) suggesting the idea that councilors may have confused the two projects. As you know, the council reversed it’s decision on Stewart’s Creek at the mega-meeting of August 6th, 2009.
While the last CAC met for 14 years, the targeted time frame for this committee is only 18 months. Town Council President Chirigotis made repeated claims before his re-election that he was putting together this committee to address the financing options for Stewart’s Creek and future sewering projects.
In spite of profound statements of the obvious from Brian Dudley of DEP and assorted comittee members at the January 11th CAC meeting, old man Berglund insisted that addressing the immediate needs of his neighbors to find help in financing the project (scheduled to begin no later than April 15, 2010) should not be prioritized on the “to do” list of the new Citizen’s Advisory Committee. While compelling arguments were made otherwise, nerd Berglund repeatedly posited that this CAC should not play a major role in researching financing options.
What’s really disturbing about this meeting is that no one demanded to take a vote when members obviously disagreed on the order of agenda items. Mark Ells clearly gave members an option to prioritize financing to the top of the list, but Baritone Bergland won out, and the committee went along with the agenda of town administrators.
Being that the last CAC spent 14 years researching everything BUT how to pay for the big sewer plan, don’t you think this CAC should at least figure that one out? After all, didn’t Chrigotis, who appointed these people repeatedly say that addressing financing was an urgent need?
In addition to up front costs which could easily be as much as ten thousand dollars ($8K grinder pump, costs to get rid of your old septic, costs to tear up your lawn and put it back together, etc..), property owners in the Stewart’s Creek project will be charged a betterment of $1240 per year for 20 years starting Feb. 1, 2012.
We looked up assessments for each of the 42 properties listed on Greenwood Avenue, as it is the largest road in the SC project area. We calculated the average value to be $266,852. The average tax bill for 2010 on Greenwood is about $1900 with the residential exemption. Provided we have no major hurricane or other Acts of God, the average Greenwood Avenue resident is facing a minimum of a SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT INCREASE in taxes for a sewer that they don’t need.
Pre-printed letters drafted by Attorney Michael Turner were sent to most homeowners on private roads last week:
We expect that the DPW will be receiving notices from several property owners on private roads refusing or revoking permission to access their private ways. We’ve been advised that some have already begun to send the letters to the DPW. While this may forestall as much as 20% of the project, it appears the town plans to start digging on public roads within the next 60 days.
Although we appreciate the argument that “eventually” we will need to address “possible” problems with wastewater issues in the area, there is no immediate need to financially cripple any homeowner in Barnstable at this moment, in the midst of this particularly difficult economy. The Citizen Petition for a Moratorium is floating in Town Council limbo. They have ten more weeks (sometime within the next 5 council meetings) to have a hearing and vote on the matter, according to Section 8-7(b) of the Town Charter. You may want to contact your councilor, no matter how callous he/she has been so far to the pleadings of the people, and ask for serious consideration of the petition.
Remember that eventually the town is going to try to come to your door with an opressively expensive, unwanted and very possibly unneccessary alternative to your Title V system. A very dangerous precedent is being set in Stewart’s Creek with the measure for 100% betterment costs nailed to the homeowner’s tax bill for 20 years. The cost for big sewer by the time it gets to the homeowners in Lake Wequaquet could easily be five times the cost in Stewart’s Creek. If you live in one of any of the 13 precincts within the Town of Barnstable, please contact your councilor and ask that he/she support the Moratorium Petition filed two weeks ago. You can find contact info for your councilor on the town’s website: http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownCouncil/towncounelcontact.pdf
Posted in Uncategorized
