Leapin' Lizards!

Hey! Its Leap Day! Wahooooo!! Now seriously folks, who really cares? It is a little cool to see 2/29 on the calender, but that's about it. I'm sure if it was your birthday you would be all over this. Not me, mine is in May, but I believe Pat Fleming's birthday is today. Boy....that's a "long shot"....add in the rim shot yourself.

All sorts of stuff going on in the City lately. Looks like a dog park is close to becoming a reality here in town. Don't get me wrong, but this is a little to much for me. My biggest issue is that the majority of the vocal proponents of this park are not from the City of Bangor. I only recall a single Bangor resident speaking in favor of this at the Public Hearing. Maybe I'm missing something. Could be. Isn't it odd that folks that live in the suburbs would promote a dog park in the city? Maybe I'm missing something. What kind of liability does the City have here? I'm sure there will be a big sign concerning this, but that didn't work out to well at the City Dock. Just as Tom Sawyer. Maybe I'm missing something. Could be. At the end of the day, this better not cost a whole lot. Lets at least take all the dog turds to Hampden when we clean the place.

The SAVE DOROTHEA DIX committee is moving in high gear. Seems like they are starting to get their focus. One thing they should look at is the "savings" projected by the State as part of the closing. I'm sure the fact that the actual DD campus will remain open is lost on them. The facility houses numerous State agencies. I'm sure the old infrastructure is shared by a majority of these buildings. So, no savings there. I guess, in the end, it's all administrative costs we're looking at here. The cost of doing business in Maine is what's driving this one. The admin. portion of the budget is so far out of whack it's killing the system. Well, good luck with that one guys. The State usually does the wrong thing in these type circumstances.

The Finance Committee has a visit from Chief Gastia this past week. The Chief is looking for some cash to fix up the new Police station's heating and AC system. Something to the tune of $180k. OUCH!!!! Let me get this straight Ronnie, we hired an architect to design the facility, the design is faulty, we pay to have it re-worked to fix the architect's mistakes. WTF??? Of course, my good friends at WBRC are at the bottom of this mess. No shocker there. Ask the management staff at PVCC how the WBRC design heating and AC system works at the new clubhouse. Not the first bad mechanical design, not the last. Same shit, different day. For the life of me I don't see where the City is on the hook for this.

I stopped by my local convenience store for a cold beer last Sunday just prior to the Daytona 500. I noticed a guy going thru the trash can out front of the store picking out returnables, while talking on a cell phone. So many things wrong here I cant begin to comment. Who throws out returnables these days......

Till next time......keep leapin' on......

Rain, Rain, Go Away.......

Looks like rain is in the news alot lately. First off, every snowstorm has turned over to rain so far this year. Second, the City wants to start taxing the rain that falls on your property. I cant do much on the first, short of asking the guys over at Haliburton to reprogram that weather machine they have. On the second thing, well, I can speak to that. The City has determined that the good folks of Bangor are in violation of the Clean Water Act, mostly due to lack of clean-up efforts on several "impaired" urban streams. I know, I know, its hard to get your head around WTF that means. Well, in a nutshell..The City has several local streams that drain neighborhoods. These streams are part of the overall watershed of the City. By understanding the effects of rain water runoff within the watershed, the City can develop measures to control pollution, siltation of streams, and possible flooding. We've all seen the kids from the Middle School marking the catch basins near our homes. This effort works to keep unwanted pollutants from going into the streams, killing off the fish, etc. Same type deal with the run-off. The proponents of the law claim that your car is leaking oil and gas on your driveway, and rainwater flushes that into the streams. They also put forth the notion that the rain that falls on your house runs directly into the City's system. Neither one of these is even close to being true at my house. Let's look at the two major impaired streams in the City. The one at the mall, and the one at the mall. See a pattern? Hell, one of them even has the airport and the Air National Guard base drainage flowing into it. So that's the big picture, we're being asked to pay for sins of the past, that was condoned by the City (at the time), and helped the US Govt. and private developers. OK, I get it now.....??? But the City is asking me to pay for this. Isn't that a little, ex post facto? All right now, that sounds fair!!! The ANG dumps fuel on the ground, the developers pave over 95% of a marsh and cow pasture, and somehow (keep in mind I was around 5 at the time) I am responsible for the clean-up efforts. That's just the beginning kids, lets look at how the "stormwater fee" has been set up....

"No charge for residence or business that have less than 500 SF of impervious surfaces (roof or driveways for this explanation)" I cant think of a single developed lot in the City that qualifies for this exception.

" A $22 annual fee for those with impervious surfaces of 501 to 1000 SF" Again, that's a small home with driveway and garage, not as many of those as you would think. Art Morgan says its 74% of the housing stock, but I really doubt that number. Did someone from the City go over old aerial photos and measure all the lots up? Really?

"After 3000 SF, add an additional $11 for each 1000 SF"

So that's the fee structure. But how was it derived?? My house sits on a large lot. The run-off from my roof area never leaves my property. Its a good 30 feet to the street, and the gutters control the runoff and directs it across my lawn. Not to mention my rain barrels. No harm to the watershed there. So that leaves just my driveway. It falls into the 500 SF category, does that give me some sort of rebate? What if it doesnt rain? What if we get a flood? This is very confusing to your average Joe. I got a kick out of Andy Hamilton being quoted in the BDN concerning the City's need to follow this Federal mandate (or is it a mandate Andy?). He'll be the same guy representing 20 locals that will sue the City over this, mark my words. I'm sure he knows plenty about the hydrology and methodology in defining small urban watersheds, and the shortcomings of the Federal and State program models. This is something that should be squashed before this voodoo science gets traction and rolls right over us.

Someone throw me a life jacket.

Cant we all just get along?

I've been traveling around the East coast lately. When I'm on the road I try to keep up with the local stuff. The BDN has been my main resource, and I've gotten a kick out of the readers comments to many stories. The Longo v Weston battle from a few weeks ago was a hoot. The Mayor was waaay out of line, but he responded to the critcisms and even posted an apology in the BDN comments. Cary's a stand up guy. Charlie was a little over-dramatic, but he was slighted by Weston for sure. Maybe he should stop talking so much, but that's not my call. There seems to be a rift between the two that goes back a few months. C'mon guys, suck it up and act like professional. Charlie's "I'm not your son" comment almost caused me to spit out my Cheerios. Your lucky your not son Mr Longo. I would have grounded your butt a long time ago and maybe cut your allowance. I know your 23, so stop acting like your 10.

Gov LePage has been taking heat for pretty much everything these days. The proposed DHS budget cuts have a lot of folks boiling. The whole MaineCare issue should be dumped on former Gov Baldacci and the Legislature that put this through. MaineCare has been in the red since it's inception. Expanding the program was irresponsible at the very least. Why cant the good folks of this State see what the program is doing to the fiscal house? We cant afford to pay for everything! They way we are going, the State will be bankrupt in a few months. But those that are sucking at the tit wont let go. Sorry kids, the Gov is cutting the cord. All the opponents are clammering that the elderly and the poor folks will be on the street. Nana will have to decide if its heating oil or her meds! That's total bullshit. Nana's on medicare and social security, not Mainecare. Folks survived before MaineCare, and they will move on without it. This will force DHS to look at how it hands out benefits and hopefully shut down the freeloaders. Now if we can shut down Shawn Yardley's cash giveaway programs to local losers, we'll be on the right track.

We're a few months into the Council session and I'm ready to offer up my first report card.

Weston - B
Baldacci - A-
Longo - D
Blanchette - B
Gratwick - D
Gallant - B
Sprague - C
Hawes - C-

I know we can do better than that kids.