Yes...it's been awhile!

Of course its been awhile I'm recuperating ya knuckleheads! Anyways things are going well on this end and recovery is right about where it should be. I am merely a few days away from losing the cane and walking on my own! Anybody ever says "don't get back surgery" to you have them call me. I know sometimes it doesn't work, but in my case I had no choice! I could walk, my spinal cord was partially compressed, but the surgery has worked.

Moving on, I see the fire station was defeated and honestly I don't think anybody should fault the Fire Chief for trying. As a department head he has the responsibility to bring forth what he believes is necessary for his department to function. He had a plan and the voters didn't see the need. Usually it takes a tragedy in the community to get things done! I am glad to see however that the Finance Committee stated publicly because I won't let them forget it either that "schools are the priority in this town now." More on that later on.

Nice weather is here, enjoy it because rain will come because the carnival is in town. Don't forget this is River Rat Weekend. There is a spaghetti supper Friday night at the Athol Congo Church and of course the Pancake Breakfast on Saturday morning!

Hi-del-he-hoe!!!!!! Just Vote No???

Sometimes in life you just got to laugh as current happenings in Athol government. I knew it would be sooner, rather than later that some key figures would resurface in town politics. Having stayed the course and not become embroiled in any talk about the proposed downtown fire station, I just to clarify a few things I read today in an editorial in the local paper.

Having served on the Needs Assessment Committee at the time when it was the most politically fired up process, I can assure you..the FIRE department never said NO to a public safety complex. In fact it was my desire, still is today to have built a building that would have satisfied the needs of the Fire and Police departments for years to come. We traversed many evenings being banged about the forehead by individuals that had individual hatred towards the police, or towards the fire department. We bantered between Lyman Ward for a complex, 206 Exchange Street etc.

In twenty years of serving on the fire department one statement that clearly shows a lack of understanding of the time factor in Fire/EMS or even Police response is ......" The whopping three minutes it takes to get downtown." Well I say you hold your breath for three minutes. Don't move, don't breathe. The difference is life or death. I think the key here is that people need to get out and vote on April 7th and make their own informed choice.