A Scoop Of Dirt Helps The Bad Medicine Go Down

Below is a copy of a "Letter To The Editor" the Item chose not to run. I am printing it. While I can not attest to the truth or validity of these claims, they are easy enough to verify with a few phone calls to the people listed in the letter. I trust the source but what do I know, I m just a poor, disabled poet. Here you go!

Dear Editor:

As I was reading Saturday, March 19, 2011 Item I noticed something peculiar.  On page 2 there was an article related to someone getting indicted for their 5^th DUI.  In the same article a contractor AEI Environmental LLC of Lynnfield was indicted for violating the solid wastes act and the clean air act.  AEI Environmental performed work at both Lynn Woods School and Marshall Middle School.  With AEI Environmental LLC already indicted can Mike Donovan and his gang of supervisors at ISD be far behind? 

Here’s what they are not telling you.  A grand jury is investigating the City of Lynn’s ISD department concerning how asbestos was illegally removed from our schools under the direction of ISD supervisors and disposed of in an improper manner.  Numerous workers and ISD supervisors have already been subpoenaed to testify. 

Although the Item has already reported about the illegal removal of asbestos tiles from the Cobbet/ Fectu/Leary School building maybe the Item should investigate what really happened at Lynn Woods School or Marshal Middle School.

I used to think the letters I and S in ISD stood for Inspectional Services but I guess it stands for Incompetent Supervisors!  You would think that they would have had an inspector or supervisor around while AEI Environmental was working due to the dangers posed by asbestos.  I guess they were all to busy writing tickets to taxpayers for not removing the snow from their sidewalks fast enough or not having your trash in an approved trash receptacle or your trash receptacle doesn’t have a proper cover.

Don’t worry though they have come up with a sure fire plan on how to keep our school children safe.  If the tiles are loose they have a custodian or maintenance worker just grab some duct tape and tape the lose tiles to the tiles next to them.  If the tiles are chipped or broken then they are instructed to duct tape a piece of rug over it.  I’m sure the Environmental Protection Agency would love to know how they’re disposing of those broken or chipped tiles since no ISD employee is certified to do this.  If I were a parent who had a child at the Shoemaker school or Pickering Middle school I wouldn’t be to happy seeing rugs duct taped over tile considering the amount of taxes you have to pay.  Until those tiles are tested we will never know if they contain asbestos.  I find it hard to believe that the ISD department couldn’t find some money in their budget to remove and test these tiles.

We all keep hearing how there is no money in the budget and maybe that’s why they came up with this plan.  But now there is a new twist to the no money theme.  Mike Donovan just created a new supervisors job in the ISD department for one of his friends.  Just to see if this was another one of those special appointments that Mike Donovan has made in the past like making his two golfing buddies ISD supervisors I called the City Councils office to see if the Councils personal subcommittee had created a new position in the ISD department.  Nothing listed in the council’s personal subcommittee minutes. 

Now I’m told they are calling it a temporary position but everyone in the city knows what temporary means, lifetime appointment.  You would think that they would use the money to fix the asbestos problem but not Mike Donovan.  I guess he thinks a new temporary supervisor is more important.  I guess the saying about Lynn is true “It’s never about the money, its always about who is getting it!” 

In closing I’d like to remind the citizens that didn’t Chip Clancy say the reason that the custodians and maintenance workers were transferred from the schools to the ISD department because of the ISD department’s expertise in these types of issues?  With experts like this in charge God help the City of Lynn taxpayers and their children who attend our schools.