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Sunday, March 27, 2011

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 5th 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.


8 comments:

  1. LynnHappens also accepts editorials, and not being limited on space the way print publications are, runs almost all of them.

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  2. This must be public record somewhere if a grand jury is investigating ISD. Does the author of this letter know where we can find this information?

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  3. for some additional background on the indictment see:

    http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=cagopressrelease&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Cago&b=pressrelease&f=2011_03_21_aei_environmental_indictment&csid=Cago

    and

    http://marblehead.patch.com/articles/lynnfield-company-indicted-for-illegal-asbestos-removal-in-marblehead

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Mary. Seth I know you do, I have posted there myself. This person didn't want to reveal their me just yet. I don't know how you handle that since you are committed to being impartial and objective. I am not exactly hamstrung by those requirements.

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  5. Why has the Mayor not handled this department yet? Are we waiting for the state or federal government to come in and take over. It maybe the only way Lynn survives. Not much change and all the same players in place making money at the expense of our children and citizens. The people who voted her in should be very upset by now. It appears she has become very close with Latham and her croonies as well. I even wonder if the Mayor realizes that her children are attending failing schools? Does that not bother her? All of our middle schools are failing and soon all of our elementary schools will be failing as well. Where is the audit by the DESE and the State/Federal Govt? Does anyone know?

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  6. That seems to be the Mayor's stance on the School Department. She's let that department come totally off the rails. Two Level 4 schools, eight Level 3 schools poised on the edge of Level 4.

    Look at how snow removal was handled this year. Let's make a snow ordinance that the citizens of Lynn can't possibly follow but ignore that the snow removal contract says "curb to curb". I don't know how many of our streets were narrowed down to one lane because the plows wouldn't abide by their contract.

    We pay our Mayor a ton of money to run the city. Now lets see her do her job, or she wont have one next term.

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  7. I agree with you, Melissa.
    Just disgusting and disappointing all in one!

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  8. I think the Item will only publish signed letters.

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