Why Is This Off-Camera?

Ken O’Brien

Posted on the town website is an agenda for a Town Council Meeting of the Whole prior to the regularly scheduled council meeting Monday night. The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

COUNCIL OF THE WHOLE

GEORGE PARENT COMMUNITY ROOM

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2013 – 6:30 PM

AGENDA

1. Call Meeting to Order

2. Roll Call

3. Review resume and employment agreement for Acting Town Manager, Robert Reed and to submit to Council for ratification.

4. Adjournment 

Southbridge Town Council Agenda - December 16, 2013

TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

COUNCIL CHAMBERS, TOWN HALL

December 16, 2013 –7:00 PM

********************

AGENDA

1. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll Call

3. Consider and accept Town Council Meeting Minutes of Monday, December 2, 2013. 

Southbridge School Committee Agenda - December 17, 2013

Southbridge School Committee Meeting

Location: Robert G. MacKinnon Council Chambers, 41 Elm Street

Date: Tuesday, December 17, 2013

                                                                   Time: 7:00 PM

Featherbedding And Ignorance At Southbridge Town Hall

Ken O’Brien

Featherbedding.

To those unfamiliar with the term it gained currency in the days when trade unions defended maintaining positions that were viewed as no longer necessary by the management of passenger and freight railways operators.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the term as follows:

The requiring of an employer usually under a union rule or safety statute to hire more employees than are needed or to limit production.

Holiday Art & Craft Sale

 Locally made gifts by artisans & crafters

Submitted by: Monika Agnello

The Quinebaug Valley Council for the Arts and Humanities (QVCAH) is proud to present its annual Holiday Art & Craft Sale which will be held this week, December 11 - 15th, 2013 at 111 Main Street in Southbridge, MA.

Please join us from Noon to 8 pm Wednesday through Saturday and 10 to 6 pm Sunday. You'll find a huge selection of locally made gifts at the  Art Center.                                                                   

Taxpayers Aren’t Santa

Ken O'Brien

Note: At last week’s town council meeting the town manager noted that the tax rate was determined by the town budget which had already been settled upon last May. In what is becoming an annual ritual I thought it appropriate to reprint a post that The O’Zone first published on December 6^th of 2011. If so inclined, you may wish to examine the comments that were made by certain readers at the time this article was first published or last year when it was repeated. 

Crotch Rot

Ken O’Brien

One no longer has to go to a strip club to have women’s private parts in your face. Today vaginas are a cultural meme. And pussy galore has become a bore.

The glorification of the magical nature of the vagina as a means to female empowerment has reached a stage that is beyond self-parody. 

The Minutes Waltz: Update

Ken O’Brien

Yesterday The O’Zone published an article titled The Minutes Waltz (Or Is It Tap Dance?).

In it we contrasted the minutes of the DPW subcommittee as presented to council members and as read at Monday night’s council meeting with the way the O’Zone reported that meeting in our piece Really? Let’s Hope It’s A Trend!.

In response to a comment on Thursday’s article Evelyn Rivera, who prepared the subcommittee minutes, replied in part, “Minutes are just that "Minutes" not "hours" and therefore I do not write minutes verbatim. No one, I repeat, no one edits my minutes. If anyone is interested in the exact wording of a meeting they should attend such meeting otherwise an abbreviated version is all they are getting from me. I tape such meeting so that if anyone wants to sit there and listen to a meeting (whether it's a 5 min. meeting or a 5 hour meeting) they can do so. I am happy to provide them with a copy.”

The Minutes Waltz (Or Is It Tap Dance?)

Ken O’Brien

Last Thursday The O’Zone ran an article titled ”Really? Let’s Hope It’s A Trend!”.

In it we recounted the discussion in the prior evening’s DPW subcommittee meeting surrounding the second item on the agenda. That item read as follows:

“Vote to accept the agreement between the Town of Southbridge and Allan F. DiPietro Masonry for concrete masonry work at various locations in an amount not to exceed $20,000.00. Funding to come from Water & Sewer and DPW current budget accounts.”

Insofar as we had the contents of that article vetted by two members of the subcommittee who were present at the meeting, we felt reasonably certain that it reflected accurately the nature of the discussion on this item.

No Fracking Way In Massachusetts

Ken O’Brien

Massachusetts isn't rich in fossil fuels, but we’re going to great lengths to keep the fracking industry out of the state. Last week, the Massachusetts State Legislature's Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources approved a 10-year ban on fracking.

The measure would also prevent fracking waste-water from being treated, stored, or disposed of in Massachusetts. The legislation is moving on to the Massachusetts' House Ways and Means Committee, and hopefully, it will then be approved by that state's House and Senate.

Ellsbury Bolts Boston For Yankees

From BuzzFeed

In a stunning free agent move, the New York Yankees have signed star Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury to a massive seven-year contract worth somewhere around $153 million, according to multiple reports.

Ellsbury is well-known for his speed atop the Sox lineup, averaging one steal every three games over his career.

Breaking News: Christopher Olivo Chosen To Fill School Committee Vacancy

Ken O’Brien

Christopher Olivo has been chosen to fill a vacancy on The Southbridge School Committee. The opening was created with the resignation of former School Committee Chairman Patricia Woodruff. The selection was made during a joint meeting of the Southbridge Town Council and the School Committee as mandated by the Town Charter.

Mr. Olivo stated he had been a resident of Southbridge since 2006. He is an active duty member of the Massachusetts National Guard with experience in overseas deployment and is a native of Texas. 

Southbridge Town Council Meeting December 2, 2013 - VIDEO

Tax Rate Set At $19.64

A public hearing on the tax classification system to be adopted by the council and the tax rate to be set for the community precedes the town council meeting.

Southbridge Town Council Meeting Agenda - December 2, 2013

TOWN OF SOUTHBRIDGE

SOUTHBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

COUNCIL CHAMBERS, TOWN HALL

December 2, 2013 – immediately following

6:30 PM Public Hearing

********************

AGENDA

1. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll Call

Shark Jumping At NBC

Ken O’Brien

For those unfamiliar with the term “jump the shark”, I will pull a Rand Paul and quote from Wikipedia (oops! I cited the source):

Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that was used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery, which is usually a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in a desperate attempt to keep viewers' interest. Its name is taken from a scene from a fifth season episode of the sit-com Happy Days when the character Fonzie jumps over a shark on water-skis.

In its initial usage, it referred to the point in a television program's history when the program had outlived its freshness and viewers had begun to feel that the show's writers were out of new ideas, often after great effort was made to revive interest in the show by the writers, producers, or network.^[1][2][3]

The usage of "jump the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment when a brand, design, or creative effort's evolution loses the essential qualities that initially defined its success and declines, ultimately, into irrelevance.