Selectmen candidates for March 2011

As suggested here is a post to ask questions of people running for the position of Selectmen for 2011.


Skip Smith and Mike Burns have taken out nomination papers and are the only known candidates.

Two new petitions

We have gotten enough signatures for two more petitions, one to increase the number of selectmen form 3 to 5, the other is to change from town manger form of government to administrative assistant. It was a great team effort to get these signatures election day.


Thanks!

Claude

Indicment finally occurs

Cindy Dunton got indicted October 28, 2010 for taking $198,000. We don’t know the sentencing date yet.. We will be circulating a petition shortly where as a resident of Newburgh you can state what sentence you would like Cindy to receive and other comments you may have.


The maximum sentence for this crime is 10 years. It would be unusual for a Judge to give the maximum sentence. They issue a sentence then suspend an amount of the sentence and the remainder is what they serve. On good behavior the amount that is actually served can be cut as much as half.

I believe that one should not profit from their ill gotten gains. Given that her wages were (as near as we can tell) $42,000 and she is responsible for a minimum of $250,000 of embezzlement and expenses anything less then 6 years serving time would mean she has profited from her actions.

Please consider signing this petition and voicing your opinion to the Judge.

Thank You

Claude

Comments from 10 -2 -10 Bangor Daily News article

Interesting article, it appears the investigation may be expanded.  Also interesting to hear Ron Smith's side of things.  Seems to say the same thing we have been saying :  A systematic failure rather then the responsibility of one malicious individual.

Hi all

     Been gone for a while, working many hours plus family and garden stuff.

     Thank you all for your comments. I have been told that I should remove some of the comments. I am reluctant to remove any comments regardless of my opinion of them. To do so would be to censure someone, and contrary to the goals of the blog: “to enable residents of Newburgh to discuss the current political affairs with each other”. That said please keep in mind the purpose of the blog and avoid personal attacks; they do not further the discussion.
    Again thank you for becoming involved in our town.
Claude

Town manager's recent news comments

"We will provide a lot more reports then they've ever had before on the financials," he said, "There will be treasurer's reports made available. The selectmen's meeting I think will provide a lot of the information that people have been looking for."

What you think?

The Selectmen newletter.

The Newsletter was send out by the selectmen 15 days ago. What did you people think of it?

Prep for new newsletter

We are preparing to put out another newsletter. We are looking at including a survey with questions about having a library, whether to consider building a community building versus using the elementary school, going from three Selectmen to five, a detailed line item budget, the town officials being hired at the town meeting by the townspeople.

We welcome suggestions you may have.

June 14, 2010 Selectmen meeting

Robert Brown (the auditor doing the town audit) has delivered the audit to the selectmen on June 11, 2010. The audit will be discussed at the Selectmen's meeting on June 14. The meeting will be held at the Newburgh Elementary school.

Finally the news we have been waiting for since March.

Who we are!!

This will take you to another website that we have created and it lists the most active people involved by name. Here is the link to that website. There is more information there to look at. More will come soon.
http://townofnewburgh.info/tn/?page_id=2

Search underway for a new town manager

The selectmen met with a representative of Maine Municipal Association (MMA). MMA will conduct the preliminary job interviews background checks etc.. MMA is charging $4,900 for their services plus fees for posting in the newspapers.

The selectmen said they want the same wage and benefit package as they had with Nancy Hatch. Free heath, dental and life insurance, travel expense and +/- 40 K per year.

Given that this is not a 40 hour a week job this seems excessive!

How'd you like the newsletter?

We finally got the newsletter out. It was a group effort getting the facts together, editing and prep for the post office. We sent out 650 newsletters, plus another 100 to distribute at the local stores.

Should the town implement a Administrative Assistant type of government

The hash and bash area. The original intent of the blog was to have a dialog about different subjects regarding our town. The comments seem to evolve further and further away from the subject matter. While the comments are entertaining, funny and maybe even therapeutic they do little to further the discussion at hand.
That said hereafter comments that do little to add to the subject posts will be moved to this area, where you can state/vent your opinion not associated with the original posts.
If you would like a certain subject brought up send me an e-mail (claudemuni@gmail.com) or post a comment anywhere stating your interest.

Claude