Now this story is a real shock, isn't it? Is anyone surprised that there are more delays in cleaning up the Hammonton Lake? Read the story in the Hammonton News New developments in the 5/12 Hammonton News
He's in charge of the lake now? Or you mean he reports back to Town Council the status of Parks and Recreation?
Has Jerry been charged with cleaning the lake by a certain date? No. Did Jerry pollute the lake? No. Did Hammonton First turn down a guaranteed cleanup program? Yes. Has the lake been unswimmable now while all three parties have had councilpeople? Yes.
Are you trying to tell me that there is nothing else that we waste money on in Hammonton. How about the $65,000 salary wasted on our Mainstreet Director. What the hell are we going to have him do when the $8,000 irrigation system is put in place? He won't have to water the plants on Bellevue anymore.
John Woods is another huge waste of money. If you want to volunteer to make your community better. it should not come with free health insurance.
and since we're not holding anything back... lets all be honest here. Vitalo wins because the first tried to fire the chief. if those idiots left him alone, they win.
I think where we disagree is that you consider it a volunteer position and I don't. It's a position that takes up a lot of your time and you receive compensation for it. Part of the compensation they are entitled to is health benefits.
Anonymous wrote:and since we're not holding anything back... lets all be honest here. Vitalo wins because the first tried to fire the chief. if those idiots left him alone, they win.
They win what? Are you a sore winner, a sore loser, or just sore that you're not sitting up there? What is it about Jerry Vitalo that bothers you? You don't like that he has health insurance? Then why not push for a law that elected officials should not receive insurance, instead of just bloviating about it.
Do you know how many hours the councilpeople put in doing their job? Does the countless man hours Jerry has given cleaning up Hammonton First's mess at the "historic" Town Hall count for anything?
What have you done besides target a man with ZERO special interests in this town. He doesn't own property on Bellevue Ave. He didn't benefit from a water moritorium in town(no new builders can come in, but all those other projects KDM have on the books got to be built!). Jerry doesn't benefit from all the downtown street projects and parking projects(all those Bellevue businesses do, though!). What Jerry does receive is insurance benefits, as every other elected councilperson in this state receives(except those independently wealthy enough to already have their own health insurance).
Here's an idea. If you feel so bad, go down to one of the wonderful new store fronts on Bellevue Ave and buy yourself a sympathy card.
Very well said. As democrates, you should be in favor of the salary and benefits for councilpersons. The reason why the ordinance was passed was to allow persons who are NOT rich and who NEED to work to run. Without those benefits and salary, a person may not run as they may risk going broke when they loss time from work to do the councilpersons job. Remember, any person should be able to run for office, NOT just the rich people who can afford to look generous by not taking the benefits. If we had more people on Town Council who were working class persons (who took the benefits) and who have the interests of the Town at heart, then maybe we wouldn't be wasting 50K in going after the chief and then overspending by millions on a promise of 5.9 million. If we had regular people (not rich) on council, we would have saved millions. Lastly, which would you rather have councilpersons who get benefits at a cost of 40K or rich people who don't take the benefits and overspend millions?
I'd rather have people who don't raise taxes at both the town and school. Having zero tax increases is the best thing for folks who do not have govenment jobs and just pay taxes.
History has a funny way of repeating itself. Remember when the school budget was a zero increase until they built the school, then we all know what happened after that. I dread the day the town hall is completed and the same thing happens again.
History has a funny way of repeating itself. Remember when the school budget was a zero increase until they built the school, then we all know what happened after that. I dread the day the town hall is completed and the same thing happens again.
The difference between the school budget and town hall budget is that from DAY ONE it was obvious that HF was misleading the public to get elected. They've tried to create a Hammonton where no one dares ask questions or challenge them. I'm glad that the Dems have been speaking up. Too bad people don't always vote their conscience and just vote blindly. Our town would be better if people would vote for the best candidates who truly care about Hammonton above their self interest.
History has a funny way of repeating itself. Remember when the school budget was a zero increase until they built the school, then we all know what happened after that. I dread the day the town hall is completed and the same thing happens again.
It's a shame you are so uninformed. You obviously don't understand what happened after the school was built. You vote every year on the school budget. And every year part of that vote is on the payment for the new school. Those figures have never changed. If the new school was the cause of your tax increases, the payback figure for the bond referendum would have gone up. It never has. As a matter of fact, this year it went down because of some favorable refinancing rates. The increase in taxes has come on the educational side due to the freezing of State aid for the last five years. The State ignored their resposibility to the children of the state and therefore the cost was passed on to you the taxpayer. Also, the poor hiring decisions in the business office caused the district to not collect their fair share from sending districts. That has now been corrected, even though they are now complaining. The state finally acknowledged that have short changed us for years and sent us almost $1 million in additional aid this year. That does not make up for what we lost over the last five years, but now there is additional legislation being presented to send us even more money because of how drastically our district was effected by their fiscal irresposibility. Here is that story.
Come on jim. The school was not finished properly and ever year we the tax payers have had to pay for the things that where not done right. So yes you where on time and on budget. But every year things where put into the budget to fix the problems at the school.. But hey the field house looks great. If the energy from the football field went into heater ?
john woods 65k plus health lou rodio 50k plus health water dept guys 65k plus health paid for profit rescue squad chief 75k town council 5k plus health airport admin 6 fire dept free free free plus no health ins.
If you were expecting that from day one you would have a perfect building, sorry you aren't very expeienced with construction. When someone has a home built, there are always some things that need to be addressed after it is finished. That is the same in large construction. But explain to me how you can say that we are still paying for things to be corrected for a building that has been open for almost 6 years. Are you telling us that the Board has refused to address any of these issues and are just now getting around to it. Seems pretty irresponsible to me. Maybe a better program of preventive maintenance should be put in place at the schools, instead of reacting to problems after they have become bigger than they need to be. And yes the field house is great, it provided much more educational space in the high school building than we were going to have with the state plan. It's a shame we put more value on education than you do. You obviously think it was more important to have larger locker room space for sports.
The school's roof leaks and thousands of dollars of damage were done. That is ridiculous in a new building. The heater doesn't work properly, the drainage needed to be redone. One of the guys that Bobby Capoferri gave $20K in bonuses to oversee... Mike Cuneo... said some of the quality was "crap."
Jim you must be on acid like Tony soprano.What I said was since day one there have been constant problems at the school. The current board has and is addressing all of the problems as the come up.I live in a new home and I do not have to fly in a crew from china to work on my heater.Do you? The field house and filed is a joke.That money could have been put into the general fund.(Like it was supposed to be)Then maybe the current board would not have to handle the old boards problems.The old field would have been just fine.
Once again, if the roofneeded to be addressed then why has it taken 5 years for the board to do anything about it. If it leadkes today then it would make sense to fix it tomorrow. The heater problem was diligently being worked on by the previous board president but the new board refused to let him continue his work. I have personally spoken to other school districts who have the same system and they are very happy with it. It can be fixed with the right people. Yes, the drainage did need to be done. Again, one of the things that had to be corrected, but you can't expect a perfect building. As for Mr. Cuneo, he did not say it was crap but he was exagerating to get the architect and engineer off their asses and get to work on resolving some issues towards the end of the project. That letter was meant for that purpose only and not as a statement of the condition of the building. But then again, you are used to taking things out of context to support your own statements.
Jim you must be on acid like Tony soprano.What I said was since day one there have been constant problems at the school. The current board has and is addressing all of the problems as the come up.I live in a new home and I do not have to fly in a crew from china to work on my heater.Do you? The field house and filed is a joke.That money could have been put into the general fund.(Like it was supposed to be)Then maybe the current board would not have to handle the old boards problems.The old field would have been just fine.
There have not been "constant" problems, there have been a few. And I commend the board for having the people who designed the system come in to look at the problem, it is what should have been done a long time ago!!!! And again, if the field house was not built it would not have saved a penny. The building was always on the plans and would still have to be built to house electrical and sprinkler controls for the fields. As for using the old fields, they were in the referendum that was approved by the voters, and I don't think it would have been a very safe situation having our student body walking accross Fairview Ave to get to the fields for PE classes or sporting practices. How would you have divided up the fields between High school and Middle school. They each had separate fields before, now you propose sharing the fields?
Jim you must be on acid like Tony soprano.What I said was since day one there have been constant problems at the school. The current board has and is addressing all of the problems as the come up.I live in a new home and I do not have to fly in a crew from china to work on my heater.Do you? The field house and filed is a joke.That money could have been put into the general fund.(Like it was supposed to be)Then maybe the current board would not have to handle the old boards problems.The old field would have been just fine.
If I had a new house that had a roof that leaked and a heater that didn't work I would be mad as anything.
And then you would take the neccessary steps to get the problems corrected.
Yep, exactly. The past problems that were caused by the School Board and the horrible job they did in school construction project are being fixed. This year, the school will have new teachers and zero tax increase. Next will be to fix the poor job that was done in the roof for the new high school. One at a time, all your past problems are being fixed.
Hey, finally someone got it right!! Overpaid Rescue Squad Chief. Why does mayor & council (Bertino & Colasurdo) find it necessary to even entertain the "rantings" of the rescue squad chief? This guy must be the most ignorant person I know, besides Frank Oliva.
what about debates over who has the worst fake tan. frank oliva wins hands down. who else do you know looks orange after tanning ? only an "oompa loompa".
Frank Oliva has the samallest hands I have ever seen on a man. His best role was on fantasy Island as Tatto "Le plane Le Plain" The hair piece isn't so bad. The worste hair piece is a toss up between Tom Costa and Mike Ricca.
I remember people telling me the lake is dying and that they were laughed at by Firsters that they knew. HF Town Council knew of a guaranteed solution the other year and chose to do nothing. They don't give a rats a$$ about the lake. It's not downtown. They even took out the Community Center at the park because it will cause them to go over budget from their campaign promise of $5.9. That's why they started their 5.9 at Central in Vine in hopes that we forget about the Community Center at the lake.
Jim you must be on acid like Tony soprano.What I said was since day one there have been constant problems at the school. The current board has and is addressing all of the problems as the come up.I live in a new home and I do not have to fly in a crew from china to work on my heater.Do you? The field house and filed is a joke.That money could have been put into the general fund.(Like it was supposed to be)Then maybe the current board would not have to handle the old boards problems.The old field would have been just fine.
Jim you must be on acid like Tony soprano.What I said was since day one there have been constant problems at the school. The current board has and is addressing all of the problems as the come up.I live in a new home and I do not have to fly in a crew from china to work on my heater.Do you? The field house and filed is a joke.That money could have been put into the general fund.(Like it was supposed to be)Then maybe the current board would not have to handle the old boards problems.The old field would have been just fine.
There have not been "constant" problems, there have been a few. And I commend the board for having the people who designed the system come in to look at the problem, it is what should have been done a long time ago!!!! And again, if the field house was not built it would not have saved a penny. The building was always on the plans and would still have to be built to house electrical and sprinkler controls for the fields. As for using the old fields, they were in the referendum that was approved by the voters, and I don't think it would have been a very safe situation having our student body walking accross Fairview Ave to get to the fields for PE classes or sporting practices. How would you have divided up the fields between High school and Middle school. They each had separate fields before, now you propose sharing the fields?
Being selective again. You qoute the statement but not the response.
I think Town Council should be forced to swim in the lake on the 4th of July whether it's cleaned up or not. Maybe that will help realize that the People of Hammonton want the lake open this summer.