Apparently the recent action taken by council is OK with the Hammonton Gazette. At the last council meeting, the council retroactively approved change orders for the Canoe Club at Hammonton Lake Park. Not too long ago the Hammonton School Board took a similar action and the Gazette blasted the Board. The Gazette could not find enough bad things to say about the board members and the administration. How things can change. Now because the current Hammonton First majority council took similar actions everything is OK. The Gazette has nothing to say about it this time which can only lead one to believe that they now approve of this action.
There are differences though. When the school board was building our beautiful new state of the art high school, every change that was made on the project was discussed at regular board meetings. During the Canoe Club construction, these changes were never discussed until now, 7 months after the completion of the project. At the school board both the board and the public were given reports by the project managers and other professionals at every meeting about the project, any changes to the project, and the reasons for any change. The council rarely said anything more than the project was proceeding. The School board was very open throughout the whole process. Apparently our open and honest government was not so open.
It has long been the opinion of many Hammontonians that the Gazette is very selective in its reporting and a staunch supporter, and even promoter, of Hammonton First. To have two situations so similar treated so obviously different just goes to further these opinions.
As a side story, it is very interesting that the Hammonton First leader of this project, Jerry Barberio, voted no on these change orders. Why would the one person who led the project and allowed these change orders to occur then vote no when it came time for official approval. We are sure to hear more about this strange occurrence as time goes on.
-- Edited by Admin on Thursday 25th of February 2010 07:29:29 PM
It's obvious that according to the Gazette Hammonton First can do no wrong - never did never will. Yet the Gazette is quick to criticize others even if they do nothing wrong. They just like trashing people that don't kiss their ass. That entire lake project like every other project they create is a disaster. They don't think these projects through, it's just hurry up and lets get it done. Then sometimes they realize what they did wrong and try to change it and only make it worst. Example: town hall, downtown and lets not forget how much money they are dumping into the airport but nothing is getting done - where is that money going????? Many mysterious things are happening will this cause Hammonton First to bail?
The Gazette made it top story to say Vitalo is out of the GOP, that's a NON-story. The top story should be Barberio votes NO to change orders to his own project while everyone else votes YES. Barberio already receive a lot of negative views over his poor job with the Lake Park Project. Looks like Jerry was try to do the right thing this time.
Too little, too late. How can you go headstrong into this project without even knowing how you will pay for it? How can you claim to be an environmentalist and cut down hundreds of healthy, thriving trees? How can you oversee the project and not even tell the council or the public about change orders til 7 months later? How can you deliberately push the project through knowing that you were "kicking the can down the road" and making us and our children the bill with interest?
There are differences though. When the school board was building our beautiful new state of the art high school, every change that was made on the project was discussed at regular board meetings.
C'mon, you are really pushing the limit on this one aren't you? There were several hundred thousands of dollars of change orders that had to be approved retroactively by the school board along with an Ethics Law violation allegation that then-Mayor Anthony Ingemi signed.
So you are saying that if the Gazette felt it was wrong before it is OK now because the amount was less. So where does the Gazette draw the line or should I say for who? And you should also remember that the charges you refer to were thrown out by the ethics board as unfounded, another waste of taxpayers money. The real issue here is that if the Gazette thought it was wrong before , what changed to make it OK this time?
Why would anyone buy the Gazette? It's a waste of money and a waste of reading because it's not the truth it's an opinion. Anyone who buys or reads the Gazette is totally misinformed. I didn't even use that paper to train my puppy cause it wasn't even good enough for that!!!
