The 195 page newly published town report was posted online today, two weeks after paper copies were mailed out to Springfield voters. The annual public Town Meeting takes place Monday evening, March 4, 2013.
http://www.springfieldvt.govoffice2.com/...uploads/2012_Annual_Report.pdf
Surprisingly there is no mention nor pictures of the shell game or the three card monte scam that the town continues to play every year on its tax paying residents.
ReplyDeleteThere is also no mention of the rec center being sold.
ReplyDeleteWhy would there be mention of the rec center being sold?
DeleteWhy would they mention the rec center being sold when it was never owned by the town?
Deletewe should get back the millions of dollars that was giving to the original rec center,if the hospital bought its not a community rec center anymore and if the hospital bought it are they gonna try to make it tax exempt so we lose more tax dollars
DeleteI would have thought that they would mention it because of what the last post said - if it now belongs to the hoppital, I don't believe they should be getting the prison money since that was not the original intent. And since it was a town vote on how to spend that money, the town should know it was sold.
DeleteI want to express my support for Article 18 it is important that we support the locally managed and operated HCRS which serves the local substance abuse industry.
Delete"local substance abuse industry", you got that part right you corporate shill
DeleteHCRS locally managed by whom? Do we know who is on the board of directors for HCRS?
ReplyDeleteIts all kind of a mystery? Their website does not seem to indicate, but it must be local because they are asking for local funds...right?
DeleteWhy do you people not come on with your own names. If you did we could then confront you, and specifically address you at meetings and such. But oh no, you have to take shots at HCRS from the shadows without any proof of anything!
DeleteSilence, no response, you people come on with your attacks and innuendos against HCRS, but never come forward with any evidence. You never disclose the specific client and patient names who we have trapped in the system, you never disclose the name of the alcholic who is claiming we are hostile to AA, you never specify the physician who you claim we direct clients to for suboxone prescriptions, you never identify the parolee who we allegedly get paid large contract sums to monitor with low paid employees, you never specify who it is that has a conflict of interest with us on the boards of other not-for-profits, etc. etc. All you do is spout rumors that damage us and our reputation. Shame on you.
DeleteWhat is a 'Mia Taniche' ??
DeleteSeriously, it's more fun this way.
Mia @ 4:57 pm. That's a run-on sentence. Alcoholic, not alcholic.
DeleteSo Mia Taniche, who is on the board of directors of HCRS? Do you even know?
DeleteI don't need to know, its up to you to know if you are going to criticize them. Do your own homework and come forward with information. Its not my job to provide you with information!
DeleteHoly Moley, Jumpin Jehosvat...what on Earth are thou sayin Mia? Askin us to pay $10,000.00 to an organization we don't even know who the board of directors are? Its our job to do the homework to find out what the money is to be spent on? Financing beds in halfway houses in Springfield? Or Suboxone prescriptions, or maybe even a Methadone clinic? Not sayin that HCRS is goin to spend the money on such, but surely people have a right to inquire?
DeleteMia, it helps to remember that this site is a Wailing Wall for those who are powerless and vindictive. Try not to take comments personally, and be grateful when they either impart or accept facts.
DeleteWell Chuck, I find this whole explosive thread quite curious indeed. While I normally support Progressive causes, this one baffles me. I am looking for facts here and they don't seem to leap off the screen at me. Machine Tinker seems to have asked two legitimate questions and the Mia immediately goes on the attack. Do you perhaps know the answers to the questions? And while $10,000.00 is, in these days, not a lot of money, it is still money that is being sought from the public via Article 18. And whether we like it or not, the whole substance abuse area and it connections to the War on Drugs has become a somewhat unsavory topic for both those on the left and those on the right. Granted there are a lot of good people out there working especially with the young and trying to keep our youth from getting caught up in "the system", but there also seems to be a lot of people working the system to make money. Despite Mia's rants, as a practical matter it is going to be difficult for a private citizen to pry out the facts due to confidentiality constraints and because those who may be on the receiving end are also very susceptible to retaliation. Unfortunately, we no longer have a good supply of investigatory journalists -- so how do we know for sure what is going on. Do you have any inside information in this area Chuck? If so enlighten us.
DeleteAlpin Jack, I've taken the liberty of using the "contact us" link at the HCRS site to ask them to provide stats for FY 2011-12. Since it's the weekend, you'll have to tay tuned.
DeleteI did not, and do not make comments anymore on discussions regarding HCRS, thank you very much.
DeleteOkay Chuckie, what are the "stats"
DeleteSounds like someone is off their meds again (that the taxpayer is generously providing, I'm sure)!
ReplyDeleteDo you even have any knowledge of substance abuse treatment or addiction? Absolutely disgusting that you would make such an insinuation about HCRS. These are people out there doing good in this community.
DeleteOkay Mia, you appear to be an expert on the subject, tell us exactly what it is that HCRS is doing regarding substance abuse in Springfield. What is it that they are going to do with the $10,000.00 special appropriation. Annonymous 6:19 may be ill informed and certainly is rude with his/her comments, but HCRS is primarily taxpayer supported isn't it? And if it is, then isn't it susceptible to taxpayer scrutiny like any other taxpayer supported agency? Yet, for some reason, although we all know of three or four people, many of whom are fine people, who work for HCRS, there seems to be a strange opaqueness as to who actually governs and runs it at the top, and exactly what it does.
DeleteYAWN......Why aren't the nanny's of substance abusers placed on the pedistal of reverence that they deserve? Anybody?
ReplyDeleteYou can't even spell pedestal, and we need to give then support and our thanks and support the Article to give HCRS $10,000.00. It is our moral duty to support these selfless public servants.
DeleteMumma Mia, now that's one BIG CHIP on your shoulder!
ReplyDeleteAre you making an ethnic slur against me, because I stick up for these people who are doing so much good in the community! Where would we be without the HCRS?
DeleteMia is mad....
ReplyDeleteI think our Mia needs a nightcap. Sweet Dreams.
ReplyDeleteAs an employer having had direct contact with HCRS, I can bear witness first hand to the disgusting mismanagement within their organization. How a "client" fully capable of returning to the workforce was permitted to refuse well suited employment offers. Alternatively, other clients eager to earn self respect by returning to the workforce were coached into remaining on full disability. That during these work trials, two or more these baby sitters would stand idly by day after day milking the payroll. A practice no private enterprise could sustain.
ReplyDeleteHCRS has proven financially irresponsible with OUR money, and engages in unacceptable control over the ambitions of those captured within its system.
Vote NO on Article 18. It's YOUR money.
This factual scenario appears to be commonplace when discussion of HCRS is concerned, it also is commonly attacked by HCRS operatives as lacking in facts. I guess they expect you to out the clients for them so they can retaliate against both you and the client. Worrisome.
DeleteWell anonymous 8:58am
DeleteIm going to assume you have not done anything about this as you post anonymously. Im going to assume you've stayed quite and let the "mis-management" continue on. Because of people like you who just let things go and do nothing to stop it, the problems just get bigger and worse then when they first started. I hope you have done something, if you have I appologize and please disregard this post. If you havent, SHAME ON YOU!
8:58, unfortunately your allegations sound like the same sort of thing The Weekly Standard (one of the Rupert Murdoch sludgefests) peddled about Head Start back in the late Nineties-- that it was encouraging divorce to get women eligible for welfare programs-- or that Andrew Breitbart's acolyte did on ACORN and tried to do on Planned Parenthood. How can anyone be sure you are just not some troll attempting to play on readers' fear and ignorance?
ReplyDeleteHere's how: go public. Start by consulting with Legal Aid-- if they cannot represent you, they will give you good advice on whether you, the town or the state should press the case. Put your name and the facts out there in court for the public to see, and bring HCRS to heel.
A Springfield selectman, Charlie Magwire, did just that when he suspected drug dealing in the Parks and Recreation Department. He was not afraid to publicize the allegations, the public followed the case in the newspapers, and eventually he apologized.
Furthermore, as a citizen you have an obligation to protect taxpayers' money. If indeed HCRS is bilking the public, you would be remiss to blow the whistle.
Without a foundation in facts, your allegations get lumped in with a lot of other sorry commentary on this site.
remiss NOT to blow the whistle....
DeleteChuckie, haven’t you become a bit self-righteous. You are now dictating what comments can or can’t be made and how they should be posted on a blog based on folks expressing their opinion. Unless of course that opinion happens to agree with yours, then it’s just fine. You have twisted facts several times (very liberal of you), demeaned others opinions and cry wolf regularly (sounds like you could run for President) and then pop back on here and say oh my bad.
DeleteJust what are your opinions? Do you have one or only a bunch of phoney baloney facts provided by government agencies that are reporting on themselves? I can call 100 people in Springfield today and create a “fact” based opinion poll. I'd bet I can create two, 70% of the folks for Springfield are against the Bio-mass site. Then I can get 70% of the folks of Springfield are for the site. Which one is correct?
Same works for these “facts” you come up with. Government agencies are not valued by how much profit or money saved as a private business is, rather they are valued by what service was provide and how many folks they claim to have helped. With emphasize on claim.
I know a few folks that were pushed through that system to only be written off as “successful”, thus becoming another statistic in the positive column. Yet nothing really changed for them nor do they have any understanding of HCRS did for them. So when someone like “Mia” and yourself come on defending an agency you may raise a few eyebrows.
Research is something that tells us that a jackass has two ears. And I can prove that!
By the way, Aethelred was using his Alpin pseudonym above. Check your facts.
Now, now, now, everyone needs to just calm down, you all are attacking our most revered and beloved industry in this Town. We should all recognize that in industrial projects of this magnitude and impact that there is a need for disciplined confidentiality. It is very appropriate under such circumstances to nip complaints and inquiries in the bud, in fact it is counterproductive to even have such start. Why we could disrupt a very profitable system which channels funds into town and employs a multitude. So we all need to sit back and calm down and let Chuck Gregory obtain a lengthy data stream which I am sure will alleviate the sum of all our fears. Why it is simply absurd to suggest that a highly respected organization such as HCRS would use operatives to squelch dissent in the manner suggested. I am sure that Mia Taniche who has fearlessly defended the organization with an outpouring of facts is absolutely on top of things here. Do you really need to know the names of the boardmembers running HCRS? Or who on other boards has contractual ties with HCRS? Of course not. Why its right in the Constitution if you would look closely, "A well medicated peasantry being essential to promote domestic tranquility, the use of Department of Corrections funding shall not be inquired into or infringed." Just read the Constitution for Heaven's sake its all spelled out right there. Now what we should be focusing on is protecting the continued existence of those lovely boarding houses which are clustered around Union Street School and not all this fuss and bother about industrial matters in the substance abuse industry. Can you not keep your eyes on the ball?
DeleteAh so, Confucius say not wise to criticize HCRS, prinicpal partner of D.O.C. and P & P on public blog, they responsible for taking riff raff local and far and wide and converting into major employer and industry in the area. Best to kowtow and not to pry into their contractual relations, etc. tends to open up matters best left hid. Ignorance is bliss, better to not know wides spread conflict of interest if such exist. Confucius say, Wanker where your med plan?
DeleteThe sorriest commentary of all on this site is provided by CG and the sewer rats!
Deletereally?
DeleteAre you calling me a sewer rat? Calling me a name because I defend the right? We need to spend more than $10,000.00 to help provide for medication, and contract for beds, and to pay for the salaries of the wise people who work diligently night and day, and on weekends, and holidays, all hours of the night to provide support to our overworked parole officers and prison wardens. This is an essential service industry to a growing clientele.
DeleteDo any of the 14 members of the Board of Directors live in Springfield? It appears to be run by two psychologists, are either of them from Springfield? I have never heard of either of the psychollogists, but then I haven't been to prison or in the HCRS system. They seem to have a huge number of openings for workers so their business must either be booming, or they have massive turn over. Is there a reason for this massive tentacled entity, that wouldn't be better served by something more local? Why is it so difficult to find out any specifics about who is involved and who has contracts or subcontracts with HCRS? They do not appear to actually be a government agency. Are they subject to the open door law?
Deletemia is still mad...
DeleteMad as in angry, mad as in nuts? Methinks, she protesteth too much...
DeleteConfucius say, Springfield confusing...vote down school removing house in front of school, and vote down HCRS and Turning Point. Seem inconsistent, but have to check my med plan to determine for sure.
DeleteInteresting Wanker Wu other mystery is did the Turning Point defeat HCRS or did HCRS defeat Turning Point? Looks like HCRS is less popular than Turning Point. Despite all of Mia Taniche's efforts to persuade us otherwise. Sorry Mia.
DeleteChuck, are you really this lonesome and bored?
ReplyDeleteWanker lonely, you lonely Anonymous 10:57, go see shrink make you happy happy, neh?
Delete