Posts Tagged ‘Board of Selectmen’
Where’s the outrage?
One thing that there’s no shortage of on social media is outrage. Democrats are outraged about Trump. Republicans are outraged about Hillary (and Trump). And apparently everybody’s outraged about underground power lines. Whether on social media or real life, sometimes it seems that there isn’t enough outrage where it’s truly warranted. That’s why it was […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, Brian Falvey, Catherine Dhingra, drugs, Ed Dombroski, Facebook, Humor, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Opinion, outrage, parents, Politics, pot, power lines, social media, teachers, teens, Tony Longo, WAKE UP, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, weed, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, youth teenagers
Name shaming
Wakefield’s inexorable slide from a proud, blue collar, working class town to the precious PC world inhabited by communities like Cambridge, Concord and Lexington accelerated just a bit this month when the Board of Selectmen decided that it would, after all, like to change its name to one that does not have the word “men” […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Ann Santos, Board of Selectmen, Brookline, definition, dictionary, Ed Dombroski, election, gender neutral, History, Humor, man, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, men, name, Opinion, PC, Peter May, political correctness, Politics, Rena M. Colson, sex, Steve Maio, Tony Longo, Town Meeting, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, women
No win zone
Sometimes, the people in charge of things just can’t win, especially in the age of social media, where everybody’s a pundit. Recently, town officials announced several more initiatives to try to revitalize the downtown. Of course, it’s never enough. Or is it too much? Either way, the town is sure to get slammed for doing […]
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, business, business district, commercial property, development, Dog Park, Dollar Tree, downtown, economic development, Facebook, Malden, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Melrose, merchants, parking, police, pundits, Ralph Waldo Emerson, schools, signs, social media, taxpayers, traffic, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning
Name that board!
Right on the heels of the plastic bags crisis, the latest issue to rock Wakefield is what name we should use for the town’s executive body. For the past 370 years, “Board of Selectmen” has done quite nicely, but no more. The position contains the word “man” (and in the plural, “men”). In 2017, this […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: attorney, Board of Selectmen, Cyrus Wakefield, gender neutral, History, humpr, lawyers, man, Mark Sardella, men, Opinion, Politics, select board, selectboard, selectman, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Warriors, Xena Warrior Princess
Zoned out
I know some people don’t like me to write about marijuana, but the subject has been in the local news a lot lately and it’s kind of my job. So this constitutes a trigger warning for those delicate flowers of the Cannabis Community whose heads tend to explode when I write about pot. (Rest assured […]
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, business, cities, drugs, election, hemp, herb, Humor, legislature, maijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Politics, pot, prohibition, Pulitzer Prize, Question 4, referendum, Town Meeiting, towns, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed, zoning
High priorities
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Wakefield voters got fooled once into voting for “medical” marijuana, falling for the scam along with the rest of the state in 2012. Before you get your safety pins out, let me remind you that medical marijuana was sold under the guise of […]
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, Cartoon Network, election, herb, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, pot, potheads, Question 4, recreational, smoke, stoners, vote, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Massachusetts, weed
Let’s be clear
To paraphrase the late, great Dan Hicks, “How can we miss them when they won’t go away?” Just when you thought it was safe to go to the Post Office on Saturday morning, they’re back like a bad penny – or three or four of them. The Wakefield Civic League, those guardians of our local […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Albion Cultural Exchange, Board of Selectmen, Boston Globe Spotlight Team, correspondence, Dan Hicks, Gov. Charlie Baker, government, Hallmark Health, Humor, information, Jean Nicholson, KENO, letters, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Lottery Commission, News, Opinion, Paul DiNocco, Politics, post office, Rep. Donald Wong, Rep. Paul Brodeur, town hall, Town of Wakefield, transparency, Wakefield Civic League, Zoning Board of Appeals
Where’s the Money?
Now that July 19 is behind us, can we finally admit that all the hand-wringing over the Special Election had nothing to do with it costing the town $10,000 and everything to do with politics and the person who filed for the Special Election? After Phyllis Hull collected the 200 signatures needed to force the […]
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Tags: Ally Houghton, Betsy Sheeran, Board of Selectmen, campaign, candidates, Chris Callanan, Dan Benjamin, election, Galvin Middle School, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, money, Nate Gayman, Phyllis Hull, Politics, schools, special election, taxes, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Hot fun in the summertime
As of this writing, we have eight people (and counting) running for Selectman in the July 19 Special Election to fill the nine months left on former selectman Betsy Sheeran’s term. This sudden surge of interest in public service is truly a wonderful thing to behold. My only question is, where were some of these […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Betsy Sheeran, Board of Selectmen, candidates, election, July, Mark Sardella, Mass., Massachusetts, Phyllis Hull, Politics, selectman, special election, summer, Town Election, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walter Schofield









