>>Valley Patriot>> |
Tom Duggan's Notebook Al Perry ... Public
Servant? Try
calling North Andover School Committee Chairman (and
Harutunian butt-boy) Al Perry these days and you are
likely to get a continuous ring whether you call his cell
phone or his home phone. Such was the case last month
when Perry called a member of The Valley Patriot
editorial staff to complain about something he
hadn’t even seen on our website (www.valleypatriot.com). When I tried to call
Mr. Perry back to belay his misguided concerns, the voice
mail on both his home and cell phones was turned off.
This was the first week of the Harutunian scandal, so you
might think he would be accessible to answer the
public’s questions. But, of course, he was missing
in action. Guess where he was on the week after the
Harutunian scandal hit (the same week the budget was
supposed to be worked on)?? Perry was ON VACATION! Now
that’s what I call public service. Devers & Lantigua the
Same?? If Marcos Devers really wants to challenge Willie Lantigua for state representative in the fall, he is going to have to do something to distinguish himself from the incumbent. Instead, it seems that everywhere you look these days, if Willie Lantigua is present to support something, so too is former Mayor Marcos Devers. At
last week’s rally for ILLEGAL ALIENS on the Lawrence
common, both Lantigua and Devers were there to pander to
the criminals, leaving the citizen-voters with NO CHOICE
at all when it comes to picking a state rep. who will
defend the laws of this nation. My only question to the
Devers campaign is this: what incentive do the voters
have to choose Devers over Lantigua, if Devers goes out
of his way to show that he and Lantigua are no different
on the issues? IMMIGRANT RIGHTS?? Speaking of the illegal alien rally last week, we found it interesting that the Alabama Eagle-Tribune ran a headline the day after the rally which read, “Lawrence demonstrators march for immigrant rights.” This rally was promoted on Spanish language radio stations as a demonstration in support of ILLEGAL aliens. Now, I wonder why the Tribune would try to deceive the public about the purpose of this illegal rally for illegal aliens? For a minute I almost thought I was reading The Latino News! Term Limits for Life?
The
Eagle~Tribune ran a neat little story in last
Sunday’s paper about former Mayor Mary Claire
Kennedy’s portrait finally being put up at City
Council chambers in City Hall. We want to thank Mark
Vogler of the Trib for taking my Notebook item from
February and writing a story about it. It would have been
nice if Vogler had informed his readers that it was
because of the efforts of The Valley Patriot that Mary
Claire’s portrait was finally put up. But, given how
many stories Vogler steals off The Valley Patriot web
site, I didn’t really expect him to admit that we do
most of the research on his stories. Sign Everyone’s
Papers During
last week’s North Andover elections, both candidates
for Essex Register of Deeds, Bob Kelley and Arthur
Broadhurst, were in the high school parking lot
collecting signatures to get on the ballot for this
fall’s primary. Apparently, there was some confusion
about whether or not someone could sign both
candidates’ nomination papers. Fortunately, North
Andover Town Clerk Joyce Bradshaw came to the rescue and
advised everyone that, yes, any Democrat or unenrolled
could sign both candidates’ papers. So if you
happen to see state Representative Arthur Broadhurst, you
can sign his nomination papers and if you see Bob
Kelley’s cute daughters, you can sign their
dad’s papers. Huster vs. Perry It
appears that perpetual candidate for School Committee,
Diane Huster, is gearing up for another bite of the apple
in the ’07 race for School Committee against
chairman Al Perry. Perry is the only member up for
re-election next year and is not all too popular these
days given his rubber stamp votes for Harry Harutunian.
But Huster wouldn’t be much better if you look at
her record of supporting overrides and using scare
tactics to get more money for the schools. So, we found
it odd that during last week’s six-hour, closed-door
meeting between the North Andover School Committee and
Harry Harutunian, that Huster waited for six hours for
the outcome of the meeting like a vulture. She was the
only one there who was not a reporter waiting to see if
Harutunian would be fired. Who knows? Maybe she was
practicing to become a reporter for The Valley Patriot. Dawe vs. Perry Here’s
a better idea than putting Diane Huster back on the
School Committee (then again, electing a cardboard cutout
of Ralph At
least Steve Dawe has a real plan for education, which he
presented to the Finance Committee last week. The Dawe
plan would close the $2.7 million gap in the school
department’s budget without any layoffs and without
a Prop. 2 1/2 override. Perry is too busy trying to bail
out his pal Harutuanian these days to focus on the budget
right now, and besides, he has already put forth the
“Perry Plan.” Go Steve! Bill Kelly - Take the
Money North
Andover School Committee member Bill Kelly does not
accept the $2,000 stipend offered to elected officials
because of a campaign promise he made before getting
elected. But based upon the Harutunian situation and all
of the hard work Bill puts into his job as a committee
member, I think he deserves the stipend and should take
the money. ** MEDIA WATCH** Lanen
“Shocker”??
Get a Call from Danforth? If
you are in the know in North Andover, don’t be
surprised to receive a call from James Danforth of
Central Investigative Services. He is in charge of
the Harry Harutunian investigation and has been calling
North Andover and Reading residents all week. From what
people are telling us about Danforth’s
investigation, I just can’t wait to see that report.
It should read like a Jackie Collins novel. Torrisi and the Aliens
You Don’t
Advertise… You Don’t WIN! Former North Andover Selectman Don Stewart routinely bragged prior to the last election that he “doesn’t advertise” when running for reelection. Stewart was asked if he was interested in taking out an ad in The Valley Patriot and he said repeatedly that he refused to spend money on a campaign because “the voters know where I stand on the issues.” Apparently, the voters needed a little reminding as Stewart placed fourth in a field of six candidates for two positions on the Board of Selectmen, losing to newcomer Dan Lanen who spent a considerable about of money on campaign advertising. Scully for Super Former Lawrence Superintendent Jim Scully, who is the principal of a middle school in Haverhill, has applied for the superintendent’s position at the Greater Lawrence Technical School. I can’t think of a better guy to lead the Tech School than Jimmy Scully after an icon like Frank Vacirca retires this year. We
have lots of friends on the Tech School Board and I want
to encourage all of them to give Scully every
consideration he wasn’t given when he was wrongfully
terminated in Lawrence. By the way, anyone hear from
Ralph Carerro Lately? Give Them an Inch... Juan
Pablo Duarte Redux
I supported that compromise (though you would never know it, reading Spanish language newspapers), but now, the Dominicans who pushed for Duarte’s signs are not happy with SEVEN SIGNS. Willie Lantigua and Brian DePena are now planning another effort to ask the City Council to extend the signs all the way up Broadway to Haverhill Street. Are you Kidding me? This is the perfect example of giving someone an inch and then being asked for a mile. Mr. DePena is a nice guy and he is a proud activist in the community, but I’m sorry, enough is enough. Those who opposed the seven signs for Duarte predicted at the Council meeting that the proponents would be back looking for more if the seven signs were approved and, of course, they were right. *Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com |
And by the
Way... YOUR WELCOME!
Carerro is better than
electing Diane again). Finance Committee member and
former candidate for selectman, Steve Dawe, who came in a
respectable third place in last week’s
selectman’s race, would be a perfect candidate. It
is unlikely that he will run for selectman against
Chairwoman Rosemary Smedile next year, so I suggest he
start gearing up now for a run against Al Perry in the
School Committee race. Especially given the fact that Ed
Maguire will be running. This will put the conservative
squeeze on Perry and hopefully send him back to the
private sector where he belongs. 
It appears that only the Tribune
was “shocked” by Dan Lanen’s win for
selectman in last week’s North Andover race. The 
You
would think that when making speeches and pandering to a
crowd, state Representative David Torrisi would give
credit to a constituent who could actually vote for
him. But, at the joint meeting between the North
Andover state delegation and the North Andover School
Committee regarding the budget, Torrisi congratulated
Paddy Duncan for her e-mail and
“insightfulness.” How funny is this?? You see,
Paddy Duncan is a citizen of Canada and admittedly cannot
vote in the United States. Hey, didn’t Torrisi also
vote for in-state tuition for illegal aliens? I
wonder where he stands on the McCain-Kennedy Bill. One
thing for sure, if you are an illegal alien or just a
non-citizen of the country, Dave has your back!
First, the Dominican
politicians wanted to rename Broadway in Lawrence to Juan
Pablo Duarte Boulevard. When they were turned down by the
Council, they were offered one street corner dedicated in
his name, but that was “unacceptable.” So the
Lawrence City Council, which has NO Dominican members,
agreed on a compromise to allow seven street signs
bearing Duarte’s name to appear underneath the signs
that say Broadway.