Going To Far!!!

“Local bloggers compromise Town Councilor’s checking account”

The above line is designed intentionally to look like a news headline with good reason, because this is clearly a news story.

On Friday May 2, 2008 local blogger and political gadfly Gary Lopez wrote a post that was critical of a column in a local weekly paper. As part of that post Lopez included a “story” about a check written to local merchant by Town Council President Janet Joakim. While the story about the check is more the three years old Lopez decided it was blog worthy and wrote about it. If that was all he had done then there would be little reason for this post, however in his typical fashion Lopez took things a step further. In fact he took a giant leap to far in including a photo of the check in his post regarding the story of the check.

Were things get extremely serious and Lopez was clearly out of bounds was including Janet Joakim’s checking account number and routing number in the posting of the photo of the the check. Lopez’s poor judgment in doing this means that anyone with internet access any where now has access to Janet Joakim’s personal checking account information.

We read and hear on a daily basis of people who fall victim to internet fraud and scams because somehow there personal financial information was illegally accessed. It is beyond appalling that some who disagrees with another person politically would deliberately expose them to possible personal financial harm. However Lopez lapse of judgment in doing just that was compounded five fold yesterday May 3, 2008.

A second local blogger who owns and operates a number of other local blogs has posted the photo of the check, with account information viewable, on at least four additional blogs. I could simply call this irresponsible blogging and let it go at that but it is far more then just that. While these two local bloggers seem to see no harm in what they have done to Janet Joakim and her husband with their actions, there is harm here aplenty.

Janet and her husband must now close this compromised checking account and open another. They must also now be on guard for possible theft of Janet’s identity since her name is printed on the check in question. Beyond that the Bank where Janet has this account is Citizens Bank which operates multiple branches on Cape Cod. The bank must now spend time and money notifying all of their Cape customers that an account has been compromised. This means that the “little” stunt by these two bloggers will effect in some way all of the customers of Citizens Bank.

At this point the photo of the check has been on the Lopez blog since late Friday night and on the other four blogs since yesterday. Anyone who understands the speed with which information gets spread on the internet, knows how just serious this is and could be come. The actions of these two local bloggers has been and continues to be reckless, egregious, unjustifiable and maybe even criminal.

While Janet Joakim is an elected official and her actions as such are open to critics, here private life is not and should never be. In case anyone reading this is wondering, yes Janet knows I am writing this.

I have to wonder just what our local band of blogging malcontents will do for an encore to invading the personal finances of a town councilor. Pretty scary to think about, isn’t.

Update: Lopez has just posted Janet Joakim’s check on his blog for a second time.

April 17, 2008 Town Council Agenda

The Barnstable Town Council will hold it’s second meeting for the month of April 2008 this Thursday April 17, 2008 at 7:00pm in Town Hall. The council will discuss and vote on 14 capital improvement budget items under Old Business as well discussing 3 items under New Business.

Barnstable Beat is presenting the entire agenda for our readers to review using our Scribd reader. As always the reader can be made full screen by clicking the full screen icon in the reader’s upper right corner. We are also providing a link to the agenda on town’s website at the bottom of this post.

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Read this doc on Scribd: 04-17-08%20AGENDA

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http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownCouncil/agendas_local/08Agenda/04-17-08%20AGENDA.pdf

State of The Town Address

This past Thursday night, (April 10, 2008), Town Manager John Klimm delivered his annual state of the town address. The entire event featured music, video presentations, an honor guard and most importantly John Klimm’s address. The pre-speech festivities included the singing of The Star Bangled Banner by Councilor James Munafo from Precinct 3.

Three Barnstable employees received special recognition during Manager Klimm’s address for their tireless contributions to the entire Barnstable community. The three people honored by John Klimm were the towns veterans agent Larry Chase, BHS drama club director John Sullivan, and Barnstable Police Domestic Violence Specialist Natalie Dupuis. Each of the three was chosen to be honored for a combination tireless dedication and devotion to our town and it’s residents.

Town Manager John Klimm also outlined a six areas where Barnstable is working to build a better town for our future. Last but not least the towns receipt of the All America City award was a major highlight of John Klimm’s address.

Barnstable Beat is proud to present the full text of Town Manager John Klimm’s speech here on this blog using our new scribd document viewing feature. The Scribd player can be made full screen by clicking the full screen button in the player’s upper right corner We are also providing a link to the video of the State of The Town Address on the town’s official website.

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Read this doc on Scribd: stateofthetown2008

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http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/Video/Video2008/State%20of%20the%20Town%20Address2008SE.wmv

2007 Annual Report is now online

The Annual Report for The Town of Barnstable for 2007 is now available online at the official website of the town. The report is available as a large pdf file (44 megabytes) and requires that you have adobe reader installed on your computer. You can also download a copy for reading off line or for printing specific pages from the report.

We are also providing a link to the report on the town’s official website both in this post and in the list of annual reports links on the left side of this page.

http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/Publications/AnnualReports/AnnualReport2007.pdf

Charter Commission Update

A recent commenter here on Barnstable Beat asked for an update on the current Charter Commission.

To date The Charter Commission has met eight times with meetings at town hall as well as in some of the town’s villages. The commission has begun to layout the ground work for the task ahead of it. They have discussed which sections of the current charter they want to look at closely and which they feel are fine as they presently are.

The commission is working as an eight member body while the matter of the ninth member is being sorted out. Barnstable Beat will not address that issue in this post but will instead focus on what the eight seated members of the commission have discussed. We are presenting all charter commission meeting minutes available on the Town of Barnstable website.

To date The Charter Commission has met on the following dates: 11/27/07, 12/04/07, 12/17/07, 1/10/08, 2/14/08, 2/28/08, 3/13/08, 3/27/08. The Charter Commission presently has sixteen additional meetings scheduled through December 2008. The commission is scheduled to meet twice a month until October when the schedule will change to once a month from October through December. The final meeting for 2008 is scheduled for December 11, 2008 at Barnstable Town Hall.

Presently the minutes for only three of the first eight Charter Commission meetings have been made available. Barnstable Beat is not sure why the minutes for the other five have not be released but our best guess is some type of legal issue. We are presenting the available minutes using a new component here on Barnstable Beat, Scribd. Scribd is a document publishing service that allows documents in various formats to be embedded in websites and blogs.

The Charter Commission minutes are the first documents we are presenting this way and we hope our readers find this presentation useful. The Scribd service presents documents in a flash based reader that allows you to scroll through multiple pages. The player as seen in this post can be enlarged to full screen size by clicking the full screen button in the upper right corner of the player.

Here are the minutes for the November 27, 2007 Charter Commission Meeting:

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Read this doc on Scribd: Charter Commission Meeting Minutes - Nov 27 2007

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Here are the minutes for the December 04, 2007 Charter Commission Meeting:

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Read this doc on Scribd: Charter Commission Meeting Minutes - Dec 4 2007

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Here are the minutes for the February 14, 2008 Charter Commission Meeting:

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Read this doc on Scribd: Charter Commission M-021408

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We will present more Charter Commission minutes when they become available

While Barnstable Beat remains skeptical about the overall need for a charter commission at this time in Barnstable, the current commission is clearly taking a very positive approach. Having reviewed the areas of the current charter that are of concern to the current commissioners it is clear that the commission does indeed have the best interests of the town at the fore front of their discussion.

One of the major points of discussion by this current charter commission will be creation of a mayoral form of government for Barnstable. While we here at Barnstable Beat feel that a mayor would not be a good fit for our town, we will listen to all arguments closely. Barnstable’s future is of the utmost importance during the commissions tenure, and we look forward to the on going discussion of our charter.

Please note that videos of the following six Charter Commission Meetings are available online. To watch one of the meetings just click on of the following links:

January 10, 2008 meeting

January 24, 2008 meeting

February 14, 2008 meeting

February 28, 2008 meeting

March 13, 2008 meeting

March 27, 2008 meeting

Just one more time…

I hadn’t planned on doing any follow up to my post the other night about that phony baloney impostor blog. However there have a been few interesting responses and a few questions raised so I am devoting one final post to the topic of that other blog. Since I wrote and posted my post Thursday Night, a number of people have commented on it and one wanted to know about the other blogs created by the person behind the rip-off of this blog.

As I said in my response to the comments from Thursday’s blog several of the other blogs by this individual use certain names in their titles and web addresses. Those blogs I wont discuss for obvious reasons, but there are a few others that I will mention. Two of the other blogs are titled as blogs of The Barnstable Town Council:

http://barnstabletowncouncil.blogspot.com/
http://barnstabletowncouncil.com/

Another one uses the full name of The Town of Barnstable:

http://townofbarnstable.wordpress.com/

Two more blogs call for Janet Joakim to resign:

http://janetjoakim2008recall.blogspot.com/
http://janetjoakimrecall2008.blogspot.com/

Yet another blog has been set up to criticize State Rep Demetrius Atsalis:

http://demetriusatsalisstaterep.blogspot.com/

There is also another blog that is a rip-off of Janet Joakim’s SevenVillages blog:

http://sevenvillageshateblog.wordpress.com/

This same person owns this blog:

townofbarnstable.wordpress.com

Then there is this blog that uses the name of Hyannisnews.com without permission:

http://hyannisnewsblog.wordpress.com/

As I have said there are more but due to the use of individual names in there addresses and titles I won’t present them here. Also I am intentionally not providing links from this blog to these others so you will have to cut and paste the addresses into your browser.

This will be the last time I address directly that imposter blog on this blog, it’s time to get back to talking about Barnstable.

It’s to Laugh…well almost..

One of my favorite television shows is Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, the original version not the later remakes. The original show ran for 5 seasons with four seasons of 30 minute shows and one season of 60 minute shows. Many actors who appeared on this classic show would go on to bigger and better things in their careers. One of those actors is Jack Klugman who is known best for the series The Odd Couple and Quincy M.E.

Jack Klugman starred in the fifth season premier of The Twilight Zone, in a episode entitle “In praise of Pip”. In the episode Klugman plays a bookie named Max Phillips who receives word that his son Pip has been mortally wounded in Vietnam. After receiving the news Klugman as Phillips delivers a speech about his son. The speech ends with the following line: “It’s to Laugh. I swear it’s to Laugh.

I saw this Twilight Zone episode again recently on the Sci-Fi channel and it made think about some recent happenings in our local blogosphere. In case readers of this blog have not seen it or are unaware, there is another blog here on blogger, that has been set up to lampoon this one. I have until now chosen intentionally not to address this blog. However I have decided that I now must address this impostor blog.

I must begin by saying that my initial reaction to this new blog was heated anger. I was angry because I felt that my hard work and the time I have spent on my blog were being poached. After I decided to let a little time pass I realized that anger was completely the wrong emotion. In fact I have come to the conclusion that the correct emotions for this situation are pity and sadness.

While I don’t know the identity of the owner of this other blog I have a good idea who it is and that is where the sadness comes in. The owner of this other blog is believed by me and many others to be a woman. What brings about the most sadness is the damage that one woman can do to an entire community of bloggers.

People have had to moderate their blogs, close them to only invited or regitsered guests because of one woman. She can’t seem to control her obsessions, needs a place to be a victim, creates multiple websites and blogs, and claims to be a victim. She believes we are all obsessing over her next move, when in reality we are all living our lives, ignoring her. She hammers away at the keyboard finding new ways to spread her hate, while others have closed the doors on her no longer interesting in her role as victim. Very few people are participating in blogs, now, beause she has decided that to blog is to hate.

This blog has never been about hate in any way shape or form but rather a place for information and discussion of issues here in Barnstable. I operate this blog and only this blog, just as Gary Lopez writes and operates only one blog. The person who is running the blog that seeks to poke fun at this one is also operating 18 other blogs attacking The Town of Barnstable by various means.

I can’t begin to fathom the drive that results in the need to create nearly 20 blogs for the purpose of trying to prove a point. In fact I am still not sure why this person created that blog that mimics this one. This is where the pity I mentioned above comes into play because that is what I truly feel about this. It’s a pity that someone has gone to the trouble to mimic this blog because they think that this blog is boring and or a snooze fest.

If the fact that my approach on this blog is to be informative rather then entertaining is this persons biggest cause, then yes I pity them. I myself read and comment on a number of other blogs both local and distant and never once made an isssue of the style or presentation of those blogs. Such behavior by this other blogger has only made me feel the emotions mentioned above and come to the conclusion that my anger would be completely wasted in the case.

It’s to laugh. I swear it’s to laugh. Well almost anyway.

Lumbert Mill Road and Route 28

The intersection of the two roadways in the title of this post is one of the most notorious intersections in Barnstable if not the entire Cape. This morning this intersection was the scene of yet another accident this one including a child who was a passenger in of the two vehicles involved. The good news that the Child and her mother are expected to recover which as not always been the case with accidents at that intersection.

The accident this morning was one of the most common types of accidents to occur at this intersection where on vehicle is trying to turn from Route on to Lumber Mill Road using a left turn. For those who may not be entirely familiar with this intersection, Lumbert Mill road cross route 28 running north to south while Route 28 runs East to West. The layout of the intersection is such that it forms four perfectly square corners requiring 90 degree turns on and off of Lumbert Mill Road from or to Route 28.

The biggest problem factor with this intersection however as very little to do with Lumbert Mill Road, but rather the posted speed limit of Route 28 through the entire area. Beginning just past the Mobil Gas station located at Route 28 and Old Stage Road in Centerville, the posted speed limit for Route 28 going towards Falmouth, is 50 miles per hour. That is only five miles and hour less then Route 6 from the Sagamore Bridge to Suicide Alley in Dennis.

This 50 mile per hour stretch of Route 28 runs from Old Stage Road to the intersection of Route 28 and Osterville West Barnstable Road (Where White Hen Pantry is located). All of the side streets along this stretch of Route 28 are residential roads with speed limits between 15 and 25 miles and hour. This means that vehicles entering Route 28 along this particular stretch are dealing with other vehicles that are traveling at more then twice their speed.

The only posted speed reduction in this entire stretch of Route 28 occurs just before the intersection at Osterville West Barnstable Road where the speed drops to only 45 miles per hour. Immediately after the intersection the 50 miles per hour limit resumes. This intersection is also the only point along the stretch of Route 28 with any traffic management installed (lights). While the Lumbert Mill Route 28 intersection has no traffic management installed, despite a definitive need for it.

Relief appears to be on the way however there is still await of more then a year before it becomes reality. This past Saturday the Cape Cod Times had a front page story on this intersection, that is well worth reading so Barnstable Beat is providing a link to it. The Times story describes the amount of red tape that as been involved in getting traffic lights at this intersection and believe me there as been quite a lot.

Let’s hope events like the one this morning are nearly a thing of the past because there have been far to many in the present.

Here is the link to the Cape Cod Times Story:
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080329/NEWS/803290331/-1/NEWS01

Agenda for this weeks special Town Council Meeting:

This is the agenda for the special meeting of The Town Council which is being called so that the council can hold public hearings on six CPC appropriation orders. Note the shellfish zoning ordinance will be back before the council on April 3, 2008

New on the Town of Barnstable Website….

Over the last couple of week some interesting new items have been added to the official website of The Town of Barnstable.

The first of these items is the town’s mooring wait list which is broken down by the numerous harbors, bays and other mooring places in town waters. The list is maintained by the harbor master, to view the list click the link below:

http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/HarborMaster/Waitlist/search.asp

Also new to the town’s website is the FY2009 to FY2013 capital improvement plan which includes the FY2009 capital improvement budget. The plan is 103 pages in length and is available as a pdf document. The plan was released by Town Manager John Klimm on March 20, 2008 and can be viewed by clicking the following link:

http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownManager/09CIP/FY2009CIP_CB.pdf

Another new and very interesting item is a report on Barnstable’s many fresh water ponds. This report was compiled and written by The Cape Cod Commission and contains a lot of interesting and informative data. The 79 page report divides Barnstable’s ponds into three catagories, utlrashallow, shallow and deep. The report is not only focused on the present state of Barnstable ponds but also presents some interesting historical data on the ponds as well.

Barnstable Beat is presenting the Summary and Conclusion pages found in the report with this post. These are pages 47,48, and 49 from the report. The entire report can be view and read by clicking the following link

http://www.town.barnstable.ma.us/TownManager/BarnstablePonds.pdf

Here are the three pages from the report: