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Speaking of elections in Fitchburg
Posted: September 22, 2009 by datechguy in local stuffTags: economy, local elections
Our Mayor Lisa Wong is a very bright young woman, if you meet her you can’t help but like her.
Her visit to our house when she was going door to door was memorable because of something funny. As we were talking to candidate Wong at the front door, my youngest kept trying to pull me away , Dad, Dad come here, I kept telling him it could wait. When she finally left I said what was so important? He led me to the back porch where all over the carpet lay the shattered glass of the pinball machine that broke as he was preparing to put it back on. (Good think it was tempered glass).
Wong came into a mess as as her first term ends it’s still a mess but I so far i like what she is trying to do and truly believe she is doing her best for us.
I also believe she has been marked by the democratic party for higher things, I’m torn by this since on the local level democrats then to remain, well normal but as they get higher up the political ladder the crazyness index goes up Real fast, but if you are going to have people on the other side they should be good people and that is Mayor Wong.
Running against her is. Fuzzy.
That is Michael “Fuzzy” Voisine. Everybody knows him as Fuzzy. Everybody knows Fuzzy. He worked at Espresso Pizza practically forever, before opening Premier Subs down the street. Don’t laugh Espresso has been a Fitchburg Fixture for 45 years, when everything else on main street ran away they stayed even after a devastating fire. There is nobody in the town that hasn’t tried it and it is the single best Italian sauce and pizza in town.
He is an average man who has worked hard all his life, he has both managed and owned a small business in town and done all the things necessary to make things work.
Right now I’m leaning toward the incumbent but it isn’t a clear cut choice for me. The Mayor is a highly educated person who has a lot of theory behind her and is a very hard worker, but Fuzzy has the actual practical experience in real life that is vital on the local level.
Or to put it another way. The education the mayor has Fuzzy (or anyone) can get with hard work. The practical knowledge and decades of real world Experience that Fuzzy has is a lot harder to come by.
It will be interesting around here.
This one goes to 11
Posted: September 22, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff, personalTags: economy, pet peeves, primary election, rush limbaugh honorary lizardoid
My city is a small city of 35,000, as you might know, we have a gang problem (we have become a drug hub over the last couple of decades just as we were a trade and manufacturing hub in the 19th century) and the violence that comes with it problem, our budget is in trouble, it’s so bad that to save money streetlights are turned off at night all over the place. And we pay I believe the 3rd highest electric rates in the entire country (Thanks Unitil!) It is a mess.
So naturally we should do whatever we can to avoid spending money when it isn’t necessary.
Which brings us to today’s primary election…..
In Fitchburg we have 6 ward counselors and 5 “at large” counselors. Under the rules of the town if more than 10 people run for the “at large” seats a primary has to be held to bring the total back down to 10 before the general election.
We have 11 people running.
On the plus side it’s nice to see so many people interested in getting involved to turn things around, and it will be the first vote ever that my son casts. That is a right of passage into the rights and responsibilities of American democracy and republican government (and by “republican I of course mean the system of government not the party). UPDATE Both he and I thought he registered at the DMV but he’s not on the list, so he will go to city hall and have to wait for the general election in November.
On the other hand we are going to the expense of a city wide primary election to shave ONE STUPID NAME off the ballot when we can’t even afford to keep our streetlights on.
Can’t anybody play this game? What would Rush Limbaugh Honorary Lizzardoid say? Now that the kid can vote I hope he votes for smarter people than we have.
About 6 years ago I used to work near the Hebert Candy factory. They had premium chocolate and make your own sundaes.
Once in a while we would take the kids there, everybody had a good time and the stuff was absolutely wonderful.
Hebert’s also made most of the bars that the kids would sell at fundraisers. They were pretty good and unfortunately helped me maintain the waistline I have today.
A few years ago they sold off the fund raising part of the business, but kept control of the main Chocolate operation.
Saturday the wife and the youngest had a Mom and son day. There were gone for hours and one of the stops included the Candy Mansion. When they came home late in the evening the were bearing candy corn for him (his favorite) and some Genuine Hebert Chocolate for me.
I hadn’t had it in a while and as sucker for any type of Chocolate I happily took one.
It was simply AWFUL!. It was inferior to the “store brand” chocolate offered in the local supermarket and not in the same planet let alone the same league as a Cadbury bar. If they were selling stuff like this a decade ago I would be twenty pounds lighter.
I may be proudly banned from Little green footballs but let me say this to Charles: If Hebert’s chocolate every declares themselves “proudly banned from lgf”, you should be the proud one.
