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  • Jim Sullivan (Thursday, November 14 19 11:56 pm EST)

    Bob, good question. Sorry that I do not know the answer to that one. Since a plan is not fully formulated the County Government may not have an answer to that one either.

  • Ticked more (Thursday, November 14 19 07:10 pm EST)

    Real people won't run because frankly the incompetence is too deep and they have better things to do then to try to convince these ignorant people to do anything that makes sense

  • Ticked (Thursday, November 14 19 06:07 pm EST)

    Elections Have Consequences! Your county delegation and commissioners can be voted out!

  • Bob (Thursday, November 14 19 06:01 pm EST)

    @ Jim Sullivan Thank you for the response. I am curious though if there has been any clean up of the building from when the paper was there. If people are going to be living there you would think the County would get a clean bill of health from the State DES

  • Jim Sullivan (Thursday, November 14 19 04:11 pm EST)

    Bob, unfortunately the answer to your question is yes. Because the County is a government entity and local Planning rules do not apply to them as they are exempt. Another example is when the City of Claremont built the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center with inadequate parking space. The reason why that happened is because the City of Claremont is exempt from local Planning rules because they are a government entity. The only requirement that the County has to meet is to go before the Claremont Planning Board and show them an informational only presentation of their plan. The Planning Board and residents can ask questions but neither the Planning Board nor the Citizens will have any say in the matter. Essentially the County Government can and is shoving this project down the throats of all Claremont citizens whether we like it or not and they are using our tax dollars to do it. Your government at work!

  • wishing (Thursday, November 14 19 03:20 pm EST)

    Please Help this City

  • Bob (Wednesday, November 13 19 09:57 pm EST)

    Jim Sullivan: Does the county have absolute rule over the sober Housing..Can't the planning board make them follow the rules of the State and city and require them to satisfy their requests before granting approval for their application or do they not even have to fill out an application???

  • Charles (Wednesday, November 13 19 03:20 pm EST)

    Is nobody shell shocked at $1.5 million dollars in merely designing this sober living facility?
    My first question is who's spouse,kid,or brother/sister works for Warren street Architects is connected to the county government? We all know somebody is enriching themselves through connections.
    Why are the people of Sullivan County responsible to pay for the housing of alcoholics and drug addicts? I know that we have plenty of churches and non-profits that should shoulder this responsibility,considering the fact that they enjoy tax free status.How are these organizations contributing? Should we be reconsidering non-profit tax free status of those doing nothing?

    Has the county received alternative bids for the design of this boondoggle?

    How about a halfway house for the seniors pushed out of their homes due to exorbitant tax burden?

    Can the people of Sullivan County say no we cannot afford this?

    How about an added tax to drinks and alcohol purchased in Sullivan County's bars and stores to pay for it?
    On the other hand that would just create another tax lien situation for Koloski's dive bar.

  • Jim Sullivan (Wednesday, November 13 19 06:14 am EST)

    The real story about the Sullivan County Nursing Home Rehab Project and the Sober House Project, both of which are moving forward.

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Tony (Tuesday, November 12 19 05:01 pm EST)

    Bob

    Which facts? That the republicans invited a hate for profit author and speaker? That Nick got the most votes of any of the candidates? That Jon S got a majority running unopposed?

  • Bob (Sunday, November 10 19 08:40 pm EST)

    @Tony spoken like a true DemocRAT. Can't handle facts!

  • tony (Saturday, November 09 19 10:03 am EST)

    Numbers,

    in a county where the main stream republicans invite a 'Hate for Profit' speaker to an event, Jon Stone getting elected is no surprise. But this site claims to represent some silent majority. Actually it represents a fringe of disenchanted reactionaries and a few sore losers.

  • Low Numbers (Thursday, November 07 19 11:05 am EST)

    John O’, Numbers numbers don’t seem to demand respect in my book

  • Numbers (Thursday, November 07 19 10:54 am EST)

    Tony. 15% of the registered voter put nick back in. That is not a major accomplishment. 64% of those that voted voted for him. 68% of those that voted voted for Jon Stone. I guess numbers don’t count.

  • Charles (Thursday, November 07 19 10:48 am EST)

    At this point it doesn't really matter who gets elected.
    The mill rate is the highest in the state.The property values are rising at a snails pace,certainly not enough to justify the expense of revaluation every 2 years.What were these people thinking?

    The most important aspect of taxing and spending is who are the people that pay? Do they have the ability and income to pay more?

    The answer in Claremont is a resounding no.They have reached the taxing ceiling in Claremont.It doesn't matter what they vote for.You can either afford it,or you can't.I don't see Claremont even affording it's most basic infrastructure maintenance.

  • John J.O’Connor (Thursday, November 07 19 10:14 am EST)

    Tony,
    I think there is some truth to that. As a member of the “Anyone but Koloski” club, I am extremely disappointed in the election results and since then I have been questioning as to why I dislike Nick.
    In a perfect world no one would question Nicks motives when he gets involved in charitable endeavors.
    In a perfect world, people would think it’s just a coincidence that a local paper is always there for a photo op to document his good deeds.
    In a perfect world, people would think Nick is just victim of circumstances in regards to the Topsail building.
    Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.
    The voters have spoken and Nick now enters his second decade on the Council, respects must be given for his dedication to the City of Claremont.

  • Tony (Thursday, November 07 19 09:29 am EST)

    Great to see how effective the Sullivan report is with smearing Nick. He was only the highest vote catcher for the at large. You are really out of touch and unaware of just how small a group you are.

  • Telling (Wednesday, November 06 19 01:19 pm EST)

    Telling 2.0 In some elections if a candidate does not receive 50% of the vote there must be a revote. Not good for an incumbent. Just a thought.

  • Rick (Wednesday, November 06 19 07:14 am EST)

    Well the Claremont voters did it again. 75% of them stayed home and most of the 25% that voted elected tax-and-spend liberals who will destroy the city within a few years by spending unrestrained and raising taxes, water and sewer rates and all other sort of fees that they can so that the taxpayers can pay for all the new spending. Expect the push on the downtown region with a multimillion-dollar infrastructure improvement-spending plan that will include a new multitier-parking garage. More low income housing that maybe the company that new Councilor Deborah Matteau works for can oversee in some capacity. Let us not forget Councilor Koloski now that he has won again I wonder what he wants. He just got the food-licensing thing for his weenie wagon so it cannot be that. Maybe a free environmental cleanup of the Topstone building on the public’s dime? Maybe something else who knows? We all know what Councilor Kier and Mayor Lovett and other members of the Council want for Christmas and that is sanctuary city status for Claremont. Oh right we are supposed to be calling it a welcoming community so no one will really know that it really means a sanctuary city. My bad. LOL. Of course all of the unionized municipal workers will reap big rewards to because there bought and paid for city councilors will make sure that they get bigger paychecks and expanded benefits that the taxpayers will have no choice but to pay for. The councilors will gladly do it because they must keep their constituency who elects them happy. When the big tax bills begin to come in a year or so from now and the public will then become angry, it will be too late to do anything about it because the damage has already been done. In Claremont staying home and not voting is not a good option because putting trust in the 25% of the voting age public that votes is not a good strategy. Look at what happened yesterday. Claremont voters you only have yourself to blame.

  • Telling2.0 (Wednesday, November 06 19 07:08 am EST)

    Stone got 68% of the vote in an uncontested race. Also a message.

  • Telling (Tuesday, November 05 19 10:19 pm EST)

    Abigail Kier an incumbent candidate that has a track record recurved 708 votes. 816 voters did not vote for her. That sends a message.

  • Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, November 05 19 09:46 pm EST)

    Claremont Election Results can be found on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Blah B. Blah III (Tuesday, November 05 19 09:16 pm EST)

    Cue the fake haters. Damn its almost like no one gives a shit what Jim, AJ and Gauthier have to say.

  • Bob (Tuesday, November 05 19 08:24 pm EST)

    Colonskipi, Matteu, Keir, Contois, this city is screwed, you think taxes are bad now just wait, you get what you vote for and this city just voted to screw it's self!!!!

  • Slick (Tuesday, November 05 19 07:51 pm EST)

    Hang onto your wallet. Another Topstone deal is in the works.

  • Libtard (Tuesday, November 05 19 07:51 pm EST)

    Just here for the post election conservative meltdown.

  • Beat Down (Tuesday, November 05 19 07:46 pm EST)

    Looks like the conservatives sat on their hands again. Only themselves to blame.

  • Don (Tuesday, November 05 19 01:46 pm EST)

    The high school principal in Concord resigned and the superintendent was fired by the school board over there alleged sexual assault case. In Claremont absolutely nothing has happened because school officials have failed to act at every turn. What is wrong with our school officials? Have they no decency or morals or ethics? Do they condone what allegedly happened? Or do they simply not give a you know what in regards to the students and their safety?

  • Charles (Tuesday, November 05 19 11:49 am EST)

    Has anyone considered that this inappropriate sexual contact with Claremont's student population may be more wide spread than this one individual?
    These cover-ups just may be to protect a large group of teachers or administrators sexual proclivity toward children.
    Within the Catholic Church did anyone believe 20 years ago that the organization would be paying out $2 Billion to settle damages by
    the acts of pedophile homosexual priests numbering in the hundreds,if not thousands?
    Epstein just died awaiting trial for running an island dedicated to serving forbidden fruits,catering to the deviant desires of the world's elites.Bill Clinton himself was known to have taken several island trips himself.

    I think that this investigation needs to delve deeper into the doings of school personnel.It's obvious that they were(are) not doing the jobs that they are paid to do.So what are they doing with their(our) time?

    Remember that Michael Jackson never served a day for his deviant behavior with children.Now the children are grown and have proclaimed that Jackson was having intercourse with all of them.

  • Craig (Tuesday, November 05 19 11:00 am EST)

    No accountability equals chaos. The prior SAU management was shamefully run by chaos under incompetent interim superintendent Cory LeClair and the previous equally incompetent superintendent Middleton McGoodwin. A pathetically incompetent finance director was allowed to hold two similar jobs in two different SAU’s. The same finance director failed to file IRS paperwork almost costing the taxpayers a significant amount of money in fines and penalties. The same finance director failed to file lunch program paperwork on time and that did cost taxpayers a very large sum of money in lost revenues for two years straight. Audit reports were not conducted each year for many years. An interim superintendent is literally pushed out the door and secretly paid a cash settlement courtesy of the taxpayers presumably because he was finding out the dirty little secrets of all these incompetent administrators and they teamed up to cover-up their sins against the taxpayers by ousting him quickly. Now we see that school administrators looked the other way and became enablers that set the stage for an alleged sexual assault to presumably occur. Absolutely no one has been held accountable except for any of this with the one exception of the termination of the former finance director. Why is that? What kind of message is the sending the taxpaying public and the students of Claremont?

  • Richard (Tuesday, November 05 19 10:03 am EST)

    Pat Barry should have been placed on administrative leave as soon as the story about Mr. Caccavaro became public knowledge. At least one School board member said that she did not learn until about this until just before the new stories began to come out. Administrators most definitely knew and they did nothing presumably because they were all compromised and wanted to cover things up to protect themselves. We do not know when the new superintendent found out about this matter so we should all give him the benefit of the doubt at least for now. It is the only fair thing to do. That being said nothing is being done to hold accountable either Pat Barry or the special education director who also must have known and did nothing. The longer school officials take to act the more their credibility will suffer. This will hurt their efforts at budget time and at election time when they will need public support

  • Fair and Balanced (Tuesday, November 05 19 09:06 am EST)

    Dennis, will you be big enough to admit you were 100% wrong when Goddard fills up with non section 8 renters? will any of the self professed economic development geniuses on this site admit they were full of crap? that would be refreshing. and i'm guessing you all preferred the previous Goddard situation--bed bugs, falling down building, empty store fronts...lol. 7 or 8 million invested to make it better and its just bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch glass always half empty. Yawn.

  • Dennis (Tuesday, November 05 19 08:35 am EST)

    Ray your comments remind me about the Goddard building and there is something I have been meaning to say about that on the forum. This new guy Morris who the Council hired for city manager is either a numbskull or a liar. The Goddard building is very obviously going to cater to low-level income residents who earn Section 8 income levels as Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville clearly pointed out in the article they published not too long ago. I watched that Council meeting they wrote about and it was like watching an infomercial for the Goddard building. Just whom is this Morris person really representing? To me it does not seem to be the Claremont taxpayers who are paying his salary.

  • Ray (Monday, November 04 19 02:30 pm EST)

    Speaking about Frank Sprague, I would like to know more about what is going on with the city contract for the building where school board chair Frank Sprague runs his health club. Is the city even supposed to be doing that kind of work or is Mr. Sprague getting some sort of backroom sweetheart deal on the taxpayer’s dime? I do not like the fact that it was not a real bid situation so we do not know if the taxpayers are getting a good deal or not or if the city is supposed to be doing that kind of work or not.

  • Jeremy (Monday, November 04 19 02:16 pm EST)

    I have no faith in school board chair Frank Sprague doing the right thing. He is a former school principal and retired school employees always back current school employees in regards to generous pay raises, increases in benefits and covering up wrongdoing.

  • Charles (Monday, November 04 19 10:35 am EST)

    It would really be in Claremont's best interest to get rid of Steven's principal,as well as the director for special education.
    Not only have these people bungled the protection of the most vulnerable,but they are also way up there in the payout for pensions.Getting new people with better structured benefits pkgs. more in line with the income level of Claremont would be beneficial.These people are walking as kings and queens among the poorest population of the state.While I believe educating should be a decent paying job,defined benefit pkgs. exceed taxpayer Social Security by far too much.

  • Jim Sullivan (Monday, November 04 19 09:52 am EST)

    Update!

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Laura (Monday, November 04 19 08:42 am EST)

    Principal Pat Barry must be fired. She admits by her own statements to the police that when allegations of Mr. Caccavaro kissing a special needs student surfaced that she did absolutely nothing to protect the student from further contact. Kissing a student should be grounds for immediate dismissal. Instead Principal Barry issued some advice and did not take any measures to guarantee that Mr. Caccavaro and the student would not ever be together again. Mr. Caccavaro then began having weekly outings with the student and another special-needs student on Principal Barry’s watch yet Principal Barry pleaded ignorance to the outings. Who is running things at Stevens High School? If Principal Barry is an absentee administrator then that is sufficient grounds for her termination. Her laissez-faire managerial approach to this issue led to an alleged sexual assault. That should be grounds for her termination. However the Claremont School Board and the new Superintendent have failed to act so far. Do they condone this type of management that does not protect the students attending our schools? Perhaps it is time to start replacing them as well.

  • Dave (Monday, November 04 19 07:58 am EST)

    If you looking for the city councilors to do anything for you then you are deluding yourselves. With the exception of Stone and O’Hearne, all of these councilors support sanctuary city policies that they call welcoming community policies to make it sound better. They want to spend millions of Claremont tax dollars to turn the downtown into a haven for illegal aliens who will swell the school system with lots of kids most of them can even speak English and it will increase the crime rate with drugs and prostitution. This is not even counting the people that will be living in the sober houses and in the transitional housing, that leading liberal Mayor Charlene Lovett is advocating for along with her councilor cronies. Kier and Koloski are bad news it’s time to clean house on the council starting with ousting them on Tuesday.

  • Chris (Sunday, November 03 19 01:44 pm EST)

    If Principal Barry is not fired than the next person who should be fired is Superintendent Tempesta.

  • Matt (Sunday, November 03 19 12:56 pm EST)

    The city’s spending priorities have been off kilter for a very long time. Purchasing new firetrucks when the useful life of the old one has not really expired yet, failing to properly care and maintain for the city’s roadway infrastructure and being more concerned about giving raises to the highest paid city employees when the retirement fund is woefully and inadequately funded seems to be par for the course with these buffoons on the city council and those working in the city administration. The voters have a chance to vote out two incumbents. Hopefully they won’t blow that opportunity.

  • Gary (Sunday, November 03 19 11:57 am EST)

    If enough fiscal conservatives win seats on the Council then this bullshit spending will end and maybe we can get some new pavement on the roads while we still have some left.

  • Ryan (Sunday, November 03 19 10:58 am EST)

    This will be Tempesta’s baptism of fire. Will he do the right thing and conduct an internal investigation and put the high school principal and the special education department head on leave pending the investigation outcome. If the outcome is that not enough was done to protect the student then Tempesta should do the right thing and terminate either one or both. Given the media account of what happened, I do not see Principal Barry surviving any scrutiny because of her ambivalence to the situation and her gross negligence regarding her duty to protect all students. She should be fired.

  • Ted (Sunday, November 03 19 09:48 am EST)

    This Hamilton character sure finagled the figures around to try to keep the payouts for veterans tax credit and elderly exemptions lowballed as much as possible. Then you have the property assessments that are all over the place. Anyone who manipulates figures that much cannot be trusted as a city assessor.

  • Sharon (Sunday, November 03 19 07:48 am EST)

    It’s a shame that the new superintendent inherited this mess about the alleged sexual assault involving a student. It is problems like this that he is handsomely paid to solve. If he does nothing then everyone will know that he is morally bankrupt and not someone who should be running our school districts.

  • Lynn (Sunday, November 03 19 05:08 am EST)

    Pat Barry should be put on leave and ultimately fired for failing to protect that special education student from that alleged sexual assault.The system failed because the Principal looked the other way and did not take steps to protect that girl from harm. How can that be overlooked and forgiven by the school board of the new superintendent? What is wrong with these people?

  • Jim Sullivan (Saturday, November 02 19 08:54 pm EDT)

    Two new articles.

    1) Where is the accountability?

    2) Claremont's 2019 MS-1 document reveals several surprises!

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Wake Up (Friday, November 01 19 09:28 am EDT)

    THE COUNCIL NEEDS TO LOOK BEYOND INCREASING THE POPULATION OF CLAREMONT. HOW MANY ARE THEY PUTTING IN THE WAGON V HOW MANY ARE PULLING THE WAGON. Can they really be that STUPID.
    VOTE OUT AT LARGE INCUMBENTS.
    Vote In
    Pat Lozito
    Bill Kennedy
    Erica Sweetser
    Christopher Fazio

    Ward II
    David Pacetti

  • Robert (Friday, November 01 19 06:55 am EDT)

    It looks like the assessing office is in complete disarray. Can’t hire a permanent assessor presumably because the pay is too low to hire anyone even reasonably competent. Then the city hires overpriced consultants who totally screw things up. First, we have MRI and then we get the Topstone scandal that helps Nick Koloski and his landlord out immensely with the big almost quarter million-dollar property tax forgiveness break and then a property assessment reduction of over seventy percent. The old manager and the MRI guy that was doing the assessing hire a utility assessor and they use a scare tactic to keep away any pesky bidders with a stiff late fee clause in the bid proposal advertisement that is intentionally kept out of the contract. Then the assessor they hire as a consultant doesn’t turn into his work until over a month and a half late and because there’s no penalty fee nothing happens to him and he continues keeping the contract like nothing happened. This utility assessor that the last city manager hired looks like he’s in big trouble all over the place and he goes and raises the utility assessments way out of proportion and now we have two utilities taking us to court. Then the utility assessor will make more money being paid a high hourly fee to testify in court trying to convince a judge to believe his outrageous property assessments. Undoubtedly, the city will lose the case having spent not only fees for this utility assessor to testify but also big legal fees to lawyers and then we will have to pay back all the extra money that utilities paid in plus interest because they were overtaxed in 2018. God knows with this assessor consultant stuck the utilities with for property assessments in 2019? Will we be back in court next year facing more big expenses? The new city manager’s plan really sucks. Have a low-level employee go to school to become an assessor on the taxpayers dime and then become the new city assessor if he or she decides to stay and not move on to greener pastures once they become a full-fledged assessor. In the meantime, keep the current high paid consultant that seems lackadaisical when it comes to the property assessments. The same guy who oversaw the revaluation that raised a whole bunch of people’s property assessments while giving city councilors like Scott Pope a huge property tax break. Yet we need this jerk around for three more years. If this is the best that this new city manager has to offer and then maybe it’s time we get another new city manager once we install a new city council in January. Don’t vote for any of the incumbents running at large and then we will have a big change on the council perhaps enough to make a good difference going forward.

  • Linda (Wednesday, October 30 19 09:04 pm EDT)

    It seems that Erica Rae Sweetser, AJ Maranville and Jim Sullivan are making the folks who want to keep the status quo at city hall really nervous. Good. Keep it up you three and Erica you have my vote.

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