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  • Bill (Thursday, April 25 19 12:21 pm EDT)

    This is a quote from the WUC Page dated 04/24/2019 from a Kipp Ryan Post

    Debbie Matteau- "In the end, we missed the mark by deciding to take a "do it yourself" approach to one of the most important decisions we have in front of us. A professional headhunter was/is needed. A (good) city manager is a high level executive and attracting one here is a tall order, and I don't believe for one second anyone on the council is equipped to undertake that task. You don't ask your PCP to perform heart surgery to save money, do you? I'm all for saving money, but this was an ill-conceived process."

    Seems like Ms. Matteau has a bias, I also heard she was on Ryan McNutt's Hiring committee. But now she has been appointed to the very committee she does not believe is the right choice?

    GO TEAM NICK!

  • Luke (Thursday, April 25 19 09:52 am EDT)

    Escalating Crime Starts in City Hall. This search committee has been highjacked by Koloski and rentlord Debra Matteo. Slum city on the way.

  • Barbara (Wednesday, April 24 19 06:35 am EDT)

    I am a mom of three young children and I am very worried about these disturbing crime statistics that were kept hidden from all of the citizens of Claremont. Keeping the bad news a secret while doing nothing to correct the situation is not helping anyone. The Police Department was put in place to protect everyone. If they do not have the resources that they need then everyone suffers. It is time for the city councilors to wake up and begin leaving our city the right way. They can start with devoting more resources to the Police Department to get those crime numbers more under control.

  • Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, April 23 19 07:52 pm EDT)

    Council appoints City Manager Search Committee! Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Robert (Tuesday, April 23 19 05:24 pm EDT)

    Don’t forget about the sanctuary city/welcoming community bullshit proposal that the flaming idiot liberals on the council namely Charlene Lovett, Abigail Kier, Allen Damren, Nick Koloski and Scott Pope all wanted to bring to Claremont. Imagine truckloads of illegal immigrants and their families all landing in Claremont like an enemy invasion and imagine what that would have done to our already astronomically high property tax rate. You think that crimes bad now wait until they eventually swoop in. Don’t think for a second that these councilors haven’t forgotten that crappy idea because they want to do this they are probably just biding their time waiting to do it in another sneaky way. Let’s all just hope Jim and AJ catch it with their eagle eyes before anything worse happens. We have got the vote those people out in November. We just have to.

  • Tom (Tuesday, April 23 19 04:03 pm EDT)

    You want to know why crime is getting out of control? Is because of all the social services that the liberal city councilors want to bring to Claremont. The County just wanted to put in transitional housing for ex-convicts. Another transitional housing facility is probably going to go in on Main Street for unwed mothers. We have drug rehab facilities here and the County is working on transitional housing for psychologically unstable individuals as well and they want to place that a Claremont too. Claremont is becoming a dumping ground for all the undesirables. The councilors helped the developer on Pleasant Street with government funding to put in what they were saying was workforce housing but the Sullivan Report found government documents that says it’s really Section 8/Welfare housing. The councilors want to spend over $5 million to create parking and other amenities for these new residents, whose only purpose is to leach off our society. This isn’t progress. Claremont needs new leaders who realize that Claremont is being led in the wrong direction.

  • Sarah (Tuesday, April 23 19 02:09 pm EDT)

    If crime is on the rise then the police chief bears the responsibility. It is his job to protect the citizens and keep the crime rate under control. If crime is out of control maybe he needs more officers. I know Jim and AJ showed that Claremont has more officers on the books than other communities have based on population. They also said that Chase couldn’t keep officers on the payroll. The pay scale may need to be fixed but maybe Claremont needs more police officers too because crime is getting out of control.

  • Ted (Tuesday, April 23 19 01:17 pm EDT)

    Alex Scott was a good police chief. I am not convinced that Mark Chase is a worthy successor.

  • Mike (Tuesday, April 23 19 12:43 pm EDT)

    Amy is hiding the truth from the public the right thing? I wonder what the city councilors think about having the truth hidden from them? I’m beginning to doubt Chief Chase’s capabilities.

  • Amy (Tuesday, April 23 19 12:01 pm EDT)

    I like Chief Chase and he brings a lot of experience to the table. I think we need to give a chance to do the right thing here.

  • Gail (Tuesday, April 23 19 10:24 am EDT)

    Wow! Crime is running rampant and we have an overwhelmed police chief who it seems has no idea what to do. Hiding the truth from the public was not the answer. It seems this cover up was done for his own selfish interests to try to save his job. Perhaps it is time for new police chief.

  • Industrial Property Owner (Tuesday, April 23 19 10:07 am EDT)

    Chilling exposé. An excellent example of true journalism. A wave of crime is engulfing the city in relation to assaults, fraud and trespassing and our new Police Chief’s answer to the problem is to cover it up and hide it from the elected city councilors and the people they represent the citizens of Claremont. The city councilors should have noticed and remarked upon the absence of crime statistics and Police Commission meeting minutes instead of going bananas for vibrant looking meaningless information. I have looked over that information before and Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville are correct in their assessment that it is practically useless information because it truly specifies nothing except statewide or countywide percentages that have no real meaning. Style with no substance was an apt description. It is true that our city councilors are not overly intelligent and naïve in many ways making it very easy for them to be controlled and manipulated. It is also true that present-day city councilors are obsessed with how Claremont appears to the outside world and they are desperate to maintain a fictitious façade of everything is perfect when in reality we all know that is not the truth. Perhaps in their simple minds it is easier to maintain the façade than it is to solve difficult problems requiring difficult decisions that go beyond their limited political will. I agree with Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville that the police officer pay scale has been the bane of Claremont for many years in regards to attracting and retaining well-qualified police officers. Now that the public is aware that they are no longer safe in their neighborhoods and in their community, it is time for our public leaders to gather, suck it up so to speak, address the pay scale posthaste, and incorporated into the Fiscal Year 2020 budget that will be approved by the city councilors next month. Once again, the Sullivan Report’s timing is impeccable.

  • Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, April 23 19 08:06 am EDT)

    New article.

    Crime escalating in Claremont!

    Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • William (Thursday, April 18 19 12:33 am EDT)

    Just read the Eagle Times on line and read an article about Newport's school board suspending all public comment indefinitely until they come up with new policies. Apparently two citizens are critical of them and the administrators and they want to put a stop to it. Apparently these members of the school board have never read the Constitution, specifically the parts about freedom of speech and representative government that works for the constituents and not the other way around. How long do you think it will take before the Claremont school board and the city council follow the Newport school board's lead and suspends all public participation and public speech during meetings permanently? Followed by a vote to suspend televising of meetings to completely put and end to local government transparency. Considering all the problems both the city and school has had lately that was mostly exposed by the Sullivan Report both government boards may jump at the chance now that the Newport school board has set a legal precedent that they can use through abuse of their elected power.

  • Jane (Wednesday, April 17 19 01:35 pm EDT)

    The school board bears lots of the blame because they are our elected officials and they are just sitting there listening to the administrator’s excuses without speaking up and demanding answers. They are all complicit in my point of view because they refuse to represent their constituents as they are willing to forgive and forget when hundreds of thousands of dollars has been lost with the bill sent to the Claremont taxpayers.

  • Jennifer (Tuesday, April 16 19 04:32 pm EDT)

    It's unlikely that heads will roll when the people responsible are in charge. The school board only has say over the superintendent and while they could fire Cory I doubt that they have the courage to do so on the heels of McGoodwin's termination and Pfeifer being pretty much tarred, feathered and run out on a rail by the SAU staff administrators who in all likelihood caused all of these problems in the first place. I think Jim and AJ hit the nail on the head when they speculated that Pfeifer was the victim of his own competence. Pfeifer probably found out about all of these problems with the ignored audits, food service debt, lost reimbursements, etc. in the staff colluded to remove him before he went public with his findings. Now there will probably be a big lawsuit settlement that will cost the taxpayers even more money because of these bad administrators that are still working in the SAU office. The new superintendent must clean house or the taxpayers of Unity and Claremont will continue to suffer the consequences of these inapt employees.

  • Mike (Tuesday, April 16 19 02:21 pm EDT)

    One $500k boo boo by the most recent city manager in wiping away back taxes on the Topstone got him the boot.

    The $500k boo boo by the schools requires the shit canning of responsible individuals.We should also ask for Pfeifer to become our full time Super with a raise.We so desperately as taxpayers need someone in our corner and I now believe he's the man.The status quo,working at the schools wants things to stay just the way they are.
    I just cannot believe that a part time employee has the responsibility of managing such a large sum of money when we have high paid administrators that SHOULD HAVE already been managing it.
    I WANT HEADS ROLLING

  • Megan (Tuesday, April 16 19 11:28 am EDT)

    I was happy to hear that the food services program for the schools is generating a profit of about $40,000 a year. We never would have known that if Jim Sullivan had not sent an inquiry to the acting superintendent Cory LeClair. You would think that the administrators would want to know something like that especially if it was going the other way and the program was running a deficit. I do not know what Cory LeClair does all day or what any of the other administrators do all day but it certainly isn't keeping track of the school's finances or sending in reimbursement claims on time like they should be doing. I think once the new superintendent is in it is time to clean house and replace them with all new administrators who will hopefully have a better work ethic than the ones presently employed by the taxpayers.

  • Richard (Tuesday, April 16 19 11:10 am EDT)

    Allen Damren is doing everything in his power to control the outcome of the city manager search. The word on the street is that the mayor and assistant mayor have a local candidate preselected and they are working diligently behind the scenes to give this person the job. I don’t like this Tammany Hall style politics that both of them are bringing to Claremont. It’s time to elect honest leaders in November.

  • Industrial Property Owner (Tuesday, April 16 19 08:46 am EDT)

    After reading today’s articles, I have some concerns. I am of the opinion that Cory LeClair is overwhelmed in her position of Assistant Superintendent and now as Acting Superintendent. Some individuals are promoted past their level of competency and I am afraid that may be the case for Mrs. LeClair. Look at the recent revelations all of which occurred during her watch as Assistant Superintendent. Food service program reimbursement losses totaling $464,960.95 over the past two years because employees tasked with submitting these reimbursement claims did not know how to properly fill out the reimbursement forms and SAU administrators ill timed a change in food service vendor for the Unity School District, which penalized Claremont by a total of $191,213.93. The continuing rising food services that because of the lack of a proper policy disallowing the charging of food. Annual audit reports not conducted since fiscal year 2011, that is seven years with no audit reports filed. The position of SAU Board Treasurer remains vacant for a presumably long undisclosed amount of time that jeopardizes the checks and balances and potential accuracy of the financial records of the SAU. The absence of any policies for the SAU. The unbelievable admission of school administrators that they are unable to comprehend the English language contained within The Abbey Group’s food services contract, which was signed and presumably filed and forgotten. Managing on nothing but prayer and hope is inexcusable and the Claremont taxpayers are suffering the expensive repercussions of this extremely poor management. I can certainly understand why the SAU #6 Board wishes to have an efficiency study/forensic audit conducted given all of the disturbing issues that all point to incompetent management. However, $5,000 is a very small sum of money to invest for this type of in-depth study and it is unlikely to go far to determine the level of gross incompetence see that clearly exists within the SAU office and possibly the managerial offices of all of Claremont’s schools. So is this a feel-good gesture to create a public appearance of accountability or are SAU #6 board members that incredibly ignorant and naïve about the true cost of things? I am also of the opinion that we do not know the full story regarding the bum’s rush that Interim Superintendent Pfeifer experienced. His resume is quite impressive and it is highly unlikely that he would not have noticed some if not all of the troubling issues I just listed. Perhaps he was making recommendations of people to terminate because terminations are clearly in order. I believe a palace coup as the Valley News put it is precisely what happened, the incompetent employees are still running the show so to speak, and they will continue to perform their jobs at subpar level until they are terminated. I agree with Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville that placing the entire burden upon one part-time employee to whip the food service program into shape and maintain proper record-keeping and timely submissions of reimbursement claims is an extremely unrealistic expectation. I have no faith in the current school administrative staff and I am beginning to lose faith in our elected representatives on the school boards to rectify the situation as they seem unwilling to stand up to the administrators and call them out in regards to their gross incompetence.

  • Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, April 16 19 06:38 am EDT)

    Three articles published today.
    1) SAU #6 Food Services Program Update.
    2) New good news revelation regarding SAU #6 Food Services Program.
    3) April 10 Claremont City Council Meeting Synopsis.

  • Barry (Monday, April 15 19 08:37 am EDT)

    To Bill
    Koloski is not a team player. The Council voted 7/2 to terminate the manager. Who by the way was Santa to Nick. Koloski was devastated by this very reasonable move. Now he is not working with the collective majority vote of the council. His childish spoiled actions shows his immaturity as a board member. Absent the board he can enjoy his opinion but grandstanding his opinion and lost vote should be called out. He is not the only one showing this lack of leadership. It’s no wonder the council is so stuck in the mud.

  • Mike (Saturday, April 13 19 09:26 am EDT)

    I've been thinking a lot on the state of Claremont's education situation.I am very upset that the interim superintendent was forcibly removed by the police.Now I come to find out he was removed because he was going to make the public aware of the $500,000 negligent failure to file proper paperwork for school lunches paid by the federal government.
    Am I wrong in assuming that the super is the boss?Are there going to be people fired for their negligent behavior while under our employ?Now the interim super is filing a wrongful termination suit against us.Who has the power to fire the super? II WANT THEM GONE!

  • Bill (Friday, April 12 19 12:40 pm EDT)

    Nice to see Councilor Koloski is back from his vacation. Sounds like he is trying to sabotage the city manager search with his good friend Councilor Pope.

  • Jim Sullivan (Thursday, April 11 19 10:03 am EDT)

    School Officials grossly understate school lunch reimbursement losses! Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Industrial Property Owner (Tuesday, April 09 19 02:51 pm EDT)

    Jim and AJ are being sensible about the solar project. Taking a wait-and-see approach until we find out the annual lease price per acre that Steel Mill Solar LLC will offer is a prudent course of action. Then we can all make an informed rational decision as to whether we support this project proposal or not.

  • Jim Sullivan (Tuesday, April 09 19 12:21 pm EDT)

    Clarification regarding solar project on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • Kathy (Tuesday, April 09 19 10:30 am EDT)

    Why should we tie up acres and acres of prime industrial land so a bunch of out-of-town investors can generate solar energy so they can send it to Connecticut and line their pockets? What’s in it for Claremont? Is it jobs? No! Is it property tax base? No! There may be no property taxes at all except for the amount paid on the CDA land. Who knows how much the city assessor will set that property assessment at? If it’s handled anything like the Topstone building, it will be next to nothing so no real value or tax revenue there. Therefore, it is all up to the lease payment, which could be very little because I doubt the folks at Steel Mill Solar LLC gives a damn about Claremont and does not intend to pay a high or even fair lease payment. I also do not trust our city officials because many of them in my opinion seem the type willing to accept a bribe if one was secretly offered. Cash is hard to trace after all.

  • Carolyn (Tuesday, April 09 19 08:50 am EDT)

    I do not support this solar project at all. If the electricity was used to lower Claremont’s electric rates that would be a big draw for manufacturers to move their facilities and with it jobs to Claremont. Nevertheless, that is not what is happening here, as all of the electricity will go down to Connecticut to help contain their energy costs and make them more attractive to businesses. Once again, Claremont is being taken advantage of just as they were with Wheelabrator and so many other out-of-town investors and developers. When are our city leaders going to learn from the hard costly lessons of the past and begin working for us instead of the out-of-town fat cats?

  • Dave (Monday, April 08 19 04:46 pm EDT)

    I agree with Tom. The taxpayers paid millions of dollars to obtain this industrial land and now city officials want to give it away for peanuts in a lease deal to make out-of-state investors rich at our expense. Didn’t city officials just do this with the Topstone property by forgiving about a quarter of one million dollars in overdue property taxes? What the hell is the matter with these people?

  • Tom (Monday, April 08 19 03:46 pm EDT)

    While I like the concept of solar farming I do not like the location because Claremont needs industrial land dedicated to bringing in good paying manufacturing jobs. Put the solar farm somewhere else in Claremont that’s fine but keep it off the municipal land.

  • City Hall Insider (Monday, April 08 19 01:10 pm EDT)

    Members of the CDA board had no idea about the requirement in their bylaws that does not allow the CDA to play games with the lease deal. The CDA will have to get a fair price based on a fair property appraisal and pay full property taxes on the land that they lease to Steel Mill Solar LLC. The CDA board intended to use that lease money to cash infuse the Farwell building reconstruction project that is underway and already many dollars short. Now the CDA board is at a loss about how to proceed with the Farwell project. Representatives have asked the Mayor and the Assistant Mayor for the Council to quietly change the CDA bylaws to remove that restriction in a nonpublic session and then permanently seal the minutes to keep this action from the public.

  • George (Monday, April 08 19 11:45 am EDT)

    This is another reneging of promises made to the taxpayers. Claremont’s city officials just can’t be trusted.

  • Dan (Monday, April 08 19 09:34 am EDT)

    This might already be a done deal especially if bribery money was thrown around. I swear a lot of the so-called pillars of the community would sell Claremont out for a nickel.

  • Beezelbub (Monday, April 08 19 09:32 am EDT)

    Hey Regina, Vermont awaits you.
    Commuting creates greenhouse gasses.You can ride your bike for your commute.

  • Steve (Monday, April 08 19 09:00 am EDT)

    OMG! Lady I don’t know what rock you crawled out from under but you do not have a clue about what’s going on in Claremont. We need an expanded tax base to lower the tax rate and the tax burden here in Claremont. Our children and grandchildren need jobs that pay more than just barely enough to put food on the table. They need to make a decent living wage to provide for their families. The properties in the old River Road TIF District where this solar farm may be located was supposed to provide those opportunities for good paying jobs. A slew of solar panels to make a bunch of out of town investors rich just won’t cut it.

  • Regina (Monday, April 08 19 08:01 am EDT)

    I am absolutely on board with this solar project as it is a wonderful use for the property and good for Mother Earth. The last thing Claremont needs is another factory polluting the air we breathe and possibly the water as well. People commute to their jobs all the time and we do not need more jobs in Claremont.

  • Industrial Property Owner (Monday, April 08 19 06:51 am EDT)

    Another magnificent exposé by the Sullivan Report. A very thorough, well-written example of investigative journalism that thoroughly puts the Eagle Times, the Valley News and the E- Ticker News to shame. While I understand the wisdom of Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Maranville to reserve judgment until the publicly televised April 24 project presentation I happen to share their concerns in regards to removing such a large number of Claremont’s finite industrial acreage from our municipal holdings. I was very impressed that Jim and AJ were able to find approximate project installation costs and estimated annual profits for a 10 Megawatt solar farm facility. This certainly gives us a rule of thumb to work with when ascertaining if the proposed annual lease payments are either fair or intentionally lowballed for the benefit of the presumably out-of-state owners of Steel Mill Solar LLC, its many subsidiaries and parent company. As we are well aware, Claremont municipal officials have a predisposition to poorly negotiate and agree to terms that heavily favor the other party to the detriment of the Claremont taxpayers. I do not trust the CDA Board of Directors at all and while I have not personally met John MacLean, I am quite familiar with the firm he works for Municipal Resources Incorporated and remain unimpressed and distrustful. I also have little faith in the City Council of 2019. I have known several of the members for years and most of them in my opinion are not qualified to be making monumental decisions for our community that will affect Claremont for many years to come. I believe Jim and AJ have the right outlook on this proposal when they stated in their article “the proposed annual lease payments will tell the tale”. It most certainly will.

  • Jim Sullivan (Monday, April 08 19 06:08 am EDT)

    New article regarding proposed 10 MW solar project off of River Road. Full details on the News Flashes page of this website.

  • John (Sunday, April 07 19 11:30 am EDT)

    Thanks Jimmy, you never disappoint.

  • Jim Sullivan (Saturday, April 06 19 04:20 pm EDT)

    John, it isn't always about being first. I am waiting for information from SAU #6 Business Manager Mike O'Neill. I had several questions regarding this matter that was not answered in any of the published articles thus far. Once I have that information then I will do an article that will be far more enlightening to the taxpaying public. This is a very serious matter and I want to do it right with information that the public needs to know about.

  • John (Saturday, April 06 19 03:34 pm EDT)

    Jimmy...
    When are you going to write something about the SAU failing to submit the necessary federal paperwork to obtain almost 500k ?
    You’re getting as bad as the “Nicky Times”.

  • Jim Sullivan (Friday, April 05 19 09:38 pm EDT)

    Actually James you are wrong. I investigated on my own because the Council was not given anything but vague propaganda and being asked to approve a $500,000 CDBG application based on nothing of substance. City Officials had not performed their due diligence and that did not sit well with me. I found many tax liens in Florida and found out that the factory was closed and padlocked due to the property having been seized. There were some other issues as well and I went public with them. Sullivan County had already authorized a $500,000 CDBG application at the request of City Officials and others trying to push this deal forward and nobody had bothered to properly vet the company first. I found this information quite easily on the internet in little time and just spent a little of my own personal money to buy the official documents. I was the one who went public with this information and the project quickly died. City Officials used the not receiving the financials as an excuse to save face and not give me the credit for saving the City from the mess that Springfield VT eventually suffered. I didn't care because petty people do petty things and I was used to their negative behavior. I then shared the information with Newport Officials (at their request) when the company tried to get another $500,000 CDBG grant through the Town of Newport and they turned the company down too. Springfield VT and the State of VT eventually took a bath because they went forward with the project.

  • James (Friday, April 05 19 04:58 pm EDT)

    Lollll Sullivan had nothing to do with Cast in Stone.

    Santagate refused to sign off on it because they weren't giving all of the financials. Lovely revisionist history on Richard's part.

  • Trish (Wednesday, April 03 19 11:01 am EDT)

    Not to forget the company that was going to Great a central heating system in claremont

  • Richard (Tuesday, April 02 19 06:30 pm EDT)

    Yes Mike the company was called Cast in Stone and Councilor Jim Sullivan saved Claremont from getting bamboozled by this firm. Santagate had already gone to the county and had them approve a CDBG grant application for I think $500,000 and he came to the city for another $500,000 CDBG grant application through the city. Santagate and the administrators all swore that they had properly checked out this company but something stuck in Sullivan's craw so we took it upon himself to investigate and he uncovered the truth that the company was leaving Florida because they were broke and had all kind of liens placed on the business. The folks at Cast in Stone tried to Hook Newport with their line of bullshit and then when that didn't work they suck at Springfield Vermont and took that town and the state to the cleaners. I recall they did do a startup but then they folded quick and left a lot of people holding the bag. Thank goodness Jim Sullivan was looking out for us just like he and AJ Maranville are doing now. I don't trust Nancy Merrill and the others in the city government to look out for our backs because most of them don't even live in Claremont. The councilors like Mayor Lovett are so damn desperate for anything that looks like good news I think they would be willing to sell Claremont out to make a nice splash in the news media to make themselves look good at least in the short-term. You can't trust anyone at City Hall and that includes the councilors.

  • Mike (Tuesday, April 02 19 05:30 pm EDT)

    Hey Richard,
    these solar panel folks are the modern day democrat entrepreneurs.Remember Solindra? These guys got paid millions from Obama's stimulus package.They declared bankruptcy without ever making even 1 panel.They're soaking their feet now on some sandy beach with umbrella drinks,probably criticizing Trump for being a crook.
    Didn't we have some bogus stone company try to take Claremont some years ago? Total sham!

  • Richard (Tuesday, April 02 19 02:14 pm EDT)

    These days there seems to be lots of shady behavior at City Hall. There was the Topstone scandal that wrote off nearly a quarter of one million dollars in tax debt for three out of town property owners who just so happen to be the landlord for Councilmen Nick Koloski, who apparently doesn’t like to pay his bills such as taxes and loans because of all the liens placed against the business and recorded on the Sullivan County Registry of Deeds website. Then there is the whole Goddard building project that city councilors and administrators are telling us is workforce housing when it is really welfare-section 8 low-income housing. The former manager had his inspectors declare the building unsafe, condemned the building, and evicted all of the residents. That open the door for a developer to come in, buy the building for far less than its assessed price, and begin this welfare housing project with lots of money from the state and the federal government with the city’s help and the city even through win a property tax break to boot. Let’s not forget the zoning changes that change the whole downtown landscape by letting apartments be on the ground floor to eliminate the need for elevators to get around the ADA rules and the greatly relaxed parking requirement rules that now will cause a problem because it’s only one car per bedroom that in this day and age most couples have two cars. Now the owner of the Goddard building has a problem with a Main Street property because it has a shared wall with another building that is falling down supposedly. The city intends to rip the other building down and is beginning to look like the city a.k.a. the taxpayers will fix up the shared wall so the owner of the Goddard building who also owns this other building won’t have to soak a penny into it. Then you have Allen Damren are so-called esteemed Assistant Mayor doing his damnedest to get MRI his former bosses another lucrative consulting contract by making up a phony committee and then going all out with a big sales pitch on CCTV to sell the virtues of MRI to the Council. Now the Sullivan Report uncovered something that the crappy reporters around here missed about a solar farm that the city manager MRI interim elaborated on during the last meeting. I watched that meeting and I did hear the city manager say to be a 10 MW facility and the Sullivan Report says that will take about 150 acres. The manager did say that this company was going to buy a city property and CDA property and a privately owned parcel but he did not say how many acres that would all encompass. I do not know how much tax revenue a bunch of solar panels on relatively undeveloped land would generate and who knows that might be special tax breaks that we do not know about. I agree with the Sullivan Report that it is doubtful that will create many jobs may be a maintenance/repair person and maybe someone to keep solar panels clean occasionally. I do not like the fact that they are a new business and that their hiding the needs of the business owners. If they are from New Hampshire, we may know these people are and there could be some conflicts of interest that we may never know about because the business owners are hiding their identities. I agree the smells like a sweetheart deal since Claremont usually sells their property cheap and the Sullivan Report is correct that the taxpayers spent millions of dollars to develop the industrial park with TIF money and to give it away maybe two special friends of the city officials and give up the chance to bring in good paying jobs is a slap in the face to all the taxpayers. I cannot help but wonder if one or more of the city officials have been motivated to do these things in a way that we do not understand. Hint. Hint. Hint. The word I am going for rhymes with tribe.

  • Jean (Tuesday, April 02 19 12:27 pm EDT)

    What do you think about Nick Koloski not paying his employment taxes and then going on a Las Vegas vacation? That tells me all I need to know about his character.

  • Tom (Tuesday, April 02 19 11:52 am EDT)

    It looks like another backroom deal with an MRI tie in. First we had the Topstone sweetheart deal with MRI Assessor Joe Lessard into it up to his eyeballs. Now we have interim City Manager John MacLean talking about a wonderful opportunity for Claremont with Steel Mill Solar LLC who hasn’t been in business for more than a few months and they look a little shady with their extreme measures to hide the identities of their owners. Jim and AJ are right they might be locals trying to get a sweet deal at the expense of the taxpayers. Some of the owners could even be councilors and other city officials. This sure stinks to high heaven so far.

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