There have been a lot of questions on this blog about where the money goes from the donation acct. and how money gets into it, and what the money is used for.
Doing an audit of this acct. would be an involved process, so please express your opinion here, as to whether or not you wish to see this done.
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ATKINSON's Vietnam HONOR ROLL as VOTED and PASSED by 2005 Town Meeting and re-approved at Special Town Meeting Sept. 12
EDITORIAL-
A voice of compassion, an example of fairness and reasonable government.
One who believes in the strength and comfort you, your children and your family can draw from good government leadership.
A person who knows Atkinson is our home -- our most important possession that must be preserved and protected through fair taxes and sound community planning and where our children must be safe to grow to become a new generation of leaders.
One who knows that the citizens of Atkinson are all neighbors with her leadership to be dedicated and responsive to all.
One who believes that when those from Atkinson have served our nation and honors are deserved, those honors must be given.
In Valerie Tobin, we now have a leader we know we can entrust with these responsibilities because they are part of her character.
It is our honor to endorse Valerie for election to Atkinson’s Board of Selectmen.
Just a note for those who wish to count the deer.
In January 08 this blog had 16,000 hits and 1,500 unique visitors (for the month).
In 2007 this blog had over 100,000 hits and 5,750 unique visitors (for the year).
In 2007 this blog had over 100,000 hits and 5,750 unique visitors (for the year).
EDITORIAL-
"I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense . . ." [TP, 1776]
We take no small measure of umbrage at such a hostile official act against this BLOG’s patron. Therefore, a timely Editorial comment is both appropriate and necessary.
Discussion of Atkinson’s financial direction, from any viewpoint, is fundamental and encouraged and we will always attempt to limit and correct errors.
However, Righteous indignation towards purported error of such inconsequential nature is not appropriate.
The ENTIRE car deal is problematic. If it was caused by poor judgement, improper exercise of authority, neglect or mistake or even specious reasoning, this will never trump the facts that the entire questionable transaction started and ended within a very small circle of confidants.
We find the entire circumstances surrounding the disposition of the police Cruiser highly irregular at the least and the "explanations" somewhat trifling and exhaustive of our intellect.
Mr. Consentino: It’s time to go. Being Chief of Atkinson’s Police Department is NOT a birthright. That is a fabled legend of yesteryear.
Historically in Atkinson, police chief appointments were made "under the hand of the selectmen" for terms of one year at a time, as was also the case in the beginning of Mr. Consentino’s assorted and discontinuous stream of appointments to this position.
Your only remaining credential established on a claim of indispensability has faded.
So time is neigh. Plan a graceful exit, Clean out your desk, Accept the gratitude and tearful sentiments from some. We plan no editorial recriminations. It is time. Thank you for your service, We wish you a long and happy retirement. Bon Voyage.
LETTER
"To All Atkinson Residents,
I am writing to ask for your help. A member of the Atkinson Police Department needs our help. I am here to ask for your help in Corporal John Lapham's fight for his life. As you are aware, John has been diagnosed with Leukemia. He has been once again hospitalized with an infection that is threatening his life. He is one of the bravest people that I have ever met. He has never asked of anything from the residents of the town. Now is our chance to step up and help both him and his family out. As everyone is aware John has been out of work for a few months. His family has been busy helping John to get better. He needs our help, and I am hoping that this town can step up to the plate and help. From the moment that I met John, I have admired him. He does alot, but never asks for anything in return. He has helped so many people in this town. I for one am one of those people. Please help him.
There is a fund set-up in his name at TDBanknorth in Plaistow. Any amount will help John, while he is out of work. It would be great if this town could help ease a burden off his wife.
Thank You
Also if anyone would like to send a card, please address it to:
John Lapham
c/o Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Ctr.
Inpatient mail
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115
United States
Please show Corporal John Lapham, that this community can stand up and show our support to those in need. I for one, miss John and can not wait until he can get better and return to work. Please show him that we support him. "
21 comments:
YES! please post details.
I would LOVE to know where that money goes, and how much there is.
Supposedly, our auditors, Mason & Rich, audit those accounts, and I believe they also audit the Firemen's Association's Account. I'm not sure how extensive the audit is. Mason & Rich has been our auditor for several years, and they have the bulk of our info from preceeding years in their computers; therefore, I think they just do a once-over-lightly review. I think we need new auditors who would lend fresh eyes to all money.
How about doing an article on the status of the two tower articles and their recommendations from the Budget Committee and Selectmen? I read the commenets under the tower article, but I wonder how many people go 'way down the list to see what's new.
People will be thrilled.
I would love to see where the checks were all cut to. All you have to do is file a Right to Know request for all distributions from this account. It is public information. Now the chief won't take kindly to it but too bad for him. I am completely fed up with his attitude toward anyone who questions his actions or his budgets. He has GOT to go. His display at the deliberative session was an embarrassment to all law enforcement and all of Atkinson. He should retire while he still can.
If the chief was employed in the corporate world and pulled this sort of stuff, he would find himself in the unemployment line. Our town (or any town for that matter) is a corporation. Those in a leadership position are to be trusted by the community to direct and lead the corporation so that it prospers.
The crap that is going on now would be considered conflict of interest, embezzlement, fraud etc. It has got to stop and those responsible have got to go.
I am very surprised that the town (the community as a whole) has not held those responsible either by revoking their duties as they are deemed unqualified for the position they are granted. I am also very surprised that the community (not just one person but the whole town via a petition) has not sought legal council against all individuals involved to remove them from their seat in office either willfully or by monetary damages.
We the citizens of Atkinson are investors in this town and want what is best for the present and the future of our community and if this means it is time to revoke those that are currently empowered, then lets do it.
I'd love to know, especially after Phil stated on tv that the money in the PDA is earmarked for the elderly. That was the night Mark tried to do a wonderful thing for Phil's sick officer and donate some money. That's the night Phil turned three shades was backed into a corner and gave Lapham a pittance of what Mark thought would be appropriate.
Publius, please accept this as an article submission.
Marines kicked out of Toledo, Oh. by the Democrat Mayor!
I heard this story reported to day, and it sums up so much that is wrong with my Country.
When I served and traveled in uniform noone noticed. Today there are many people like myself, who will take the time to go over and introduce ourselves to a uniformed soldier, sailor, marine, airman that we see in public. I usually will go over and greet them by name and rank, introduce myself, and say, simply thank you, no matter what you may read in the papers, you and your service are appreciated.
But I read today, that the mayor of Toledo, Oh. managed to accomplish, in AMERICA, what Al Queda has not been able to accomplish in Iraq, that is to run the U.S. Marines out of town!
OK, so 200 Marines stationed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, piled on to five buses and came to Toledo, Ohio, yesterday to practice some urban patrol exercises. The Toledo police knew about the request for the three-day exercise well in advance, but somehow Mayor Carty Finkbeiner didn’t see the memo requesting permission for the event. So when when the first bus arrives at 3:20 p.m. and Staff Sergeant Andre Davis steps off, he is greeted by a city employee and told that the mayor wanted him and his soldiers out of town by 6 p.m. “I wish,” Sgt Davis drily remarked, “they would have told us this four hours ago.” [Update: a reader points out that it is incorrect to refer to Marines as “soldiers”: soldiers serve in the army, not the Marines. I regret the mistake. I further regret referring to SSgt Davis incorrectly as “Sergeant”!]
Indeed.
I gather that Mayor Finkbeiner (a Democrat, readers will be surprised to learn), like the folks in Berkeley, California, can’t think of the United States Marines without having the first lines of “The Destruction of Sennacherib” float through his head (“The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold …”) “The mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people,” said Brian Schwartz, the mayor’s spokesman.
Gee, isn’t that a shame?
Lance Corporal Brandon Bukrey-McCarty recalled how useful such training was when he had been deployed in Fallujah in 2006-2007. The training, he said, “got me used to looking up on rooftops, looking around every alley, every open door.”
Too bad, Brandon! Carty Finkbeiner thinks having U.S. soldiers in town will frighten the voters, so your comrades will just have to do without that training.
The company’s commanding officer, Major Jeffrey O’Neill, was disappointed by Carty Finkbeiner’s cold shoulder—it would, he noted, be difficult to find a suitable alternative venue for the exercise—but “we’re Marines,” he said, “We’ll adapt and overcome.”
I have no doubt about that. I hope part of the adaptation will be to present the City of Toledo—or maybe Carty Finkbeiner himself—with the $10,000 tab that the aborted exercise cost the Marines.
Mayor Finkbeiner can boast on his official website that Tony Packos Restaurant in Toledo was “made famous on the television show M*A*S*H.” But when he has an opportunity to help the men and women who in real life protect this country, including the City of Toledo, he refuses to grant them the sort of permit he would routinely give to a bunch of anti-American activists who wanted to organize a protest march down Main Street.
I am having trouble believing that I am now living in a world where in the United States of America, the UNITED STATES MARINES, the greatest fighting force on earth, are routinely ridiculed by the Majority political party in the land!
I am appalled everytime I hear Hillary talk about the military when her treatment of the military members she came into contact with during her husbands term, are well documented.
These are the people that wish to serve as commander in chief of the military, yet they dont respect them enough to let them train for the ordeals they will be facing in a foreign land.
You can debate all you want about whether or not we should have gone in there in the first place, but the fact is we are there now, and to leave will merely create a vacuum in the second largest oil supply on earth. Do you really want Al Queda controlling that kind of wealth?
The issue here is that the United States Marines coordinated a training exercise with local police, and first responders, and the MAYOR decided they were "too scary" to be within the city limits.
Also note that the city of Berkeley, CA. is currently trying to evict the armed forces recruiting offices from within the city limits.
People, we are now in a time of WAR! Our sons and daughters are now IN HARM'S WAY! Politics should STOP AT THE WATER'S EDGE and you should do everything within your power to support and help these fine young people.
For those of you who do not know any military people these people by and large represent the very best among us! They understand fully the principles this country was founded upon, and they have sworn an oath to defend it.
Maybe we can deport the mayors of Toledo and Berkeley to Cuba or Venezuela, and see how they like it there.
PLEASE PLEASE tell us what goes on with that acct. It seems like they take a couple of grand out of it every week or two, where does it all come from? or go?
While the details of the PD Donations account would be an interesting read, I would be a bit surprised to find the proverbial smoking gun. Our chief has much bigger issues like the 2 lawsuits for $4 Million and the investigation by NH Police Standards and Training. For a great read on the chiefs past, read the Peak v Consentino at
www.AtkinsonTaxpayers.org
I just hope we don't lose any more guns or crash any more police cars. But we should hire another half dozen part-timers, dontcha think? You know, to get a nice round number of 25. REAL good use of our money.
Non profit organizations are accountable to the government (AGO, IRS). Are the PD funds registered as non profit agencies in NH??
Here's the website for the NH AGO's Guidebook.
http://doj.nh.gov/publications/guidebook.html
Here's a list of the charitable orgs registered in NH. No PD funds listed.
http://doj.nh.gov/charitable/pdf/charlist.pdf
GOOD POINT! Jack chewed Mr. Artus out for not being a registered non profit, what about this group.
So the can at Hanniford's should be handed back to the person who put it there. I hope someone snapped a photo on their camera, if not please do.
If they aren't a legitimate non profit then the AGO should get involved...and the IRS. 1-800-hot- line.
I have always heard about this acct. would LOVE to know where the money goes.
I HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE CHIEFS ACCOUNT FOR MANY YEARS AND TRULY BELIEVE THAT THIS MONEY HAS BEEN WELL USED. THE MONEY HAS BEEN USED QUIETLY, PRIVATELY AND WITH GOOD COMMEN SENSE.I KNOW WHERE SOME OF THIS MONEY HAS GONE AND IT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO PEOPLE WHO NEED IT AND ARE TOO PROUD TO ADMIT THEY NEED IT.I COMPLETELY TRUST THE CHIEF AND IN THE FUTURE WILL CONTINUE TO CONTRIBUTE WITH OUT ANY THOUGHT AS TO WHERE IT GOES.
TO ANON at 11:51
IT IS NOT NOT CHIEF'S ACCOUNT.
IF THE MONEY IS BEING USED QUIETY, AND PRIVATELY HOW DO YOU KNOW IT"S BEING USED WITH GOOD COMMON SENSE? YOU DON'T.
IF IT IS BEING USED PRIVATELY, THAT'S ILLEGAL, WHOEVER TAKES FROM THE ACCOUNT NEEDS TO GET PUBLIC PERMISSION FROM THE BOS.
IF YOU WANT TO CONTRIBUTE WITHOUT CARING WHERE THE MONEY GOES, BE MY GUEST. HE IS ACCOUNTABLE, AND WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY THE TOWN OR BY GOD.
When the Chief requests money from the account, does he provide receipts?
When the annual report comes out, I hope it will include a vendor list this year. If so, a quick scan should reveal vendors and expenditures that don't really sound like "town" expenditures. For instance, I don't think the town purchases from drug stores...those would likely be police expenditures. There could be some expenditures to Market Basket (because food vouchers are given to those on general assistance), but they could also be PD donations.
If that isn't enough for you, try visiting Sandy in the Accounting Office. As far as I know, the Chief submits all receipts to her; moreeover, she wouldn't pay it unless she had a receipt.
Does the Chief get the check or does it get made out to the name on the receipt?
I hope it's the latter.
let's look in the chief's barn or dig a few hole's in his back yard im sure we would find something.
where's the budget comm. on this money they should know of all money's in and out of all dept's so they can do there job ;and save the tax payers .
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