For those who had clamored since before April’s Annual Town Meeting for a three-way meeting of the Selectmen, Finance Committee and School Committee to look at the town’s finances, the first public meeting of the Tri-Board on June 11 must have been something of a disappointment.

The residents of the town of Wakefield, Massachusetts who advocated for a Tri-Board Summit were by and large the same group that led the charge at Annual Town Meeting to “send a message” and pass higher-than-recommended budgets for the School Department, Police, Fire, DPW and library. Even after the May 27 referendum reality check, their actions still left the town with an $850,000 overall budget deficit for FY09.
Continue reading ‘The Long & Winding Road to a Balanced Budget’

Vote NO on Wakefield, MA school budget

In next Tuesday’s referendum election on the $27.4 million School Department budget, the only vote that make sense is a “No” vote.

This conclusion has nothing to do with the value of education, the needs of the Wakefield School Department or the sincerity of the School Committee. It has everything to do with arithmetic. The town of Wakefield, Massachusetts simply doesn’t have the money to fund the school budget at this level, and those who support this amount have not come forward to tell us where they think the town is going to get the money.
Continue reading ‘Just Say ‘No’ on May 27′

Sentimental comedy about seniors at Stoneham Theatre

It doesn’t hurt that playwright/director Jack Neary’s sentimental comedy about senior citizens is set in a working-class eastern Massachusetts neighborhood and features five characters who, to those who grew up in this area, will be as familiar as their own neighbors. But “The Porch” is also a very funny play that draws you into the lives of these characters and makes you care about what happens to them next, thanks in large part to top-notch performances from all five actors in the Stoneham Theatre cast.
Continue reading ‘A Warm, Funny Evening on ‘The Porch’’

“Route 128 is the road we all love to hate,” David Kruh told the audience at last night’s Sweetser Lecture 2008 season opener at the Wakefield-Lynnfield United Methodist Church. Kruh then proceeded to deliver a fascinating photographic history of the highway that runs around Boston, from Cape Ann to the South Shore.

Kruh was making his third Sweetser appearance, having previously given talks on Scollay Square and the Big Dig. Currently a full-time marketing manager for Analog Devices, during his varied career Kruh has worked as a copywriter, a computer programmer, a radio producer/engineer and a spokesman for the Big Dig. He has also dabbled in acting, stand up comedy and playwriting. His play, “Curse of the Bambino,” premiered on Boston’s Lyric Stage in 2001.
Continue reading ‘The History of Route 128′

As far as the Zaccone family knew, the beautifully engraved watch was lost forever.

It had been awarded to Guy Zaccone of Wakefield back in 1958 by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts – the oldest military organization in the Western Hemisphere. Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company members served on every battlefield from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.

John Zaccone, Sr., Guy’s son, grew up in Wakefield and now lives in New Hampshire. He hadn’t seen the watch since before his father died in 1986, and for the last 22 years he had no reason to believe he’d ever see it again.
Continue reading ‘Long Lost Watch Becomes Symbol of Values, Kindness’

Thoughts on the April 7, 2008 Wakefield (Massachusetts) Town Meeting

Sometimes it pays to listen to our elder statesmen.

But when we become caught up in a righteous cause, it’s easy to ignore the voices of experience in our midst. We dismiss them at our own peril.

Advocates to fund the School Department budget did a good job of filling the Galvin School Auditorium Monday night with teachers, young parents and others who believe so fervently in education that they want the town to spend money that it doesn’t have.

The School Committee put before Town Meeting a $27.4 million FY09 budget, which is $2 million more than the Finance Committee recommended. Continue reading ‘Turning a Deaf Ear’

Sisters of Swing at Stoneham Theatre through May 4

You don’t have to be a member of the Greatest Generation to enjoy Sisters of Swing, the tribute to the Andrews Sisters currently playing at Stoneham Theatre.

But considering that the Andrews Sisters sold over 90 million records, had more Top Ten hits than the Beatles or Elvis and paved the way for all the girl groups that followed, Sisters of Swing is a worthwhile take for grandparents and grandchildren and anyone in between.
Continue reading ‘A Fitting Tribute to the Andrews Sisters’

First time two people from Wakefield have been on Democratic & Republican State Committees

In the February 5 primary election, most attention was focused on the Presidential candidates, with some local precincts also voting for candidates in the primary for State Representative from the 32nd Middlesex District.

But while all that was going on, Wakefield was making a bit of political history of its own. Also on February 5, the voters elected Albert J. Turco as the representative from this district to the Republican State Committee. On the same day, Betsy Sheeran won election to the Democratic State Committee. Turco was unopposed. Sheeran garnered 62 percent of the vote district-wide to defeat Peg Crowe of Malden.

It is the first time, as far as anyone knows, that two people from Wakefield have represented this district on both the Democratic and Republican State Committees.
Continue reading ‘Turco & Sheeran Make Political History’

The Cutting, at Stoneham Theatre

Each act opens with the sounds of sea gulls, although their full significance will not be realized until much later. Currently at Stoneham Theatre, The Cutting is part mystery, part psychological study and part exploration of the honesty of silence - as it draws you into the mind of a young woman apparently traumatized into mutism.

Judith (played by Eve Kagan) is in jail in connection with the mysterious death of her mother, although it’s unclear to the investigators whether Judith had anything to do with her mother’s demise, because Judith isn’t talking. She has not uttered a word in the five months that she has spent behind bars, despite the authorities’ best efforts to prod her into explaining what happened to her agoraphobic mother, with whom Judith shared a house high on an English seaside cliff.
Continue reading ‘The Sounds of Silence’

The best thing to come out of last week’s FCC hearing into Comcast Corp.’s Internet polices had nothing to do with the subject of the hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to look into the communications giant’s network management practices.

But the thing that tickled me about the news story was the fact that Comcast got caught doing something that Big Cable and other companies have been getting away with for years: packing audiences at government hearings with their own supporters and otherwise planting straws with the intention of creating the illusion of public support for their business policies.

This time Comcast got caught with its pants down, and here’s hoping that the episode will remind public officials and citizens that these companies will do absolutely anything they can get away with.
Continue reading ‘Faking Public Support’