Letters

LETTER: Wayside Thanks Not Your Average Joe’s GM for His Dedication

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Letter to the editor,

The staff at Wayside’s Multi-Service Center in Watertown would like to publicly express their gratitude to Ralph Vitiello, General Manager of Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant in Watertown. Ralph previously served as co-chair for the Watertown Youth Coalition’s Steering Committee and he continues to show his dedication to helping youth and families in Watertown by continually providing food for many of our events and meetings. We are ever so grateful for his generosity, attention to detail, always ensuring the availability of vegetarian and gluten-free options, and for his ongoing commitment to youth in the Watertown community. Join us in thanking him by paying him a visit at Not Your Average Joe’s on Main Street in Watertown! Thank you,
Melanie St.

Government

OP-ED: Town Manager’s Statement on the Fire Contract Negotiations

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At Tuesday’s Town Council meeting Town Manager Michael Driscoll addressed the situation with the Local 1347 firefighters union contract and the Council’s vote in December. Here is his statement:

In recent weeks there have been media articles and Letters to the Editor written about the Town Council’s decision on December 9, 2014 to reject a request to fund the arbitration award that was issued in connection with the Town’s efforts to reach a successor collective bargaining agreement with the Fire Union. Some of that discussion has included comments that the Union and the Town Manager followed a process – the arbitration process – and suggested that the Town Council’s vote somehow violated that process. Contrary to what some would have the public believe, however, the Town Council, by state statute, was also given a role in the overall process and that was to decide whether to fund or not fund an arbitration award like the one that was issued in this case. As set forth in Chapter 1078 of the Acts of 1973, once the Arbitrator issued his award the Executive Branch – in this case the Town Manager – was required to submit to the Legislative Branch – the Town Council – a request for an appropriation necessary to fund the award.

Government

LETTER: Resident Thinks Town Bargained Unfairly with Fire Union

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We have heard several Town Councilors tell the public that funding the arbitration award for the Local 1347 would not have been fair to other public employees. They have cited the fact that all other unions agreed to accept their predetermined parameters of no raises for two years and that the arbitration award did not meet that same criteria because of an increase in EMT / Defibrillator stipend pay. Comparing the outcome of previously negotiated contracts to the outcome of an independent, third-party review such as arbitration is both deceptive and disrespectful. Town officials made a decision in 2009 to treat all public employee unions as one during the negotiation process. The town failed to realize that each separate labor union has a right to not accept those bargaining terms. The town took a risk in using this negotiation tactic as their sole collective bargaining strategy, and the result of this gamble is a lack of a negotiated contract for local firefighters. In my opinion, the town setting these parameters and expecting that all unions comply does not meet the definition of negotiation.

Environment

LETTER: Watertown Resident Joining Community Solar Program

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Dear Editor and Watertown Neighbors,

I know that many of you have received information about a current Watertown solar initiative called Neighborhood Solar. Recently, my husband, David Breakstone, and I decided to explore this option.  We had no idea what to expect. 

I attended one of the informational meetings and found Ben Mayer of SunBug well-organized, informative, and willing to answer all questions. The program and the process made sense, so David and I asked SunBug Solar, Neighborhood Solar’s installer, to do a site visit and give us a proposal. We thought we would not be good candidates because our roof is already partly covered with solar thermal panels for hot water. Ben Mayer’s site visit affirmed that we could indeed have solar photovoltaic panels.

Elections

LETTER: Watertown Resident, Doctor Endorses Warren Tolman for AG

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To the Editor:I am a physician trained in pediatrics, a father of a young son and a concerned resident of Watertown. I am writing to urge your readers to support Warren Tolman for attorney general because he supports common-sense gun reform. The recent untimely death of James Brady, killed many years later by an assassin’s bullet, makes the subject of gun reform more poignant than ever.According to the CDC, between 1999 and 2010, 4,698 children aged 1-14 senselessly died by gunfire, and another 7,500 children are hospitalized each year for the same reason.Warren knows that a solution to many of these deaths and injuries is literally at our fingertips. Technology currently exists that would allow fingerprint readers to unlock the firing mechanism of guns. If such a system were mandated, no child would ever be able to have an accident with a smart gun that did not belong to him or her.