Rochester Smoke Out

As published in the Shawangunk Journal, January 3, 2019, page 2

To the Editor:

The School District seemed determined to pass this approximately 62 million budget no matter what (no plan B was presented except “we’ll put the project back up for another vote,” an answer given during the Q&A meeting on November 8, 2018).

I’ve learned of Board of Elections people not being aware of this vote, unusually scheduled in the middle of the holiday season, on December 11. The School District did its best to bury – under the many details of needed repairs – the most important information, regarding the “stadium,” that “new artificial turf football field with lights” to “host events” and “generate revenue.”

After 17 years of voting in the area, I cannot recall any instance when there were NO LISTS of voters’ names and addresses, and NO IDENTIFICATION was required of those coming to vote. In other words, anybody willing was able to vote, and to be included in the total number of 1,327 voters. The result was 685-Yes and 642-No.

In less than 12 hours after the vote closed I’ve heard that the 62 million Capital Project passed! Who checked 1,327 ballots in the middle of the night? How were the voters matched with the addresses? How was the validity of the votes checked? Who supervised the counting of ballots?

As NO CONNECTION can be made between the sheet of paper considered “ballot” and the voter, how can we be sure that “No” votes were not replaced with “Yes” votes?

Shame on the RVCSD for making a mockery of the voting.

Manuela Michailescu
Kerhonkson

“The Lord has called me and I have decided to follow the path that our Lord has led me on. I am beginning my journey hopefully to be ordained in the Permanent Deaconate of the Roman Catholic Church… I will work to serve the needs of the poor, the infirmed, and all those I meet who need help. I look forward to preaching the word of God and showing my love of God and for my fellow men and women through how I conduct myself daily.”
– Carl Chipman

Unfortunately, the Merriam-Webster dictionary – and not the Bible – is the relevant book when one thinks of Carl Chipman:

Liar
1. a person who tells lies; has a reputation as a liar…
Synonyms: deceiver, fibber, false witness.
Usage: “Carl Chipman is a shameless liar.”

Traitor
1. a person who betrays a friend, principle; one who betrays another’s trust…
Synonyms: betrayer, backstabber, double-crosser.
Usage: “Carl Chipman has been called a traitor to the Republican Party’s cause.”

Weasel
1. a deceitful or treacherous person…
Synonyms: scoundrel, wretch, swine, bastard, creep, louse, rat, toad, snake in the grass,
skunk, dog, cur, scumbag, scumbucket, scuzzball, sleazeball, sleazebag, slimeball,
nogoodnik, nasty piece of work;
2. achieve something by use of cunning or deceit…
Usage: “Carl Chipman weaseled his way into five Town of Rochester Supervisor terms.”

Windbag
1. person who talks at length but says little of any value…
Synonyms: boaster, bragger, show-off, blusterer, trumpeter, swaggerer, poseur, peacock.
Usage: “With a windbag like Carl Chipman, who needs solar energy?”

Brown noser
1. a person who acts in a grossly obsequious way…
Origin: the assumed result of ass-kissing.
Usage: “Carl Chipman has been brown-nosing all party chairmen to get lines on the ballot.”

Obsequious
1. characterized by abject obedience…
Synonyms: servile, sycophantic, fawning, unctuous, oily, groveling, submissive, slavish.
Usage: “Carl Chipman has been embarrassingly obsequious to anyone with money.”

Idiot
1. a foolish person, especially someone who has done something stupid…
Synonyms: fool, ass, half-wit, dunce, dolt, moron, imbecile, numskull.
Usage: “Carl Chipman bought, with our money, a toothpick-like flagpole for Veterans Park.”

If you still harbor the hope that Carl Chipman lived according to the Bible’s Matthew 7:12
click here for evidence to the contrary.

From keeping his fellow town board members in the dark to hiring his family members… from inventing conversations with non-existent banks to burning the burgers at a celebration of the town volunteers attended only by his family and a friend from Arizona… from covering for the biggest tax cheaters in town to making statements to the press without having awareness or understanding of the facts… Carl Chipman proved to be an accomplished asshole.

I hope everybody remembers the ultimate idiotic statement he made in Shawangunk Journal: “I want to make the Town of Rochester the world capital of gay marriages.”

Meanwhile, on Route 209 across A & M Hardware, this jewel brightened the town for the duration of Chipman’s ten years in office:

After ten years of milking his registration in the Republican Party to get elected under false pretenses, the POS announces:

“Effective yesterday I have changed my political party affiliation from the Republican Party to the Working Families Party. I believe the 2-party system has failed us and both the Republican and Democrat Parties kowtow to special interests which line their coffers with cash.”
– Carl Chipman

But, while despising both Parties that helped him make a living – Republicans and Democrats alike – Carl Chipman has no qualms about accepting from them the Pride of Ulster County Framed Sheet of Paper. Go figure!

What more can I say Carlito, except… “adios and vaya con Dios!”

– Jon Dogar-Marinesco

Since the groundbreaking ceremony on Memorial Day 2010, I have attended all the celebrations at the Town of Rochester Veterans Park, but none moved me more than today’s gathering around the flagpole.

In the absence of a town-organized event, on a record-breaking cold Veterans Day, a small group of veterans came to honor their brothers in arms. Some said a few words, all were overcome with emotion.

Politicians’ speeches were not missed.

It is unheard of a party chair to run for office, but that didn’t stop Len Bernardo to do it. Everybody knows how that ended: he was crushed by Mike Baden, the next Town of Rochester Supervisor, 1,365 votes to 900.

Looking at the election results, some numbers catch the eye:

It’s reasonable to expect that Len Bernardo – the Ulster County Chairman of the Independence Party – would get hearty support from the members of his own party. Did not happen!

Among the seven candidates on the Independence ballot line, Len Bernardo gathered the smallest number of votes. In other words, the Chairman was rejected by his own party.

Len Bernardo, it’s time to say good bye…

– Jon Dogar-Marinesco