Your Arlington, your views

Six p.m. Friday. Supper time. Phone rings. A woman with the trace of a foreign accent says she wants to do a “quick political survey.”

I agree.

“If the election were held today, would you vote for Ken Donnelly, Jim Marzilli, Charles Murphy or Patrick Natale?” No mention of other candidates for the 4th Middlesex Senate seat previously held by Robert Havern.

I tell her my choice and immediately ask the name of the organization making the call.

is David Paleologos, a pollster at Suffolk University who is director of the school’s Political Research Center.

All of the campaigns for the 4th Middlesex Senate seat have been asked to comment as to whether any has hired Dapa Research — and why. Responses will be added as they come in.

In this race, who’s the “underdog”?

NOTE: As of Nov. 1, only the Rep. Patrick Natale campaign had responded to this plea. He wrote in an e-mail:

“Bob it is not coming from my camp. I couldnt afford to do the calls even if i wanted to and i dont believe that voters want to be bothered.

“That is why i have been door knocking for the past 8 weeks. I have spent about 500 hrs in the the District door knocking since the Senator left the seat because i think it is more important than calling voters it is how i won my Rep. seat as an unknown.”

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Links to Senate race
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Bob Sprague

Editor’s note: The following letter from Patricia B. Worden of Arlington to Ian A. Bowles, secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, is posted with the author’s permission.

This commentary has been posted in .PDF in order to better display the chart within the post.

I read an article in a newspaper recently about the U.S. National debt. It had apparently just topped the 9 trillion dollar mark. That’s 9 followed by 12 zeros. The U.S. debt is growing by over a billion dollars a day. At the same time, each U.S. state is going further and further into debt. A great example is California which has more debt than Canada. In addition, most U.S. cities and towns are running at a deficit. So how is Arlington doing?

The Arlington town web site has most of the town’s budget information online. The town brings in around $105 million in revenue, most of which comes from property taxes and aid from the state. The revenue information on the web site is very detailed and easy to follow. However, trying to find debt information for Arlington is really difficult being buried in layers of terminology like short falls, overrides, exempt and non-exempt debt.

As best I can tell, Arlington’s current debt is costing us around 8 million dollars a year in interest payments. That’s around 8% of all the town’s yearly expenses flushed down the toilet. I find that number extremely annoying considering the penny pinching going on at our local schools. You can fix lots of things in Arlington with 8 million dollars a year.

It’s unclear to me whether Arlington is paying off its debt or whether it’s accumulating more. The budget people did a wonderful job making the debt numbers incomprehensible to the average Joe. After staring at the budget documents for several hours I came away with the feeling the debt is growing significantly. At the same time it looks like no one really wants to cut any services or increase taxes. Essentially we are like an ostrich sticking our heads in the sand hoping the lion won’t find us.

If we are spending more money than we have, we need to have less. Once we eliminate the debt, our kids will have more.

Steve Fullerton

On a cool, gray Sunday, my wife and I took a walk up the bikeway from our home. Our goal: to circle the Res and return, about 3 miles. Bicycle traffic was light, and at Hurd Field, we snaked between young soccer upstarts before rounding the Res, where we saw the water at its low ebb.

Exiting the woods at the playground near Reservoir Beach, my wife stopped to tie her shoes. In the distance, I could see what appeared to be people with bags. Were they collecting trash?

We walked closer and saw three men, perhaps in their 20s and a young girl. They appeared to scooping sand from the left side of Reservoir Beach into 10 white plastic bags. They were putting the white bags into stronger dark trash bags.

A large pickup truck stood just outside the fence in the Res lot.

My wife walked near them and asked whether they were permitted to take sand.

One fellow said he was and added, “It’s public property.” He added that the police had “driven by and waved.”

We weren’t too sure.

As we walked away, we said the Res is certainly a public beach, but we did not think the sand was there for the taking.

As we walked on Lowell Street, we called Arlington police on a cell phone and reported the incident. We had noted the pickup’s license and reported it.

On Bow Street a few minutes later, we saw an APD car pass.

No more than 15 minutes after our initial call, the APD called us back to report that no one had been found taking sand at the Res.

I publish the following photo as evidence of what my wife and I saw on a walk to the Res on a gray Sunday.

Bob Sprague

The Sept. 25, 2007, School Committee drew an audience estimated at 80. Among other matters, they heard a presentation from Arlington High School students and others involved in trips last summer to Japan and Vietnam. In photo, student Courtney Jones tells about the trip to Nagaokakyo, Japan, Arlington’s sister city. Flanking her are former School Committee member Paul Schlichtman and his wife, Rieko. For photos of that trip, see >>. Students who went Vietnam are Julia and Ben Patterson. A number of those listening included those who had been part of protest outside Arlington High School organized by the Arlington Education Association. The protest included complaints about privacy and calls not to renew the contract of Superintendent Nate Levenson.

Bob Sprague