ARROGANCE METER: Now that the antics of the Kingston Yacht Club powers to be (Jim Judge being the Grand Pooba) have been outed, they just had to get cute on their website. Now that they can no longer claim 45 River Street as their clubhouse, you can see their reaction in the following image taken from the website. We’re waiting to see if the rumor that they are angling for some oceanfront land on the Kingston/Plymouth town line comes to pass. For that to happen, since they are unable to pay for it themselves, a sugar daddy would have to be waiting in the wings.

CRUSHING LOSS: Wow…Skip Landers and Greg Keelan are actually going off to jail. Hard to believe that the mighty have fallen. When the Commonwealth levies those fines, a portion should be kicked back to Kingston. Why you ask? Because it was the P.A. Landers stone crushing operation that crushed Nick’s Rock into oblivion. How much is history worth?

CARRIE ON: Actually, no. Kingston Public Library Archivist Carrie Elliot has left us and is now employed as librarian at Sacred Heart High School. Carrie may be gone but she is not forgotten and, according to Library Director Sia Stewart, is assisting one day a week in order to make a smooth transition. She put the “local” in history and really helped put the Local History Room on the map. Fortunately, we still have Sia…who will rise to the occasion in finding a suitable replacement. The reality is, we won’t replace Carrie, we lost her.

SEWER SEPARATION: We received a couple of calls complaining about the way sewer rates are calculated. The rate is figured by amount of water that is metered on your property. If you have a pool or a sprinkler system, it adds up on you meter but it’s not going into the sewer line. What these folks want makes some sense…and they are willing to pay for a separate meter. Sewer Commissioner Elaine Fiore said it is not a perfect system but it’s the only one we’ve got. In the meantime these folks have to either swim in stagnant water and let the lawns dry out. Anyone for the next big thing?

ARTFUL DODGER: For shame, drain layer Artie Writhington was stripped of his license by the Sewer Commissioners for not following through on his paperwork. In order to maintain your ticket you have to complete and follow through on documentation. It didn’t happen so he was removed from the list. Have you been left in a lurch…call the sewer folks.

FOR SALE: It’s time for another update on how the inventory of property is looking this month. There are 203 items on the Markey, down nine from last month. The tally goes like this: 144 single family homes, 4 multi-family, 20 condos, 26 parcels of land, 7 commercial/industrial, 1 business opportunity, 4 rentals and 7 mobile homes. The average number of days it takes for a Kingston parcel to sell is a little over 214 days. The average sale price of a home is $532,988. We’ll follow this along each month. You can draw your own conclusions.

LAST MONTH we chastised the Selectmen for extending the police chief’s contract by three years in Executive Session. We said that the negotiating could be conducted behind closed doors but that the contract extension should be voted in public session. We con-ferred with Rob Thompson, the Open Meeting Law Guru at the DA’s Office. Rob researched the matter and reported back the following. A similar situation had existed in the past and a complaint was filed. The matter went before the Superior Court where it was ruled that you must conduct the action in the open. The case was then kicked up to the State Judicial Court and the Superior Court decision was overturned. Shocking but…the law. So, there’s one for the Kingston Quintuplets.

ANOTHER SHOCKER: Some of these laws are just plain nuts. Here’s one that made us grimace. We have a committee here in town called the Audit Committee. Robert Ward is the Chairman and a bank VP named Kathleen Voight is a second member. There should be a third member, a fellow named Pail Ricci who was appointed by the Moderator on June 21 of last year but he has never attended a meeting. The truth is, it is very possible that nobody let him know that he was appointed…but we digress. The last meeting that this committee held was on September 22, 2006. The only member was present was Ward but Voight was participating over the telephone. Here’s another crapola law. If you are participating using a speaker phone, it’s allowed. Fortunately, this practice is little used.

PRINCIPAL PROBLEM: Hist-orically, trying to keep a principal on the K-6 level has been a constant problem. There was a time we went through about 7 principals in five years. The issue is back. Kids will return to KIS this week without a principal. Cheryl Wrin was moved up to the administrative level as K-12 Administrative Coordinator leaving a vacancy at that level. Once again we’ll offer out two cents. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to leave the Admin position vacant for a bit and have KIS open with a principal…for stability sake? Nothing against Wrin, congrats to her, but this was an administrative decision that needed more thought.

TRUST ME! We had a chat with Plymouth’s Planning Director Lee Hartman who said that 40-R Guru Don Schmidt of the Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) promised him that $600,000 in incentive payments are being held for the town. Now this is the same type of payment that Schmidt said is on its way to us here in Kingston. By the way, the Town of Grafton, who approved 240 units under 40-R, is awaiting $350,000 in money promised by Schmidt, this according to Grafton Town Planner Stephen Bishop. By our count, that totals $1.55 million which is $300,000 over what DHCD has in the bank. There are eight other communities who have already received approval of their own 40-R projects from both the AG’s Office and DHCD… where is all their money coming from? Also consider the fact that once all these towns start moving deeper into the process and actually start to produce housing units, the state is supposed to pay everybody $3,000 per unit. For Kingston that amounts to $3,000 X 730 units = 2.19 million. Where does that come from? Yea, yea, we’re told by Lloyd Geisinger that he’ll pay it if the state doesn’t. But doesn’t that put us under the state’s thumb for a mere $600,000? We would have done better to negotiate privately with Lloyd and to keep the State out of the picture. If this was supposed to be a State initiative, then the State had and has a financial obligation to uphold their end of the deal. One thing is becoming clear; the simplicity of this deal is becoming highly complex and changing as quickly as a baby’s diaper…and probably dealing with the same content as in those diapers.

Update…We finally connected with DHCD head Don Schmidt who stated that Hartman and Bishop are wrong in their perception that they have assurances for their money. “They will have to get in line for the money” said Schmidt. He said that the initial fund consisted of $3.4 million and after Kingston was approved for their $600,000, only $114,000 remains. This would be far short of what Grafton or Plymouth would expect. We pointed out to Schmidt that it was possible for a town to receive neither the incentive money nor the $3,000 per unit as promised under the state initiative. “That would be a correct statement” said Schmidt who said his office only runs the program and doesn’t fund it. Maybe this is why only 20 of the cities and towns in Massachusetts have answered the call for 40-R.

BLAME GAME: The same writer as noted previous said they don’t blame Selectman Mark Beaton for giving out money to a private organization from the Willis Fund intended for poor children. The blame, according to our writer is “no shame on Mark, but the Town Accountant and the Town Treasurer who obviously cannot read. Also, I seriously doubt that the decision rests at the sole discretion of the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen.” Well, notwithstanding those assertions, we believe that the issue remains with the Selectmen…and yes indeed, the Willis Fund indeed rests with the Chair and the Chair alone.

PERMIT ME: We took a look see at the Harbormaster records for slip requests at the Landing and the permits that have been issued for 2007. We found nothing that appeared out of sorts but there are some interesting facts that emerge. In 2004 there were 19 requests for moorings on the waiting list. In 2005 that number dipped to 15. It jumped to 22 last year and for the first eight months of this year the number has already the 22 mark with 23 names on the waiting list. There were 165 permits issued this year with 22 (13 %) being out-of-towners. Now we don’t own a boat and don’t really understand the issues as well as we should…but why can’t we just dump the out-of-town permits and draw from Kingstonians on the wait list? We’ll see if we can answer that question next month. Any thoughts from our readers?

POWER UP: It’s interesting to listen to how wind energy is being talked about here in Kingston. Mark Beaton, representing the Secure Energy Future Committee (We think we’ve got that right) suggests powering the 730 unit 40-R with electricity from wind power. Don’t get us wrong, we love the concept of wind power… we marvel over those sleek structures every time we drive the Expressway or visit Hull High School…but why power the newest housing venture in town? The last should not be the first. By the way, why doesn’t the chairman deliver the reports and requests when appearing before the Selectmen. It appears awkward for Mark to be leaving the table, going to the podium, asking for various votes on requests, participating in those votes, then becoming a Selectman again. It should be noted that there is no Chairman listed with the Clerk’s Office.

LOTTERY CASH: We got a call asking where the Lottery money goes. The town will be receiving $947,000 in Lottery benefits this year and the money goes where it always go, in the General Fund for municipal operating expenses. The amounts are pretty much the same each year and are put to good use in the General Fund…to place it elsewhere would result in a shortfall.

KINGSTON BUILDOUT: You al-ways hear the term “reaching buildout.” What it means is when will all developable land actually be built on. Water Superintendent Matt Darsh, in a recent report, determined that Kingston will reach buildout in 2032. Think about that… what an incredibly short period of time… 25 years from now. Picture what we will be in just a quarter century. Frightening, considering the move is on to beat that date.

SENIOR SNUB: Ever notice how everyone will court the senior vote then leave the seniors out in the cold. Oh, don’t say we don’t know what we’re talking about. Let’s take a look at this. Many years ago there was a group called the Community Center Building Committee, whose “purpose shall be to study and oversee the construction of athletic fields and a community center.” Senior citizens supported the plan and even had several seniors serve on the committee. Well, we got nine fields and that was the end of that. Next we heard that the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church was up for sale and the town was expressing interest in the building for a Senior Center; that idea never happened. Then we heard that there could be a Center contained within the over 55 development project on Maple Street. The town pulled the plug on that idea. But wait, there’s more. The Community Preservation folks wanted to purchase the MacFarlane property on Wapping Road and sell back a parcel for a Senior Center. The Committee ticked off the MacFarlane trust and blew that deal. Now we’re in the fourth year of gaining support for a Center behind the Town Hall but ConsComn and Pine DuBois are croaking that dream. Maybe it’s time for the senior population to attend all future town meetings in droves and nix everyone else’s wants until the needs of Senior Citizens have been met. Maybe it’s time to get angry. Every other segment of Kingston society has gotten their wish list fulfilled, is it time for seniors to create their own “manifest destiny” and say enough is enough…you get yours after we get ours!

WASTED ENERGY: If the Selectmen want to start saving energy, why not start out right under their noses and not have the Green Street lampposts burn all day. There must be some timer which should make the task quite simple.