*SICKO*

Has everyone seen this documentary? If you haven’t you should. Don’t listen to anyone, see it and decide for yourselves. Health care is a huge issue in the USA as it is in Vermont. What are the reasons? How do other countries afford it? Why is it so expensive in this country? How did this all start. Those questions will be answered in this documentary. You should at least be informed of what your odds are. It really is astounding what this country is doing about good, honest health care, or shall I say, Not Doing!

I have written to my congress folks in Montpelier asking them to think about dropping the Insurance companies and moving to a self reliant program and letting the hospitals manage the health care like they used to. More money from Insurance premiums is paid to Insurance CEO’s than is going into their plans. We can do better and with less costs. It will take a bit of back bone to accomplish but it can be done.

One notation, go to, www.medicare.gov and search for insurance companies.

Read (edit-or watch) *SICKO* for yourself before you judge anyone.

I found it online:

“Sicko”

Thanks…

Special Selectboard Meeting July 22

 

 

 

TOWN OF WINDSOR

SPECIAL SELECTBOARD MEETING

29 Union Street, Windsor, VT

Selectboard Room

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

 AGENDA

Item #1 – Consideration of VLCT Road Salt Collaboration Project

Item #2 - *Executive Session – Discuss Union Contract Negotiations

 ADJOURN

 

 

 

 

Exxecutive Session per 1 V.S.A. §313(a)(1) Contracts, labor relations agreements with employees, arbitration, mediation, grievances, civil actions, or prosecutions by the state, where premature general public knowledge would clearly place the state, municipality, other public body, or person involved at a substantial disadvantage;

New Town Manager announcement

PRESS RELEASE
From: Windsor Board of Selectmen
Date: 7/11/08
Regarding: New Town Manager

The Windsor Board of Selectmen are very pleased to announce that Stephen J. Cottrell currently of Dunedin Florida, has been offered and has accepted the position of Town Manager for Windsor – his first day on the job will be August 4, 2008. Mr. Cottrell was the top candidate to emerge from a pool of approximately 40 candidates who applied for the Town Managers position in a recruitment process conducted by the Selectmen with the assistance of Municipal Resources Inc. The Board was unanimous in deciding to offer Cottrell the job.

Mr. Cottrell holds an MPA from Florida State University and a BA from California State University. He is an ICMA credentialed public manager and is a member of the Government Finance Managers Association. He has extensive public management experience, having served for 7 years as Assistant City Manager and 10 years as City Manager for Belleair FL. He also served 5 years as a finance / management analyst for the City of Tallahassee FL and 3 years as a legislative analyst for the Florida Council on Intergovernmental Relations before his appointment in Belleair. While Steve has spent most of his adult life in Florida, he was born and raised in Saratoga Springs NY and he still has strong ties to that area.

Windsor Dispatch Switches to Hartford July 1

WINDSOR DISPATCH SWITCHES TO HARTFORD AS OF JULY

At the stroke of midnight on June 30, the Hartford Emergency Dispatch Services will begin handling all police and fire emergency calls for Windsor along with the neighboring towns of West Windsor, Reading, Hartland, and Weathersfield, including that town’s two village fire departments in West Weathersfield and Ascutney. The New Hampshire town of Cornish, just across the Connecticut River, will have its dispatch needs handled by Hanover. Also coincidently switching to Hartford Dispatch are the towns of Norwich, Sharon and Royalton.

Until now, Windsor had been providing dispatch services to West Windsor, Reading, Hartland, Weathersfield/Ascutney, and Cornish, all member towns of the Mt. Ascutney Repeater Association. Once Windsor officials announced in December of last year that the selectboard had voted for the switch, the other member towns which had previously contracted with Windsor had to decide whether to follow along or seek dispatch services elsewhere. Only Cornish bolted the Repeater Association and signed up with Hanover.

Windsor Fire Chief Ron Vezina and Scott Smith, the administrator of Hartford Emergency Services, briefed Windsor Rotarians about the changevover last week. Residents should call 9-1-1 or (802)295-9425 for emergency calls, Vezina said, although the current emergency numbers, 674-2112 and 674-2183 will still be in place for a few months. The non-emergency numbers of 674-9043 for the Fire Department and 674-9042 for the Police Department will remain in place.

“The only difference you folks are going to hear is that you will hear a different voice,” said former Police Chief Jim Cushing. “I see nothing lost with the move to Hartford. The technical stuff is there to do the job.” Businesses with security services that send pre-recorded messages will have to reprogram or switch so that a live caller is used. The Hartford Dispatch Center is not set up to accept pre-recorded messages.

Vezina noted that because Hartford is a toll call for some communities, the Mt. Ascutney Repeater Association may decide to maintain local emergency phone numbers that would be set up to ring in Hartford.

Town Manager Candidate Interviewed By Conference Call

WINDSOR SELECTBOARD INTERVIEWS TOWN MANAGER CANDIDATE; ANOTHER DROPS OUT

By Margo Howland
WINDSOR – Three members of the Windsor Selectboard and Municipal Resources Inc. President Don Jutton participated in a conference call interview of a candidate for Town Manager in the office of Interim Town Manager Mike Farrell Thursday afternoon.

Town officials posted a notice of an executive session for 1:30 p.m. Thursday “to discuss the employment of a town employee” but the session was rescheduled to 2:30 p.m. after one of the two candidates scheduled for the telephone interview dropped out at the last minute, according to Farrell.

Board chairman Bill Harkness was undergoing surgery on his hand and did not participate in the conference call. And Farrell said board member Justin Ciccarelli was called away unexpectedly.

CUSHING RESIGNS AS WINDSOR POLICE CHIEF

(for Shelly and Margo)

By SHELLY JARVIS and MARGO HOWLAND

Contributing Writers

WINDSOR - In a surprise move to many in Windsor, Police Chief Jim Cushing resigned effective Thursday, on the one-year anniversary of the day that he was hired by the selectboard following a six-month stint as interim chief.

“The chief’s stated primary reasons were frustration over the long hours he felt compelled to cover due to a severe manpower shortage in the department, and inadequate pay,” Interim Town Administrator Mike Farrell said in a statement issued later Thursday morning announcing the departure. School Resource Officer Randy Christensen was put in charge of the day shift. When asked if he was Acting Chief, Christensen declined to characterize it that way, saying only that the department was “regrouping.”

The resignation came to light after an emergency selectboard meeting last Wednesday that was executive session only. It was at this meeting that the resignation was accepted “with regret.” Currently Farrell, the interim town administrator from Municipal Resources, Inc. (MRI), has stated that a new interim police department manager will be hired to fill in until a new Chief can be found. Cushing, 64, has been put on paid administrative leave and Farrell left open the possibility that he would remain with the department, perhaps with the open sergeant’s position that was not filled when he stepped up to the Chief position.

Cushing wasn’t talking to the press last week, but his wife, Diana, told the Windsor Area Observer that it was untrue that he had resigned on less than a day’s notice, as Farrell claimed. The interim town administrator was quoted in the Valley News as saying Cushing sent him an e-mail on Tuesday, which he couldn’t open, and that after talking with Cushing later in the day, learned that the attachment was a letter of resignation. He then talked again with Cushing twice on Wednesday, the paper said.