Fitchburg budget unveiled - Sentinel & Enterprise

Mr. Conry......YES WE REALLY DO NEED TO INCREASE IT THAT MUCH. Even at a four percent increase the school department is STILL cutting 12 positions. Our schools have absolutely NO MONEY, NO RESOURCES, and service the largest number of citizens (6,000) EVERY DAY. Leave the schools alone. Maybe City Councilors shouldnt recieve health benefits through the city, since its only a part time position anyway. Look there to save some money.

A 4% increase to the school budget will still result in the elimination of 12 school positions?

Well, enrollment from FY '08 to FY'09 is down by 161 students, so they shouldn't need as many teachers.

The school budget should be cut more. We should not have bi-lingual classes. This is the United State and we speak English. If people come to this city, they should not expect us to educate children who can not speak English. This puts a burden on every resident in Fitchburg.

It is very important to keep the police and fire department fully staff.

We pay our property taxes and we do not use the school system, but we need the police and fire department for all residents.

I think that Mayor Wong and Council President Conry want to see a better Fitchburg. I am very glad we got rid of the previous mayor and the majority of the city council. We need fresh ideas to grow this city.

Fitchburg can be great again if we continue to have better government and eliminate residents that are not productive in our city.

Way to go Mayor Wong with a balance budget. At least this year we are not borrowing against our future. Mayor Wong needed to make tough choices. Thank you!

I think that a fee for trash pick up should be implemented. I don't agree with a fee for bags, I think that places an unnessary burden on resident who work outside the city. Just charge a trash pick up fee between $100 - $150 per year. NO BAGS FEES.

Joyce, we need to educate all children, but not in bilingual classes. Research has shown it doesn't work, that's why California abandoned it. ESL is fine, not bilingual ed though.

Fitchburg owns the landfill and should make Waste Management cover the city's trash costs.

I would like to commend Mayor Wong for all her work on this very difficult situation. She did not create the problems she is now facing. This city elected her because we need someone in charge who knows what they are doing financially. I hope the citizens who overwhelmingly voted for her now give her and her proposals the chance they deserve.

If the city counselors value their positions, they better go with the will of the people and veto the trash bag fee and flat fee. It will be brought up by opponents during next election. City already bled us to death, now it wants ou bones too.

The trash fee is a partial solution recommended by the D.O.R. It has assisted other communities suffering financially. Yes it is another form of a tax, but at least it is a tax that you have control over.

Its time we realize the true fiscal situation we are in and do our part to assist. We couldn't say that under the last administration because we know things were being mismanaged. I think it is apparent that the current administration has made the difficult cuts necessary, and now she is looking to us for assistance. We are all in this together!!!!

If they implement the trash fee what is to stop them from creating a snow plowing fee and what ever else they can think of. It's a nasty door into peoples wallets, which with the price of gas and oil are already being stretched to the limits for many.

Make the cuts needed and leave the residents alone. This mess was created by a politically incompetent group who over spent and should be solved by making those cuts where they over spent.

Ajay wrote:

A 4% increase to the school budget will still result in the elimination of 12 school positions?

Hey AJAY, the problem is called Health Insurance!

Charging a trash fee for single family homes is unfair. I'm willing to pay my fair share but take a look of the amount of trash on pick-up day outside all these slumblord multi-family homes. Increase taxes on multifamily homes to cover the amount of trash generated. The city is littered with trash already and a pick-up fee would cause a bigger problem.

Thank you, Thank you, Mayor Wong and City Council; It is about time the leadership in Fitchburg has a clear understanding of what is needed to turn our poorly organized city around.

The challenges won't be easy and not all residents understand that leading and managing a City is a business.

I don't like paying higher taxes and additional fees, but understand it is necessary, as long as there are improvements to be gained by them in the long term.

Mylott knew it was time to cut and run after such reckless leadership. He should be jailed for his abuse of the public's trust. This guy has never owned a vehicle in his life and gave them away like candy. Like a kid with his parents credit card he put Fitchburg into years and years of debt and has practically destroyed the city's infrustructure. He actually still thinks he may have a future in city politics. The taxpayers of Fitchburg should run him outta town and take all his possessions. Including his pension and any other benifits he is still stealing from the city.

Recuperation from an illness is sometimes slow. But, many times the patient makes a full recovery. Lets hope Fitchburg is one of those patients.

We all are angry at this situation. Ever side can justify why they need the money more than others. I know that if we charge for trash, those who can pay,(and have respect) will pay. Those who can't (or won't) will just leave trash for the rest of us to pick up. We need schools where the superintendent puts money in the classroom first, not administration. We need police and fire to protect us. We need roads we can drive on. I know the current mayor is trying to balance this budget, but she won't feel the cost of her cuts like the teachers who try to teach without supplies, police to try to protect with out back up, and fire without mutuial aide. However, we ALL will feel the cut when violence growns, children go uneducated and someone dies in a fire.

I have read the town of Clinton and Sterling are being resistent towards Nestle's bottled water proposal for the use one of thier unused water sources. I believe the city of Fitchburg would welcome it with open arms if the offer was right. Maybe the Mayor should contact the Nestle corporation and see if a deal could be made.
Last June a letter to the editor suggesting the city look into the bottled water was printed in the paper.

A cut and past of that article is as follows:

Solution to Fitchburg's financial problem: Bottled water
Editorial / Opinion Sentinel & Enterprise
Article Launched: 06/01/2007 11:09:22 AM EDT

The city of Fitchburg has a natural resource right in its own backyard that could be one answer toward its long-term financial stability.

With nine reservoirs and 5.3 billion gallons of water under its control, Fitchburg should be one of the more financially stable cities in the Commonwealth.

Bottled water is a valuable asset with profit margins growing at a strong rate of 8 to 10 percent per year, which is twice as fast as the rate for other beverages.

According to industry analysts, "the profit margins in the business are pretty good." For some bottlers in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 percent. As then-chairman of the board of the Perrier Corporation stated, "It struck me .... that all you had to do is take the water out of the ground and then sell it for more than the price of wine, milk or for that matter oil."

Government and industry estimates indicate that about 25 percent to 30 percent of bottled water sold in the United States comes from a city's or town's tap water.

One industry expert reportedly

estimated that 40 percent of bottled water was derived from tap water.
One extremely popular brand of bottled water is Pepsico's Aquafina brand, which apparently has taken Pepsi into the top 10 sellers of bottled water in the United States, with sales jumping 126 percent in one year to more than $52 million in 1997. The water reportedly is treated tap water taken from 11 different city and town water supplies across the country.

FDA rules require that if water is taken from a municipal source and not treated further, the bottle label must indicate that it is from "a municipal source' or "from a community water system." However if the water is treated using any of several common technologies (some of which fail to filter out certain contaminates, depending on the treatment used), then there is no requirement to label its municipal source.

Apparently Pepsi is permitted to not mention on the Aquafina label that its water derives from municipal tap water, because it considers its water "purified water" under this exception.

In addition, some cities recently have announced that they plan to enter the bottled water market by selling their water untreated in bottles.

The city of Fitchburg has been making a major investment in its water supply for years and has a "natural asset" right under its nose.

City water could also be sold to independent companies, and to other cities and/or towns that are in short supply.

The options Fitchburg has with its water supply are endless and have a profit potential greater than the day when "The City on the River" was born.

kv fitchburg wrote:

I would like to commend Mayor Wong for all her work on this very difficult situation. She did not create the problems she is now facing. This city elected her because we need someone in charge who knows what they are doing financially. I hope the citizens who overwhelmingly voted for her now give her and her proposals the chance they deserve.

There was nothing said about redesigning and restructuring the city gov't making everyone answerable to the mayor alone during the election (that I can remember). It seems so...Hitleresque.