By Patrick Brodrick

            As the Clinton Board of Selectmen debated the merits of entering the town into what will surely be a costly lawsuit regarding the Brandli Property on South Meadow Road, local firearm enthusiast Bill Connolly Jr. sat among the spectators with his arms crossed with the look of a card shark in a high-stakes game of Hold ‘em knowing full well he has three aces up his sleeve.

            After Chairman Robert Pasquale Jr. read a letter from Police Chief Mark Laverdure urging the board to support fighting to allow firing weapons on the property, Selectman Joseph Notaro Jr. said it was the town’s obligation to support the department.

            “It’s going to cost us more to send members of our Police Department out of town to get their firearm training and certifications than it will to pay for a lawyer,” said Notaro, one of Connolly’s metaphorical aces up his sleeve.

            By a 3-to-2 vote, the board voted to enter into a lawsuit to “protect the town’s property rights” and fight a cease and desist order issued by the town of Lancaster that prohibits the discharging of firearms at the Brandli Property, essentially creating a socialized defense fund for the Clinton Fish & Game’s efforts to prove weapons have been continuously discharged at the property.

The 12-acre parcel is owned by Clinton, but is located within Lancaster’s borders. The land had been used as a rifle range for years, and the Clinton Fish & Game, which now holds a lease on the property, is arguing for it’s right to continue shooting at the property. Opponents of allowing shooting at the range because of the close proximity of schools, homes, a cemetery and sports fields, said shooting was outlawed when the South Meadow Pond and Wildlife Association held the lease on the land. And therefore, opponents argue, shooting is no longer a grandfathered use, and the parcel should fall under Lancaster’s Zoning Bylaws, which prohibits the discharging of weapons in residential areas; a stance the Lancaster Zoning Board of Appeals recently agreed with.

Now the Clinton Fish & Game is fighting to try and overturn a cease-and-desist order issued by Lancaster in an attempt to protect what it feels is it’s right to fire weapons on the property.

While the board may have debated the issue, the outcome was already a forgone conclusion, so I took a minute to take a shot, pun intended, at Connolly.

“Well, you’re welcome,” I said to Connolly, shaking my head.

“What? You’re not a journalist anymore. You didn’t have anything to do with this,” he fired back.

“You’re welcome because now my tax dollars will be paying for your lawsuit. Should I just start sending my tax bill payments down to you, or do you just want me to give you the money out of my pocket right now?” I replied, only half joking, which caused Connolly and the sportsman sitting next to him to burst into hearty laughter.

However, the decision to enter into the lawsuit raises an interesting question.

While the issue of whether or not firing weapons should be allowed at the Branldi Property only affects a few dozen people, why should every Clinton taxpayer, many who will never set foot on the property, have to fund what has essentially become Connolly’s and the Fish & Game’s personal crusade?

Connolly, who called selectmen’s decision a “small moral victory,” said the decision to enter into the lawsuit protects the town’s property rights and supports Clinton’s public safety officers.

“The BOS voted to defend the rights of the town, specifically the rights of the Clinton PD [Police Department] to do what they have every right to do on their own property,” Connolly said. “I agree that money spent on lawyers could be better spent. If this was a town-owned ball field or recreational facility and the neighbors were trying to close it down I’d feel the same way.”

However, with the town facing an uncertain fiscal future, which is almost certainly going to become dire in the coming years with the real estate bubble bursting, drastically cutting the town’s revenue, how can Connolly, a sitting member of the Finance Committee, justify spending much-needed tax dollars fighting for something that will affect so few?

“I can’t justify it any more than I can justify spending club money on this,” Connolly said. “I’d rather be investing in projects that make it a better, safer & quieter facility.”

When asked about a stipulation in the lease that requires the Fish & Game to assume the costs of paying for any legal battles over the land, Connolly said it doesn’t exist.

“Where exactly does the lease state that?” Connolly asked. “We have an obligation under the lease to conform with all laws & regulations; we will do that. Why should the F&G pay to defend the Towns interest in this? The Town is still the owner of the property.”

To the people that will never use the range but will be forced to pay for it, Connolly shifts the blame for incurring the costs of a lawsuit away from the Fish & Game and points at Lancaster as the real culprit.

“To the people who never use the range I’d say: Do they want certified & trained police responding to calls? Are they willing to pay for the privilege? What dollar value do you put on the lives of our officers? It’s a small price to pay if being trained saves the life of one of our public safety officers. I think it’s foolish that the issue has come to this, but how did we get here?” Connolly said. “…I’ll take that contribution to the rifle range in cash.”

“A thousand thousand slimy things lived on and so did I.”

–The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

By Patrick Brodrick

            Like some scarred and tattooed Lazarus back from the pit, forsaken by God, the reports of The Independent’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

            When the TOS [Terms of Service] Warning flashed in red across the top of The Independent last Saturday my first reaction was, “Fuck, I finally crossed that line in the sand and now the chickens have come home to roost.” I immediately contacted the service provider, wordpress.com, inquiring about what part of the site was non-compliant and how could I right my wrong. Unfortunately it took days for me to get a response, and in that time I worked myself into some self-loathing frenzy and, I’m ashamed to admit it, I let the fear’s claws catch hold in my hide and in a moment of weakness I purged The Independent of all my writings.

            I’ve done a lot of things that I’m not proud of, but the five days following my cleansing of The Independent were the first time in my life that I’ve had trouble looking in the mirror. Adding salt to the wound were the e-mails and phone calls from readers.

            “Where’s the blog? I’m so confused,” read one e-mail.

            “Sorry to hear about the blog site, you were a little harsh, but I enjoyed it,” said another. “I like when people push the envelope.”

            I tried to rationalize my decision with arguments that rang hollow to me, sinking me deeper into the pit where the fear rules with an iron fist. People asked who filed the complaint and I gave them my five best guesses.

            “Those guys are scary,” one responded when I offered my list of suspects. “You were pretty brave to do it at all.”

            “They are the cowards,” a friend wrote me. “You had the stones to write what a lot of people are thinking.” 

I’ve been down low before, down so low I could no longer see the light of day and had to spit to see which way it fell so I could tell which way was up, and this was one of those times. Each day as I fell deeper into the pit I could hear the fear sharpening its claws and licking its lips at the prospect of fresh blood.

       “Pick yourself up for Christ sake,” something from deep inside shouted at me. “Are you going to go out like this you spineless ape? Are you going to let these sideways pricks win? Like this? Go down swinging you sorry son of a bitch!

         I started sending frantic e-mails to wordpress explaining what The Independent was; whom I thought filed the complaint and why, but for days I heard nothing. Then on Thursday, Nov. 15, I finally got a response: 

“What I will do is ignore any other complaints about your blog if that will work for you?I will advise anyone that they need to leave a comment on your blog.”–wordpress.com                

         The next thing I did was contact a take-no-prisoners lawyer in Boston that recommended a number of firms that would be more than willing to supply me with a bloodthirsty beast of a lawyer ready to tear the flesh from any thin-skinned officials and their glass-jaw cronies looking to trample my First Amendment rights.

          As I sit here, way past the witching hour, my hands shaking so bad from the adrenaline coursing through my veins I can barely type, I’m tempted to list the names of the people I know in my bones tried their back-alley bullshit to shut The Independent down, but I won’t. I’ll simply bask in the knowledge that if they even have a trace of integrity, I’m pretty sure they don’t, they’ll have to live with the haunting demons of hypocrisy and know that all their talk of the importance of free speech is empty.           

          I almost wrote, “I wonder what it feels like to live with that hypocrisy; how does it feel to not be able to look in the mirror?” But for five days I lived with those feelings and couldn’t stomach it. Those poor bastards will have to live with their demons for a lot longer than that.           

           So to anyone wondering what happened to The Independent, that’s the story in all its vileness.           

           And to those that thought it would be easy to kill The Independent and more importantly what it represents – the truth – I just have one thing to say:           

           “A thousand thousand slimy things lived on, and so did I.”

By Patrick Brodrick

            CLINTON – At first it’s a strange and unsettling feeling to know you are despised and loathed, but when you work as a journalist it’s a feeling you have to quickly come to terms with or it will slowly start to rot you away like some dreaded disease.

            Luckily, my masochistic tendencies and flagellant urges to be the first one tied to the whipping post allowed me to quickly develop a coarsened and leathery hide, like a pugilist’s knuckles.

            Marilyn Manson — whose music I generally find abhorrent, but whose razor-sharp intellect and push-the-envelope creativity I admire – once said: “I know that I’m going to have to take things to such an extreme to get my points across that I’m going to start at the bottom and make myself the most despised person. I’m going to represent everything that you’re against and you can’t say anything to hurt me, to make me feel worse… because I represent the bottom. I’m the worst that it gets so you can’t say I did something that makes me look bad, because I’m telling you right now that I’m all of it.”

            Not only did I eventually stop fearing people’s disdain, I reluctantly started to thrive on it. Suddenly I realized what I was doing, I was becoming the monster people wanted me to be; I was becoming the bottom.

            When I worked for the Times & Courier I started working on a story regarding Anthony Marini, who was seeking to retain the seat that he was appointed to on the Planning Board in last year’s election cycle, and what I considered his reprehensible posts on a local Web site. My editor at the time showed as much backbone as a jellyfish when he was confronted by Marini, and managed to not only kill the story, he also threw me under the bus by telling him: “I don’t think there’s a story there;” Breaking one of the sacred rules of journalism – never discredit your reporter.

            (The story, written by Karen Nugent, eventually ran in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and was a courageous piece of local journalism. Marini eventually lost the election to former Selectman Mark Elworthy by a handful of votes.)

Important Work

            So when I sent Anthony Marini an e-mail inquiring about possibly writing a story on his efforts to start an Energy Conservation Commission, which would study Clinton’s energy habits and propose alternative ways to supply the town with power, I was hoping for a response, but wasn’t holding my breath.       

            To show my investigation into his posts was not some personal vendetta, I sent Marini the following e-mail. At the time this story was posted I still hadn’t received a response, which I think is unfortunate.

            Hello Mr. Marini, It’s Patrick, formerly of the Times & Courier; I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, although judging by what I’ve heard is being said about me on [Web site deleted] you probably do, I’ve started a local blog for independent news coverage. Basically, it was a way to get my fix of writing. Anyway, I was at the selectmen’s meeting the other night when they read off your letter about starting an energy conservation commission — is that the right title? I think that is a great idea, for the cost savings and the benefit to the environment. I’d like to do a story on it, don’t know if you’d be willing or not, but if you’d like some free publicity, even if it is from me, and you want to take the time to answer some questions I’d like to post the story on my blog — to sweeten the deal if you are on the fence about talking with me, I can tell you that I’ve had more than 1200 hits on my blog in a month — not sure if that is good or bad… 1). When did you come up with the idea for the commission and what prompted you to look into starting it? 

2). I know it is very early in the process, but what are you hoping comes from this commission?

 3). Again, very early in the process, but what are some of the alternative sources of energy that you think could be used to offset the town’s energy cost? (Personally, I looked into putting windmills at the Rauscher Farm and selling the energy back to the grid to offset the cost of buying the land, but whomever I spoke to at the state said it wouldn’t be cost effective. I also think we have a great opportunity with geothermal energy by having someone like Dave Dunn in town that has his entire business and home rigged with geothermal systems. Plus, windpower is one of the fastest growing alternative energy sources in the US, they need places to fabricate these things I’m sure and, as you know, we have an overabundance of manufacturing space in Clinton.) 4). How much do you think the town could benefit by switching some of its buildings over to alternative energy sources? 5). Why do you think this needs to be done and how soon would you like to see the changes implemented? Are you just proposing certain buildings in town or are you thinking a complete overhaul? Like I said, I think it’s a great idea and something that I’d like to support if you’d like. If not, I understand… 

            I honestly believe that a commission reviewing and proposing alternative solutions to Clinton’s energy woes could be one of the most important tasks facing any of the town’s governmental boards, and I think Marini should be commended for coming up with such an outside-the-box idea.

Imagine if the Clinton Middle and High schools were able to harness enough wind from the reservoir to power their entire buildings. Or what if there was enough wind in the area to power the town’s $13-million water filtration plant? The potential revenue, not to mention environmental benefits, of switching as many buildings as we can to alternative sources of energy is limitless.

Clinton is also in the unique position of having one of the pioneers in the field of Geothermal Energy operating a business here in town. David Dunn has converted not only his home but also his business, Dunn & Co. on Green Street, to Geothermal systems. His entire business, which fills several floors in one of the town’s mills, is heated and cooled simply by tapping into the earth’s core temperature. Why couldn’t any of our town buildings do the same?

The fastest growing form of alternative energy in this country is wind power. Currently, the Danes manufacture half of the world’s wind turbines, and harness about 20 percent of their country’s energy needs from wind power. And while America, with its crippling addiction to oil, lags behind the rest of the world in converting wind into energy, other countries are already reaping the rewards; Spain produces about 9 percent of its energy needs through wind, and Germany harnesses about 7 percent.

Down here with the rest of us

While it’s clear that there are obvious fiscal benefits if Clinton makes the transition from antiquated sources of energy to cutting-edge techniques to supply its power, this commission, as well as the town, should not allow itself to become limited by a Mr.-Magoo-like shortsightedness. It is almost a certainty that there will soon be a wind-power explosion and Clinton should position itself to capitalize on the fledgling industry.

With more than 1 million square feet of vacant mill space, Clinton has ample room to try and lure homegrown wind turbine manufacturers to the town. At one time the town was the world’s leading producer of gingham fabric, is it absurd to think we could become one of the world’s leading producers of wind turbines?

These are all questions I’d hoped to pose to Marini; unfortunately he was blinded by his hate-on for me, which makes me wonder how sincere he, and ultimately this commission, will be.

This commission could have far-reaching repercussions on the town’s future; however, it could also turn into another boondoggle on Clinton residents if the process is corrupted by cronyism, which it could very well be.

If certain members of the Board of Selectmen, who have clearly demonstrated willingness to rule like vicious dictators, and the people that support them try to single-handedly control this commission like some spoiled brat trying to monopolize the slide on the playground it will fail miserably.

If certain members of this board choose their shallow political ties over truly doing “what is in the best interest of the town,” I’ll make sure there is plenty of room for them here at the bottom with the rest of the monsters.

By Patrick Brodrick

            CLINTON – During Wednesday night’s selectmen meeting, some members of the Polish American Veterans Club sat in the audience shaking their heads in disbelief, others whispered about corruption under their breath, and some simply sat in stunned silence while the board rendered its decision on an issue that could determine the future of the club.

            By a 3-to-2 vote, selectmen denied the PAV’s request to allow the alternate building inspector to oversee any issue regarding zoning enforcement at the Green Street Club. Selectmen attempted to sequester both the PAV, represented by Attorney Bill O’Neil, and outgoing Building Inspector Bentley Herget behind closed doors in an Executive Session; however, both sides agreed to deal with the matter in open meeting.

            The contentious issue between the club and Herget stems from a disagreement over the PAV’s classification. Herget and Fire Chief Richard Hart believe the club should be considered a nightclub, which would require the PAV to install a sprinkler system. Members of the PAV said it is ridiculous to list the small bar as a nightclub and it shouldn’t be required to install a fire sprinkler system, which could bankrupt the club.

            “This deals with a complaint against a public official and I’m not going to discuss that in an open meeting,” Chairman of the Board Robert Pasquale Jr. said.

            Chris Dzicek, a member of the PAV, asked what portion of the Open Meeting Law requires the matter be discussed behind closed doors.

            “We’re not going to mention any names or talk about people’s personalities,” Dzicek said. “All we are asking for is that the alternate building inspector handle all of the matters dealing with the PAV. You have done this before.”

            “You told us this was a complaint the last time you were here; now you’re telling us this is a request and not a complaint,” Pasquale interrupted.

            “Maybe I’m telling you something you don’t want to hear and that’s why you want to have this in Executive Session,” Dzicek fired back. 

            Both O’Neil and Dzicek said Hart’s and Herget’s actions have stalled the club in its appeal process of the officials’ decision. Because Herget changed the club’s listing, the PAV said it cannot appeal his decision to the state, and it can’t change the club’s occupancy limit to allow it to skirt the new law. The PAV has had the same classification since it opened 60 years ago until Herget recently changed it.

            Hart said it would send a bad message to other town officials to overrule Herget’s authority by appointing the alternate building inspector.

            “The PAV is worse than The Station Nightclub in Rhode Island,” Hart said, in reference to tragic fire in Rhode Island that claimed the lives of more than 100 club-goers during a Great White concert.

            After listening to both sides of the issue, Selectmen Joseph Notaro Jr., Anthony Fiorentino, and Bob Pasquale voted against allowing the PAV to use the alternate inspector, and ordered Herget to send a letter to the club stating his belief that the club should be considered a nightclub, which only lengthens the club’s appeal process. Now the PAV will have to appeal Herget’s decision to the state board of building inspectors before it can appeal the initial ruling to the state sprinkler board.

            However, the bigger issue — which everyone except the PAV and Selectman Kevin Haley failed to recognize — is the twisted Orwellian logic of Pasquale, Notaro and Fiorentino voting against something that about a year ago they voted in favor of.

            Last year, when a Pearl Street woman wrote a letter asking the alternate building inspector be allowed to perform inspections at her home because she alleged Herget was harassing her, Pasquale, Notaro and Fiorentino quickly voted in favor of her request. A year later, the three board members, who often tout the importance of precedence, voted with exacting polarity.

            Why?

            Selectman Joseph Notaro Jr. did not respond to questions about his contradictory votes; however, the answer may once again be shrouded in cloaks of nepotism.

            The Pearl Street resident has a close affiliation with the Clinton Fish & Game, as does Notaro since a number of sportsmen openly campaigned for him; coincidentally, earlier in the meeting, Notaro, along with Fiorentino and Pasquale, voted in favor of entering the town into a lawsuit protecting the sportsmen club’s and town’s interest in the Brandli Parcel on South Meadow Road. And Pasquale, a self-professed political junkie, appears to be looking to shore up his support for the upcoming election by hitching his wagon to that train by also voting in favor of entering into the lawsuit in a bid for the association’s backing come May.

            When Dzicek was told of the connection he just shook his head.

            “I don’t know, you tell me; they voted to allow her to use the alternate building inspector, but they vote against allowing us to do it,” Dzicek said. “If you can figure out why, let me know.”

            (Editor’s Note: Hopefully, residents were happy with Herget’s service, because with three members of the board, two of whom lobbied heavily for Herget when he was hired, voting to allow him to continue the inspections at the PAV, the taxpayers will be paying him to sit through the club’s appeal process long after he leaves Clinton. It’s clear to The Independent that Notaro, Pasquale and Fiorentino’s blind support of Herget is a simple attempt to save face after vehemently arguing for his appointment only to watch him leave after two, sometimes problematic, years. The only problem is that these members are trying scrub their consciences clean using taxpayer dollars as rags.)