Celebrating Birthdays are: December 29, Jim Stapleton, Sis
Butterworth; January 2, Kelly Feeny, Dawn Farnham, Matthew
Cornell; January 3, Merrill Vaughan; January 4, Andrew Topouzoglou.
A Very Happy Birthday To All!
Celebrating
Anniversaries are: January 1, Sandi & Russ Courtemanche;
January 2, Kathy & Don Bergeron, January 4, John & Effie
Topouzoglou.
Congratulations!
School
Lunch Menus January 3-7, 2011
Chichester Monday
- Homemade
pizza, green beans, fruit cocktail, milk. Tuesday - Chicken
Nuggets, french fries, carrots, chocolate cake, milk. Wednesday -
Spaghetti and meat sauce, garlic bread, veggie, peaches, milk.
Thursday - Ham and cheese wrap, pickles, carrots, and ranch dip,
pears, milk. Friday - Hot dog w/roll, baked beans or veggie,
fresh fruit, milk.
PMHS Monday - Pizza, corn, fruit, milk.
Tuesday - Chicken patties, mixed veggies, fruit, milk. Wednesday
-
Pasta, meat sauce, garden salad, baked dessert, milk. Thursday -
Meatball sub, cheese, beans, fruit, milk. Friday - BBQ chicken,
baked potato, veggies, fruit, milk.
PES Monday - Chicken
fajita w/lettuce, tomatoes, tortilla, fruit, milk. Tuesday -
Macaroni and cheese, veggie, fruit, milk. Wednesday - Ravioli,
salad, fruit, milk. Thursday - Hotdog, beans, fruit, milk.
Friday - Pizza, salad, fruit, milk.
Letter
In an article in the Concord Monitor, Wednesday, December 15th: Man
fights against ‘an ocean of zoning’, (Referring to Dan Schroth)
Bill Miskoe was quoted as referring to Pittsfield as “this slummy
mess”. Those words are: Inaccurate, careless, insulting, insensitive
and arrogant.
Bill, I’ve met more fine, caring, giving,
charitable, friendly people in this town of Pittsfield than any
where I’ve ever lived or visited in my travels.
With so many
townspeople working to improve Pittsfield’s image, in 3 little words
you have set us back years. News is global these days. You can’t
erase it once it hits the Internet. I really feel bad for our
residents who have soldier sons, husbands and brothers reading your
article while they are serving in Afghanistan, Kuwait and all those
other places people call home.
When I’m visiting family around
the Las Vegas area and tell them about those historic blue signs
around town, the young people out there comment “that’s what they
are missing in this part of the country”. Nobody knows or cares
about their neighbor, there are no Historic blue signs, there are no
dairy farms, there are very few volunteer organizations compared to
Pittsfield, etc, etc.
And how about the children of Pittsfield?
It’s bad enough that they hear negativity about Pittsfield from
outside the town, but from a prominent resident as yourself? While
we are all celebrating this season of holidays would you please
reconsider those 3 little words? Thank you, Bill.
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year to All, Helen Schiff
VA
Processes First Claims For New Agent Orange Presumptives
New
Program Speeds Approval For Vietnam Veterans
WASHINGTON – The
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has decided more than 28,000
claims in the first six weeks of processing disability compensation
applications from Vietnam Veterans with diseases related to exposure
to the herbicide Agent Orange.
“With new technology and ongoing
improvements, we are quickly removing roadblocks to processing
benefits,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We
are also conducting significant outreach to Vietnam Veterans to
encourage them to submit their completed application for this
long-awaited benefit.”
VA published a final regulation on August
31st that makes Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam and
who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart
disease, or a B-cell (or hairy-cell) leukemia eligible for health
care and disability compensation benefits. With the expiration
of the required 60-day congressional review on October 30th, VA is
now able to process these claims.
Vietnam Veterans covered under
the new policy are encouraged to file their claims through a new VA
Web portal at www.fasttrack.va.gov. Vietnam Veterans are the first users
of this convenient automated claims processing system.
If
treated for these diseases outside of VA’s health system, it is
important for Veterans to gather medical evidence from their non-VA
physicians. VA has made it easy for physicians to supply the
clinical findings needed to approve the claim through the new Web
portal. These medical forms are also available at
www.vba.va.gov/disabilityexams.
The portal guides Veterans
through Web-based menus to capture information and medical evidence
required for faster claims decisions. While the new system
currently is limited to these three disabilities, usage will expand
soon to include claims for other conditions.
VA has begun
collecting data that recaps its progress in processing claims for
new Agent Orange benefits at
www.vba.va.gov/VBA/agentorange/reportcard/index.html.
Pearl
Chagnon of Pittsfield celebrated her 90th birthday with the
Pittsfield Elementary School staff on Monday, December 20.
Mrs. Chagnon worked as a school secretary and cafeteria worker from
1987 to 2007. She regularly volunteers at the school.
Letter
To The Editor
To the good citizens of Pittsfield:
This week’s
topic: Does Pittsfield have too many apartments?
Now please
somebody correct me if I am wrong.
Pittsfield has about 650
apartments. We have a population of about 4,200. Most of
our apartments are Downtown. These apartments and the income
they produce, are directly responsible for the maintenance, taxes,
and the heat and lights being on. I think as the cost to pay
the taxes, maintain the building, heat and electricity
increased it was necessary to get more income; to add an apartment
or 2 or 3.
People have got to remember Pittsfield has always had
apartments. I wonder if they too were blamed for Pittsfield’s
ills. I ride around our countryside and see empty houses.
Our town has started the proceedings to start the tax deeding
process on 14 properties.
Where is all this leading?
It seems
to me folks need to generate income from their properties.
There are simply not enough jobs for people. We have become
more efficient as a society. Our 40 year boom is over.
It is a new world order, we now compete with the world.
We need
to rethink regulations that restrict business opportunities.
This is the fundamental principle to repealing the 1988 Zoning
Ordinance. To my knowledge the Planning or Zoning Boards have
never added value to any business opportunity. I would
encourage apartments or any business opportunity throughout
Pittsfield.
I know this frightens some people, but after we’re
dead and gone, the new residents could send in a talented carpentry
crew and change the building to the use they need.
Nothing lasts
forever, but the earth and stars. Put that in your pipe and
smoke it.
Dan Schroth Piermarocchi Pittsfield
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