I'm seeing 'ghosts' and dead chickens
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By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
Now wouldn't it make sense that the city council president in Springfield actually talk to the mayor about legislation she is supporting that could alter the Finance Control Board (FCB) on which both of them sit?
That didn't happen last week when Kateria Walsh and State Senator Stephen Buoniconti announced two bills that would alter the repayment of the state loan to the city and establish a speak-out time for residents at FCB meetings.
I would think it's just have been a matter of courtesy to include His Honor, but I forget that good manners are seldom part of Bay State politics.
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I thought it was facinating that a Worcester-based attorney was lecturing the city of Springfield about its crime problem at last week's Board of License Commissioners meeting.
The fact is that Kennedy Fried Chicken's business model late, late hours and fried chicken sold by the piece and location doomed the business from the start as a place for trouble to start.
I speak to a lot of people and I find it a shame that stories about one establishment can actually prevent people from coming to the downtown to patronize a business.
I, for one, am happy to see Kennedy Fried Chicken go and can only hope that the business's efforts for an appeal are denied.
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Perhaps it's just the winter I hate the cold and the short days that has put me in a certain frame of mind, but I've been seeing ghosts lately.
No, not like the kid in "The Sixth Sense" my "ghosts" have been memories of the way things used to look. There are little details that have popped into my head as I make my rounds through the area.
For instance, as I walking down the steps of Holyoke City Hall, I remembered going to the Sears store that used to be where the flat roofed building that once housed the Police Department stood. That triggered a memory of the Marque One Restaurant that was across the street from City Hall where there is now an H & R Block location. I think there was once a grant's store there before that.
Over the river in West Springfield, the building where Bob's Furniture now does business, there was another Sears store. My parents brought our 1955 Buick there to get seatbelts installed.
Now why do I remember that when I can't remember a fraction of what I learned in four years of high school French?
At the press conference concerning the State Street Corridor project, Congressman Richard Neal spoke of the stone marker that was near the corner of Federal and State Streets in Springfield. The marker denoted that State Street was once the Boston Post Road and it stood for over 100 years in that location.
I remember that marker well from my childhood, although it hasn't been at that spot in decades.
What "ghosts do you see?
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Jail break! I was notified recently that I was going to be arrested by the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) that I had been chosen to be "locked up" to raise money for MDA.
MDA is certainly a worthy cause, but because the jail session coincided with a press conference that I knew I had to attend, I begged off.
Sorry.
Now there will be a bunch of people on Jan. 31 who will be making calls to their friends and colleagues to make their bail and I hope if you get one of those calls you'll consider helping them out.
Our head of marketing here at Reminder Publications is Diana Dziok and she will be participating in the MDA event. Please log onto https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=0476f9da-7e17-4e1a-9073-7f2a015f66b1 to find out how you can help her and a great cause.
This column represents the opinions of its author. Send your comments to mdobbs@reminderpublications.com or to 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, MA 01028.
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