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 ..by Anura Guruge

Related Posts:
>> Alton, NH: Board Of Health & Alton Central School (ACS) Board
>> ‘Special’ Meeting — Apr. 30, 2013.
>> Alton School Board Committee Assignments
>>— Apr. 28, 2013.
>> Alton Elected Town Officials: To Disclose Or Not To Disclose,
>> That IS THE Question? — Apr. 14, 2013.

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It says ‘covering Alton’ on the banner, but I guess that is just an indication of who should pay to advertise with them.

This Monday’s joint Alton (Selectmen/) Board of Health & Alton Central (ACS) School Board meeting to discuss healthy and safety related issues at ACS that had been aired during the contentious $18M bond fiasco was probably the most germane and interesting ACS-related meeting held this year — barring the ‘that was more fun than your typical three ring circus’ deliberative session on February 3.

So how come today’s ‘The Baysider’, purportedly Alton’s newspaper has no mention, at all, about this pivotal meeting. It isn’t as if they didn’t have the time. Their deadline is Tuesday and they have routinely covered other School Board meetings that were held on a Monday — that very week, in the Thursday edition.

I noticed that Tim Croes, the regular reporter, did not appear to be present. But, I know that they sometimes use other stringers, such as a lady called ‘Elizabeth‘ who tends to do a bangup job. So, when I got back, that very night, I fired off an e-mail to my friend Josh Spaulding, the  bestriding editor of ‘The Baysider’, asking him who covered that meeting. I got a response fairly soon (as is typically the case with Josh). He did not know! He does not keep track of Alton meetings. Tim is supposed to decide.

Hhhmmmm.

So what is the deal here? I have one and ONLY ONE concern. Was this political? By conveniently ignoring the coverage of this meeting (for at least a week), ‘The Baysider’ is letting the news go cold and as such demoting the issue.

The problem here is that I know various people who, rightly or wrongly, charge ‘The Baysider’ as being the OFFICIAL ACS newspaper.

At this meeting the ACS School Board was asked a lot of pointed questions. By not covering the meeting many of the tax payers in Alton are being deprived of a chance to hear about what took place. All I want to know is is that but a coincidence. Yes, Tim, before he got his ‘get out of jail card’ that permitted him to attend Brewster, was an ACS alumni. So did ‘they’ lean on him not to cover the meeting? I do not know. But, this bothers me.

I have been particularly busy this week, since coming back from vacation, trying to publish yet another book. I just managed to get that done a few minutes ago. So, I now have a few ‘minutes’ breathing space before I start on another new book tomorrow. I had asked Deanna to find me the video of Monday’s meeting. I want to do at least one post on the “he said“, “no he didn’t“, “he definitely said ‘possibly’“, “no he didn’t“, aspect of the meeting, which dominated much of the first part of the proceedings, by juxtapositioning the questions from the Health Board and the answers from the School Board with the relevant clips from the deliberative session. At least as of Tuesday night Deanna couldn’t find the video from Monday. I will get to that.

If ‘The Baysider’ is not going to cover these meetings I will have to see what I can do. I am too old to start getting minutes. I did that 30 years ago. Maybe I could find somebody who will help out. But it irks me that the purported local paper does not feel that it is their job to cover such meetings. Funnily enough this is the SECOND instance, just this year, when ‘The Baysider’ just happened to forget to cover a crucial School Board meeting happening. Recall we had to hear about the Steve Miller ‘brandishing‘ incident from WMUR because ‘The Baysider’ waited until the following week to mention it.

Hhhmmmm.