CNBNews

By Bill Cleary

The recent gossip on the street circulating through our city is interesting enough to share so here goes.

According to the "grapevine" a petition was being circulated to have Joe Rafferty (Superintendent of Mt. Ephraim Schools) to be hired to replace outgoing Gloucester City Superintendent Mary Stansky. However because of an Abbott's nepotism rule, Rafferty is ineligible for the job. He has two sisters employed in the City School system. Can anyone explain why that is a factor in running a school system? Can you believe the state legislators actually passed such a rule? Most of them have hired their relatives to work on their staff. We have only to point to former Senator Wayne Bryant as a good example, no need to say more.   

Speaking of the new school superintendent, the Gloucester City School Board will be interviewing candidates for that job in the High School media Center on June 26, 27, and 28 at 6 PM. The meetings will be open to the public. Make sure you attend. Here is your chance to see who might be leading our school district. It would be nice to find a qualified candidate who lives in the City and wants to stay in the job until they retire. Keep your fingers crossed that the School Board thinks the same way.

The mended fences in the City Democrat Party are broken again. The "chatter" I hear is that the "Old Dems" (pardon me Ray I know you don't like that) waited until after the primary to tell the "New Dems" the deal to have Dan Spencer as a City Committee Chairman was off. To add fuel to the fire we have a testy Fran Pollander speaking out in a GCN Letter to the Editor calling a pre-primary prank unkind. She claims the successful Third Ward committeemen sent two Latino youths to her house with the intent to harass. Don't see the two sides getting back together anytime soon, do you?

The "buzz" on the street is that meetings between the City and Holt Cargo reps have been held in recent weeks to discuss Coast Guard property. It seems Leo (Holt) still wants the sweetheart deal promised to him by the "Old Dems" (pardon me Ray I know you don't like that) before they left office. Otherwise he isn't moving off of the Coast Guard Base anytime soon. The arrangement calls for the City to build him a three-tier office building in return he would pay the City $156,000 a year. The place he likes because of the river-view I am told 'is the O'Hara parking lot on King Street. One has to wonder what makes this guy tick. He just keeps on taking doesn't he.....from you and I that is. Let him build his own office building and put it on his property. Holt made a promise in the 80's that he wouldn't go beyond the border of Monmouth Street. Yet there he sits on our Coast Guard property. Where is the restaurant Tom and Leo did you forget that promise too?

If my sources are right we will be saying good bye to an assistant City Highway Department Supervisor this month, Don Souder. He is retiring after 30 years from his estimated $62,408 a year job. Superintendent James Johnson, a relative of former Mayor Gorman, who started working for the City in 1977 will also be leaving I heard this year. Bowie, the former Democrat City Chairman was paid an estimated $78,268 for his services. With those two gone the City Highway Department of 17 employees will only have one man to guide them, Assistant John Gorman, cousin of former Mayor  Gorman. John receives an estimated $61,820 plus mileage. That is why we see him riding around all day (just kidding John). Let’s hope the new council thinks “three chiefs” is two too many and goes back to the days when the Highway Department was run by only one man. John Lincoln, God Bless him, oversaw 30 employees. Those were the days when we had trash pickup two times a week. And yes the same men took care of keeping the parks and playgrounds cleaned. Oh those Happy Days, remember?

A City resident who works in Winslow Township wonders why she saw the Gloucester City paid firemen in their fire truck riding in Winslow this week. I checked around and was told the paid firemen drove the 45 minutes to answer what is called a task force box. Furthermore I learned the City's two Volunteer Fire Houses were assigned the job of answering the task force call in Winslow on alternating months. Why then were the paid firemen leaving their post in the City? There has been an ongoing feud between the paid firemen and volunteer firemen for years. Instead of it getting better it seems to have gotten worst. Something needs to be done. I would like to see the Mayor settle this dispute before the volunteers end up quitting. The City can't afford that to happen and neither can we.

Give me a yell, let me know what you been hearing and I will throw it out there for all to read.