Referendum Summary should be summarily banned

Does it strike anybody as strange that on the last day of former Selectwoman Gerrish’s tenure as selectman she would nominate Selectman Ben Thompson as chairman for the next term?

In most cases the new board nominates the select chair, not the old.

If this is some type of age-old Lebanon custom handed down through the years, I would suggest you lose it.

The incoming selectman should have a voice in this process, not the old one. By the way I agree with Gerrish’s nomination. (There’s always going to be the one exception!)

Speaking of voices, it was a split personality that spoke from the selectmen’s office last month when Thompson said there would be no voter guide then days later approved along with Selectman Paul Philbrick a Referendum Summary” (ahem).

The summary paid homage to Thompson and Gerrish for their hard work as selectmen. (By the way, we expect you to work hard. That's why we elected you!) This amounted to taxpayer-funded political advertising for Gerrish, and townspeople should be outraged that their tax dollars were used. Thompson said last year’s Voter Guide “smacked of desperation,” and we would agree this one did as well. Why else would selectmen be so disingenuous as to openly thank Skydive New England for their input on the new Mass Gathering Proposal when, in fact, they are steadfastly against it.

Now they may have given input, as in, “That’s stupid.”

But when you urge citizens to vote for it, and thank Skydive for their input it implies they helped write it AND ARE FOR IT!

Shame on you for trying to trick the people of Lebanon.

This is a nation of laws, not men. The Mass Gathering Ordinance needs more work.

At least beneath the three paragraphs of political advertising for Gerrish and manipulative and misleading statements about the Mass Gathering ordinance’s legitimacy, all the referendum questions were succinctly addressed. NOT.

The Lebanon Rescue Deficit Referendum #3, for example, was described as “Funding from Reappropriation.”

How is the boiling of this referendum description down to three words help anybody decide its merit.

Cost of this drivel? Almost $1,200.

None of the Berwicks do Voter Guides or Referendum Summaries or whatever you want to call this pig in a poke. They also all have town managers.

Could there be a connection?

Ya think?