Posted on 10/04/2008 9:34:23 PM PDT by raccoonradio
Friday column ping
Oh snow! DPW big wants loot
By Howie Carr | Friday, October 10, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Come on down, Walter “Don’t Call Me Freddy” Fender, former superintendent of public works in the town of Marshfield.
At age 68, Walter is looking for a disability pension - $63,900 a year. And do you know what disabled him, among other things?
Snowfall. I kid you not. The town DPW boss was disabled by snow. It made him sad, very sad. But that’s not all that left this extinguished public servant in such despair that he tried to take his own life. It wasn’t just the snow, it was also the seaweed.
You can’t make this stuff up. Every week there’s a new poster boy for Question 1 - the referendum vote next month to abolish the state income tax.
This week it’s Walter Fender.
“It’s about more than snow and seaweed,” Fender’s lawyer, Vincent Murray, was saying yesterday. “Another department employee died suddenly, his replacement tried to kill himself, and then another employee died of Legionnaires’ disease.”
When I saw the headline in last weekend’s Patriot Ledger - “Snow, seaweed triggered despair” - I immediately suspected this was not a story from the Dreaded Private Sector.
Fender’s career suffered a fender bender back in 2003 after his promotion to superintendent, which paid $88,750 a year.
First, it snowed - in January! Who could have ever predicted such an occurrence? In all, 51.3 inches fell, the paper reported, which made Wally “anxious over whether the DPW could handle any more snow that season.”
Then came the Attack of the Killer Seaweed.
“Fender became stressed out over the high number of complaints related to a severe seaweed problem on town beaches.”
As 2003 wore on, Fender maintained an “onerous work schedule,” and we all know how onerous working for a town DPW can be. Then, on Sept. 15, “DPW employees threatened to walk out if a broken air conditioner in the highway garage wasn’t fixed.”
Fender filed for a disability pension - hey, wouldn’t you, if you were suffering from Post-Traumatic Seaweed Syndrome. The county retirement board told him to get lost, but he appealed it to the very ethical Massachusetts judiciary.
“It should be noted,” Fender’s lawyer said, “that four impartial doctors all found he was totally and permanently disabled, work-related.”
The appeals court kicked Fender’s bid for 64 large to the Contributory Retirement Appeal Board. There’s only one way to put an end to this sort of thing, and that’s to take $13 billion away from the hacks once and for all.
Vote Yes on Question 1.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1124614
Fri show ping
FRIDAY OCTOBER 10
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4th Hour
Veterinarian John deJong will be with us to talk pets.
All Red Sox games this next round will be on WRKO EXCEPT
for Monday (Col. Day, 4:35 pm start) which will be on WEEI.
Prob no interruptions for Howie as the other games will start at 8, 7:30, etc.
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