Water formula of Paranoia and Censorship

When this story came across the transmission lines, even we had to say, no way! So with a bit of detective work, we managed to verify what might be called a case of water paranoia leading to the most bizarre act of unilateral censorship ever conceived.

At a recent Board meeting, several town residents trying to make a point about the runaway contract for the Conservative Party’s Casale Excavating Division in Water District 14 gave Board members complimentary bottles of water. It took the Conservative Supervisor some time to read the designer labels cleverly attached over the real labels which read, “There’s something in the water” “20 oz. Of well adjusted water from a place where money is no object in getting it to you. Castle 14 Water * An Expensive Alternative”.

When a 6.4 million dollar contract is a million dollars more after the shenanigans and efforts of the prior pro-Casale town board to steer the contract to their favorite contractor, people tend to get upset. In case you forgot, the town had a lower bid it threw out for 5.8 million, some $600,000 less than the eventual contract awarded to Casale. The problem with that bid said the prior GOP board was that there were only two bids, Casale’s and Highlander Construction of Syracuse. So rather than award the job to the low bidder at 5.8 million, they rebid to give Casale another bite of the public wallet. Naturally some 10 months later the price of Highlander’s bid went up to 7.1 million and just as naturally, Casale’s bid managed to go down from 6.8 m to 6.4 m. Now that’s managing inflation!

Trouble is after all the excuses for rebiding, only two bids came in the second time, but that didn’t require the town board to throw them out a second time because this time their guy was the low bidder. So North Greenbush Taxpayers got to pay 6.4 million for water that could have cost them 5.8 million and here we are in 2007 and Casale has managed with the help of friends in the Building Department to get the price up to at least 7.1 million. So far he’s received $740,000 more than his agreed to contract price and no change orders to cover it. Nobody in the Building Department bothered to inform the town board they were authorizing the increases and the cash kept going out the door until the Comptroller was asked to check the files.

Now perhaps the message on the bottle of water makes some “cents” . And if Mark Evers has his way it will make more “cents” for his political benefactors in Casale Excavating who are trying now to take over the town board after taking over the Conservative Party and aligning themselves with county Republicans, the Reform Democrats and anyone else looking to cash in. To bail out Casale, Evers proposed an $830,000 town wide bond that would pay for the overruns in WD14. The whole town would get to pay for the mismanagement and garbage going on with the contract. Town resident Robert Price led a petition drive which stopped the bailout by forcing a referendum Evers is scared to death of. Naturally the public intends to vote NO, leaving the town no way to legally pay for the mismanaged contract.

So where’s the water paranoia and censorship? Here goes! Supervisor Evers apparently drank his free bottle of water not realizing there was a political message on the label. So he decided to say that it was a sinister act rather than an act of political expression. Evers claimed he “felt ill” after drinking the water. He ordered no one ever approach him with free water ever again implying he had been poisoned. Then he dropped a bombshell that slipped by most people at the Board meeting. He said he with held the video of the town meeting from broadcast because the camera captured the label. Gee, we didn’t realize the Katie Cam in the ceiling had zoom capabilities. But the paranoid and shifty Supervisor was taking no chances that the cable viewing public would see this expensive protest message and he apparently without the consent of the town board, censored the entire tape from public viewing. Gosh, does that mean we have to cover those Dunkin’ Donut Coffee Cups too?

He went on to insist that he had sent the mischievous bottle to the manufacturer so they could test the substance and perhaps have the culprits arrested! Well we suspect that aside from a protest message on the label, the only thing that could have made Mr. Evers feel ill was either his conscience catching up with him or too much time on the personal bar stool he too frequently graces at Pawling Avenue which causes a red nose and some shaking of his hands.