Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Meaners Strike Again!

The Camden town office

From one of our local papers, The Camden Herald, comes more news of the toboggan championships:

Camden recreation officials tone down toboggan race committee's celebration
CAMDEN — Public recreation officials are toning down this year’s post-toboggan races celebration for the race committee, following criticism they fielded from some members of the public last year.

Recreation Director Jeff Kuller said Thursday that, after the February 2006 National Toboggan races at the Snow Bowl, the volunteer race committee was treated to dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant on Bay View Street, paid for with town funds.

But because the town “caught some heat” for doing this, the celebration this year will be limited to a pizza party, Kuller said.

The 2006 dinner cost the town $300.70 according to Kuller’s records. He said the money paid only for the food. The 20 people in the party were required to buy their own alcohol, he said. The restaurant bill works out to $15 a head.

This year’s pizza party will also be paid for from a town account, Kuller said. The 2007 toboggan races netted at least $39,000 according to Kuller.

The recreation director explained this situation after Herald readers posted remarks on our Website.


A band of surly but dedicated volunteers gave up days to stand in the cold watching-for free- everyone else get drunk and have fun. In the process they helped raise $39,000 for Maine's (and maybe the USA's) last municipal ski mountain*, kept most people safe, and tended to the injuries of those who plowed into ice houses and fish shacks. In return, a bunch of local busy bodies have kicked up a fuss about spending $300 to say thank you.

MEANERS**! I call MEANERS on them! MEANERS to the killjoy penny pinchers!

What assholes.

(* I say either privatise the ski operations on the mountain or restructure it as a non-profit that can fundraise to promote year-round recreational opportunity to the midcoast rather than have it as a line-item in the town budget, but that is by-the-by).

(** Working Meaner definition is about halfway down in this bit)

7 comments:

flyingrodent said...

This is surely the most despicable example of race hatred I've seen today.

Wisdom Weasel said...

Oh is it now, you knock-kneed, hairy palmed, paler than a daikon radish, miserly, deep fried, drunken, chain smoking Scotsman?

SkookumJoe said...

I tried to chain smoke a scotsman once but he kept going out. Seems I was lighting the wrong end.

flyingrodent said...

For a moment there I thought you were attempting to insult me, Weasel.

Thankfully I have a mirror in my bathroom, although I did get chips stuck to my feet when I went to look in it.

Deep-fried Mars bar is bloody difficult to get out of carpets, let me tell you...

Wisdom Weasel said...

Insult? More of a love tap.

Bet I'm paler than you: people get proximity flash burns walking past me on the beach.

Speaking of the deep fried, what's that macaroon thing my cousin tells me about? Is it really deep fried chocolate coated marzipan?

Jim said...

If towns can’t frivolously waste $300 of their funds on a “thank you” dinner for some dedicated volunteers, I don’t know what else they should do with the taxpayer’s money in Camden.

A $15 meal is not a lot, and is a nice gesture to volunteers; and people wonder why volunteerism is on the wane.

Meaners is right!!

Wisdom Weasel said...

I look at it this way: if they had been paid just for the two days of racing (nevermind the planning and the set-up) the volunteers would have cost something on the order of 10 to 20 times the $300 of a thank you dinner.

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