From atlee at umd.edu  Tue May 13 14:20:58 2008
From: atlee at umd.edu (Dick Atlee)
Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 14:20:58 -0400
Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] (Skip Greenlaw) Repeal petition can continue
	as is
Message-ID: <4829DC0A.3070900@umd.edu>

There was concern among repeal advocates that the petition campaign 
might have to start all over, since the law is now different from what 
it was when the campaign started.  Apparently this will not be a problem.

Dick

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	BREAKING NEWS
Date: 	Tue, 13 May 2008 12:27:51 -0400
From: 	skipgreenlaw <skipg at hypernet.com>
To: 	skipgreenlaw <skipg at hypernet.com>

Good afternoon everyone,

THE BREAKING NEWS IS THAT JUDY SPROULE AND I HAVE JUST SPENT 45 MINUTES
TALKING WITH BRYAN DENCH AND
JENNIFER THOMPSON, OUR LAWYERS, AND THEY TOLD US THAT IT IS THEIR
CONSIDERED OPINION AFTER CONSULTING WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE
THAT OUR PETITION
IS VALID AND "GOOD TO GO".

I AM NOT GOING TO TRY TO PARAPHASE WHAT BRYAN AND JENNIFER TOLD US.
THEY PROMISED TO WRITE US A LETTER
WITHIN 24 HOURS.  I SHALL FORWARD IT TO YOU AS SOON AS I
RECEIVE IT.

I'LL BET THAT THIS IS THE BEST NEWS ANY OF US HAVE HAD ALL DAY OR MAYBE
THIS YEAR.  LET'S GET THIS PETITION COMPLETED ON JUNE 10TH, PRIMARY
ELECTION DAY.

BEST WISHES,
Skip


From atlee at umd.edu  Tue May 20 11:13:43 2008
From: atlee at umd.edu (Dick Atlee)
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 11:13:43 -0400
Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] (Skip Greenlaw) Planning for collecting
	signatures on June 10, 2008
Message-ID: <4832EAA7.6080300@umd.edu>

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Planning for collecting signatures on June 10, 2008
Date: 	Tue, 20 May 2008 07:24:47 -0400
From: 	skipgreenlaw <skipg at hypernet.com>

Good morning everyone,

Judy Sproule, Bucket Davis and I met at the Brewer Auditorium on
Saturday for two and one half hours.  We had some good discussion and
started making plans for collecting the remaining signatures on primary
day, June 10, 2008.  Incidentally, Judy, Lauren, and I are going to
update our count of signatures tomorrow, Weds. (5/21) and will let you
know what the count is.

Judy located on the Secretary of State's website the tabulation of the
votes for the 2006 June primary, which as you will remember involved a
gubernatorial contest.  This information is very instructive because it
tells us that there are
relatively few people who voted in the rural areas.  My suspicion is
that we have already collected the signatures from many of those who
will vote on  primary election day in rural Maine.  I am listing the
websites below, and I recommend that you find your own community to
determine whether it is worth your time to collect signatures on June 10.

Democratic votes:
   http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006p/prio06gd.html
Green Independent votes:
   http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006p/prio06gg.html
Republican votes:
   http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006p/prio06gr.html

The other instructive information is that the urban areas such as many
communities in Androscoggin, Cumberland, and York counties is where the
large number of voters will vote.  Please also remember that there is a
hotly contested
primary, at least in the Democratic Party, for the nomination to the
seat which Congressman Tom Allen is vacating to
run for the US Senate.  So collecting signatures at the polls in York
and Cumberland Counties, and in fact in all the counties of the 1st
District (to include in addition Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Knox,
Kennebec, maybe Oxford?) will be the focus of our efforts.

Bucket has already arranged  with Roger Shaw  to have a meeting at the
Fort Elementary School in Mars Hill on Thursday, May 29 at 6 PM.  The
purpose of the meeting will be to try to raise money at the municipal
level in Aroostook County as Bucket did in Washington County and from
three communities in Hancock County.  (We have only received
contributions of $175 in the past two weeks.)  The Stonington selectmen
have agreed to add an article to their warrant to raise $3000 in June
and there is one more unnamed community where I hope we will raise a
similar amount.  Our goal is to raise $25,000 so that we can employ
signature collectors at as many urban polling places where we cannot
secure volunteers.  For example, Portland has 16 polling places and So.
Portland has 4 polling places.  The cost per signature will be much less
than what we have spent before; more about that later.  Bucket feels
confident based on his conversations with Roger that we can raise money
in the County.  With that in mind, I called
Dick Dyer yesterday and asked him to get his collectors collecting
signatures as soon as possible and to begin to schedule collectors at
polling locations.  We may also want to have some radio spots in the
Cumberland and York
areas to alert voters that we are collecting signatures at the polls on
June 10.

Finally, one more suggestion which Judy made.  We all know that
disposeable income to make a contribution to support our efforts is very
scarce.  Judy suggested that some of you may be able to spend a day
collecting signatures in Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, or any other urban
area of your choice.  Please consider this opportunity carefully.  We
need to establish the biggest effort we can develop so that we collect
suficient signatures to submit them to the Secretary of State in June
and not have this continue through the summer and into the fall.  That
ought to be enough motivation to get this job done now.

So please let us know if you can collect signatures on June 10th.  If
you have any suggestions or ideas, please share them with us.  If you
think your town or city might contribute to our effort, please let us
know and we'll send you information to support that request.

Thank you all for making this effort come together and get done.

Gratefully,
Skip

PS   Please let me know if anyone needs petitions, and I shall send them
forthwith.


From skipg at midmaine.com  Wed May 21 20:29:24 2008
From: skipg at midmaine.com (skipgreenlaw)
Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 20:29:24 -0400
Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] Fw: 2006 votes];
	41,875 SIGNATURES AND COUNTING
Message-ID: <003501c8bba5$6ac1e8b0$e825fc42@IBM3541B964658>

Good evening everyone,

Judy Sproule, Lauren Romain, and I met today to update the signature count, which now equals 41,875 and counting.

Several of you have e-mailed me to tell me that you could not access the secretary of state's website about the 2006 June primary elections.
So, I am forwarding Judy's original e-mail with the websites, which I was able to access tonight.

Sincerely,
Skip


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Judy Sproule 
To: Skip Greenlaw 
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 4:00 PM
Subject: [Fwd: 2006 votes]


Skip -
I am sending this to your new address to see if that works. Let me know, please.
Judy

-------- Original Message -------- Subject:  2006 votes 
      Date:  Fri, 16 May 2008 08:49:20 -0400 
      From:  Judy Sproule <jcsproule at roadrunner.com> 
      To:  Skip Greenlaw <skipg at hypernet.com> 



Skip,
I found a tabulation of votes from June 7 by office, then by party, so 
we'll have to look at all three. I think that will work; we're just 
looking for the big numbers (scroll down to see votes by towns). Here 
are the links for the votes for governor:
Democratic:    http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006p/pri06gd.html
Green Independent:    http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006p/pri06gg.html
Republican:    http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006p/pri06gr.html

Would you reply, please, to confirm that you got this?
Thanks,
Judy



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From skipg at midmaine.com  Sun May 25 09:10:39 2008
From: skipg at midmaine.com (skipgreenlaw)
Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 09:10:39 -0400
Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] Fw: Request for opinion regarding petitions
	to repeal school consolidation laws
Message-ID: <005401c8be6b$42e967f0$4125fc42@IBM3541B964658>

Request for opinion regarding petitions to repeal school consolidation lawsGood morning everyone,

PLEASE REMEMBER TO CHANGE MY E-MAIL ADDRESS TO
skipg at midmaine.com.  THANK YOU.

The enclosed attachment from Bryan Dench provides confirmation that the Secretary of State concurs with Bryan's opinion that our petition is not impacted by the fact that the recent sesssion of the legislature
enacted LD 2323 which amended the school consolidation law.

We thank Bryan and his associate, Jennifer Thompson, for their excellent legal analysis and opinion.  This ought to provide additional 
encouragement that our work can move forward and that we can finish collecting the necessary signatures (approximately 18,000) on primary election day, Tuesday, June 10 and file the petition in June.

If anyone needs copies of the petitions together with instructions to collect signatures, please contact me at skipg at midmaine.com or call me at 367-2738.  Every effort that anyone can make will ensure that we have sufficient signatures to file the petition.

Another reminder, we still need to raise some money to cover our expenses.  Please send any contribution to our treasurer, Judy Sproule,
18 Rothry Lane, Trenton, Me. 04605 and make a check out to Maine
Coalition to Save Schools.

Have a great remainder of this beautiful weekend!!!!!!

Sincerely,
Skip


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dench, Bryan M. 
To: skipgreenlaw ; Judy Sproule 
Cc: Thompson, Jennifer L. 
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 12:02 AM
Subject: FW: Request for opinion regarding petitions to repeal school consolidation laws


Dear Skip,

 

I am pleased to forward Secretary Dunlap's response to my request for his opinion regarding the petition.  He agreed with my analysis that upon our timely filing the petitions with the requisite number of signatures the SOS would have no authority to review it again in light of LD 2323 but would instead transmit it to the Legislature and ultimately to the voters.  This is gratifying.  Best of luck in the ongoing effort to collect signatures.

 

Regards, Bryan

 

Bryan M. Dench 
Attorney at Law 
Skelton, Taintor & Abbott 
Attorneys at Law 
95 Main Street - P.O. Box 3200 
Auburn, ME 04212-3200 
207. 784.3200 x. 304 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Smith, John T. [mailto:John.T.Smith at maine.gov] 
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 6:41 PM
To: Dench, Bryan M.
Cc: Dunlap, Matthew; Gardiner, Phyllis; Flynn, Julie
Subject: RE: Request for opinion regarding petitions to repeal school consolidation laws

 

Mr. Dench,

Attached to this email you will find Secretary Dunlap's response to your letter dated May 16, 2008.  Please call or email should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

John T. Smith

 

 

John T. Smith

Deputy Secretary of State

148 State House Station

Augusta, Maine 04333-0148

Phone: 207-626-8409

Fax: 207-287-8598

 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Dench, Bryan M. [mailto:bdench at 3200.com] 
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 6:37 PM
To: Office, SOS
Cc: phyllis.gardiner at state.me.us; Thompson, Jennifer L.; Toth, Michele L.; skipgreenlaw; Judy Sproule
Subject: Request for opinion regarding petitions to repeal school consolidation laws

<<Dunlap letter re petition.pdf>> 
Please see the attached letter, Mr. Secretary.  Thank you. 

 

Bryan M. Dench 
Attorney at Law 
Skelton, Taintor & Abbott 
Attorneys at Law 
95 Main Street - P.O. Box 3200 
Auburn, ME 04212-3200 
207. 784.3200 x. 304 





This e-mail message is confidential and protected by the attorney client privilege and every other privilege. The privilege is not waived by mistaken delivery to the wrong person. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and keep no copies. 

In accordance with Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we hereby advise you that if this e-mail or any attachment hereto contains any tax advice, such tax advice was not intended or written to be used, and it cannot be used, by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer by the Internal Revenue Service.

SKELTON, TAINTOR & ABBOTT 
 



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From atlee at umd.edu  Fri May 30 18:27:06 2008
From: atlee at umd.edu (Dick Atlee)
Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 18:27:06 -0400
Subject: [Local-Maine-Schools] 5% cut in transportation costs? No problem...
Message-ID: <48407F3A.4060900@umd.edu>

In case the DOE doesn't see any problem with cutting transportation 
costs, they might find some ideas on how to do that from this article 
(not pretty).

---------------------------------
States Grapple With Fuel Costs for School Buses
   Rising fuel costs force districts to scratch programs,
   trim expenses to fill school bus tanks
By WHITNEY WOODWARD
Associated Press Writer
May 30, 2008 (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4962551

(Among the various approaches to saving money is a Minnesota district 
going to a four-day school week because of transportation fuel costs. 
But what about next winter...)