When is Harvest Season?

Seems I may have ruffled a few feathers with my article "Social Club Embroiled in Controversy ". At the last two social functions of the Captain William Jackman Social Club held at the community center I was accosted and harassed by two separate members of the club executive. Willie Squires did the honors on April 3rd at the regular monthly dance and on May 22nd at the Mother’s/Father’s day dinner and dance the duty fell to Bill Birmingham, club vice-president and project chairman for “Harvesting our History”. Neither of these gentlemen has called me or visited me to discuss any issues but waited to accost me at public functions.

Mr. Birmingham was annoyed that in my last article I said he lived in the community for three years. He states it was a few years more than that but he obviously missed the point. The point was that he did not know the history of the community nor did he know the people who made that history. He was not, and still is not, informed enough to determine what collected information is relevant to our community history. Yet he is responsible for directing the collection of that material. The only other person on the committee, Elaine Reddy has even less time in the community than Mr. Birmingham. So absolutely, I question their ability to do the job and as the person responsible for acquiring the funding for the Harvesting our History project I have a valid interest in the final result.

I did ask Mr. Birmingham some question in relation to the project activities but his response to all was, “None of you business!” I reminded him that I was a club member and a taxpayer and was entitled to information on public monies. His answer was the same but more emphatic. So much for openness and accountability in the club executive.

What I can report is that we are nearing the mid-point in the year, six months into a twelve month project. The project office remains unused at a cost of $300 a month. No data base has been set up. No one is collecting data. Thousands of dollars in computer equipment sits idle ( OOOPs one newsletter was produced so somewhere a computer was used for 15 minutes. (They are still behind schedule by five newsletters.) And Mr. Birmingham seems more intent on harassing me than getting on with the job.

Not to put too much on Mr. Birmingham’s shoulders. The president of the club Basil Reddy claims overall responsibility for the project but seems just as inept as the others at moving the project forward.  So my question is: When is harvest season?