from the Eagle Tribune;
Fire hits house in Atkinson
By Jarret Bencks jbencks@eagletribune.com
ATKINSON — A car battery charger is believed to have caused a fire yesterday at a house on Sawmill Road.
The fire broke out just before 12:30 p.m. at 31 Sawmill Road, prompting a neighbor to call the Fire Department when she saw smoke coming from the garage of the ranch-style house, fire Chief Michael Murphy said.
The flames climbed the outer wall and into the attic, but the fire was doused before it spread to the living area or caused any major damage to the garage, Murphy said.
Two adults and two children were home when the fire began, but no one was injured, Murphy said. They did not realize there was a fire in the garage until they were warned by their neighbor, he said.
"It was her action that kept it from extending to the living structure," Murphy said.
He said it appeared the fire was started by a car battery charger that was in use.
The fire was under control by 12:46 p.m. and firefighters had cleared the scene by 1:15.
While the fire was quickly extinguished, other departments were called as a precaution because of yesterday's heat, Murphy said. Firefighters from Hampstead, Danville and Sandown also responded.
Some of the garage's contents burned, Murphy said.
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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19 comments:
I miss having new stories on the blog.....nothing has changed for over a week. No newspaper articles or any town news etc. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I check everyday & there's nothing new to read. Any news on the people who were suppose to move from the lake area??? There was going to be a court case etc. Just wondered what that outcome was...
Hats off to another job well done by out FD! I am glad it was not real bad...
So what's new with the Osborne saga?? I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop or the story to come to a dramatic conclusion; perhaps a gunfight as the Bldg Insp tries to force an eviction.
I bet the town backs off. They never enforce laws.
The town isn't backing off. The court case is slogging its way through various iterations of discovery and counterclaims.
I heard tickets to the Con's award dinner are only $8.00.
Kind of expensive.
*** request to mods ***
Please update the link to DanvilleDelivery.com to point to http://danvilledelivery.wordpress.com
There will be a lot of information posted this winter and I don't want anyone to miss out!
Okay, I'm done with this blog! Nothing ever changes ... boring!!!!
Slow summer
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for the salaries of top local government officials to be posted online, in the wake of a pay scandal that has outraged residents in a southern California city.
The move follows the revelation that the city manager of Bell, which is part of Greater Los Angeles, was being paid almost $800,000 (£500,000).
Speaking to business leaders in San Diego, Mr Schwarzenegger said angry members of the public had been calling city halls around California demanding to know what officials were paid.
He said that if local governments "had nothing to hide", then they should post the salaries on city council websites.
The salary scandal was exposed by the Los Angeles Times, which revealed that Robert Rizzo, the city manager, was being paid $787,637.
His deputy, Angela Spaccia, received $376,288, while the police chief, Randy Adams, took home $457,000. All three have resigned.
Four of the council's five part-time, elected members have agreed to a 90% cut in their salaries. They had been earning almost $100,000.
The council members have said, however, that they will not resign - much to the chagrin of local people.
The salaries were hugely out of step with the levels of pay made to most public officials in California and around the US.
The Bell officials were also receiving pay packets that dwarfed the income of most area residents.
Bell, a small city of about 38,000 people, has an unemployment level of 16% and many in the mainly Hispanic, blue-collar community struggle to make ends meet. About 17% of people live in poverty.
"The real question is, what were they thinking?" said California's attorney general, Jerry Brown, as he announced a wide-ranging investigation.
"What was the atmosphere in Bell that would allow this and make it plausible at least to the members of the city council?" added Mr Brown, who is a candidate to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger as the state's governor.
Bell's mayor, Oscar Hernandez, has apologized to the community and said he will step down after completing the rest of his term without pay.
Hundreds of records have been subpoenaed from the city as part of the state attorney general's investigation into possible criminal activity. The inquiry is expected to take up to six weeks.
Local residents are furious that their civic leaders were enjoying lavish salaries, for many years, apparently without anyone in the outside world noticing.
This story of outrageous salaries and monster pensions... was simply something that slipped through the cracks”
End Quote Michael Linder Los Angeles reporter
Hundreds of people have vented their anger at council meetings. Residents say they want more heads to roll and they are prepared to organize a recall election to oust council members who refuse to quit.
The scandal has highlighted a lack of local media coverage of Bell and many other outlying cities in California.
"There are 88 municipalities within the county of Los Angeles alone," explains Michael Linder, an investigative reporter with KABC radio in Los Angeles.
"This story of outrageous salaries and monster pensions, that could help bankrupt the state of California and the city of Bell, was simply something that slipped through the cracks.
"There is no local newspaper in Bell or within the little cluster of cities that surround it, that cover the city council."
The Los Angeles Times made public city council documents that local people had apparently been trying to access for years.
But the Times is the only major metropolitan newspaper covering the region, and it has seen major cutbacks over the past five years.
"If there's any lesson, it's got to be that our antenna have to be even more acute in this era of cut-backs," says Peter Shaplen, a veteran network TV news producer, based in California.
"Bell is remarkable for its inherent blandness... it's a town where nobody was paying attention because nobody had any reason to think that anything was amiss - and I think that's where the lesson is,"
The scandal has focused attention on other local authorities that receive little or no media attention and raised questions about a lack of accountability for locally elected officials.
Riot police were called after clashes outside a Bell council meeting on Monday
"Citizen journalists are going to have to very much take up the role of watchdog for their communities," says Mr Linder.
But citizen journalists, while well-meaning, may not be best equipped to expose any wrong-doing by potentially secretive local authorities.
"I'm not expecting citizen journalists to be the same as trained professionals," says Mr Shaplen.
"It's not just a whistle-blower role, and it's not just somebody who has the first camera on the scene or picks up the phone.
"Citizen journalism works when people who care are heard by the organizations which buy ink by the ton."
Mr Linder agrees that citizen journalists would struggle to expose a scandal on the scale of Bell city council.
"Citizen journalists do not have the clout that a major metropolitan newspaper, or the power of a TV camera has, in being able to force city officials to come clean," he says.
"It's going to be extremely difficult for citizen journalists to crack the core of corruption within city government."
Our local paper doesn't cover our town either. They print what they are told to print. BTW, what happened to Eric Parry? He is no longer our ET reporter. Did someone pay a visit to the paper to complain that he was neutral?
I believe Atkinson is hiding alot too. Why else would they be secretive about meetings, minutes, putting up with the corruption? If they were honest, we would not have all these lawsuits and turmoil. Residents would be treated fairly and all would have access to services, not just those the bully befriends.
A conspiracy behind every tree! Oh! My!
Conspiracies have a hidden element. Around here, they do it in the open! Blatant corruption.
Gross exageration doesn't win arguments or change minds
It's exaggerating to say it's 'Gross exageration'.
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