No brakes for me when I was 8, No brakes for me now at 53. Get out of my way.
8/23/14- The personal history I am revealing here will be uncomfortable for some. Knowing that my brother Jr. invited my ex back into my life both times I tried to get him out in 1985 and at divorce filing in 2005 throws all this into play. They are not secrets, it is not gossip. It is my story, my life, thrown into the public by Belfast City Hall, Belfast Real Estate Agents and my brother.
Jr. continually and openly entertaining my ex at my old family cottage, banishing me from Bayside. The pain too great. Even when I moved here in 2010. Jr. did not offer to help at all. OK. Then he flew my brother Donald in from Alabama a few weeks later. My son had never met Donald. Jr.s wife, Sheila asked Joe to stay away so that I could be with my family. That was very sweet of her. Very sad that she had to do that, can you imagine? My ex didn't listen, he brought Michael over to meet Donald before I had a chance. Why they didn't tell him to get the hell out there and never come back, tells volumes of history.
The real estate agents and City Hall made it personal, used my trauma's to sell me undisclosed hell and crush my rights and soul. The Compassionate Cities sharing the same meetings as I try to save our lives is my sign to tell my story. To see just how horrible people pretending to be someone else can be. With my family, there is much more dark that will always stay in the dark. That dark is the reason to claw your way out or let it eat you alive. I clawed my way right into another dark hole of human hell disguised by such natural beauty.
This week I will file suit against the local corrupt businesses that knowingly, with great pretending concern, also stuck it to me. J&B AutoBody, Rte 52 Belfast and Ridge Top Chimney Sweep -Chris Kulbe and his dangerous, illegal stove pipe and chimney installation. I hired him because of his interview on BCTV- Mr. Safety firefighter professional. He really sent me reeling- 2 years he has been stringing me along. Pretending and lying. A fellow Jersey Boy, blah, blah, blah...
How many times can one female be taken advantage of...her entire life to date. And day can be my last, and this must be told. My kids suffer and struggle, torn as Mom takes on fight after fight that keep crashing into our lives. Their entire lives. They will be 17 and 21 this year. The day will come when they are free to see their Mom. I love you both above all else. Invisible Bullet after bullet, I stay and always will.
The 8/19/14 Belfast City Council Meeting contains the essence of compassion vs. corruption and hypocrites in denial(public and government).
Open to the public is for individuals to present their individual or group concerns to the public and governments. The truest freedom. The truest public pulse test. The difficulty to hear proven corruption on so many levels, on so many issues by people that you given your trust and compassion is a problem. These entities are bound ethically and legally to protect the people. It never ceases to hurt me though to have the people of the public take public swipes at me.
Skip Pendleton has yet to take a verbal swipe, but his body and face speaks volumes at every encounter. Disgust for me. He is a volunteer pillar, leader, loved and adored, family history that probably predates Belfast, and probably most that support him, share his disgust for me. None of these people have ever bothered to speak to me. Some of Skip's extended family were my friends before I was sold hell in 2010. Not anymore. They look away. It always hurts. They were never friends, they pretended.
This Larry guy- Tighe? is another pillar, more on the political spectrum. When he speaks, I pay attention and pay respect. The few encounters we have had were respectful greetings. I was side-blinded when I just clicked on the 2nd open to public at the end of the meeting and he took a swipe at me. That is what prompted me to write about open to the public.
Larry is way out of line. I am trying to save my home. How dare he diminish me. He is upset that Council finally, after 4 years, gave one small step towards accountability towards the slaughter of my property. What do I have to do with his agenda for the withdraw? NOTHING. Another pretender.
Where did their integrity go, long time passing....
http://belfastme.swagit.com/play/08192014-1342/#2
click 6- open to the public
Skip Pendleton with pedestrian committee concerns for Swan Lake Ave that have been previously discussed many times and are under action by City Council and Belfast PD
UU Minister Perkins for Compassionate Cities and my new hero. http://charterforcompassion.org/city-campaigns
And me and my 4 year in plea to stop (proven, documented, tracked & mapped, pictures, video's, invitations, request after request publicly and privately for investigation, offering resolution after resolution over 50 meetings exposing City Hall and real estate corruption, extortion fee attempts for public documents and information that are with held, denied, and manipulated, intimidation tactics with assistance from the of Belfast PD, City Attorney, State Boards, Commissions, DEP, Attorney General, Governor, private attorneys, local businesses, tainted City committee's, all those in corruption denial or approval) the corruption and the forced City water slaughter to the flood plain, flood zone, private property of Seaview Terrace.
Larry Tighe with an alarming reporting on the RSU20 School withdraw that is also under action and City assistance for over 2 years
From there it will go to communications. At 9:42 in, Council's comments are 6 of one half dozen of another. Had this been addressed 4 years ago when I first got slaughtered by undisclosed forced water of enormous geography, I would not be in these meetings period. No one would even know me. Everything I have said is true. Proving it against all their attempts to shut me down has been beyond horror. To hear them personalize me again and again is unethical and unprofessional. Lee takes a swipe at me again and Hurley spins another lie, stating I said "to send her water at other people's" he is drumming up neighbor pitting again.
First, it is not MY water- it's CITY RUNOFF WATER that City's build infrastructure with our property taxes to protect EVERYONE'S property.
Second- the runoff from the ANNEX was approved to run into Mid Coast Mental health's property behind David Smith's house. It is not HIS property. The Annex runoff is illegally coming to MY property and I have pleaded and pleaded for this to be fixed for 2 years now. No action.
Third- All rerouting is to CITY MAINTAINED PROPERTY AND SEWERS. Wight Street is undergoing massive improvements, City Planner Wayne Marshall is pushing for sidewalks and infrastructure upgrades with the rezoning to R3. The City has routed that water to Wight Street- the City has ALWAYS been the one routing it to "OTHER PEOPLE'S"
City Council has got to do something with Hurley. He is a danger. Proven here, this Compassion drive has got him squealing. Nancy Hamilton is no better. She has to go to. Totally unethical for her to be on City Council with her husband as the planning board chair. She speaks up to thank a volunteer, Skip Pendleton for using his influence to keep pushing her agenda.
I have not watched this entire meeting. I can't bear to hear the spending on greedy wants as we drown. The Compassionate Cities prompted me to begin writing my story below. I have more to add, Mom was a Rosie the Riveter and how she met my Dad, good stuff. Looking for the pictures is another emotional journey of pivotal capturing moments. Then I start reflecting on my compassion skills and how they were hampered from the constant assaults with no one stepping in to help. I turned to speech and sarcasm. What am I to do? Lay down and allow us to die? Or keep hanging on and keep trying however I can to keep it on the front lines? Only mothers that have been through the same can truly grasp the strength and compassion needed to sustain the mobs mentality. The mothers are the easiest prey to dismantle- the thugs use your children. It is proven here. Again and again. Family, Government, Schools and Police. The Wall and little me. Who says an ant can't? I've got high hopes. Thank You Compassion Cities.
Click on 10 and watch the show. I'll need another page for that. Hurley and Hamilton are wicked souls. Lee, Sanders and Ash have guilty souls. Mortier is self serving, I'll leave it there.
Where have all the flowers gone... they are still here, in my yard, I will save them. And take breaks in my hammock, breathe deep. Ommmmm.
Except this time. City Manager Joe Slocum has the economic director send me an email clearly to bait me into missing my chance for public comment. I had no doubt that was the plan.
_____________________________________________________________________
From:
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Thomas Kittredge (economicdevelopment@cityofbelfast.org)This sender is in your contact list.
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Sent:
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Tue 2/18/14 1:33 PM
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To:
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LAURIE ALLEN (laurieallen55@msn.com)
Ms. Allen – I wanted to bring to your attention that the public hearing for the Northport TIF has been moved from immediately preceding tonight’s Council meeting, to the actual business agenda for tonight’s meeting, as item E-1. Agenda is attached. I am not sure exactly what time that we will get to it on tonight’s agenda, as it will depend on how quickly preceding agenda items go.
Thomas Kittredge
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I knew better. I got there early. Sure enough, the paper agenda given to public at the meeting did not have the Northport Ave TIF Public Hearing listed, yet when the administrative assistant Manda Cushing read the hearings, her copy had the TIF as the 4th public hearing PRECEDING the meeting. Watch as I go to the podium confused and City Manager Joe Sloscum jumps in to say there will be 2 public hearings for the TIF. Bull. Had I not been there, he could have made that change when the meeting came to order during adoption of the agenda. He would have played stupid, saying there was some confusion, the public hearing for the TIF listed as item E-1 was wrong. Public Hearings are by law held prior, which they did, please strike E1 - public comment from the agenda. I would have protested and got escorted out by Officer Ward.
Instead it bit water boy in the balloon. I got to speak 2 times and out of all my public speakings, this one ranks first. Poor Manda is shaken, she is new, and I am shaken too each time I watch this. Listening to my Council, Miss Piggy Mortier assist Water Boy Slocum and attempt to minimize the transfer of these funds to the downtown after all my time and heart spent trying to secure that funding was retching.That they calculated to stop me from publicly speaking and may have succeeded is flat out
fas·cism
noun \ˈfa-ˌshi-zəm also ˈfa-ˌsi-\
: a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government
: very harsh control or authority
At minimum City Manager Joe Slocum, City Planner Wayne Marshall and City Council Mike Hurley display proven psychopathy." The psychopath can appear normal, even charming. Underneath, they lack conscience and empathy, making them manipulative, volatile and often (but by no means always) criminal. They are an object of popular fascination and clinical anguish: psychopathy is largely impervious to treatment."
It is not only this meeting but already in place when I moved here in 2010. These 3- Marshall, Slocum and Hurley are the constant bullies wielding power and the traits of psychopaths.Hurley came here from NJ in 1985? Poor Belfast, easy pickings for the evil ego's. My first protest in the center of town, 2011, brought Jay Davis, City Council Maniacal Mike Hurley's buddy (I did not know who Jay was at that time) Jay asked me what was the problem? I asked him if he really wanted to know?
He said yes. I gave him a short story- real estate agents selling undisclosed hell because City Hall secretly floods private property destroying homes and lives. Jay told me that my protesting corruption is not how things were done around here. Did I go talk to Mike Hurley about it? I told him I did and Hurley couldn't shut it down fast enough. Jay tipped his hat, said Good Luck and walked away. Then I learned he was a BFF of Michael Maniacal and Jay was also the director of the Restorative Justice Program. Oh poleez. This was going to be very bad. Beat up me against mini Gotham. So be it, I stand for my children, our home, our rights, our democracy. New blog under way- www.michaelmaniacal.blogspot.com I'll start posting Meetings with Maniacal Mike tomorrow. Check back for- Here's Johnny Putin on his "Happy".
They all vote to rob the TIF and nail the coffin shut on Seaview Terrace. I'm still kicking and will until. When the meeting begins to play- 1 minute later is when Manda reads the Northport TIF Public Hearing- and I am there and speak for 2 minutes. Then click 10E- The E.D. spends 7 minutes explaining the theft and I get up again at 7:40. Whoa, It's powerful. Mayor Ash attempts to intimidate me again. Not a chance Spanky. They continue as if I never spoke. White Collar Murderers.
http://belfastme.swagit.com/play/02182014-1309/#15 And below my personal bio, I have to tolerate Joe Sloscum stating he does not have the funds to save Seaview Terrace. It never ends. Tens of thousands wasted in this 4 year cover-up. |
8/22/14- A pity- I got deleted again on the Penbay article announcing City Council Roger Lee is not running again. The post I replied by Junker207 got deleted too. Even though it was posted for 2 days. I didn't copy it though. Just mine- I must be on some kind of alert for all the media online posts. They nail me. Tainted reporting in Maine. Can't understand it. Dancing around the corruption.
My 3 Mainer Boys- Ted, Laird and Bill with Wilbur, Ted's dog.
Here, Here Junker207. Although I was born in NJ, @ 8 yrs old in 1969, I converted. I swam in those chicken guts, grabbed on to 3 Mainer boys for my best friends till this day and hate that Maine's lax laws are easy pickings for the expert loop holer's by out of staters. Baiting and implicating some Mainers- Belfast ain't seen nothing yet once the small print of the Comprehensive Plan really squeezes out City Hall's undesirables.Unless you can get a hold of the "changes only" binder City Planner, Wayne Marshall is giving City Council for approval to vote the plan in within weeks. They have slammed me down so many times, I'll never get a hold of the binder in time. Or ever. They deny every request for public information but disguise it by saying they gave it to and I don't know what I am looking at. Telling me to hire a lawyer to work with the City Attorney to try and get those public documents. Right- this potato ain't that stupid.
I have a hands on master's degree on City Hall corruption- mostly planning "cow tying". www.boycottbelfast.blogspot.com This blog was to boycott Belfast City Hall corruption, not businesses- only the one's who awarded Belfast City Manager Joe Slocum, Citizen of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce.
Email me- laurieallen55@msn.com and come to the Compassion Cities peace and compassion march on 9/5-9/6 beginning on Church St down to the water. Councilor Hurley and Hamilton sure are threatened by this movement at the 8/19/14 Belfast City Council meeting- click on #10. open to the public 6 has the RSU20 tax sucking update (I give saving Seaview another go) Education and infrastructure ignored and robbed by City Hall in their quest for greedy visions. Locking us in with grant pig-outs. http://belfastme.swagit.com/play/08192014-1342/#2 and low balling project costs for approval. Then come the totally foreseen "un-foreseen's" City Planner Wayne Marshall's forte.
8/22/14- Sadly, Seth Thayer, a heavy hitter here in Belfast and on the Our Town Belfast board, is the same Seth Thayer who bought my deceased sister's house in Bayside- Sunny Side. Seth knows all this family dysfunction, the Allen's have been loud in Bayside since 1969.
My sister, Janel Elizabeth Allen Miklos- 30? and mom, Helen Hell On Wheels Allen-60? 1979ish-
Seth is Mr. Gossip Queen. He has taken many public posting swipes at me. We have NEVER met each other. Here is a copy of one his posts with on the Bangor Daily News. I copied it and pasted it to the Our Town Belfast fb site. My City Council Mary Mortier and City Council Hurley are also on this board. One of them banned me from the Our Town Belfast site, just like the FB Save Our School sites (see above tab labeled more outrageous public postings) Breanna Bebb, director of Our Town Belfast was horrified and reinstated me immediately. Way to go Bre! It was so spectacular dancing with Bre at the street party a few weeks ago. A local summit by 2 women simply dancing, great healing. Seth your dance card is coming up. Maybe we can organize a town wide Alan Jackson- Boot Scoot Boogie- easy instructions right hereah... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsWZBLzawjc
Visit seththayer's profile
seththayer5:21 a.m., Thursday Feb. 13
just stop already. You, as an uniformed consumer, purchased a house that had some problems that you, as an uninformed consumer, are trying to pass off on anyone in your path. If you hate Belfast so much, it might be time to think about moving onto somewhere else. Take your losses and go. Buying a home is an investment choice, not a right. Sometimes people make bad investment choices, as you did in this case. The responsibility lies only with you.
I see Seth Thayer and Mary Mortier are on the board. Mary tell Seth how you, a realtor and my Council refuse to provide the Seaview Terrace MLS listings showing disclosure of the stream on those properties but not mine. Tell Seth how you take the 5th at the meetings instead of investigating and resolving, Tell Seth how Belfast City Hall lets and encourages businesses to drown Seaview Terrace by not removing plowed snow. Tell Seth that Seaview Terrace is not a natural outlet and you are drowning and destroying us. Seth has beat me verbally on the BDN posts a few times- telling me to get out of Belfast. A few horrible people can make this town so evil. I'll see you outside of this meeting and all nice days holding my signs. Looking forward to Seth's new building and the view. Nice place to protest. And I paid for a property inspection corrupt DJ Brown Property Inspectors, refused any properties that disclosed a stream, told BH&G Realtor #1 concern NO WATER ISSUES- drove 500 miles to see properties but 3 inches of fresh snow covered 1/4 acre yard- looked level and I was assured no water- Bill Ingersoll, BH&G Masiello Group High St Belfast Me- Listing Agent.
seththayer5:21 a.m., Thursday Feb. 13
just stop already. You, as an uniformed consumer, purchased a house that had some problems that you, as an uninformed consumer, are trying to pass off on anyone in your path. If you hate Belfast so much, it might be time to think about moving onto somewhere else. Take your losses and go. Buying a home is an investment choice, not a right. Sometimes people make bad investment choices, as you did in this case. The responsibility lies only with you.
I see Seth Thayer and Mary Mortier are on the board. Mary tell Seth how you, a realtor and my Council refuse to provide the Seaview Terrace MLS listings showing disclosure of the stream on those properties but not mine. Tell Seth how you take the 5th at the meetings instead of investigating and resolving, Tell Seth how Belfast City Hall lets and encourages businesses to drown Seaview Terrace by not removing plowed snow. Tell Seth that Seaview Terrace is not a natural outlet and you are drowning and destroying us. Seth has beat me verbally on the BDN posts a few times- telling me to get out of Belfast. A few horrible people can make this town so evil. I'll see you outside of this meeting and all nice days holding my signs. Looking forward to Seth's new building and the view. Nice place to protest. And I paid for a property inspection corrupt DJ Brown Property Inspectors, refused any properties that disclosed a stream, told BH&G Realtor #1 concern NO WATER ISSUES- drove 500 miles to see properties but 3 inches of fresh snow covered 1/4 acre yard- looked level and I was assured no water- Bill Ingersoll, BH&G Masiello Group High St Belfast Me- Listing Agent.
I didn't write this for pity, I never want pity. ACUE- Awareness, Compassion, Understanding,
Education. That's it. I don't know why I am the magnet for the dysfunctional, but there is no doubt I am. Which also makes me think that the dysfunctional are the majority and the minority better snap to. Dysfunctional family members that are ruthless need to be dealt with. Not set loose on society to become someone of danger in a white collar to seed their greed. Greed is the fire alarm regardless of collar color. All compassionate hands on deck. It ALL starts at home.
Joisey Girl circa 1964?
Hell stream not disclosed by agent Bill Ingersoll/Masiello Group High St Belfast, below property inspection by DJ Brown Property Inspectors supervised by Sam Mitchell/Masiello Group during spring melt April 2010. Stream/brook/unstabilized banks- nothing reported. Paid cash- not even told I was in a flood zone. Number one was NO WATER ISSUES. For 6 months I refused in person and in writing all properties showing/disclosing ANY water issues. Agents swore no water issues with 17 Seaview Terrace. I was telling this to a reporter last night and he asked me if they were bound to disclose the stream. I say yes but the Real Estate Commission has dismissed my complaint.
Yet, I know other stream properties on Seaview Terrace did disclose stream on their listings and I asked my City Council Ward and Real Estate Agent, Mary Mortier to print those listings for me. She said no for lawsuit purposes. I asked the Board for them, I had told them to look at them during the complaint process. They saw them but would not give me a copy. I asked all area real estate agents to give me a copy. NO. Then I got a letter from an attorney representing the Maine State Realtor Commission saying the listings are not public documents and I will not get those copies. That is corruption. They lead you to believe the Board will hold agents accountable for clear ethics violations and lying. The Board protects the agents, not the consumer. I gave the board all my proof, and I had a boatload. They investigator even said he has never received such detail and supporting documents. 
Town & Country Real Estate, High Belfast changed name to Masiello Group
Previously dry- after less than 2 inches in 3 hours- over 2 ft of water
From: laurieallen55@msn.com
To: minister@uubelfast.org; ward2councilor@cityofbelfast.org; laurieallen55@msn.com
CC: ward1councilor@cityofbelfast.org; ward3councilor@cityofbelfast.org; ward4councilor@cityofbelfast.org; ward5councilor@cityofbelfast.org; jslocum@cityofbelfast.org; news@penbaypilot.com
Subject: FW: Belfast Woman Fights Over City Drainage BDN 5/14
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 08:02:53 -0400
To All,
Total confirmation of my email to all last night, that I tried and tried to resolve ethically and civilly. This article is from 2012 and Tuesday night, 8/19/14 is the FIRST time a City Council rep has kind of , sort of, commented. Except for 11/2011 when I first went public and Hurley said it was the City Council's job to fix. If he wants to. Oy. Putin on the Happy video instead. Dance for me, don't look at the suffering.
I just learned that Roger is not running. Go out a hero, Roger. Save us fast. I'll be your biggest fan and promote the courage like you know I will and can. :)
Sincerely,
Laurie Allen
Belfast woman fights city over drainage
Posted May 14, 2012, at 6:41 p.m.
Last modified May 14, 2012, at 8:17 p.m.
Last modified May 14, 2012, at 8:17 p.m.
Tom Groening | BDN
Laurie Allen gestures to the stream that runs behind her house on Seaview Terrace in Belfast on Thursday, May 10, 2012. She believes the city's decisions about stormwater management have contributed to making the stream larger and more damaging to her property.
Laurie Allen of Seaview Terrace, a street that intersects Northport Avenue near Waldo County General Hospital, can be seen on some weekends carrying placards through the downtown that read “Belfast Bullies.” She maintains a blog on the issue and is a frequent speaker at City Council meetings, claiming the council is conspiring against her as she fights to keep her home dry and her backyard intact.
City officials maintain that the water flow, seen especially during rainy spells such as the area has experienced in the last few weeks, is part of the natural and managed drainage. Much of the city is built on a hill that pitches east to Penobscot Bay.
For Allen, the saga began last year. In June 2010, she purchased the house after a divorce, moving to Belfast from New Jersey. Last spring the stream behind her split-level ranch house filled.
“That was when it came gushing over the banks,” she said last week.
Except as far as Allen is concerned, it’s not a stream. The trench through which the water flows along her backyard was created when the flow was diverted, Allen said, when the Seaview Terrace subdivision was built in 1965. The natural drainage probably followed a course to the south of its current course, she said.
This is a point on which city officials and Allen agree. City Planner Wayne Marshall said aerial photos of the city from 1939 and 1957 show the stream, though it is likely that it was to the south of its current course.
But the city maintains that it has no responsibility to fix the problem. The subdivision, built as it was under the laws of the day, was legal and approved.
On Thursday, May 10, after a couple of days of heavy rain, Allen showed where the stream flowed, noting especially how the bank closest to her house had begun eroding. Her property line lies on the opposite bank of the stream, she said, pointing to a survey stake.
“I probably lost 4 to 5 feet of property,” she said.
Allen asserts that water has plagued the neighborhood for years, in both backyards and on the street side. Marshall confirms that in 1987, at the request of residents, the city engineer completed a report that examined the problem. It concluded the city was not on the hook for any fix.
Allen also notes that in subsequent years, major new building developments have added to runoff. They include the Captain Albert Stevens School, a townhouse development on Cedar Street, the Volunteers of America senior housing complex on Congress Street, a new hospital complex on the west side of Northport Avenue, and expansions of the Tall Pines nursing home and Mid-Coast Mental Health facility, both adjacent to Seaview Terrace.
At the top of Seaview Terrace is a culvert, about 40 inches in diameter, which feeds the trench that flows past Allen’s house. A gravel bank prevents water from flowing farther south and instead diverts it east toward the bay. Allen wants that gravel bank removed.
“I’ve asked for the full history of Seaview Terrace and the flooding,” Allen said. She said she has been stonewalled by city officials, a charge Marshall denies.
Allen said she worked behind the scenes to help city officials find a practical solution to the problem before going public with her complaints, beginning at a council meeting in November.
Some of Allen’s neighbors have grown tired of her activism, though. Bud Hand spoke at a recent council meeting asking the city to dissuade Allen from posting signs on her property complaining about her water problem.
The city’s position, said Marshall, is: “That is an active stream behind her property and it is part of a major drainage basin” for the area. When each new development in the area was built, he said, measures were taken to meet state and local regulations to hold back water from major storms.
And finally, Marshall said, the city can’t fix problems on private property.
Allen believes a fix to the water woes would cost her at least $45,000.
“If you’re not getting services from your city, where do you turn?” she asked.
I have tried to cover the corruption, it is practiced in the schools system as well, the businesses play along for obvious reasons, the most personally devastating is the real estate agents, also lying, wheeling and dealing, the consumer duped into buying a nightmare regardless of their law breaking. Maine is 4th in corruption and that comes from the top down. Maine Realtor Commission, DEP, Belfast City Hall, and Real Estate Agents and Property Inspectors. All tearing away at me for exposing their corruption for years and counting. I was their perfect victim, shredded to bones, desperate, children crashing, unemployed, and working with real estate agents that had a birds eye view into our trauma's and danger. I did it all right, this was my only chance and I knew it. With great courage, I did it alone. In 9/2009, the worst time to sell a home, foreclosure's, the market flooded, nothing selling, my NJ home riddled with code violations and in sad shape.
At 48, I was fading away. Everyone ran, it was too scary. Divorced in 2007 by 2009 I was a step away from destitution, agoraphobia set in. The kids were in Bayside for the summer. An old friend called me out of the blue and invited me down to the shore for her daughter's graduation party. I broke down, crying, afraid, I told her I could not make that 45 minute drive to Toms River. I rarely went out anymore, only for necessities.
In the 80's we used to go out dancing ALL the time at the shore, skiing, renting shore houses, we were foot loose and fancy free. Here we are at the company Christmas party- 1983- I'm 22. . DJ (my nickname for her- Dancing Jeanne) is the best dancer. Puts Flash Dance to shame. Oh did the boys love her.
She was beyond alarmed. She begged me to come down, just for an hour, I was sobbing, I had to hang up. That was the breaking point. I was either going down or getting up. The Eagles came on, "So often times it happens, that we live our lies in chains. And we never even know we have the key." And that was it. Music has been the best medicine. The next day, I put on a dress and my pearls. I went to that party. It was hard, I was crying down the Parkway. But I did it. The next day I bought a ticket to see Burn The Floor on Broadway. Alone, I took the train to NYC and subways and saw the show. Fantastic. I had never gone to NYC alone. I was scared. Riding in on the train, a man was giving a tourist all kinds of transportation information. He was in the next car- I heard him but couldn't see him. When it was time to get off the train, I got next to him. I asked him how he knew so much up the transportation system. He said he started out as a limo driver on the Jersey shore 30 years ago and uses mass trans every day commuting.
I told him I needed to get to Broadway via the subway and he said come on, I'll get you on the right subway. I kept thinking this guy was so familiar but it was so hectic- there was no room for further conversation. He was in a rush and was gone. Weeks later it hit me. He was our limo driver, friend of my rock and roll band(Red Handed) drummer boyfriend, John Kirsch. It was John's birthday and we did up the town in a limo. The train guy is the guy in white. I forget his name. I was 21.
In 9/2009, I put my NJ home up for sale and went to see my attorney, ethical to the hilt- Fred Roselli and told him we had a relocation battle to win. He said it was very unlikely, contested relocation is rarely granted. I said Do It. I was back. One phone call from someone who cared. That is all it took. DJ saved me.
6/2010 I pull into 17 Seaview Terrace, Belfast Me, my life packed in a 50 ft Penske Truck, my NJ home slashed to rock bottom and sold. The relocation motion was not even filed in NJ. Come the September, I may have to go back to NJ for school and be homeless. We were in really bad shape but I held on and kept going. I landed a job at Bank of America, Credit Card Services 3 days before I had to be back in New Jersey for the hearing. One week before school was to start, relocation awarded.
I did it, we could begin our new life, heal and be joyful with privacy, safety and peace. Not to be, a whole pack of white collar thugs, Real estate agents and City Hall began taking me down that spring when the dry small drainage ditch exploded into wild rapids for almost 2 weeks. Ripping away 1/4 of my backyard, my new fence close to falling in. HELP ME PLEASE... the thugs slammed the doors shut and 4 years of hell have ensued.
The atrocity of these Belfast white collar thugs, some businesses and some public, is they attack the nucleus of humanity, a mother and children relocating from a life of abuse to begin again. Against all odds, making it out and into an undisclosed water slaughter and hell. 50 years of adding City Hall calculated force flooding to the private property, dead end, 12 family, flood plain, flood zone, no rights of ways, no easements and definitely not a natural outlet.
Strange how people who know me so well, don't see me anymore. Choosing to think I have become someone else, but I am the same. I do what needs to be done and I see it through.
Below is just some random family things. I had posted a very upsetting history. After I read it again, I read it for the last time. I'm done with that grief. More progress. My, my, my....
That's my house on the corner. Great hill for skate boarding and sledding. We are in front of a real crazy man's house. He was the Tasty Cake Man. His panel truck loaded with flat tasty cake boxes. He would take us for a ride- tell us to lay on top of the boxes- they were almost to the ceiling- he would nail it and then slam on the brakes and we would go flying into the windshield. We loved it. When we got older we saw how dangerous he was. I'm thinking Paulie never told his Mom and my Mom would tell me when the truck was home and to go take a ride.
My only picture with my Dad. We were driving down from NJ to Miami to meet Dad's family. This was a throw up stop for me. Severe car sickness. After this, they got sick of stopping and told me hang my head out the window and let it fly on the highway. Long trip. They flew me home on the return with Mom.
Dad was a Navy man, WWII, South Pacific. Captain of the first twin propeller luxury 50? ft yacht, the Stella Dora, in the 1950's owned by Roshek, Iowa department store mogul. JB Turner of Front Street Shipyard knows the Stella Dora, we have connections and the City splinters them. Dad and his Step Dad took the rich and famous deep sea fishing in Miami on their boat, HY-BALL. Lana Turner and Arthur Godfrey were regulars. That's Dad there with his step-Dad (from 12 yrs old and what a kind man) Captain Jesse O'Hyden- 1938?
Below is the Tom Dooley story. I want to post my mom's history- Rosie the Riveter- cool story. She had it tough. Her mom died when she was a baby, her Dad remarried a mean step Mom and then her Dad fled when she was 16. She never heard from him again. It was around the time my Dad died, that she got a call saying her Dad died. She was a mess. We moved to South River in 1963 after Jr. at 3 years old, set a fire at our East Brunswick house. He went to the gas furnace or water heater in the basement and stuck our plastic Bop the Beetle game into the flame.
1962 IDEAL TOY CORPORATION BOP THE BEETLE INTO ...
https://www.vintagetoys.com/toys/classified/1437
Dad's great grandmother was Anne Foster Melton, true love of Tom Dula aka Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley. Anne's mom forced her to marry another when Tom went off to fight in the Civil War. Anne didn't think he was coming back so she married the shoe maker- he was considered wealthy among the shacks and dirt floors. Tom came back and heartbroken, took up with Anne's cousin. Laura Foster. Anne and Tom still had relations. Laura got in the way and wound up murdered. Tom hung for it, but it was never certain that Anne didn't do it. Thanks to google I just found all this out recently. Dad never talked about it and Mom mentioned it in passing. Turns out I have a cousin who wrote a book about it. We hooked up in the internet, he filled me in on many relatives and genealogy. I had letters that my Dad wrote to his Mom when he was in the Pacific mentioning these relatives and now I know.
Bucket List Whippoorwill Academy, Ferguson NC- Great Video, Sadly Edith Carter passed away this year. She knew many of my relatives and preserved the history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZssilrDPsQ
Have to give my brother Jr. a thanks. We did have fun when he didn't feel threatened by my honesty. Here we are at the incredibly wild fun Octoberfest in New Brunswick NJ. You can't see Jr. because I was on his shoulders. Thanks bugsy.
