Medals & Badges

As I read the front page story (With photo!) in The Berlin Daily Sun announcing that mayor Grenier will be running for a second term as mayor of Berlin, I was struck by the audacity of his contention that he makes about “delivering on his promise” to bring the Laidlaw biomass plant to downtown Berlin. (As if this was great for Berlin anyway)  Mayor Grenier did run on a promise to deliver Laidlaw but a funny thing happened on the way to the Burgess Mill site, Laidlaw/LLEG fell apart, but he lucked out, Cate Street Capital showed up and picked up the pieces. The “promised” outcome  Mr. Grenier’s is touting was not a result of his influence, talent or vision, but by the acquisition of the Laidlaw project by Cate Street Capital who I’m quite sure, was urged-on by PSNH to pick up the troubled project. On several occasions I’ve posted that mayor Grenier has an impressive record of hitching his political ambitions to dubious projects and their clever and slippery promoters. Mayor Grenier (Self proclaimed fiscal watchdog on the Council) would like for all of us to forget about the “Granite King” who a few years ago, was going to quarry our ledges and create “jobs” for Berlin. That particular project cost Berlin taxpayers several thousand dollars for a variety of expenses including the housing and feeding (For some time at the T&C) of the promoter of that scam. Two years ago Mr. Grenier hitched his political ambitions to Michael Bartoszek and the Laidlaw Energy project. He spoke in glowing terms about his new found friend and associate. (His buddy “Mike”) Laidlaw was his ticket to becoming mayor of Berlin (It worked) and he dismissed all advice and warnings that didn’t parallel his views of Michael Bartoszek and Laidlaw. To this day Mr. Grenier believes in the “Laidlaw illusion” and, beware to those who may have a different view, as Councilor Tom McCue just found out during Mr. Grenier’s reelection announcement. Of course this announcement was a collaboration, written and edited by his media promoter Barbara Tetreault of The Berlin Daily Sun. While all this political hoopla (bs) by Mr. Grenier is going on in Berlin, the shareholders of Laidlaw/LLEG stock are counting their lo$ses and wishing the authorities would put Mr. Bartoszek CEO of Laidlaw behind bars, calling him a fraud and a scam artist. The taxpayers of Berlin are lucky to have dodged the Laidlaw bullet. (Thanks to Mayor Bertrand’s administration) We were luckier than the small town of Ellicottville NY which spent thousands of dollars fighting their Laidlaw project and then being sued by Laidlaw for $10M dollars. (A frivolous suit) Over the past four years I’ve written about some of the unsavory Wall Street characters associated with Mr. Bartoszek and his Laidlaw illusion. Also interesting are the following facts; Charlie Bass became a Director of Laidlaw and greased the political skids at the State level for PSNH and the Laidlaw project. Locally, Tony Urban a long time Republican operative and friend of Charlie Bass became a spokesperson for Laidlaw, Steve Griffin and Barry Kelley also became promoters of Laidlaw. Interesting that Mr. Grenier, Bass, Griffin, Urban and Kelley all ignored the warning signs which included Laidlaw’s history of defaulting on its business agreements and malicious suits and thus putting the City at risk. In my opinion, Laidlaw was and is “Toxic” and it didn’t take very long for the professionals at Cate Street Capital to purge the Berlin project of Laidlaw and Michael Bartoszek. I hate to think about the mess the City could be in today if Mr. Grenier would have been mayor at the time Laidlaw first came to Berlin. I’m sure Mr. Bartoszek would have been given the key to the City and office space in City Hall. Who knows, maybe the mayor could have convinced enough of his “yes people” on the Council to have the City go into partnership with Laidlaw in order to access money.  Mr. Grenier is always “ON” when it comes to politics, and he’s good at it. His pat on the heads of all the Councilors but for Tom McCue, is just that, “pats on the head”. Don’t forget, Mr. Grenier will come back to collect the benefits from that patronizing gesture if he’s reelected, just watch how the clones vote.  I believe that Mr. McCue, needs to wear Mr. Grenier’s wrath as a badge of honor, at least we’ll know that, one Councilman won’t be in the Mayor’s back pocket and will be thinking independently.

Comments

[jon]

I guess there's no argument with these facts, Rocky.

[toonist]

Oh I'm sure there will be!

[Rocky]

I'm really surprised by the lack of comments, it's the first time a post goes 24hrs without a comment. Talking about Laidlaw is somewhat like beating a dead horse Jon.

[Antonio Andolini]

Not a mention of Laidlaw:
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111004/NEWS05/710049971

[Antonio Andolini]

I suspect there are few comments or argument since we are supposed to just forget about such facts. We are supposed to be focusing on the free lunch at the ground breaking service, oops, ceremony, on Thursday. The Mayor is "emceeing" so it should be a jolly good time. What a picture: Governor Lynch, Commissioner Bald, PSNH President Gary Long, Mayor Grenier and John Halle all on the same stage. "I made it happen, you know." "No, I made it happen." "No, no, I made it happen." "I made it happen, so vote for me." "I put up the money."

[Rocky]

The "ILLUSION" of political leadership.

[Antonio Andolini]

We all know who's BOSS.

[toonist]

Would his first name start with Gary and end with Long?

[Rocky]

Gary is the defacto Governor of New Hampshire

[toonist]

Gee wish I had pics of Long and Halle.

[toonist]

....and Bald.

[Antonio Andolini]

toonist, here you go:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110926-BIZ-109260301

http://www.psnh.com/Templates/Content.aspx?id=4294967539

[Antonio Andolini]

And George, too!

http://www.google.com/search?q=George+Bald+DRED+photos&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[toonist]

Tank a U Antonio! :)

[jon]

LLEG drops to $.0001. I wonder if Mike will be at the barbeque trying to sell off million dollar batches for a $100 bill, or perhaps a raffle to try to build back momentum...

Toonist- I noticed a toon of yours in the Conway paper over the weekend? Glad to see that. So does barbara and the rose that dodges all bullets rule our misguided world of news up north here, or does the owner call the shots?

[toonist]

They have nothing to do with the Conway Sun. Bart Bachman does. And he's nice enough to let me know if he thinks the cartoon is not gonna make it in the paper for whatever reason, and that's only happened 3 times, so I can do another. 3 times in almost 20 years..not bad.

[Rocky]

Interesting facts coming out of Superior Court on the American Dismantling suit. Rick Marcicki admitting that they made over $18M salvaging the pulp mill, sold the boiler for $5M to Laidlaw (stockholders that's where your money went)Not a bad days work! I think Bartoszek got outplayed at his own game paying $5M for what might have been worth less than $1M in scrap metal in the boiler.

[Wing Nut]

We can all agree on one thing. Bartoszek appears to have screwed LLEG shareholders. A sad story for those who were sucked into this mess and put their hard earned money into the stock.

Take care,
WN

[toonist]

Did you lose much wing nut?

[Wing Nut]

No, I could never get up the nerve to invest because Pink Sheet stocks are notorious for being really bad investments. I'll be honest, at one time the stock was up about 1600% and I thought I had made a really big mistake. I guess not but I still feel badly for anybody that was duped by the snake oil salesman. Do you know anybody locally that got stung?

[Antonio Andolini]

Although I doubt they would admit to it, I would think there are some locals who lost out. Such a shame. Thank Bob, Paul, Barry, Tony, and all the rest of the supporters.

[Antonio Andolini]

Sad times at Investors Hub Laidlaw Energy Group (LLEG)

*MBorowski Member Profile
Wednesday, October 05, 2011 8:04:50 PM
Re: None
Post # of 101584
LLEG seems like a steal at .0001 wow...

*lurker27 Member Profile
Wednesday, October 05, 2011 9:02:21 PM
Re: MBorowski post# 101581
Post # of 101584
Interesting choice of words......a steal. It seems to fit since the CEO is nothing more than a common thief who has disappearred into the night with our money.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=67728622