Sticking with Their Story

Unitil finally finished its tour of local media this week, with a story in today's Sentinel (finally) on the aftermath of the ice storm. It's more of the same, but one thing in particular bugged me.

That one thing is the continued argument by Schoenberger that the real bad damage stopped on the Fitchburg side of Route 2. He argues that Leominster wasn't hit as bad, and part of that is because the conditions weren't as bad there as in Fitchburg.

There's certainly something to be said for the fickle finger of weather's fate, but at the same time, I still think it's a bunch of hooey. Schoenberger made the same claim in his interview with the Pride earlier this month, and it was something of a bone of contention (you can go to iTunes or here and listen, if you'd like. That portion is pretty deep into the interview).

Here's the thing: Towns like Princeton, Holden, Sterling, Rutland, Paxton, and so on were all pretty much 100 percent without power after the storm (Sterling was at like 90 percent without). Those towns were killed by damage. Go look at a map. What Schoenberger is pitching is that Leominster took a softer hit than Fitchburg. He admits north of Leominster was killed, but for some reason ignores the damage in the burbs to the south, west and east. I just don't get it. For all the half-truths and vagarities that have come out of this, this one for some reason cheeses me off, because it's so obviously not true. Dean Mazzarella may be SuperMayor, but the guy can't single-handedly change the weather. Can he?

If someone from Princeton or Holden reads this, God help Schoenberger. Those snotty towns were in a battle to prove they were the worst-hit community in the state. Holden people were particularly disappointed to hear that I thought Fitchburg looked about the same as their fair town in the immediate aftermath. They'll say they took it worse. I think we're talking a negligible difference in the grand scheme of things. Something Schoenberger either isn't aware of, but won't admit. Either way, it's one particular story line of his that gets me going. Clearly.