Three years back he came to my office when he was on the Airport Commission (he may have even been the chairman), to size me up after I created the FlyORH website and this blog. Basically he told me that if I wanted to get anything done at the airport, I needed to go through the "proper channels" (him). Even if I had a good idea, he could crush it if it did not have his blessing and "he knows where all the bodies are buried".
I realized how bad things were, when during our meeting, I had to explain to him what privatization of the airport meant? He also had a very tough time with the wifi concept? Needless to say he did not like me and I did not like him, but what really scared me was he was more concerned about his "power" then the airport's success.
Every Sunday since then I always read his story first, although it is getting harder and harder to find each week. Today's story on the Super Bowl is a must read "Super Bowl a Super Bore".
- Peyton Manning's sense of humor? Am I missing something..
- Belichick is the world's most boring human being? This guys management and motivational skills are amazing and if he was on the ORH Airpord Board the past ten years, I guarantee you that ORH would be successful today.
- Bruschi, Seau and Maroney are inarticulate jocks? Although I have not heard many interviews with Maroney, Bruschi and Seau most definately are not inarticulate.
Bill Belichick and the Patriots organization are more then just a football team. They represent how a business should be run and that with the proper organization, top to bottom, you can have success. Tonight when we are all watching the Super "Bore" and hopefully watch the Pats go 19-0, we should all think of Mr Nemeth and the 0-19 team he has put together at ORH.
14 comments:
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown is on at 6pm tonight on AMC if any body is looking for something else to watch.
Go Pats!
Dare I ask....what is the Crackdown.........Sunday night at the fights or a crime drama about Zero Tolerance Zones around schools??
Any chance Mr Nemeth played right field in Litttle League?
I played right and center !!
Jensen
Bill:
YOU GO, BOY !!!!! That's what we call a thumpin' !!! Was that a B-52 droppin' those bombs ?!?!?!?! We know it didn't originate at ORH !!!
:-)
Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA
Harry:
Thanks..
For what it is worth I was excited when Mr Nemeth wanted to meet with me. I actually thought he wanted to build coalitions to help ORH be the airport that we all know that it can be. Instead it was all about him and that he looked at me, or anyone else like me, as a threat to his power?
Bill Randell
WOW, I was just downtown......12:15 PM lunchtime.........parked beside the old Bancroft Chrysler on Salem St opposite Library.........theres' no one arond...........Library parking lot was 1/5 full....walked over to "fashion outlets".............Common looked nice............not even any hobo's were there................must be still too cold??.............did my business.........got back into car.....drove around the block to Portland St.......completely dead except for a couple constr workers from the Hand It Over Theatre............unreal how dead that Portland/Salem/Franklin St block is since Bancroft moved away .....i was truly amazed ........especially for what is the height of the lunch hour........every store front on Portland St near Franklin all waxed over..............if the Bancroft ever decides they are tired of paying taxes on their real estate and razes teh structure............there is going to be a major "hole" less than 100 yards from city hall...that old dealership occupied 90% of the block......Part of it is an old parking garage ........from what I understand....thats why they used to advertise an indoor car lot......
Can you see the Outlet mall garage being razed......and then Bancroft decides to raze their structure too.........will look like a wasteland?????
Union station area looking better though
It has to hurt that ORH was bypassed in getting the only outside-of-Greater Boston airline passsenger service in favor of Westover Metropolitan Airport in Chicopee. It is also known as Westover Air Reserve Base/Metropolitan Airport (CEF).
I just found this out at lunch and several people at my table reacted with "where the heck is Chicopee?"
We got out a map and it's not between Boston and Worcester. It's not between Boston and Providence. It's not between Boston and Manchester. Heck, it's in barely-populated WESTERN Mass. Even there, it's not between Springfield and Pittsfield or Springfield and Worcester or Springfield and Hartford. It's between Springfield and nowhere.
It isn't in any of the "corridors" we hear so much about...
Okay, can someone please call up MassPort and ask themm to explain how a non-profit (i.e. private, no tax dollars) community development authority got four Boeing 737 flights a day into this place and Worcester can't get a friggin prop plane once a day?
I did some research online and it looks like they have invested nothing in the terminal since 1989, but somehow Westover is hosting Skybus with a Delta flight to follow in a few months. They are further away from the Pike and 391/291 than ORH is from 190/290. They are also closer to Bradley than we are to Logan. Springfield is closer to Bradley than to Westover, but they are filling up flights and adding new ones. Let's not even ask how a place with a million people in a 30 mile radius can outwit a place with 4 million in the same distance.
Damn the excuses... this proves them all wrong. ORH is a white elephant. Millions of dollars and nothing to show... The new terminal would make a nice department store. Then we can be the same as Chicopee taxpayers... pay no subsidies (although they still get air service).
I read an article that reminded of flying out of ORH right before the new terminal. The old one had crappy carpet on the walls, but it had about a dozen ticket counters open.
When the boonies gets air service before Worcester, I think we have evidence that ORH needs to mothball the terminal until Logan really hits capacity.
Another thing... Chicopee taxpayers pay ZERO to operate the airport and this has always been the case. They pay NOTHING for its operation, likely because their management is smarter than the help at Burger King.
Westover: 100% private financing
Worcester: 79% taxpayer financing
CEF offers the security of Air Force military police/fire and Worcester offers the security of combined parking/firefighter/security guards.
Can we hire away the Westover management so they can get us an airline without the tax coffers being pillaged?
I always thought Community, Dev'ment Corps money was gov't money the bulk of which comes from Washington and some from Beacon Hill
Doesnt Westover abut the pike and isnt isnt it very near Mass Pike exit 4 (or is 3?)
Distance (or proximity) to interstates isnt necessarily the determing factor...........travel time from the interstates is more determinative than distance from the interstates.....IMO.
Worc Airport does get subsidies from Massport which argueably isnt tax money.............but b/c Massport is a government authorized monopoly for greater Boston air ttavel, it is somewhat similar to getting money from the gov't b/c Massport cant basically charge what ever it wants b/c it has no competition..........not unlike the Masspike or the Worc Water Dept(Authority).
Blogger does however raise an issue that I never thought of. The hell with the Canal District CDC, as well as most of the other CDC's that are bankrupting our city with their overly intensive dev'ment of small lots with overly dense residentiall housing units with little or no parking that in turn send too many kids into our currently bankrupt Worc School System.....and ..........instead take some of this CDC money and apply it to an airport which sends no kids into our school system.
Think about it what makes more sense.........this insane Canal Idea and this insane over dev'ment of low income housing or an airport that actually has airplanes?
Time to boot Havana Jim McGovern and his $600,000 rehabbed 3 deckers and his gov't subsidized 15 unit structures on 10,000 sq ft lots before he bankrupts us with his low income voters and their school aged kids.
Westover Dev Corp does not get any tax dollars. It is totally funded by fees that it charges to users of the airport and the industrial park... The Department of Defense is one of these.
It takes much longer to drive to Westover from the Pike than it does from Worcester to ORH.
True, MassPort does get some money from non-tax sources. Yet it has the backing of the state government. Additionally, look at the brewing crisis of CITY money financing more and more of the operating deficit.
I just think it's pathetic that the ORH mgmt, with its huge salaries and hack staffs, cannot match a minor airport in the state's backwater.
In response to "Jahn's" comment about the Salem St-Portland St block:
Jahn, you have no idea what you are talking about. Let's start from the top of Salem St and go around the block.
The former Bancroft Nissan is being gutted as we speak for what I hope is going to be a new Super 88 supermarket. Drive down Salem at night and have a peak in the windows. There is already a ton of market cooler and frozen food fixtures in there.
Go down a little further and you find the Ben Franklin bookstore which has been there for years and is one of the more underappreciated shops the city has.
At the corner of Salem and Franklin there is a store front that in just the past week has seen much much activity so my bet is we'll see something opening there shortly. The two buildings on Franklin closest to Salem both have recently renovated apartments on the floors above street level.
Going up Franklin to Portland there is one empty storefront I believe. Then you have the Paris which is coming down.
Corner of Franklin and Portland there is a Hooka Bar going in which should be opening withing the next couple months.
Then you have the Bancroft itself which is becoming an amazing community run by the Mayo Group (who is developing the entire block) who as far as I have seen, have their act together the most as far as anyone who has tried to do anything downtown in recent memory.
Besides the apartments themselves there are the two storefronts on the Franklin St side of the building and the 4 or 5 on the Portland St side. I am eager to see what happens with the Franklin St store fronts. I know that the Portland St storefronts that are in the Bancroft building are being used for storage right now and I wouldn't expect anything to happen with those until the renovations of the rest of the block are complete.
Across the street from these storefronts are the two buildings that are completely empty at the moment, along with the Paris these are coming down in order to build a brand new high rise building. Then you have the old parking garage which is still being used as parking for the residents of the Bancroft.
These things may not happen right away, but they are happening.
Jahn, be part of the solution, not part of the problem. When you complain about Worcester being the way you believe it to be you are only commenting about yourself and the way you actually are. There are good things happening, do a little research, ask around.
Worcester is what it is.
Gabe what do you do for a living besides playing in a band?
Do you own a home and pay taxes?
I work in Westborough as a Trans Supervisor. I am looking to buy in Worcester within the next couple of years. I hope that helps you decide whether my opinion is valid or not.
There are plenty of things to complain about in Worcester. I was just trying to elaborate on something (the Mayo development) that should be celebrated not criticized. They know what they are doing. I live there and they are constantly surprising me in a good way.
We hem and haw about City Square yet here is a development that takes up a block and a half of city real estate where something is actually happening and people still complain. It irks me enough when people pay more attention to the bad then the good in this city, but I can't sit here and let someone try to tell people who may not know any better that a very good thing is a very bad thing.
Gabe,
As a transportation Supervisor what do you think needs to be done at Worcester Airport to turn things around?
My suggestion. Forget about commercial aviation and sell to private management company
A.O.
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