Thursday, August 23, 2007

Telegram: Online store hopes to survive mayoral race




Reprinted from http://www.telegram.com/ (See Link)


"August 23. 2007 12:00AM
Online store hopes to survive mayoral race

This concerns an article, "Feud keeps headquarters closed" (Telegram & Gazette, July 25).

Lucy Castro Westlake owns a quiet business called Lucy’s Online Collectibles at 147-167 Main St. in Fitchburg, with no face-to-face customer contact with the public selling collectibles on-line through eBay. We quietly do everything with cameras and computers.
We don’t cause problems for anyone. Our goal is to quietly do what we’re doing and in the future set up a free training clinic named Alternative Income Solutions to help others learn all there is to know by actual hands-on training.

Our peace and quiet has been violated. A man running for mayor, who stated he’s "for small business," has accessed our locked business without our permission, torn down paper in our front warehouse and placed campaign signs in every window, even the front door. He’s trashed and damaged collectibles on the windowsill because they were in the way.

After this, he gave us his personal guarantee that our business operations wouldn’t be compromised or intruded upon. After a clear agreement, the campaign continued to take everything in their area that they didn’t want and indiscriminately piled these items on top of ours, damaging business inventory.
There’s no reasoning with these people. The response we got was, "You picked a fight with the wrong guy, you pushed my buttons."
We’re responding because Councilor Ted E. DeSalvatore called us street trash. We hope to survive his campaign, as it’s very disruptive to our business.
JOHN and LUCY WESTLAKE
Westminster


Reader Comments
EAS, the city of Fitchburg does have a police department, but DeSalvatore was just part of a group that ran the chief (a great man) out of town. They then put their own guy in office. I don't know this guy, but the situation being what it is, I'm not thinking much is going to be done against DeSalvatore. This is just another in the LONG list of reasons NOT to vote for this guy!
-Sarah

DeSalvatore thinks he is above the law. He is only out to make a name for himself and does not care about the rest of us. I have one for him, but can't write it in an open forum. My husband and I call him 'slash & burn DeSalvatore'. He has also been aligning himself with some of Fitchburg's low-lifes. Apparently, one of his 'good buddies' is the owner of Club Karma or what ever that dive bar is calling themselves today. I HOPE the citizens of Fitchburg have more common sense than to elect DeSalvatore. I'd rather have Mylott, and he's almost single-handedly buried this city.
-MH

Doesn't Fitchburg have a police dept. that can take care of that bum? Breaking and entering is still a fairly serious offense as far as I know. If he tried that in Worcester he'd be in serious trouble.
-EAS

To respond to the other comment, DeSalvatore isn't a democrat. He's supposedly an independent, though his campaign manager donates money to republicans and DeSalvatore's own views clearly skew in that direction as well.Regardless, good luck to the Westlakes. Mr. DeSalvatore has been an embarrassment to Fitchburg as long as he's been in office.
-Glen Nonym
go get them. the bums of the democrat party.let all the voters know who they can not trust.
-l

The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of Telegram.com, the Telegram & Gazette, the New York Times Co. or any of its employees."

7 comments:

JustSayNoToDeSalvo said...

Some people just don't get it.

Anonymous comments targeting private citizens simply will not stick here.

Don't like it? Then take it over to Save Fitchburg. See how it flies there.

Nowoco said...

Those folks need to get a reporter from the bigger papers down there. It's incredible this kind of thing is going on....

Anonymous said...

How do I get Lisa Wong signs for my house? Do you have a phone #

Anonymous said...

I have been following this whole ordeal between DeSalvatore and Westlake. This is a prime example of poor leadership and negotiation skills. Here is Westlake, maybe not a perfect citizen but a person who has worked through several problems in his life. Westlake is forced to share a space with Ted for a few months during Ted’s campaign. Ted thumps his chest and mows over Westlake having no consideration for his space or personal property. When Westlake speaks up to stick up for his rights DeSalvatore muscles him and picks a fight. I have known Westlake for several years as well as knowing DeSalvatore. I have heard both side of the story. Ted, you have made some great changes and have an aggressive aproach to making possitive changes in the City, for that I commend you. Picking on your neighbor is not something I can support you on though bud. We may need someone with an aggressive approach to make some drastic changes here in the city but frankly you push it a bit to far. You don’t follow the rules. We need a leader not a bully. Calling a hard working small business owner “white trash” publicly was a mistake. It would have worked to your benefit to negotiate fair ground with Westlake, not flame throw his foxhole. Someone running a small busineess in the down town area, he is on your team isn’t he? Sorry Ted, you lost my support on this one.

Anonymous said...

I fell that having a warrant put out for poor westlakes arrest is bit much!!!

fitchburg-shuffle said...

Wait until Ted finishes a distant third on Sept 25th. He'll begin the write-in attempt to hang on to his council seat. I wonder how the Ward 4 candiates feel about that one?

Nowoco said...

The whole story is bizarre and seems a needless waste of good will on Ted's part.