Monday Night's Board Meeting - Avoiding the Past and the Future

I recommend that people watch Monday night's Select Board Meeting on Public Access television. At that meeting before public comments were allowed, Jeanette Stewart said that she would not entertain any questions or comments from the public about the past. She said the board had a great deal to do in the coming months like the Capital Improvement Plan. The board itself discussed the past, however, and did not address any future concerns.

I might understand not discussing the past if this was a completely new board. However, Jeanette Stewart and Dan Golden were on the previous board, and Jeanette Stewart ran on a platform of providing continuity to the board. Most of the issues discussed at the meeting were continued from the previous board: The Fire Station roof, the campground dumpster, Northern Lakes Veterinary Hospital, and Time Warner Cable. That is why these items were placed under "Old Business." The board discussed the past while the public was prohibited from doing so.

They also avoided discussing the future. They spent 25 minutes discussing the campground dumpster, a subject the previous board spent almost the same amount of time discussing at the last Work Session with exactly the same result. The issue of the dumpster should have simply been turned over to the town administrator to handle with the assistance of the Public Works and the Police Department. If the dumpster was properly shielded and the local ordinances were enforced, there would be no problem. They also spent time discussing issue at Northern Lakes Veterinary Hospital, which is really a matter for the Planning Board. The board did discuss the engineering report on the Fire Department roof, but when asked to provide more details on the report, they could not explain the problem or the options for repair other than reading from the list in the report, which the town administrator provided. They should have been prepared with a summary of the report the townspeople would understand the situation.

Despite the fact that Jeanette Stewart told us on Candidate's Night that the town is in serious financial trouble, the new board did not discuss developing the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) approved by voters or starting an Economic Development Committee. Both of these are critical to returning the town to a healthy financial position. The town's financial situation should be the board's top priority. It should have been the first item under new business, even though it is really old business. It is new business because the previous board did not take any meaningful steps to deal with the problem. That may be why the new board wants the public to forget the past and why they did not discuss the future.