Don’t forget on Monday night the Sturbridge Town Meeting is set to continue. There are still lots of things to argue about. The most important in my humble opinion is Article 30.
Article 20 concerns changing the day of the Town Meeting from Monday to Saturday morning. This was brought up at last years meeting and it lost by one vote. Think about that, one vote was all it lost by. Ask State Representative Peter Durant about one vote and what it can do.
The Town Meeting is still the purest form of Democracy. As I say at the top of this blog, it all starts locally, and the Town Meeting is where the starting starts. You have the most control over how your money is spent, although not total control. You can decide if that Town Administrator who is always late for work should receive that raise or not. Wait, we already decided that one didn’t we? We decide on zoning issues, sign by-laws, brick sidewalks, oh wait we didn’t get to decide on those, but you get the idea.
This is why the meeting should be on a day where the most people can attend. As hard as it might be to believe, there are people in this town who don’t work 9 to 5 jobs, they have to get up early in the morning or even have to work two jobs just to make ends meet. They can’t attend a four hour meeting on a Monday night with out adverse effects the next day. Yes, I am one of those.
Of course there are those who would prefer that as few people as possible attend the meeting. These are the ones who love to spend other people’s money. These are the ones who have this idyllic view of what this town is and should be, as impractical as it might be. It is to their benefit, and to those who know what the real issues are detriment, to have the long drawn out meetings on Monday nights.
Changing the day to Saturday would actually benefit both groups of people. I believe we would get a more representative sample of people at the meetings. Most people wouldn’t have to worry about getting up to go to work the next day and would be fresh and ready to go. yes I know, many of you said that some of our public servants were already fresh at the last meeting, but I am referring to fresh as in “bright eyed and bushy tailed'”.
Vote “Yes” on Article 30 on Monday night. Change the day to Saturday so more people can attend, and then, attend. You won’t have an excuse.
I agree 100%. Seeing that more than hapf of the people left before the meeting was adjourned the other night is proof positive that we need to change something. Saturday ATM is the best choice. If that does not pass i plan on putting forth the idea that we have two or three, 3 hour meetings in lieu of one meeting that will go for 5 hours.
ReplyDeleteWith it getting defeated by 1 vote last year i am fairly confident that we can get it passed this year. I plan on speaking "for" the Saturday meeting. I regretted not speaking on it last year as i am confident that i could have convinced one or two people to change their minds.