2012 Spring Annual Town Meeting Warrant is Available

The Spring Town Meeting Warrant is available to review by cliking HERE     In the same way I read the newspaper, my first read-through of the Warrant begins at the end and works back to the beginning. The interesting articles are always at the end. There are 33 articles this year. Some highlights include Article 30, which involves Sunnyrock Farm; Article 28 asks whether drinking establishements can begin pouring at 10:00 a.m. on Sundays (instead of noon); and Articles 23 and 24 raise the issues of the old Library Building - whether we fund its demolition, and whether to empower the Selectment to sell or otherwise dispose of the land.

More information on Town Meeting to come. Enjoy the long weekend, and if you are going away during the upcoming school vacation week, enjoy and be safe!

Condolences

I want to express my sincerest condolences to Senator Jim Timilty and his family upon the passing of his sister Kelly Timilty. Having lost my father in October, I can relate to the profound sadness and grief that the Timilty family is experiencing. The thoughts and prayers of the Rockwood family are with you at this difficult time.

Sound Familiar?

I came across a short editorial about town meeting the other day that was pretty amusing. It begins . . . "I have always been envious of people who take the floor at town meeting, announce that they are a native, and flash their birth certificate as if it were currency." Read the rest of the piece here. If it was ever this bad in Walpole, it's not the case anymore. Go Pats!

Foxborough Casino

As your Town Moderator, I do not express an opinion or take sides on issues that come before Walpole Town Meeting. I am an objective arbiter of the rules and procedures of town meeting to ensure the meeting is conducted properly and fairly. However, I do not live in a bubble. Like everyone else, I have been following the issue of a casino being developed on land in Foxborough. For the record, I am dead set against any proposal to build a casino in Foxborough. Period. Build it somewhere else.

But as readers of this blog know, I take a keen interest in the workings of town meetings elsewhere in Massachusetts. So, I am going to follow the casino debate from a Town Meeting perspective. Foxborough has an open town meeting which means any resident can go and vote. As this article points out, Foxborough Town Meeting will have to vote to change zoning, because their current zoning bylaws do not allow for gaming facilities. "The bylaw doesn't provide for gaming," [Bill] Casbarra said about the zoning question. "A casino, as defined by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, would not be allowed under the current zoning bylaw anywhere in Foxboro." So, Foxborough Town Meeting will be required at some point to vote on a zoning change. By statute, changes to zoning by-laws in Massachusetts require a 2/3 vote by town meeting.



Trivia of the day: Foxborough Building Inspector Bill Casbarra taught industrial arts (shop) at Walpole High School for many years before taking his current position.

Please Take the Time to Vote on Saturday

The Walpole Town election is on Saturday, June 4, 2011. Polls are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8 p.m. This is a crazy time of year, with sports and school events and graduations. However, voting in Walpole is very easy - you are in and out in no time. There are important races this year for selectman, moderator, planning board and school committee. Your vote in these races matters very much to the future of Walpole. Even the unopposed candidates deserve your consideration and vote. Finally and perhaps most importantly (at least to me) are the votes for Town Meeting representative. The fact that there are no contested races this year is irrelevant. Each of these candidates have taken the steps to get on the ballot with the singular objective of representing you, the voter in their respective precincts, at Town Meeting.

Of course, this year you get to decide whether or not the town should buy the Woodworkers property - a $4.7 million proposition. How often do you have to make a four and one-half million dollar decision?

You can even get a sneak preview of the ballot you will see on Saturday.

As I have posted here before, "You, and all the citizens of your town are solely responsible for how well your local government serves you."

I think it will take less time to vote that it did for you to read this message.

Thank you, and good luck to all the candidates.

Welcome

My letter to the Walpole Times today invited readers to this blog. Welcome if you are visiting for the first time! As the disclaimer at the top of the page states, there is nothing official about this site. It is merely a vehicle for me to share my thoughts with anyone who visits, and to share information from other town meetings and how they may or may not relate to ours. The topics here run the gamut: I post unusual town meeting topics such as Amherst's chicken by-law, I usually post the Walpole town meeting warrant when I receive it from town hall, I have eulogized two town meeting members who were very close to me, I have posted various photographs when I learned how to post them, and I often post letters from other Moderators who express ideas I share with them, more eloquently than I could.

The one theme throughout though is my deep and abiding belief in the sanctity of the Representative Town Meeting form of government we have in Walpole. I believe it has worked well for the town, works well for us now, and will continue to best serve the people of Walpole into the future. Remember when Ron Fucile found that letter from Walpole Town Meeting from sometime well prior to 1776? That was a powerful moment. We heard about how our ancestors came together at a Town Meeting, long before this nation was even formed, in a forum very similar to what we experience today, to express their displeasure with the Crown. I am always mindful that I am but the latest in a long history of moderators of Walpole. I will do my best, as my predecessors have, to preserve this form of government.

As your elected Moderator, I am at your service. Feel free to contact me at any time about any issue. Even the FinCom. All my contact information is on the sidebar.

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you choose to return from time to time.

This is Why . . .

Take a few minutes from your busy schedules and enjoy these awesome Boyden School fourth graders.

You can even follow along, because the lyrics capture the feeling of this video.

Does this have anything to do with Walpole Town Meeting? I'll let you decide.

Have a great holiday weekend; let's keep it's true meaning in mind.

Jon