Vote NO Again on Monday!

Dear Medfield Residents,

Our ongoing elementary school challenge continues, and our fight to preserve the Elm Street location and our town’s character has not ended. We need to return to the polls at the Senior Center on Monday, November 15th to continue to make our voices heard.

Many of us are confused as to why there is even a vote on Monday. When a capital appropriation project fails at Town Meeting by not gaining the requisite 2/3 vote, why is a debt exclusion vote for that failed project necessary after the fact, particularly with a lower threshold for passage? That question has been asked by many townspeople of many town officials, with the lone explanation that I have heard coming from Mike Marcucci who explained it as a ‘procedural necessity’ in the September 22 public forum on the project.

That explanation is sorely lacking. Whose procedure? What necessity? It certainly is not part of our town charter or by-laws. Nor does this process exist in Massachusetts General Laws. Perhaps it exists as part of the MSBA requirements which have already hamstrung this project through unrealistic enrollment projections dictating the size of the school but the vague language on their website or in their documentation does not clearly codify the requirement in my opinion and this vote is merely intended as an opportunity for another bite at the apple for a failed project. In fact, this second vote rationale is yet another reason why participating in the MSBA program may not be in the best interest of our town, perhaps the only point on which Mr. Marcucci and I agree. But those specifics are conversation for another day, as we must face the immediate task before us even as those questions remain unanswered.

Get to the polls on Monday. Tell your friends and neighbors to get to the polls as well. If the Elm Street project moves forward, we will not only have another oversized, overpriced building asset added to our inventory. We will have negated any effectiveness of Town Meeting as our chosen form of participatory, democratic self-governance and we will have rendered our Townwide Master Plan to useless words on a page.

VOTE NO ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15.

Sincerely,

George P. Gallagher