Wilmington Selectman To Tewksbury Pol: Worry About Your Own Town

Dear Editor

I am compelled to write this letter in response to an individual named George Ferdinand who is an elected official in Tewksbury and currently running for selectman in this year's election. What George Ferdinand is doing--he's following me politically on the Wilmington Apple and joining arms with my handful of online foes and having a grand old time doing so. The Wilmington Apple is is similar to the Wilmington Patch and your Tewksbury Patch. The Wilmington Apple brainchild is Robert Hayes and because of him, it's got 4,823 online followers alone. Our local news outlets do a good and fair job. What's interesting are the comments Mr. Ferdinand is making appear only in the Wilmington news. In the month of March of 2018 alone, there were eight comments from him directed at me. After the fifth time, I responded. He made one comment back in December of 2017 when I submitted a warrant article along with the Concerned Citizens of Wilmington--a citizen driven article--for a special town meeting to relocate drug detox centers from all residential districts and to relocate them in commercial districts. It passed overwhelmingly one week before Christmas; 368-62. Now in March 2018, where Mr. Ferdinand should be more focused on the issues in Tewksbury rather than in Wilmington, he claims that I (Mike McCoy) like patting myself on the back because I want my uncle's seat so bad in the future. He's mentioned on two different occasions how I am lining myself up for his seat some day. I am not interested in my uncle's--State Rep. Jim Miceli's--seat. George Ferdinand is the one who keeps bringing it up--perhaps he is the one looking to run for Rep. Miceli's seat. George Ferdinand and I have never even met. It's pretty easy to sit behind a computer and say whatever you want.

Mr. George Ferdinand, you have introduced yourself to the people of Wilmington as an elected member of the board of health and you're a candidate running for the Tewksbury Board of Selectmen. Now let me introduce myself to Tewksbury; My name is Michael V. McCoy. I am a current member of the Wilmington Board of Selectmen. After this term, I will have served on this board 30 years. I am the original owner of Michael's Place Restaurant from 1984 until I sold it in 2015. I have lived in Wilmington for 59 years. I married a girl from Tewksbury 27 years ago and we raised our family here. Candidate Ferdinand, you attempt to make my victories of getting reelected to the Board of Selectmen look like I am patting myself on the back. In what way, exactly? I do not vote for myself and POOF! I get reelected! There are lots of voters whose confidence and trust I have earned over the years who put me there.

You obviously love talking about me to the Wilmington people, so fair's fair. Let's talk about you to the Tewksbury people who you are hoping will put you in a seat on the Tewksbury Board of Selectmen. For starters, you moved into Tewksbury in 2014, you ran for selectman in 2015 and lost, and in 2016, you ran for Board of Health and won, now you're once again running for selectman in 2018. On March 22, 2018, you did an interview with Lowell Sun reporter Kori Tuitt and said "I don't support condos. I think people have gotten tired." George, YA THINK? You also go on to say that you are "opposed to the 55 unit condos now that's proposed on Main Street". Oh my head--NOW you're opposed? As a sitting member on the board of health and elected official, you should have been opposed 1,555 condos ago! You're a little too late. You would have, could have, and you should have, but you didn't. Simply put, you did nothing to help the longtime residents who were opposed from the beginning. Did you even ask anyone in Tewksbury what they wanted? I'm guessing not.

I'm not even running for reelection. On my own, I submitted a citizen driven petition article to call for a special town meeting in May of 2018 that says (in a nutshell) NO MORE CONDOS because that's what the people in Wilmington asked me to do. The residents of the town meeting will have final say whether they want to continue to build condos in Wilmington or not. It didn't take long to draw up an article for a special town meeting. I went out to the residents on my own and collected nearly double the required amount of signatures of voters to call for a special town meeting because there were that many looking to sign the petition. It's not rocket science. Folks of Tewksbury, it's just that easy. Our bylaws aren't much different than your bylaws. The detox center and special town meeting are just a couple of things I've done since December of 2017 and there is a pretty long list of other accomplishments I've achieved over the past 30 years. I am very proud of my accomplishments and by saying what they are, I'm not patting myself on my back. My reward is getting reelected every three years by people who think I'm doing a good job and who know I hear what they're saying. I don't run the town the way I want to, I listen to the residents and do what THEY want. Candidate George Ferdinand; you talk the talk, I walk the walk

I just gave you a free lesson in Politics 101. So Candidate George Ferdinand: Good luck in the upcoming election. I hope one day you'll learn to listen more than you speak.

Wilmington Selectman Michael V. McCoy

Patch file photo of George Ferdinand.