Selectman Candidate Michael Carroll: Government Must Be More Efficient

Wrentham selectman candidate Michael Carroll is focusing his run for office on improving local government efficiency.

Carroll, who will be facing Mary Dunn in the race for Selectman Bob Cohen's current seat, said he has considerable experience with local governments.

"My whole career has been in government," he said. "I've been a selectman before — for two terms — and I've been a town administrator for Seekonk, so I've seen it from both sides."

Carroll said he had also served on the town's Finance Committee and Planning Board.

"Right now, the problems the town is facing are financial, and not short-term," he said. "I've served as an assistant state finance director."

According to Carroll, the town must make fundamental changes in its structure to face the current tough financial times.

"We're not going to get more state aid," he said. "We might have some development, but we have to look at the town government — everyone has to recognize that things have to change."

Carroll praised the fact that the towns of Norfolk, Wrentham and Plainville are looking at regionalizing 911 services.

"I think we should look at things like that for all kinds of services" he said. "Why can't the three towns look at other things to consolidate?"

He said the town would realize both short and long-term savings from such an effort.

"If we could organize enough small things, the cumulative effect would be large," he said.

Carroll said development is a part of Wrentham's future, but said the town must manage it well.

"A lot of people think development can be stopped — it can't," he said. "You can control it, though."

He said it can be difficult to attract the kind of businesses the town wants.

"We have a challenge in that Wrentham is not linked to mass transit, like Franklin," he said. "Encouraging central development in town would lead to a tremendous amount of traffic."

"All towns are competing for the same low-impact types of development," he added.

Carroll said Wrentham's commercial and industrial development possibilities are limited because of its lack of sewers. He said, though, that building sewers could lead to denser residential development, which would strain town resources more.

According to Carroll, it will take much effort to resolve the town's issues.

"I want to focus on the future — we will not solve this overnight," he said. "We need to get the town's independent bodies to work together."