Wrentham Candidates Connect With Citizens at Candidates Night

Citizens and politicians alike gathered at the Fiske Public Library Tuesday night for the Wrentham Citizens Alliance Candidate’s Night.

The night was designed to give candidates an opportunity to address voters, and voters a chance to meet the candidates running for elected office.  In all, three candidates spoke in front of an audience of about thirty people.

The bulk of the event focused on the race for selectman, in which former Selectman Mary Dunn is running against Michael Carroll. Both candidates read a prepared opening statement before taking questions from the audience.

Dunn, a member of the town Board of Selectmen from 1989 to 1991 and from 2003 to 2009, stressed that increased communication between the selectmen, government officials and the people they serve is the key to improving Wrentham.  She criticized what she called “e-mail candidates,” who never appeared before the public. 

“Power doesn’t come from the board,” she said. “It comes from the community.”

Dunn also proposed cutting the size of the Board of Selectman from five members to three to maximize efficiency. 

“We have five different ideas, five different opinions and five different agendas all taking time away from the town administrator,” she said. “It’s very difficult to get things done.”

Carroll disagreed, bringing up his experiences working for three other towns with five-member selectman boards.

“Five members are better for citizens,” he said, “Members must get along and work together."

"A three-member board is too easy to monopolize,”  he added.

In his view, learning from surrounding municipalities is important to keeping Wrentham’s small-town feel. 

“Other towns are facing the same challenges we are,” he said. 

Carroll believes that setting strict one, three and five-year goals that adhere to national standards would also benefit the town.

“We must maintain services, even as the budget tightens,” he said.

Both candidates believe that Wrenthamites need to take a more active role in local government, as that would allow selectmen to better serve the town's needs.

Real estate attorney John Fragola also attended to rally support for his Planning Board candidacy. Since this is his first time running for elected office, Fragola said he didn’t come with any “political baggage.” 

In his view, the key to his candidacy was his analytical mind, which would bridge the gap between the public and the government. 

“I have no preconceived notions, and can look at both sides of any story,”  he said.

Fragola is running against incumbent Glen Pisani and former Planning Board member Michael Mavrides for two open seats.

The election will take place on April 4.