Saturday Morning Thoughts

Good Morning. I hope everyone has emerged ok from Halloween and the crazy winds! At our house, we are thankful for the incredibly thoughtful tree which fell last night, but managed to fall squarely in the middle of the thin patch of woods between our house and the neighbors. Counting our blessings this morning for sure.

I wanted to share some thoughts that I have in regards to the upcoming Special Town Meeting / Election upcoming in December. We will be asked to vote on whether to fund new school roofs at two of our elementary schools. We haven't had a ballot vote about spending in a while, but we've certainly been spending money on some big projects. So, it prompted me to gather a list of some of the recent big projects.

As background, there are few ways that big capital projects can be funded. One way is via a Town Meeting vote. Our typical Town Meeting attendance is between 100-300ish people. So that would mean that maybe 200 people are making the decision for us? Another way is via a ballot vote + Town Meeting vote. In these cases, approval is required from both Town Meeting and the voters at the ballot box. It's a higher bar, usually for bigger and more costly projects.

I've compiled a list (abridged) of some of the big projects in the last few years. Of all the projects on this list, ONLY these proposed school roofs are requiring a ballot vote. All of the other projects were funded by just a Town Meeting vote.

How do you feel about that? Are you ok with a couple hundred people making these big spending decisions? Or do you think that maybe some of these projects should have gone to the voters at the ballot box?