A junior councilor

Windham residents,

My adventure in town government started when I was elected last June 14.

I did not know what to expect, and was a little apprehensive about going to the town meeting on June 18 2005. I have been to many town meetings but certainly not as an elected official. However, I went and took part in the vote to approve the town’s budget of $39,767,491 and managed somehow to live through it.

I remember sitting on the stage not being able to see anyone in the small crowd of spectators who came to voice their opinions (106 in all) and vote for the town’s budget due to the extremely bright lights that put off so much heat you could cook a cheeseburger.

At our first meeting on June 21, we voted in our Chairman Bob Muir and Vice Chairman Dave Tobin. We voted Liz Wisecup as our Parliamentarian, and not much else happened. What an easy start, this was going to be a piece of cake, I mean how hard can this be – a half-hour meeting and we were out of there. Delusions. Boy, someone should have hit me up-side the head and said, “WAKE-UP.”

I have gone to every council meeting and workshop not missing one in my first year. That was the vow I took for myself. I found I was not much of a politician and have a great desire to speak my mind. Some tell me that if you want to get re-elected that isn’t always a great thing to do as people do not want to hear the truth, so I guess I will continue to speak my mind and make any re-election decisions in 2008.

At one of our meetings in early July, Dave Tobin, bless his heart, commented we should all go on a tour of the municipal buildings, so the new councilors (John McKinnon and I) could see just what we represented. Well, what a tour that was! To this day I have more respect for the men and women who work for the town than anyone I know.

The public works crew is working in a garage with no shower facility; I am sure their wife’s or significant others are pleased when they get home! I saw safety issues that were of great concern to me; I saw first-hand how people have to walk through the bus drivers, interrupting their break time to get to Doug Fortier’s office and to many more issues to write in a simple letter.

We arrived at the Police/Fire central station at some point in the tour, I think it was last. Have you ever tried to sleep in a closet when you have been so tired you could fall over due to working overnights? Well, they do at the central fire/police station. The station is bursting at the seams; thank the good Lord that they all get along because you cannot go to the bathroom without hearing what is going on in the next room. They are bumping elbows in the dispatch office. Dave, thank you for the tour, I found the tour to be a real eye opener.

I have learned that we have a lot of work to do in our town to continue to bring it into the future. It takes dedication and hard work, I have met many of our volunteers who sit on committees and are amazed at their dedication and loyalty to the town.

I had the great pleasure to meet Kathleen Brown, who was the chair of our Planning Board. I will never forget how she sat in a meeting and told us of the issues the Planning Board was having with the ordinances and not one of the Planning Board members was afraid to admit they owned some of the issue but were getting help in fixing them; we should all take on those attributes of integrity. Her leadership was second to none and was certainly appreciated as are all of our faithful volunteers. Without them the town would not run.

I was very pleased when the town started to think outside the box and hired Edward Woodbury to renovate the town hall annex. What a wonderful step into the future of being flexible. What a concept! One of our own bringing his craftsmanship into play for our town’s improvement. Thank you Ed; it looks great.

The town still has a lot of growing to do, good or bad it is going to happen and we need to jive with it or we will fail our town miserable. I have spent more than 30 years here and plan to spend a few more. So, it is very important to me that we continue to forge ahead and stop putting band-aids on our issues.

I can only recall a few meetings that Tom Gleason has not been to; here is a man that is involved coming to meetings knowing full well it may not be a popular discussion. Even so, he holds true and continues to be dedicated. I thank you Tom for being an involved citizen.

As I sat looking through my year-long notes, it occurred to me that we had accomplished few things, hence my frustration level. But what we have accomplished has been important. The start of putting our ordinances together is one of the most significant things our Town Council has done this year.

Here’s to another year. I have enjoyed serving you even through my most frustrating moments. Thank you.

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