Selectmen's Meeting

The first selectmen's meeting after the election was held this Tuesday. It was disheartening. You might expect that the two holdover selectmen would warmly welcome the new one and his participation in discussing town matters. Alas, there was almost no warmth and a great deal of ice at the meeting. I wondered if I was the only attendee who was taken aback by the proceedings, but I spoke to several other attendees immediately afterwards who were equally surprised and upset.

But Bruce Cumsky handled himself well, and it seems clear to me he's not going to back off raising points, whether or not they make the other two electmen uncomfortable. And one almost inevitable result will be more thorough analysis of matters that come before the board.

One example: Bruce Cumsky stated that he had spoken with over 400 registered voters during his campaign and that 99% of them said they didn't support spending money on a library. (I may not have those figures exactly right, but they're close.) I think that came as a surprise to the other two selctmen, but it shouldn't have. Hopefully the selectboard will take the pulse of the public a little more in the future, not just the pulse of the town hall denizens and their friends.