To the editor:
I am writing in full support of Patrick White’s candidacy for our state representative for the 3rd Berkshire District. I have known Patrick for many years, long before this endeavor, and before he sat on the Stockbridge Select Board. He is a consummate professional with a background in finance. He is willing to take on challenges that face us as individual communities and those that will impact us as a region. While sitting on the Stockbridge Select Board, he has reached across town lines to address shared problems, offered suggestions and solutions, and encouraged dialogue between towns. Patrick White is a man who will take on an issue, spark essential dialogue, no matter how difficult or uncomfortable it may be.
His list of accomplishments is lengthy and impressive: working to redistribute tax burdens for local residents; creatively managing and minimizing budget increases while still implementing infrastructure improvements; procuring grant monies and other funding through his diligence and in-depth research; residential-housing initiatives; work-force housing; environmental initiatives including conservation measures, land grants (Patrick is one of three Berkshire individuals to sit on the state’s climate advisory board)… The list goes on, too lengthy to detail in a brief Letter to the Editor. For details, visit Patrick’s campaign website.
For those of us who are concerned about the deeply flawed Rest of River agreement, Patrick again stepped up when no one else would. The Town of Lee endeavored to open a dialogue with Sheffield, Great Barrington, Stockbridge, and Lenox to address the open-ended agreement that will impact residents in all these towns and beyond. Patrick White was the only select board member in all four of those towns who advocated for an open-meeting discussion to address the ongoing problems with the plan. He was, and is, an advocate for residents of Lee, and all of those towns. After all, it is the residents in the river corridor that will be most impacted this agreement. Patrick stood alone in his quest to bring the facts to them.
I hope my friends and neighbors in the 3rd Berkshire District will join me in voting to send Patrick White to represent us in Boston. He is tireless in his endeavors to make small-town government effective, productive, and to best serve the interests of the citizens it represents. Let’s give him the opportunity to go east and bring that message to Boston. Patrick White has our backs.
Bob Jones
Lee
NOTE:Â Bob Jones is a member of the Lee Select Board; however, he writes the above on his own behalf and not on behalf of the Select Board.
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