To the editor:
I am running for moderator because big changes are coming. We are facing the cost of delayed maintenance at the same time that all costs are rising. Costs of bridges and schools and salaries will rise. It may feel like an avalanche. We are in a pickle. but there is good news. There are costs and there is income to offset the costs. We should find the best ideas to strike the balance by engaging the best and most diverse minds available regardless of political affiliation (that is why I use the word apolitical).
We can do this; we can navigate the changes. Some say that we can keep doing what we always did. Yet, all around us, times are changing. To produce Stockbridge Updates, I see every meeting and see the problems becoming more complex, even as the price of the solution rises. This may be a time that demands change, a time that demands we change to meet the moment. It can be done and we can do it.
In this changing time, even as there are more divisions, the moderator has the responsibility of running Town Meeting. Stockbridge deserves someone who can facilitate discussion, maintain order, and move the agenda along. I was president of the League of Women Voters (boy that will teach you proper process), president of my religious sisterhood (a lesson in managing disagreements), and president of Thursday Morning Club and Tuesday Club (local groups with civic-minded and charitable goals). I learned a lot. I learned it is a serious job, and I learned it can be done and we can do it.
The changes, the challenges, and how to meet them. For specifics, go to owensmoderator.com.
Carole Owens
Stockbridge
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