Opinion

Sample-sized Town Meeting, perfect for a first taste

| Letter to the editor from Penny Hilton |

To the Citizens of New Gloucester,

One Saturday when I was at the Transfer Station, running for election to the New Gloucester Charter Commission, I asked people if they had ever attended Town Meeting, and if they had not, why not. The most frequent reason given for not attending was that they didn’t really know what it was about and what they were expected to do. 

Well, we are having a small “Special” Town Meeting this next Monday, Feb. 28, at 7 pm at Memorial School. To find out how Town Meeting works, and why we need you there, you should come.

What makes a Town Meeting “Special” is only that the items to be voted on need to be decided in a timely fashion, before the next annual Town Meeting, in May. (What makes it “small” is that there will be only nine items, instead of the 30 to 40 items typical of the yearly meeting.) The issues at the February 28 meeting will include funding mold remediation for the library ASAP; getting the okay to spend some additional money on overdue paving that, because of temperature and materials, needs to be started in the spring before our next full budget is approved; accepting some small parcels of land to be town property; and several other things.

As with every Town Meeting, the items will be listed on an agenda that is called the “Warrant” for the meeting. You can find that here: Warrant for Feb 28 Special Town Meeting Each item will be introduced and a motion made by an attending citizen to pass it as written… or maybe to reduce it by some amount. Whatever the motion is, after it is seconded, it will be open for discussion by the public. Maybe no one will have anything to say, and a quick vote by show of hands will determine the outcome. Maybe someone will have something to say, pro or con, and that statement may inspire others to add their two cents. The discussion goes on as long as everyone who wants to speak has had an opportunity, and has something new to add.

Some town meetings are “boring” (though I never think so). And some are events that go down in the annals of community history. Maybe there was impassioned debate before the vote and a surprising outcome. Maybe a star of former town meetings spoke, mixing a point of view with a sense of humor. Maybe, as a result of the discussion you hear, you change your mind about how you will vote. (I have.) 

And when all is said and done, you exit the meeting having worked as a community body, playing by the same rules every year, to have the final say on something some people thought was important enough to present for your necessary approval.

Voting at Town Meeting has the same effect as voting at the polls: a vote is a vote. But voting at Town Meeting makes the town your town in a way the ballot box does not – because you literally chose to be part of the discussion – whether you speak or listen.

Please come.

Penny Hilton
Chestnut Common

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