Hopes are high that healing has begun after an ongoing squabble caused a member of the selectboard, who also serves as the town clerk, to resign both positions abruptly via email last week. The resignation of Gail Garrett has thrown the Mount Washington town government into a state of confusion. Garrett was both a selectboard and town clerk candidate in the May 11 elections, but withdrew after a tumultuous selectboard meeting earlier this month..
Alan Slavin, an incumbent Selectman who has been on the board for nine years, is running for another term because he hopes to see some major projects through.
Slavin has had a focus on transportation and infrastructure during his time in town politics, and that’s work he hopes to continue.
“Things take forever,” Slavin said. He explained that the South Coast Rail Program that extends commuter rail service to New Bedford and Fall River has been in process for 37 years, and he’s been working on bringing that service to Wareham for seven years.
He lobbied to get Cranberry Highway rebuilt, and worked with the state to more closely monitor crews after residents and businesses complained about the state of the roadway last summer. He also got the installation of a traffic light at Swifts Beach Road and Rte. 6 moved up on MassDOT’s maintenance calendar to 2024 from its original 2030 date.
Board of selectmen vs. select board: Advocates push for gender neutral state Constitution because ‘words hurt’
Updated 5:00 AM;
Today 5:00 AM
Jane Nevinsmith, Hadley Select Board member, says gender-neutral language is important because words hurt and laws including those in the Massachusetts Constitution should be inclusive. (Don Treeger / The Republican)
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The Massachusetts Constitution is the oldest continuously operational document of its kind in the world, and its author was future president John Adams, whose wife, Abigail, famously asked the Founding Fathers to “remember the ladies.”
But they didn’t not when the pioneering Mrs. Adams made her request before the Declaration of Independence was written, nor four years later, when the state’s governing document was approved in 1780.
Expenses are minimal to switch from selectmen to select board
The Milford Daily News
More than 60 towns in Massachusetts have renamed their most powerful boards with gender-neutral titles in just the past two years.
Once the most widespread title for top town officials in the state, boards of selectmen now make up less than half of local leadership, dropping from 216 in June 2019 to 154 as of March 2021.
At the state level, the once-Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association became the Massachusetts Select Board Association in January, and state Sen. Will Brownsberger, D-Belmont, filed a bill last week that would replace all mentions of selectmen in the state Constitution with select board.
Expenses are minimal to switch from selectmen to select board
The Milford Daily News
More than 60 towns in Massachusetts have renamed their most powerful boards with gender-neutral titles in just the past two years.
Once the most widespread title for top town officials in the state, boards of selectmen now make up less than half of local leadership, dropping from 216 in June 2019 to 154 as of March 2021.
At the state level, the once-Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association became the Massachusetts Select Board Association in January, and state Sen. Will Brownsberger, D-Belmont, filed a bill last week that would replace all mentions of selectmen in the state Constitution with select board.