Selectmen Candidates Address Forum

     Challenger Mary S. Meli, a mother of three young children who has been urging her peers to get involved in town government, and Linda M. Zuern, the third-term selectman whose seat on Bourne’s governing board is up for grabs on May 20, had an opportunity to present their platforms and accomplishments this week.
     At 8 AM Wednesday morning, Ms. Meli and Ms. Zuern had 10 minutes each to talk about their candidacies and then answer citizens’ questions at a forum sponsored by the Bourne Committee of the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce.
     Another challenger, Shawn T. Patterson of Monument Beach, withdrew his name from consideration last Thursday, and thus did not attend the forum. His name will not appear on the election ballot.
     With Thomas J. Moccia of the Buzzards Bay Vitalization Association keeping time, the incumbent, Ms. Zuern, went first.
     Citing over 20 years of service to the town, Ms. Zuern, a Monument Beach resident, listed Bourne School Committee experience, 10 years on the zoning board of appeals, and six years as a selectman, among other groups. She was a Bourne Youth Council founder, she said.
     She said that when she became a selectman, there was no Sagamore Bridge flyover, no Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Building, no Local Comprehensive Plan, no Local Emergency Plan, and Monument Beach wells were closed due to perchlorate.
     She said she fought against the closing of the landfill during her first term and has worked with the ISWM Futures Working Group to find ways to extend the landfill’s life, perhaps with a composting facility.
     Ms. Zuern also mentioned serving on the Senior Management Board, one of the community groups overseeing the ongoing environmental cleanup at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, as well as her efforts to foster the region’s water cooperative. She also spoke of efforts to form an alternative energy committee, bring the town to fiscal stability, encourage affordable housing, and help secure recompense for the cost of educating children of the military personnel station on the base.
     She talked about her support of the one-rate tax system, the same for both residential and commercial property owners.
     Ms. Zuern also cited the establishment of the town’s Reverse 911 and Guardian Calling programs as a part of her service. She mentioned her cable television show, “Spotlight on Bourne,” but joked that the hardest part of her service was putting on a tube top and playing a Valley girl in a recent production of the “Murder of the Mystery Detective,” a library fundraiser.
     Ms. Meli, a graduate of Stonehill College and active Bourne PTA member since 2002, lists her service as a community liaison for the base environmental cleanup on her campaign material.
     A County Road resident, she told those gathered Wednesday that she has been a Bourne resident for 13 years, but had visited here her whole life. She and her husband, Ian Meli, have three children; Jackson, 9; Claire, 7; and George, 4. She said they all attend school in Bourne.
     A past employee of a firm involved in the cleanup on the military reservation, Ms. Meli told meeting attendees she now works part-time as a bartender at the Trowbridge Tavern, a job that insures that the children have one parent at home.
     She said she hoped her political involvement would inspire others among her peers to step forward, and that, “Now is the time to engage in local issues.”
     Ms. Meli said Bourne has so much to offer, she wanted to offer something in return. Among those things she would bring to the table were “a fresh perspective, a fair and open mind, and the common sense to make thought out, informed decisions.
     Ms. Meli said many people had urged her to run for the school committee, but that she was interested in wider issues.
     She and her peers are aware of school issues, she said. She said 42 percent of the town’s budget goes to schools, so she knows, she said, “Bourne takes its education seriously.” She said, however, she thinks there are areas where the schools need to be spending more and some where it is spending needlessly.
     There are, she noted, creative possibilities for raising funds outside of the municipal budget, such as an auction for “naming rights” to the new elementary school, advertising on the sides of buses, or a flea market that leases school grounds or parking lots during the weekends.
     Ms. Meli said she has been educating herself concerning some of the  major issues facing the town, and thanked those who had been so generous with their time and knowledge as she did so.
     She said her fact-gathering mission had been “an eye opener,” particularly when it came to money issues.
     Having grown up spending summers on Mashnee Island, she said she has great memories of eating ice cream from Betty Ann’s, playing arcade games, and buying penny candy, all on Main Street, Buzzards Bay. Now, she said, it is “hard to come up with a reason to spend money in my town.”
     She said she had become familiar with the Vision Plan for downtown Buzzards Bay, along with the flood plain study and transportation plans. While it might not be necessary for buildings to go up to six or seven stories, she approved of the concept of residential apartments over commercial uses. Ms. Meli said some 25 percent of the town’s population is over 60, and the fastest-growing segment of the population is in the “over 80” category. She was very supportive of the idea that Buzzards Bay might be an area where people can walk to shops and other amenities, something that would help ameliorate the transportation problems she sees older citizens battling in the future.
     She supports the creation of a Growth Incentive Zone for “Bourne’s downtown,” something that could make it easier for developers to bypass having the current dual review process that involves the Cape Cod Commission.
     She also favors the use of $22,000 for an information-gathering sewer infrastructure study, one of the articles coming before voters at the May 5 Town Meeting.
     Ms. Meli said the targeted Proposition 2 1/2 debt exclusion that would allow the town to add five more police officers made “great sense” to her, particularly because the town is physically divided by the canal. She noted that if that override did not pass, she thought it should be incumbent on selectmen to find an alternative way to put the town’s fourth cruiser on the road.
     She also likes the idea of a grant writing committee, noting that she does not think it is necessary to hire consultants to do that job, given the talent of Bourne’s retired community.
     Ms. Meli said she has had “tremendous support from numerous people.” She also, she said, had been discouraged by some. To those who said selectman is a thankless job, she said she is used to that. She has three children. To those who said it takes up too much time, she said it is, in essence, a part-time job and that it could remain that, if handled appropriately. It is, she said, a policy-making job where quality, not quantity, of time matters. She said she is willing to put in the time necessary.
     For those who told her “nothing will ever change,” she said it could.
     She said she had been working very hard to encourage her peers to vote and to become more committed.
     She did not like hearing about the “school vote,” and the “non-school vote.” It is, she said, “the Bourne vote.”
     The candidates then answered questions such as the one asked by Joseph Agrillo Sr., who wanted to know their opinion on the noise issue, particularly the idea of forming a committee to look further into amending the current bylaw.
     Ms. Zuern noted that she and Selectman Judith W. Conron had looked at the current bylaw, and found that it needs “a lot of work.” She said she has seen bylaws created by other communities that were impressive. She said selectmen were now asking the town’s bylaw committee if they want to work on a revision. A limited revision that would include establishments with liquor and entertainment licenses under the provisions of the existing bylaw is headed to Town Meeting.
     Ms. Meli said she would encourage the formation of a noise committee. She said noise issues can be very complex, and that Rutgers University has a group that studies noise and offers its services to communities such as Bourne. She said she works in a restaurant and thinks the bylaw revision would be seen as a deterrent to business. People stay in hotels that have bands that play on a Saturday night while guests are sleeping, she said, so both sides of a noise controversy can be accommodated.
     The candidates also fielded questions as to the necessity of overrides, their attitude toward green technology, landfill life, and their opinion of the downtown vision plan.
     In answer to the latter issue, while Ms. Meli questioned the need to go up as high as six or seven stories, she said she wanted to see the “best overall” plan put in place, and “something done in Buzzards Bay.”
     Ms. Zuern said the bottom line was to generate income for the town, and she was not sure building six- to seven-story buildings that need a $50 million wastewater treatment plant would translate to revenue to the town from its businesses. Sometimes, she said, decisions can cause other, unintended, problems. She said the town needs to look ahead and anticipate any consequences before it moves forward.
     To start with, Ms. Zuern said, she’d like to encourage landlords to fix up and rent out Main Street’s empty buildings.
     Asked what they thought should be the selectmen’s priorities for next year, Ms. Meli mentioned the budget, schools, the landfill and deferred maintenance; Ms. Zuern: wastewater, alternative energy, coastal resources, the budget, and the future of the landfill.
     For those who were unable to attend the forum, it will be broadcast locally on Channel 13 at 8 tonight and 2 PM Monday.
     Another opportunity to hear the candidates is a forum to be held at 7 PM on Wednesday (April 30) at the community club on Barlows Landing Road. That candidates night, sponsored by the Pocasset Village Association, will start with a 6 PM potluck supper.
     The association is inviting the public to meet the candidates and hear spokesmen address the ballot questions that will be decided on that date, including the library expansion debt exclusion and the targeted public safety override.