Autumn in the North Cemetery.

Sixty miles west of Boston, Massachusetts there is the small New England town of Sturbridge. Located at the junction of I-90 (The Mass Pike), and I-84 it has become known as the "Crossroads of New England". The town was first settled over 300 years ago, and like other small New England towns it has grown just enough over the years to be in a difficult place today. How do we embrace the future without forgetting how we got to our present? How do we attract the right kind of growth, and maintain who we are? And, what about our culture out here in Central Massachusetts?



These pages will cause one to think about how to protect what we have, our future direction, and how to move on in the very best way.


Those thoughts, and other ramblings, will hopefully inspire more thought, conversation, action, and occasionally a smile...

...seems to be working so far

Thursday, February 26, 2009

And, Now A Word From The Poll Taker

The recent survey results regarding what the town felt would be the best way to proceed with the Town Hall project were posted on the previous post. As with other surveys taken here, the results followed the vote.

Pretty accurate poll taking.

It was unquestionable that the majority of those that responded to the poll wanted to proceed with the original plan to renovate the Town Hall and the Center School. In the text sections of the survey there were a variety of reasons for doing so ranging from the historic benefit the buildings bring to the area, to the plan being the most cost worthy of all those plans out there. Few thought that the economic times would affect the continuation of the project.

This pulse taking of the town is important. It allows the residents to voice their feelings in a specific, anonymous way that gives a certain credibility to the poll results. The poll is set up to prevent multiple entries from the same computer in order to skew the results, and the same question is asked in a different ways in order to get the very best results.

The town has spoken, and it is time to move on and get the project started, and completed. Let's hope the town's plan is a good one, and the the buildings will shine once again and be a focal point in the village center we all can be proud of.

5 comments:

  1. The people have spoken loud and clear. It is so obvious that Erhard and Creamer are so out of touch with the people of Sturbridge. Good thing they are not selectmen now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How many people have spoken loud and clear?
    If this article were to be placed on the Annual
    Town Meeting Warrant (as should be) what would the outcome be?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The outcome would be louder and clearer in April with the same outcome.

    I was waiting to here Tom Creamer's response with "half truths", "lies and misinformation were told", speakers were "cowards" and "have no character" or maybe a few cartoons or pictures of their homes (you know the usual routine of the past 3+ years when he disagrees with someone) but nothing! Then I remembered duh....he is trying to get votes because he is running for selectman! HE is banking on short memories now!

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  4. If anything, this article at an Annual Town Meeting would garner MORE support than at a Special Town Meeting. Historically speaking Special Interest Groups can skew a Special Town Meeting, and this time they could not.

    Special interest group G.B.I.S. worked to get the vote out against Town Hall/Center School. Emails were sent, calls were made, and their organizers spoke at the microphone. But they couldn’t skew this vote.

    Why, because the Town Hall/Center School project makes fiscal sense. It is a shovel ready project and may receive federal dollars from the stimulus package, to go along with the CPA contribution and General Funds. Waiting for April would only put us at a disadvantage in our request for stimulus dollars, and in the end the vote would have only been stronger, when the GBIS Special Interest Group voters were even more of a minority.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The outcome would have been louder and clearer. This Town meeting was no secret and people who cared showed up. The people wanted to save money and the renovation plan that passed was the way to go. No one offered a better plan. Ehrhard wanted to study this a little longer!! Six years was not long enough for him ?!?!?!?! If he can’t make a decision after six years of study he should not be a selectman. As for Creamer he was against the renovation out right. After his typical long winded mumbo jumbo he said to vote no. Both are out of touch with the people.

    ReplyDelete



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