WESTFORD’S ALTERNATIVE CANDIDATE

Meghan O’Connell:  An Alternative To Westford’s Status Quo

Meghan O’Connell has been making herself known in town in recent years both as a candidate for the school committee and as a defender of the second amendment. This year, as a candidate for the select board, she has been catapulted into the spotlight as the leading challenger and critic of the town’s unprecedented 6.8M proposition 2 ½ override proposal. Meghan proudly boasts that she is the only candidate that has clearly and unequivocally stated her opposition to it.  Her reason is very simple, the town has not done enough to save money and the select board went to the override as their first option not their last.

O’Connell puts a lot of stock in history referencing an override attempt in 2005, when the school budget was only 33M. The override that year would have supported 9% of the school budget. The override failed but the school budget still went up by 12.9% the next year. The bottom line; there was funding available, but an incentive was needed to find it. Overrides remove the incentive. O’Connell has estimated that with a declining school population and bringing the school bus operations in house, another 1.3M can be saved in the school budget. 

Other savings can be realized through improving the collection rate with the ambulance enterprise, which she claims is far below that of area towns, and by tapping into the town’s stabilization fund which she estimates is between 8 to 9M, claiming this will not jeopardize our bond rating.  O’Connell has strong reservations about going all in on a tax increase, when so many variables outside the town’s control such as inflation, health insurance costs, energy costs and depleting state aid are driving the increases.  She recommends buying time to see if these factors will improve and start restructuring if they don’t. 

Much of her focus is reigning in school spending.  She recommends “mothballing” the Blanchard Middle School, closing it to save administrative costs, while keeping it in reserve in the event of new surge of school children from potential development.  In that regard, she is hesitant to support the proposed MBTA zoning plan.  While she does not advocate opposing it, she believes the town should support only minimal compliance, capping potential development at the state mandated level of 950 units and no more. She does not support the 4500 units proposed by the town.  Her concern is a surge in traffic and an increase in school students.  She estimates in a worse case scenario an 800K town budget deficit, if development in the proposed zone came on line all at once.

Concern over a shrinking commercial tax base is also one of O’Connell’s concerns. She points to the fact that the tax burden shouldered by Westford’s residential property owners over commercial owners has increased to 90% from 86% a few years ago.  This trend appears to be continuing. She said it is critical to find ways to attract business to Westford in order to reverse this trend.  Comparing and examining Westford’s tax policies with those of other communities is imperative she says, pointing to Billerica and Chelmsford as models to study.   

O’Connell offers a very unique and relevant background for public service.  A graduate of Catholic University in Washington, she is a bio-medical engineer and currently the Director of Quality at Valerio Therapeutics.  She has a very in-depth knowledge and understanding of the Massachusetts bio-tech industry, and says her strength lies in analyzing operations to find efficiencies, while balancing the needs of stakeholders and customers in delivering products.  As a transgender woman she also has a very deep personal understanding of the challenges faced by transgender people. However, she believes that the personal issues related to gender transition rests primarily with children and their parents not with the schools.  On the question of transgender athletes, O’Connell is sensitive to the concerns that this issue presents, noting a preference to consider cases on an individual basis; but offering that the decision to opt for transgender requires sacrifices. One such sacrifice may be the opportunity to compete in athletics.   She also noted that being transgender has given her a strong appreciation for the second amendment stating: “there are people who believe I do not have the right to exist.”   Meghan O’Connell will be on the May 7^th town ballot challenging incumbent John Cunningham for his seat on the Select Board.

Editorial:

JUSTICE FOR COLUMBUS:  Vote ‘Yes’ on Article 22

The history of society for most of human existence, has been nothing more than the story of masters and slaves. Human consciousness seemed incapable of conceiving existence in any other way.  A radical change occurred on April 19^th 1775, when farmers marched to the Concord bridge and offered armed resistance against an oppressive British Crown.  The ensuing American Revolution ended British colonial rule in America and gave birth to a new nation, a new consciousness and a new era in history in which the universal right to freedom for all people was now proclaimed.

However, the evolution of this consciousness had not yet been fully realized in 1775. The spiritual chains that held the old master-slave paradigm together had been loosened but not severed. The final break came 90 years later, with the defeat of the confederacy in the American Civil War and ending chattel slavery in the United States.  The logic supporting all master-slave societies had now been broken. A powerful vision of universal freedom had been vindicated in blood and its energy was now unleashed.   

Christopher Columbus is a critical figure in this saga.  Yet, he has been accused of racism and of being a progenitor of slavery in America. Many want to ban him from historical memory. Slavery, as we know it, was introduced into the colonies by the British Empire, not by Columbus.

His detractors conveniently forget that he was a man of his time. The struggle for dominance to include slavery was the way of his world.  Europeans, Native Americans, Asians and Africans all engaged in it. The world was tribal, acquiring power and wealth were the driving motives of all human societies big or small. Columbus never experienced the fullness of the evolving spirit of freedom, because in his day, that spirit had not yet been born

However, wittingly or unwittingly he made its birth possible.  As an explorer and a man of science in its rudimentary stages, he challenged the prevailing superstitions of his time and risked his life in pursuit of scientific truth.  His discovery of America was a triumph against ignorance of which superstitions like racism are fruits.  Columbus was among the first to peel away the mask of human ignorance.    Centuries later, the science to which he was devoted eradicated ancient assertions of racial superiority.  But equally important, it was Christopher Columbus, who discovered the land upon which the great struggle for human liberation was to play out.  For these reasons, justice demands that he be remembered.    Support Article 22.

THE VOTE ‘NO’ ANTI OVERRIDE PAMPHLET IS ATTACHED

The Pamphlet offers a  comprehensive look at the override and its impacts.  Study it well before Town Meeting this Saturday April 27.2024   WA Football field.   

Call To Order at 9AM sharp.   

Get there early !