Town At  Crossroads: Offers Leadership For New Direction

Select Board candidate Meghan O’Connell sees the Town of Westford facing some critical choices for the future; choices that will either tear it apart or bring it together. The core problem is a town government, that has drifted out of touch with the people.  Committee appointments and leadership positions are parceled out based on conformity to pre-ordained policies and plans. There is no concern for diversity in thought. The narrow interests running the town have demonstrated a complete unconcern for the average taxpayer by going to the tax option every time a problem presents itself. Consequently, the town of Westford is among one of the most expensive communities in the nation to live.

          Meghan is betting that the town has had it with this approach.  She points to the failed override last year, which was defeated  on a 65% to 45% vote. Yet, she doesn’t believe that town leadership has got the message.  Her fear is that if town politics comes to loggerheads again over financing, the future fate of the town could be threatened.

           Any good leader needs a plan and Meghan has one.  If she is elected to the Select Board, she will scrupulously review the town budget to look for savings on every budget item.  She will search for opportunities to consolidate costs by encouraging more regionalization of services; such as regionalizing public safety communications and by bringing high priced contract services in-house ( such as school busing)

            However, efficiency will not be enough.  With a tax base that is shifting and increasingly burdening residential homeowners, restoring Westford’s commercial tax base is critical to her plan. Marketing the substantial office space left vacant by the failure of the hi-tech industry to remain in town, is a key strategy.  As a biotech medical engineer and a leader of quality groups, Meghan believes that this space is ideally suited and can be marketed to the state’s bio-tech industry.

            Meghan’s program is simple and straightforward: (1) implement level service cost savings (2) attract biotech and other businesses to shore up the commercial tax base. (3) institute smart growth to offer increased housing opportunities, while protecting the tax base and (4) infusing diversity into a town government that has become stagnant and narrow-minded. 

  Meghan is a Massachusetts resident, born and raised.  She has been a resident of Westford for seven years. She is married with six children.  An involved citizen, she regularly shares her views and opinions publicly on key issues facing Westford residents.