Base Vote on What’s Best For Whole Town
I have lived in Fairhaven my entire life, with the exception of when I was serving my country. I have been a firefighter in service to the town for six years. I love my country and my town and I am writing in support of the override.
As a servant to the people I don’t feel I can vote just based on what will affect my pocket. I vote based on what is best for the overall and the override is something that will allow the town to catch up. We enjoy some of the lowest tax rates in the state, but that has been artificially driven down via use of free cash. This is something that has been done over the past five years or more and the current leadership has the vision to try to fix it and change a culture that holds the town back.
As a town we say “live within your means” but we all want free or inexpensive services like trash, beaches, parking, etc. The towns around us pay for those services at a higher rate than we do. We feel as though we are entitled to these things that the town provides us, but when the town asks us for help we get mad and stomp our feet.
Everything grows and moves forward and because of these practices, we are in a position where we can’t afford to provide the services in the same way at the same cost. Instead of being underhanded, we are being asked to vote in favor of an increase so that the town can correct this.
There may be other projects like a safety building, increases in staffing, broadband, etc., but these don’t exist now and might never come to fruition without increasing our taxes. We need to fix it now. If the town is this upset over the override as it stands, asking to wait for a study that could make the ask even bigger hardly seems like the appropriate response and I find it self serving to suggest otherwise. That’s not exactly saying no, that’s saying let’s add more to it and if you don’t, I don’t support it.
Adequate staffing for public safety has been an issue in this town for the six years I’ve served as a firefighter and for at least six more years before it. The community was not aware of how unsafe the Fire Department ran until the fire union and [Select Board Chairperson Leon] Correy brought it to light after spending an evening with us and listening to us. There were no promises made, he just lent an ear. Hopefully, the override money will allow us to improve our safety and add more staffing.
We all want things and those things cost money. You want the town to live within its means? Well we can start by living within ours and being willing to pay our fair share because right now we don’t. Companies can charge more for their goods and services without asking. The town could charge for plenty of services without asking but it hasn’t done that.
We don’t know what the future holds. However, an override allows the current governing body time to get caught up and come up with ways to drive revenue in the town so this hole doesn’t get any deeper.
The current town administrator has been in place for one year. The current chair has been on the board for only one year. The previous chair had been on the board for less than two years. Yet I know more now about what goes on in the town than ever before. This is the transparency I’ve been hoping for. We ask our select board to be willing to make the tough decisions and when we don’t like the tough decisions they make, we can’t suddenly switch up and rally against the decisions that they are making that will ultimately benefit the community as a whole.
On June 5, I will be voting yes.
Kevin Gonsalves, Fairhaven
President, Local 1555, Fairhaven Firefighters Association
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