When humans are faced with a problem they instinctively look to place blame. I don’t have statistics on this, but if I were to guess I would have to say progress does not bloom from blame. Peterborough is at a point where we are faced with major infrastructure needs across the board, and those projects are coming on the heels of a major assessment and resulting property tax increases that left so many of us gasping for air. We can assess blame for how we got here, or we can do anything and everything available to us to move forward from here. It’s is absolutely critical that we move forward with a common sense approach that addresses the needs of our residents first. This town has focused on attracting business and tourism at great expense. In many ways it has worked, but now it’s time to get our hands dirty and return the focus to what really matters, which are the people and families that make this town such a fabulous place.
Relationships are where that starts. From my college education focusing on psychology to my career in the fire industry and on to real estate, relationships are the driving factor in all of it. We have to rebuild the relationship between our town’s residents and government. From what I can tell we have an incredibly dedicated staff in all of our town offices and departments, and that includes our Select Board. Many residents feel left behind and left out; what’s important is not to place blame on why that is, it’s about educating and breaking down those walls which exist a little in reality and a lot in imagination. We all desire to feel included; that’s a human need, but to feel included we need to show up. The town has made a real effort to get people involved. I mean heck, they got me involved, didn’t they? I plan to take that a step further. One thing running for selectman has taught me is that so many people just have not been involved before, but that’s changing. Just look around at all the signs, they are at homes and businesses that have never had them before, and there is not one single sign with my name on it that wasn’t invited to be placed where it is.
We have an excellent opportunity to collaborate with our neighboring towns. An amazing wave of regular working people have seen landslide victories in their quest for a seat at the table. I have very solid business and personal relationships with many of them, and those relationships can immediately begin to save us all money, and just as important they can give us a much more powerful voice when addressing our ever increasing school costs. The cost of our school system is the elephant in the room, we all know that. What can give us hope is that Peterborough is represented on the School Board by an incredibly knowledgeable and dedicated public servant who has spent his entire life being a driving force in the advancement of child education, and he has some excellent help who have joined him. One of our Select Board members has proven to be an incredible asset on all levels of education funding, and her dedication to our town will prove to benefit us in amazing ways. We need our state legislators to forge some new and meaningful relationships, and leave blame for the lack of education funding in the past.
Another reason to be grateful and appreciative is the new direction our leaders have taken on the DPW garage project and in the near future the Fire Department. Renovating the current garage and making space for a new Fire Department is the clear choice for future needs. You have heard and read my thoughts on this since January in a Viewpoint article, and more thoughts are available on the town website from the budget meeting where this new direction came to life. I don’t need or want any credit for being a voice in this new direction – the fact that our leaders took notice and are taking action is a true sign that we have reason to be hopeful moving forward. Beyond that, we need to give our town employees the incentive to find ways to make their departments more efficient. I have seen on a business level that the effects of involving and empowering employees can be astounding.
Let’s be honest with each other. There is no magic bullet to solve all of our tax burden issues. It’s going to take relationships, hard work, and an unmatched dedication and love of Our Town. That’s me and it’s what I do. I’m sure all of us can agree that a fresh perspective is what we need right now, someone who can reach out and ask for help. We have an incredible wealth of knowledge in this town, and I’m not afraid to ask for help. If I am elected to the Select Board, it will be the over 6,000 residents of this town that have a seat at the table, and that’s who we need there.
Bill Taylor is running for Peterborough Select Board.